Journey Builder - Automation Schedule and Entry Criteria

Question

I have a very simple journey setup to send an initial welcome email. I am using a multi-step journey in order to utilize the no re-entry criteria, so that new subscribers will not requalify for the welcome email. I'm fairly new to JB, so am looking for a little advice on best practices. Heres what I have so far:

1. A Global Data Extension that collects new subscribers (and houses old ones from a LONG time ago)
2. An hourly automation that queries the global data extension for contacts added that day. This is the entry source for the above mentioned Welcome Journey. As a safety measure there is a separate automation that clears this data extension at midnight every night in case a non-technical user decides to use it for any reason, they would only have access to a handful of subscribers, and not a large list.
3. As mentioned, the journey is a single email with the Journey setting "no re-entry" enabled.

I notice that the schedule of the Journey can also be tied to an automation and that the setting "Evaluate new records only" is an option. My question is surrounding this setting and the clearing of the data extension through automation.

In the event a contact where added to the entry data extension, cleared through automation, and somehow queried back into the data extension, would that cause an "error" using "evaluate new records only" and reintject the contact despite the journey settings?

I only ask due to the description "This option is typically used when a process exists to add new rows to the source data extension without deleting or overwriting existing rows, such as an automation with an Import activity that imports into a data extension."

Thanks for your help and I realize this is a unique case, so if there is better logic I could use I'm all ears. Just trying to make this as marketer friendly as possible!

Answer 1

The re-entry modes listen to the SubscriberKey which means a subscriber can only enter the journey with 'no re-entry' again if it's with a new SubscriberKey OR if they have been deleted from the system data (global delete). No errors or problems will occur.

For such a case I would simply use the 'recurring' option and choose 'Evaluate new records only'.

However, the method you are describing will work as well. I normally use the automation schedule when I need to time my journey with my automations.

Hope it helps!