Exit conditions are a powerful way to manage contact journeys in your automated programs. By setting rules that remove contacts at any step, you can ensure they only receive relevant communications. This is especially useful for:
Lead nurturing programs - If you have a series of emails to encourage someone to sign up for an event, or to fill in a survey, or to make a purchase, then you can use it to exclude people as soon as they have signed up, submitted the survey or made the purchase.
Re-engagement programs - When sending a series of campaigns to contacts who have not opened in 90 days, for instance, you can then exclude anyone who opens one since the start of the program.
Excluding VIPs - if you want to keep core marketing communications away from your VIP list, you can exclude them from receiving your mainstream programs.
What is an exit condition?
Exit conditions are program-wide rules that automatically remove contacts from a program when they meet specific criteria. These conditions are checked before a contact moves to any node in the program. If a contact matches an exit condition, they’re removed immediately—before any actions, delays, or decisions are executed.
For example, if a contact is held in a delay node and matches an exit condition, they won’t continue through the program. Instead, they’re removed before progressing to the next step.
There are two default exit conditions that always apply:
The contact reaches an end node.
The contact unsubscribes from your account.
You can view and manage exit conditions by selecting EXIT CONDITIONS above the program builder canvas.
Add an exit condition
Select Add an exit condition.
You can add up to a maximum of five (on top of the two default ones).The segment builder opens, which lets you construct your rule. In this particular example, let's say you have a re-engagement program and want to exclude contacts once they have clicked a link in an email campaign. You want them to exit the program immediately once they have done this, as you have achieved your goal for this contact.
Drag a Clicks rule into the segment builder, and set the rule to: Email - For any campaign - They have clicked any link.
Select OK.
The exit conditions box updates accordingly.
You need to Save your program to keep the new exit condition.
When activated, your program automatically excludes any contacts upon meeting any of the exit conditions.
Add an exit condition
Let's say you have a re-engagement program and want to exclude contacts once they have clicked a link in an email campaign. You want them to exit the program immediately once they have done this, as you have achieved your goal for this contact.
Go to Automation > Programs and open your program.
Select EXIT CONDITIONS in the top-right corner.
There are two default conditions.Select Add another.
You can add up to a maximum of five rules.The segment builder opens, which lets you construct your rule.
Select CREATE NEW.
Drag a Clicks rule into the segment builder, and set the rule to: Email - For any campaign - They have clicked any link.
Select OKAY.
Select APPLY twice.
The exit conditions box updates accordingly.SAVE your program to keep the new exit condition.
When activated, your program automatically excludes any contacts upon meeting any of the exit conditions.
Edit or delete an exit condition
Deactivate to add, edit or delete exit conditions
Exit conditions can not be added, edited, or deleted in activated programs. If you want to adjust your exit conditions in any way, you must first deactivate your program.
To edit an exit condition:
Select EXIT CONDITIONS to open the exit conditions menu.
Select the rule you want to edit.
The segment builder opens, allowing you to edit the rule.
Select the delete icon (cross) to delete an exit condition.
Save your program.
Reporting and statistics
Once your program has been activated, select EXIT CONDITIONS to view statistics on the number of contacts who have exited the program through each condition.
Within the contact activity report, contacts who have exited a program through an exit condition you've created are reported as Exited on exclusion node under the Program outcome column in the Program activity section.
Remove contacts after they make a purchase
To learn more about removing contacts from the program after they make a purchase, see the Use cases section.