Timed-Display Control
Time your message to display after X seconds of browsing your site or a specific page.
Timed-Display Control is an OptiMonk trigger that fires a campaign after a specified number of seconds have elapsed since the visitor's current page finished loading — or since their first page of the session loaded, depending on configuration. Rather than showing a campaign instantly on page arrival (which interrupts the visitor before they have had any chance to engage with your content) or relying on behavioral signals like scroll depth or exit intent, a time delay allows the visitor a defined window to begin reading and evaluating before the campaign appears. The delay is configurable in seconds: a 5-second delay gives a brief grace period before the message appears; a 30-second delay ensures the visitor has had meaningful time to engage with the page before the offer is presented. Timed-Display Control is one of OptiMonk's most widely used triggers because it balances simplicity with effectiveness — it is easy to configure, works across all campaign types and devices, and produces reliably better conversion rates than immediate on-load display by ensuring the visitor has had at least a moment to form context before being shown a message.
Key benefits
- Give visitors time to engage before introducing a campaign. A popup that appears the instant a page loads reaches a visitor who has seen nothing — no product images, no headline, no pricing. A popup that appears after 15 or 20 seconds reaches a visitor who has scanned the page, begun forming an opinion, and is in a more receptive state for an offer related to what they are looking at. The time delay creates the gap between arrival and impression that makes a campaign feel contextually appropriate rather than reflexively intrusive.
- The simplest trigger to configure, with no behavioral dependency. Exit-intent requires mouse tracking, scroll triggers require scroll events, click triggers require a specific element — time delay requires none of these. You enter a number of seconds and the campaign fires. This makes it the most universally reliable trigger across all page types, all devices, and all visitor behaviors, and the ideal baseline trigger for new campaigns where you have not yet determined the optimal behavioral trigger.
- Combine with targeting conditions to time campaigns precisely for the right audience. A time delay trigger combined with the Spent on pages or Spent on site targeting conditions creates a compound engagement filter: the delay ensures the visitor has had time to settle into the page, and the spent-on-site condition ensures they have been browsing long enough to be meaningfully engaged. Together, they produce a campaign that fires at the right moment for the right level of visitor investment.
How it works
In your OptiMonk campaign, click Edit settings and scroll to the Settings summary. The default trigger for most campaign templates is a time delay — typically set to a number of seconds out of the box. Click the trigger to edit its value, or click "Add more triggers" to add a time delay if it is not already configured.
Enter the number of seconds after page load at which the campaign should fire. The timer starts when the current page is fully loaded. Common starting values are 5–10 seconds for high-intent pages where you want the campaign to appear quickly (such as a cart page), and 15–30 seconds for content or product pages where you want the visitor to have more time to read before the offer appears.
Choose whether the timed trigger should fire on desktop only, mobile only, or both. Combine with additional triggers (such as exit intent) if you want the campaign to fire on whichever condition is met first. Set your targeting conditions to define who qualifies, then save and publish. The campaign will fire for every qualifying visitor at the configured delay after each page load.
Frequently asked questions
What is Timed-Display Control in OptiMonk?+
Timed-Display Control is a campaign trigger that fires a popup or other campaign type after a specified number of seconds have elapsed since the visitor's current page fully loaded. It is the most commonly used trigger in OptiMonk — simple to configure, universally compatible across all campaign types and devices, and consistently more effective than immediate on-load display because it gives the visitor a window to engage with the page before the campaign appears.
What is the difference between the time delay trigger and the Time Spent On Site condition?+
The time delay trigger determines when the campaign fires — it counts down from the current page's full load and fires the campaign after the specified number of seconds. Time Spent On Site is a targeting condition that determines who the campaign fires for — it checks whether the visitor's cumulative session time has reached a threshold, and suppresses the campaign if it has not. The two can be used together: the trigger fires after the delay, but the campaign only displays if the visitor has also met the site-time condition.
Does the time delay reset when a visitor navigates to a new page?+
Yes. The time delay timer starts from zero each time a new page is fully loaded. If a visitor navigates from a product page to the cart, the timer resets and begins counting again from the cart page load. This means a campaign with a 20-second delay will fire 20 seconds after the visitor arrives on any qualifying page where the campaign's trigger and targeting conditions are met — not 20 seconds after they first arrived on the site.
Should I use time delay as my only trigger, or combine it with others?+
Time delay works well as a standalone trigger for most campaigns. For enhanced coverage, it can be combined with additional triggers — most commonly exit intent — so that the campaign fires on whichever condition is met first. A campaign with a 30-second time delay AND an exit-intent trigger will reach visitors who spend at least 30 seconds on the page, and will also catch visitors who show exit intent before the 30 seconds are up. Multiple triggers create a broader capture net within a single campaign.
What time delay produces the best conversion rates?+
There is no universal optimal delay — it depends on page type, content length, and campaign goal. As a starting point, 5–10 seconds works well on high-intent pages like carts and checkout adjacents, where the visitor's intent is already established and a faster trigger is appropriate. 15–30 seconds is more appropriate for product and category pages where the visitor needs time to evaluate before an offer is relevant. Testing two delay values against each other using OptiMonk's A/B testing is the most reliable way to identify the optimal timing for a specific campaign and page combination.
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