* Understanding Send Time Optimization (STO):
Purpose: STO is a Marketing Cloud feature that uses AI to determine the optimal time to send an email to each individual subscriber, maximizing the likelihood of engagement.
How it Works: STO analyzes a subscriber's historical engagement data (when they typically open and click emails) to predict the best send time within a 24-hour window.
* STO Send Time Logic:
Prediction Window: STO predicts the hour within the next 24 hours when a subscriber is most likely to engage.
Send at Predicted Hour: The email is sent during that predicted hour.
It's not immediate: STO doesn't send emails immediately upon entering the activity. It waits for the predicted optimal hour.
It's not within the first minute of the next hour: STO determines a specific hour, not just the start of the next hour.
It's not necessarily within the next hour: The predicted hour could be several hours away, depending on the subscriber's engagement history.