Creating a marketing campaign takes time and careful planning. From designing the email to selecting the right audience, every step plays a role in its success. However, even well-planned campaigns don’t always deliver the expected results. When engagement falls short, marketers often spend hours reviewing reports and analyzing campaign performance to understand what can be improved for future campaigns.

• Was the audience targeted correctly?
• Could a different subject line have performed better?
• Was the email sent at the right time?
• What changes can improve the next campaign?

Finding these answers usually involves reviewing multiple reports, comparing previous campaigns, and relying on past experience. While this approach can be effective, it is often time-consuming.

To simplify campaign optimization, Microsoft introduced the Outreach Optimization Agent in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys. It analyzes campaign performance and provides AI-driven recommendations, helping marketers identify opportunities to improve future campaigns without spending hours reviewing analytics.

Steps to enable Outreach Optimization Agent (Prerequisites)

1. Go to Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys
2. Navigate to the Settings area and click on AI hub as below
3. Click on ‘Add and manage agents’
4. Make sure all Prerequisites are met in order to add an agent
5. Click on the Add an agent button to add ‘Outreach Optimization Agent’
6. Now the agent is enabled for the environment

What is the Outreach Optimization Agent?

The Outreach Optimization Agent is an AI-powered assistant that helps marketers improve the performance of their email campaigns. Rather than simply displaying campaign statistics, it analyses customer engagement and suggests areas where your outreach strategy can be improved.

Think of it as an assistant that continuously reviews your marketing activities and points out opportunities to make your next campaign more effective.

How to Configure the Outreach Optimization Agent in a Journey

Once your customer journey is ready, you can enhance it by adding the Outreach Optimization action. This allows the AI to determine the best time to send your email, helping improve customer engagement without any manual effort.

Step 1: Open Your Customer Journey

Navigate to Customer Insights – Journeys > Journeys and open the journey you want to optimize.

In this example, we have a journey that is triggered when a customer submits a marketing form. The journey sends a confirmation email after the form submission.

Step 2: Add the Outreach Optimization Action

Click the + (Add) icon where you want to optimize the email delivery.

From the list of available actions, select Outreach Optimization.

This action uses AI to analyze customer engagement patterns and determine the most suitable time to deliver the email.

Step 3: Configure the Action

Once the action is added, configure the required details.

• Select the email that should be optimized.
• Choose the date by which the email should be delivered.

The Outreach Optimization Agent will use this information to determine the best delivery time while respecting the recipient’s quiet hours.

Step 4: Save and Publish the Journey

After completing the configuration, save your changes and publish the journey.

From this point onwards, whenever a customer enters the journey, the Outreach Optimization Agent automatically analyses historical engagement data and schedules the selected email at the most appropriate time before the specified date.

Step 5: Monitor the Journey Performance

Once the journey has been running for some time, navigate to the journey analytics page to review the campaign’s performance.

Monitor key metrics such as:

• Email deliveries
• Open rate
• Click-through rate
• Customer engagement

These insights will help you understand how AI-optimized delivery contributes to improving your email campaigns.

As this agent is in Preview, refer to this Microsoft blog: Doc

Conclusion

Successful marketing is about continuously improving your campaigns. The Outreach Optimization Agent helps marketers make smarter decisions by using AI to optimize email delivery and improve customer engagement. Instead of spending hours reviewing campaign reports, marketers can use AI-driven insights to identify opportunities for improvement and make future campaigns more effective.

As the feature is currently in Preview, you can also refer to the Microsoft documentation to learn more about its capabilities and latest updates.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the Outreach Optimization Agent in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys?

The Outreach Optimization Agent is an AI-powered feature that helps marketers improve email campaign performance. It analyzes customer engagement patterns and determines the best time to send emails, helping increase engagement with minimal manual effort.

How does the Outreach Optimization Agent decide when to send an email?

The agent analyzes historical customer engagement data and schedules the email for the most appropriate time before the delivery deadline you specify. It also considers the recipient’s quiet hours while scheduling the email.

Do I need to manually configure the Outreach Optimization Agent for every email?

You need to add and configure the Outreach Optimization action within your customer journey. Once the journey is published, the agent automatically optimizes email delivery for customers who enter the journey.

Can I monitor the performance of AI-optimized email campaigns?

Yes. After the journey has been running, you can review its analytics to monitor metrics such as email deliveries, open rates, click-through rates, and customer engagement to evaluate campaign performance.

Is the Outreach Optimization Agent generally available?

At the time of writing, the Outreach Optimization Agent is available in Preview. Microsoft may introduce additional features and enhancements before it becomes generally available.

The post Outreach Optimization Agent (Preview) in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys is one of the most preferred modules offered by Microsoft, which provides a flexible platform that enables organizations to engage their audience across every stage of the customer journey.

It empowers businesses to create personalized, timely, and meaningful interactions based on customer behavior and preferences. As we all know, understanding your customers is not a one-time activity; it is a continuous journey that evolves with every interaction. Targeting the right audience to perform any marketing activity is the key to success.

When running marketing activities in Customer Insights – Journeys, the most important question to answer is:

“Who exactly should receive this message or journey?”

This is where Segments play a key role.

What Are Segments in Customer Insights – Journeys?

Segments in Customer Insights – Journeys allow you to group Contacts or Leads based on a defined set of attributes or behaviors. These segments act as the foundation for targeting audiences in real-time journeys, emails, and other marketing engagements.

Using segments, you can:

• Filter Contacts or Leads using specific conditions
• Target audiences based on demographic or behavioral data
• Ensure messages reach the most relevant audience

Segments help transform generic marketing campaigns into highly targeted and strategic journeys.

Types of Segments in Customer Insights – Journeys

There are two types of segments available in Customer Insights – Journeys:

1. Automatic Refresh (Dynamic Segment)
2. Static Snapshot (Static Segment)

In earlier versions of the Marketing app, users could choose the segment type directly while clicking the New Segment button. In the current Real-time Journeys experience, this behavior has changed.

Now, you must:

1. Create the segment first
2. Define the segment type later from the Settings panel

Where to Find Segments in Customer Insights – Journeys

To access segments:

• Go to Customer Insights – Journeys
• Navigate to Real-time journeys
• Select Audience → Segments

At the segment record level, you will notice a Type field that indicates whether the segment is configured as a Static Snapshot or an Automatic Refresh.

How to Create a Segment in the New Experience

When you click New Segment, you are no longer prompted to choose between Static or Dynamic upfront. Instead, the segment is created first, and its behavior is defined later.

During creation, you have two options:

1. Using Query Assist (Copilot)

Query Assist allows Copilot AI to help generate segment logic.

• Start typing in the Query Assist box
• Select a predefined prompt such as “Contacts who opened an email”
• Click Create

You can either:

• Click Use to apply the suggested query
• Or click Create manually to skip AI assistance

Once selected, Copilot helps build the initial query structure based on the chosen prompt.

During creation, you have two options:

1. Using Query Assist (Copilot)

Query Assist allows Copilot AI to help generate segment logic.

• Start typing in the Query Assist box
• Select a predefined prompt such as “Contacts who opened an email”
• Click Create

You can either:

• Click Use to apply the suggested query
• Or click Create manually to skip AI assistance

Once selected, Copilot helps build the initial query structure based on the chosen prompt.

You can find more details in this doc for understanding the building segment with “Query Assist”.

2. Creating a Segment Manually

If you prefer full control:

• Click Create manually, or
• Leave the Query Assist box empty and click Create

This opens the Segment Builder, where you can define your logic from scratch.

Building Segment Logic Using the Segment Builder

Inside the Segment Builder, you can define segment criteria using:

• Attribute-based conditions (e.g., Industry, Country, Job Title)
• Behavioral conditions (e.g., email opens, form submissions)
• Include or Exclude specific Leads or Contacts

You can explicitly include or exclude records. Even if a record does not meet the defined conditions, it will always be included or excluded if specified manually.

If you include or exclude any lead explicitly, then even if it has not met the pre-defined condition, it will always be filtered and will be included or excluded from the segment member list.

When you open Segment Builder, you can start creating a new group by clicking on the desired options (either Attribute or Behavioral). if required, you can Include or Exclude a particular audience as well.

Refer screenshots below:

Example Use Case: Targeting Manufacturing Leads from India

Let’s consider a practical example.

Use case:
Target Leads from the Manufacturing sector located in India.

Segment conditions:

• Industry equals Manufacturing Services
• Country/Region equals India

You can create an Attribute group and define these conditions accordingly. Once the logic is complete, save the segment.

Before activating it, you can preview the audience size.

Estimating Segment Size Before Activation

Before marking a segment as Ready to use, you can:

• Click Estimate to preview the expected number of segment members
• Review the estimated member count to validate your logic

This helps ensure your targeting criteria are accurate before using the segment in a journey.

The members count can be previewed from here:

Segment Settings: Static Snapshot vs Automatic Refresh

The Settings panel is where the segment type is defined.

By default, all newly created segments are set to Automatic Refresh.

Let us consider one of the Dynamic Segment graphs. As you can see in the graph below, the segment size has been updated (increased) over the duration.

If there is a use case where you want to create the Segment as Static, then explicitly you have to set it as “Static Snapshot” option as shown below:

In “Static Snapshot,” the simple segment size will not be updated dynamically, and it is of one-time use.

Let us consider one of the Static Segment graphs, as you can see in the graph below, the segment size has remained standstill over the duration, as it was a one-time activity.

Key Differences: Static Snapshot vs Automatic Refresh

FAQs

What Is Automatic Refresh (Dynamic Segment)?

In Automatic Refresh, the segment membership updates dynamically.

This means:

• New Contacts or Leads that meet the criteria are automatically added
• Records that no longer meet the criteria are removed
• The segment size changes continuously over time

Dynamic segments are ideal for:

• Ongoing marketing journeys
• Real-time audience targeting
• Long-running nurture campaigns

You can observe these changes visually through segment growth graphs, where the member count increases or decreases over time.

What Is Static Snapshot (Static Segment)?

In Static Snapshot, the segment captures audience members at a specific point in time.

This means:

• Segment membership does not update after activation
• The audience remains fixed
• It is typically used for one-time activities

Static Snapshot segments are best suited for:

• One-time email campaigns
• Event invitations
• Compliance or audit-based targeting

Segment graphs for Static Snapshot segments show a flat line, indicating no change in membership over time.

When Should You Use Each Segment Type?

• Use Automatic Refresh when your audience changes frequently and journeys run continuously.
• Use Static Snapshot when you need a fixed audience for a specific moment or campaign.

Choosing the right segment type ensures accurate targeting and optimal journey performance.

Conclusion

Segments play a critical role in successfully targeting audiences within Customer Insights – Journeys. Whether you are grouping customers based on demographic attributes or behavioral interactions, segments allow you to make your marketing more strategic and data-driven.

Automatic Refresh segments are ideal for real-time, evolving journeys, while Static Snapshot segments are best suited for one-time or fixed audience scenarios. Understanding the difference between these two options helps you design more effective journeys and deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time.

The post Static or Dynamic Segments? A Complete Guide for Customer Insights – Journeys first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.