15 Types of Pop-ups to Use on Your Website

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Digital marketing Blog User Experience (UX)

Pop-ups are a game changer in digital marketing. These unassuming little boxes hold the power to transform your website’s performance. Today, we’re peeling back the curtain on the 15 types of pop-ups that can turbocharge your online presence.

Each type carries its unique flavor, from lightbox pop-ups that steal the spotlight to sliding pop-ups that subtly slide into your visitor’s view. They’re the wizards behind the curtain, amplifying user engagement, promoting the lead generation, and skyrocketing conversions.

The real magic comes from understanding and utilizing these pop-up types effectively. It’s not about throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. It’s about choosing the right tool for the job.

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Remember, in online marketing, Plerdy is your trusted ally. With its heat map tools and SEO checker, Plerdy provides the insights you need to make informed decisions. So let’s dive into the pop-up parade and uncover how Plerdy can help you harness their power. Embrace the pop-up revolution today – your website will thank you for it!

What are Popup Forms?

Dive into the world of popup forms – those nifty, attention-grabbing types that spring into action on your screen. They’re no mere annoyances; they’re marketing goldmines if you play your cards right. Let’s unravel their essence.

Popup forms are dynamic, interactive entities that dance onto your digital stage. They’re not just static blocks of code. They live, breathe and react, adjusting their rhythm to match your visitor’s pulse.

  • Immediate Impact: A popup form bursts onto the scene, stealing the spotlight. It’s bold, unmissable, and instantly engages the visitor.
  • Information Exchange: These forms facilitate a two-way street – they’re a valuable exchange point for data.
  • Conversion Catalyst: Popups serve as potent triggers, nudging visitors towards desired actions.

Leverage the power of these pop-up types to turbocharge your online presence. Consider lightbox popups, floating bar popups, or fullscreen welcome mats – each type has its own set of benefits and is geared towards achieving specific objectives.

Pop-ups aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. They’re like chameleons, adapting their colors to blend seamlessly into the website’s design. A well-designed popup form is a visual delight, harmonizing with the overall aesthetic while still standing out enough to grab attention.

Remember, the right popup form can transform your website from a static digital brochure into an interactive, responsive platform. So next time a popup form leaps out at you, don’t dismiss it – embrace it for its powerful tool.

Why Do You Need a Pop-up?

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Pop-ups, the digital world’s jack-in-the-box, offer more than meets the eye. They’re powerful in your marketing toolkit, waiting to spring into action. Here’s why you need them.

Pop-ups carry a marketing punch that’s hard to ignore in their various forms. It’s high time to make them your ally, not your adversary. Let’s shed light on their salient features:

  • Catchy and Compelling: Pop-ups are attention magnets. They break through the noise, demanding your visitor’s focus.
  • Data-Driven Decisions: Pop-ups are a goldmine for insights. They draw out precious data, offering a deeper understanding of your visitors.
  • Conversion Champions: They are the push that hesitant visitors often need, driving them from contemplation to action.

Different pop-up types serve different purposes. Slide-in scroll boxes gently nudge the visitor while exit-intent pop-ups make a last-ditch effort to hold their interest. Then, there are the time-driven pop-ups, a test of your visitor’s engagement span.

Pop-ups are the secret sauce to a sizzling online presence. They’re the digital equivalent of a shopkeeper persuading a window shopper to step inside and look closer. A perfectly timed and visually appealing pop-up can turn the tables, transforming a fleeting visitor into a loyal customer.

In the realm of online marketing, pop-ups are the unsung heroes. They’re the silent persuaders, working behind the scenes to boost interaction, engagement, and conversion. So, don’t overlook these powerful tools – embrace them and watch your digital strategy soar.

The Key Advantages of Pop-ups

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A pop-up can leverage a tool to collect leads, reduce page bounce rates, improve conversion, and increase sales.

Here are the four main advantages of pop-ups:

  • Easy implementation. You can quickly add them to the website on your own. No need to spend several hours and hire designers or programmers. Additionally, you can always easily change the design and content during testing without any extra spending from the marketing budget.
  • Dynamism and design. The design trend of recent years is animation and effects that break standard flat design’s minimalistic and static style. Dynamic pop-ups with branded designs are more likely to attract users’ attention than static website elements.
  • The right offer at the right time. Pop-ups include calls to action, and if properly set, they are only displayed when a user is ready to see a certain offer. Moreover, such words as free, discount, gift, etc., trigger the human mind. They impact users’ feelings and thus, give what any company dreams of – a base of subscribers, buyers, and loyal customers.
  • Brevity. Here is the formula: up to 2 buttons, a clear call to action, 1-2 fields, and no distracting elements. It’s easy to understand what to do when you see a pop-up. There are always two options: to leave without doing anything or to complete the offered actions. This is called “users’ path,” and pop-ups make it straight. All actions are completed without wasting time, visiting third-party pages, or entering login details.

Maybe, most users don’t like them. Nevertheless, pop-ups do work. Refusing them can be handled with the right design and placement.

Let’s look at the main types of pop-ups, which differ in format, action, placement, and purpose.

Types of pop-ups by format

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There are two large groups here:

  1. Hello-boards
  2. Page-stops

First, they differ in navigation, size, and the display’s timing, not in design or location.

The pop-ups of these types are displayed immediately or a few seconds after a user visits a website. In some cases, they can even appear before the content of a page fully loads.

Hello-boards are now used more often than page stops. Moreover, design has changed. Modern hello-boards are smaller than their predecessors, don’t overlay the content of a page and let users decide whether to close a website or continue browsing.

Whereas page stops mostly attract attention to the content of a window. They overlap the page and sometimes are displayed without navigation preventing users from browsing until a target action is completed.

Almost everyone uses hello-boards, whereas page-stops are only effective in certain niches and specific situations (for example, to sell time-limited products or services, motivate users to subscribe, etc.).

Hello-boards are much less irritating to users but aren’t as effective as page-stops. Today, only large and popular websites, such as Pinterest, Cosmopolitan, etc. can allow themselves to use page-stops. Yet they alleviate the pressure on visitors’ good attitude and loyalty with proper timing and targeted display.

Types of pop-ups by action

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Pop-ups can be classified based on location, time, and type of action.

  1. Entry pop-ups. They can be overlaid, pinned to the top or bottom website bar, or placed without content overlapping. These pop-ups are considered one of the most underestimated pop-up types in online marketing. Perhaps, the thing is that they can be harmful to conversion and strongly distract users from what they plan to do.

Such forms pop up before a page fully loads or almost right after its content is displayed. There is still no user interaction with the website. The users aren’t sure whether they want to visit the page again and don’t understand where they have landed.

It sounds repelling and frightening.

Yet if everything were so simple, pop-ups would have passed into oblivion long ago. Nevertheless, they generate quite a good effect based on unexpected and spontaneous displays. When a pop-up suddenly appears, users have no time to think. Moreover, they are nudged into the completion of a target action with the desire to learn more about the content hidden behind the transparent pop-up. The bet is that the users will provide information or use an offer without hesitation (or even reluctantly but still).

The effectiveness of such pop-ups largely depends on the message. Offer something valuable and motivate people to want it. For example, a 50% discount on all products is a great trigger that wouldn’t hurt to be shown to all users. Spice everything with a time limitation, 1-2 fields, and a target action button to ease the pressure created by entry pop-ups.

  1. Click pop-ups. They activate when a user clicks a link, image, or word. Click pop-ups depend on action and are the least annoying to users. They appear when users want to see them and work gently without any risk to website conversion.

In many cases, click pop-ups can substitute landings: they don’t pressure users, make them feel like they still control the browsing, and create an atmosphere of comfort and safety.

  1. Sidebar scroll pop-ups, opt-in bars. This type of pop-up looks the most natural thanks to its suitable location and timing. They are displayed when users already grasp content well and probably won’t stop browsing the website because of a pop-up.
  2. Timed pop-ups. They aren’t so annoying as entry pop-ups. Additionally, they aren’t shown to every user but only to those interested in the corresponding offer.

Hence, we don’t recommend using timed pop-ups without testing.

Alternatively, you can easily substitute a timed pop-up with a scrolling window. The optimum display time is 20-60 seconds after a targeted user visits a page.

The exact timing is determined during a set of tests. The time of the display remains the cornerstone of the effectiveness of such pop-ups.

  1. Exit pop-ups. The task is to make an attractive offer before a user leaves a website. To do that, website owners often use different bonuses and promise discounts. Such pop-ups are also shown at the cart stage to motivate users to place an order.

Surprisingly, this, at first sight, useful tool has many haters. The thing is that such pop-ups are strongly aggressive. It’s hard to persuade someone ready to leave. Again, as for entry pop-ups, you have to find serious motivation. You’d better refuse such pop-ups if there is no opportunity to use generous encouragement. Otherwise, they will bring more harm than benefit.

Yet even if you make a relevant offer (gift, good discount, etc.), don’t overdo it. Exit pop-ups shouldn’t be displayed to the same users more often than three times per week. The exact parameters of the display can be more accurately clarified during testing.

The applicability of the mentioned pop-ups depends on timing, location and the degree of user engagement. Scroll and click pop-ups have a neutral and gentle effect on users. Despite being an insecure and more irritating option, exit-entry and timed pop-ups can significantly grow conversion.

Types of pop-ups by placement

Pop-ups are also classified based on the place where they appear.

Generally, there are 4 locations:

  1. Header pop-up windows appear at the top of the screen. They can be dynamic and follow the content of a page or static.
  2. Center pop-ups. The center of the screen is the most common place to display pop-ups. Here they are much more likely to be noticed.
  3. Sidebar pop-ups. They appear when a user scrolls the corresponding page and look like a small humble window on its left or right side. These pop-ups are often used instead of timed pop-ups (will be further described), shown with 5-30 second intervals. Scroll pop-ups appear when users have enough time to check out most of the page. Therefore, they are relevant to the user path.
  4. Footer (also opt-in) pop-ups are added similarly yet pinned at the bottom of a website. Such windows are an optimum choice for collecting subscribers and provide seasonal and time-limited offers, discounts, and sales. So, whereas after spending 5-30 seconds on a website, users cannot be deeply engaged and are irritated by being distracted by the content, a bottom (or side) pop-up complements the page.

Types of Pop-Ups by Purpose

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Pop-ups can be a full-fledged replacement for landings, promo and product pages. There are almost no limitations to the application.

  1. Subscription. Such pop-up windows are placed in blogs. They usually consist of a call-to-action, 1-2 fields (name, email), and a button. You can motivate users to subscribe with useful updates, unique content, gift books, and podcasts.
  2. Promo offers discounts. Pop-ups can also display seasonal and time-limited offers, provide product recommendations, etc. The primary goal is to increase sales (including repeat sales). The standard structure of such pop-ups: a call to action, 1-3 fields (name, phone number, email), and a button. To motivate users to act, it’s important to specify the discount amount and clearly explain the promo terms.
  3. Callback. This is another type of pop-up that can considerably help to increase direct sales. Users often cannot decide whether to place an order. Professional advice is like a sedative, a chance to hold off the very purchase and part with money later. The standard structure: a call to action, 1-2 fields (name, phone), and a button. It would be helpful to stress that the consultation is free to increase user motivation.
  4. One-click order. These pop-ups are used to increase sales. They offer users to shorten the order path and entrust everything to a service provider. The standard structure: a call to action, one field (phone number), and a button.

Pop-Up Power: Conclusions and Takeaways ⚡

So, we’ve taken a whirlwind tour through the land of 15 types of pop-ups, each with unique prowess to engage and convert. We’ve navigated through lightboxes, slide-ins, and exit-intent pop-ups, each carrying its distinct charm.

They’re not just idle entities on your webpage. They’re active participants in your marketing strategy, helping steer visitors to desired actions. Whether it’s an enticing leadformly or an intriguing survey, pop-ups play a crucial role in driving engagement.

They’re versatile, with a multi-pronged approach that caters to different audiences and objectives. Whether it’s an eCommerce site battling cart abandonment, or a blog looking to increase newsletter signups, pop-ups are the secret ingredient in your recipe for success.

But remember, like any tool, pop-ups need the right handling. You don’t want to be that annoying website where pop-ups are an unwelcome disruption. It’s about striking the right balance – be persistent, but don’t pester.

And that’s where Plerdy steps in. With its rich features and user-friendly interface, it simplifies pop-up management. It’s not just software, it’s your partner in your journey to business success. Harness the power of Plerdy and let pop-ups be the profit magnet for your business. Give Plerdy a try today – you won’t regret it!

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Article by:
CEO Andrew Chornyy

CEO Plerdy — expert in SEO&CRO with over 14 years of experience.

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