Making sure that users exit a journey when you expect them to is almost as important as ensuring that they enter it when they're supposed to. After all, you don't want to keep sending messages to users after the content is no longer relevant to them!
This article tells you everything you need to know about setting up exit paths for users in your journeys.
# In this article
# Filtering users out of a journey at a specific point
You can use filter tiles to remove users at different stages of the journey. Let's consider a couple of examples.
# Exiting users without a specific attribute
Let's say you want to remove users from a journey who don't match the conditions of an Attribute split tile. To do this, leave the Everyone else branch unconnected Users who don't match any of the criteria you've set up will be sent down this path and be removed from the journey.
Alternatively, you can uncheck the Add an "Everyone else" branch when you're setting up the Attribute Split tile—users who don't match the criteria you've set up will be removed from the journey.
If you want to remove users at a specific point in the journey, use a filter tile.
# Exiting users who don't engage with a message
Let's say you want to remove users who aren't engaging with a promo sequence. You could add a Yes/No Split tile that checks for an open or click after a message tile. If you want to remove users who haven't opened or clicked the message, leave the "No" branch unconnected.
# Removing users for a specific action or attribute
If you want to remove users when a certain event occurs — no matter where they are in the journey — use an exit rule. Removing a user from a promo sequence as soon as they make a purchase is a good example.
Review these points to understand how exit rules work:
Users who meet the criteria for an exit rule are removed from a journey when they finish the tile they're on.
Users in a Time Delay tile are an exception to the previous behavior — they are removed from the journey within 48 hours of the occurrence of the event or user profile update, or before moving to the next tile (whichever comes first).
Exit rules apply to an entire journey, not just a specific step. Wherever a user is in a journey, they stop receiving messages as soon as they meet an exit rule's criteria.
You can set up as many exit rules as you like. Users only need to match the criteria for one of your exit rules to be removed from a journey.
If a user satisfies exit criteria in a journey that has STO enabled, the message will still be sent at the optimized time chosen by STO, even though the user exited the journey.
# Creating exit rules
To add exit rules to a journey, click Exit rules in the lower left of Studio.
As you're setting up your exit rules, think about whether you want users to be removed from the journey when they meet a single condition or a group of conditions:
To remove users when they have met multiple criteria, add a single exit rule with multiple conditions. Use the + Condition button to add each additional condition to the exit rule.
To remove users who meet at least one of many separate conditions (or groups of conditions), add multiple exit rules to the journey. Use the + Add rule button to add each additional rule.
# Users who unsubscribe
Let's say you want users to exit a journey if they unsubscribe from
your newsletter. You could set up an exit rule that checks your Newsletter Subscribers
list for an Unsubscribe event and removes a user from the journey when one is found.
# Additional uses for exit rules
Some other possible uses related to exit rules include:
Removing a user from a journey immediately after they complete a specific action, by using journey conversions as exit criteria. After they're removed, you can send them to a different journey, if you want to.
Excluding users from a journey who have a certain user profile attribute (and may have been removed from the journey previously via exit rules), by setting up entry rules in the Start tile to filter them out.
NOTE
Handlebars expressions are not supported in exit rules.
# Troubleshooting journey exits
Ideally, users will only exit a journey when they've satisfied the criteria you've set up. But sometimes, an unexpected condition triggers a user's exit from a journey. If a user exits a journey unexpectedly, consider whether any of the following circumstances exist.
# Unconnected tiles
Any tile that isn't connected to another tile in a journey is an exit point. Keep this in mind as you build a journey. You can intentionally leave a tile unconnected if you want users to exit the journey after they finish that tile. But remember not to leave a tile unconnected if you want users to continue beyond that step in the journey!
If you want users who reach the end of a path in one of your journeys to be added to another sequence, add a Send to journey tile to the end of the path.
# Failed webhook calls
If a webhook call fails for one of your users, the user will exit the journey. Keep this in mind as you set up any Call webhook and User profile tiles you've added to your journey.
See Journey Webhooks to learn more.
# Triggering exits from a list
When you set up a user list, enable the Trigger journeys from this list setting to add users to a journey when they are added to a list (maybe due to a field update) and to exit these users from a journey when they satisfy exit rule criteria. If you don't enable this setting, users will not be removed from the journey if they meet exit rule criteria.
For more information, see Adding Users and Creating Lists and Choosing between Schedule and Subscribe to list.
# Deleting tiles
When you delete tiles from a live journey, any users who are in those tiles at the time you publish your changes will be removed from the journey.
# Null fields and journey exits
In some cases, null values for boolean fields may prevent users from exiting a journey. If you update fields (for example, in a user profile) and null values are added, consider the potential impact to journey exits.
# Turning a journey off
When you turn a journey off, users who are in the journey will be removed after they complete the step they're on. However, if the journey is turned back on while a user is still in a Time Delay tile, the user is not removed from the journey when they reach the end of their delay — they proceed to the next tile.
If you don't want to remove any users from the journey, but you want to prevent new users from entering it, disconnect the Start tile.
# Questions?
For help troubleshooting one of your journeys, see Journeys: Frequently Asked Questions or reach out to Iterable Support. (See Working with Iterable Support.)
# Want to learn more?
For more information about some of the topics in this article, check out this Iterable Academy course. Iterable Academy is open to everyone — you don't need to be an Iterable customer!