Live Preview
Check how your campaign would appear and work over your live site.
Live Preview is a view mode in OptiMonk's campaign editor that opens your campaign directly over your live website in a new browser tab — so you can see exactly how the popup, sticky bar, or other campaign format will look and behave in its real environment before publishing. It sits alongside the Desktop and Mobile preview views in the editor toolbar and represents a fundamentally different kind of preview: while the in-editor desktop and mobile views render the campaign in isolation against a neutral background, Live Preview renders it on top of your actual site, with your real page content, colors, fonts, and layout visible behind it. This means you can verify not just the campaign's internal design but how it integrates with your store's visual context — whether the colors clash, whether the overlay correctly covers the right area, whether the animation feels right over real page content. All campaign behaviors are active in Live Preview exactly as they would be in a live campaign: animations play, multi-step flows progress, teasers appear in the correct sequence, and form submission elements work. Live Preview also generates a shareable link, so you can send the preview URL to teammates or clients for review and approval without making the campaign active.
Key benefits
- See the campaign exactly as visitors will see it — on your real site, before going live. The in-editor preview shows the campaign against a neutral background with no surrounding page content. Live Preview shows it layered over your actual homepage or product page, with your real navigation, images, and layout providing the full visual context. This is the only way to verify that a campaign's colors, positioning, and proportions look correct in context — not just in isolation — before your visitors see it.
- Test all interactive behaviors without activating the campaign. Live Preview runs the campaign in full interactive mode — animations fire on entry, multi-step pages progress correctly when you interact with them, teasers appear before the main popup if configured to do so, and all input fields accept text. You can walk through the complete visitor experience — from trigger to conversion — without the campaign being active for real visitors. The preview always reflects the latest unsaved version of the campaign, so you can make an edit in the editor and immediately recheck it in Live Preview.
- Share a preview link with teammates or clients for remote sign-off. The Live Preview URL is shareable — anyone with the link can open the preview in their browser and see the campaign over your live site, regardless of whether they have an OptiMonk account. The preview always shows the most current version of the campaign, including edits made after the link was created. This makes it straightforward to get design approval, gather feedback, or demonstrate a campaign to a client without granting access to your OptiMonk account or publishing the campaign prematurely.
How it works
While editing your campaign in OptiMonk's editor, look for the Live Preview option in the toolbar alongside the Desktop and Mobile view buttons. Click it — the campaign opens in a new browser tab, rendered directly over your live site at the domain associated with the campaign.
With the Live Preview tab open, observe how the campaign appears over your actual page content. Check the animation on entry, verify the overlay positioning, review how the colors and typography interact with your site's design, and walk through any multi-step flow to confirm the progression between pages works as intended. If you configured a teaser to appear before the main popup, it will appear first, followed by the main campaign, exactly as a visitor would experience it.
Copy the browser URL of the Live Preview tab and share it with any teammate or client who needs to review and approve the campaign. Anyone with the link can access the preview. If you identify something to change, return to the editor tab, make your edits, and reload the Live Preview tab — it will reflect the updated version immediately.
Frequently asked questions
What is Live Preview in OptiMonk?+
Live Preview is an editor view mode that opens your campaign in a new browser tab, displayed over your actual live website. Unlike the in-editor desktop and mobile preview modes — which render the campaign against a neutral background in isolation — Live Preview shows the campaign exactly as a visitor would see it on your real site, with your page content, layout, and design providing the full context. All campaign behaviors are active in Live Preview, including animations, multi-step flows, and teasers.
Does Live Preview require the campaign to be published or saved?+
No. Live Preview works even on unsaved campaigns — it always displays the latest version of the campaign as it currently exists in the editor, regardless of whether a draft has been saved. This means you can iterate on a design and check the Live Preview immediately after each change, without needing to save or publish between reviews.
What does Live Preview test that the in-editor preview does not?+
The in-editor desktop and mobile previews render the campaign in isolation against a plain background, which is useful for reviewing the campaign's internal layout but does not show how the campaign integrates with your actual site design. Live Preview additionally tests: how the campaign's colors and typography look against your real page, how the overlay positioning behaves with your actual page structure, how animations appear over live content, and whether multi-step flows and teaser sequences work end-to-end in a real browsing environment.
Can I share the Live Preview with someone who does not have an OptiMonk account?+
Yes. The Live Preview URL can be shared with anyone — they do not need an OptiMonk account to view it. When they open the link in a browser, they will see the campaign rendered over your live site in the same way you see it. The link always reflects the most recent version of the campaign, including any edits made after the link was initially created, so there is no need to generate a new link each time a change is made.
Why is Live Preview not working on my site?+
There are two common reasons. First, Live Preview requires the OptiMonk JavaScript code to be installed on your site — if OptiMonk has not yet been integrated, the preview cannot render the campaign over your pages. Second, Live Preview does not work on redirected URLs — if the campaign domain resolves through a redirect rather than directly, the preview will not load correctly. Ensure your OptiMonk installation is active on the domain and that the campaign's configured domain matches the direct URL of your site.
Try OptiMonk for free
Launch your first campaign, learn what works, then scale what converts.