It’s hard to over-hype the power of website popups. Web popups can be one of the most powerful tools in a marketer’s arsenal.
According to studies:
- Website popups can help businesses grow their email list fast, one test found that website popups drove 1,375% more email captures.
- Website popups had a conversion rate as high as 2%
You can get this type of results using website popups, but only if they’re wielded properly.
If you’ve tried website popups before but had lackluster results, don’t assume that website popups don’t work anymore. We wouldn’t have some of the most amazing businesses using website popups if they weren’t. It could be that you haven’t yet hit on the correct combination of variables to effectively leverage website popups to boost your sales and conversions.
Whether website popups are not working for you, or you’d simply like to drive your conversions up from them, read on for five tips to get good results from website popups.
1. Enhance your website popups personalization
No matter how good your website popups are it is always possible to improve them. If you’re looking for a place to start, personalizing your web popups is the first logical step.
Why? Because you can increase conversions by personalizing your visitors’ experience. Epsilon’s marketing research found that 80 percent of customers are likely to do business with a company that offers personalized experiences.
So how exactly can you personalize your website popups? Well, you can personalize your website popups by traffic sources your visitors are coming from or based on their location, or by making them relevant to what a visitor is doing on your site at the moment.
Take a look at this one from ForeverNew:

They showed me this web popup when I was about to leave, after checking a dress on the website (a similar one). The website popup is different from normal Exit Intent Popups – it has Dynamic Recommendations for me based on my interest.
Instead of offering me a discount they want to help me in finding a product of my choice, and I must say it’s a clever way of thinking. People will not buy something just because it’s available on discount unless they like it.
Also, the main reason most visitors ignore website popups is because they all offer exactly the same thing – discounts. And if you think offering discounts is the only way to boost sales, you need to think again. Be unique, and find ways to add value.
2. Offer discounts, but be wise about it
It’s no secret that offering discounts is a great way to increase sales – as most online shoppers are price sensitive and love discounts. That’s the reason every online retailer is offering discount to convert visitors into email subscribers or cart abandons into sales.
But to whom and how much you offer, will determine if this will increase your revenue. So, the key is, not to offer it to everyone.
According to a survey done by SheerID, 75% of companies are slicing margins to offer discounts.
So what’s the solution?
Integrate your website popups with specific product categories on your website. For example, if you are an online apparel retailer, instead of offering a discount to every visitor on your website – you can offer discounts on some selected product categories the ones’ with a higher profit margin for you. Or you can create different offers for people coming from different sources. For instance, if people coming from PPC ads have a high LTV for your business you can implement a high converting offer for them.
This way you will be able to increase your sales without throttling your profit.
3. Invest in your website popups copy
A good offer can increase sales but it works in tandem with other factors. And the copy is one of those factors. That’s why crafting an enticing website popup copy is so important.
Now you must be wondering how to craft a compelling website popup copy? Well, it’s simple – you can use power words to make your popup copy more enticing. You can use them in your
- Headline copy
- Body copy
- CTA copy
But, don’t forget to A/B test your popups, testing the response to different words will help you pick ones’ that appeals most to your visitors. Also, test all these elements separately, and go with the popup that perform best.
4. Optimize your website popups for mobile
Do you know over 50% of your visitors use mobile to check your website? You don’t have to take my word for that – have stats to prove:
“52.2% of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones in 2018.” And the number is increasing every year.
Depending on your site, this number can be a little high or low. When so many of your visitors will see your popups on mobile – you have to be device specific when creating them. As the mobile experience is very different from the desktop, your popup has to be different too. But, there are very few brands who are actually doing that.
Though most of them have created mobile-friendly popups, they haven’t created a different form for desktop than mobile.
Take a look at this opt-in form from Madewell:


You must be wondering why I have added the same picture twice. Exactly! That’s the point – the first picture is their desktop version of the popup and the second is mobile version of the same popup – both are exactly the same.
To give visitors a good experience on a mobile device: you should reduce the form fields to the least number as possible.
5. Add urgency to your popup copy
One of the ‘oldest tricks in the book’ to increase sales is to add urgency, and it still works. Use it in your website popup copy too.
How? Create a compelling offer, but make it time-specific – to instigate your visitors to take action quickly.
What most marketers do is they keep the focus on the offer, design and the copy. But they ignore this one important factor “Urgency”. While a good offer and a great design is a must, you can go the extra mile toward a conversion by adding Urgency. This will help your web popups to translate into clicking.
So, instead of just offering a discount to cart abandoners to complete the purchase, offer a discount if they make the purchase within an hour or on the same day. If you don’t want to make it time specific use scarcity in your copy. Checkout this example from Teleflora:

They showed me this popup with offer when I was about to take off from the checkout page without completing the purchase. Simply adding “NOW” in the CTA is enough to push me or anyone into action.
Related read: [Ecommerce] A Marketer’s Guide to Convert One-time Shoppers into Loyal Customers
Wrapping up
Getting good conversions from website popups is tough – the average popup conversion rate is 3.09% (see image below), but it doesn’t have to be.

If you want good results from your website popups just keep your focus on enhancing your visitors’ experience. Increased sales and revenue should naturally flow from this. Also, do follow the tips given above to make your website popups enticing rather than annoying.
Want to create behaviour driven website popups? Why wait? Schedule a Demo of Netcore Smartech