Mastering Send Time Optimization (STO) in Eloqua: Strategy, Conflicts, and Proactive Monitoring

Email marketing success depends on more than just content, timing and frequency are equally critical. Eloqua’s Send Time Optimization (STO) helps marketers deliver messages at the moment each contact is most likely to engage, while also preventing multiple STO sends from colliding.

But STO only governs what it can “see.” When manual scheduling is layered in, arbitration blind spots appear, and contacts may receive far more emails than intended.

This article explains:

• The right use cases for STO vs non‑STO
• How STO arbitration logic works
• Why STO doesn’t always match “Most Engage Time”
• What happens when STO and manual scheduling mix