Did you set up your first popup campaign, but you’re not seeing the results you expected? Are you frustrated by the conversion rate?
According to our experiences, many website owners don’t spend enough time to carefully consider which popup campaign type is best for their site.
When you take the time to choose the right campaign and configure it for your needs, you’ll greatly increase your chances of success.
In this article, we’ll look at all options you can choose in detail, then we’ll tell you which questions you should be asking to choose the right campaign for your onsite marketing efforts.
Popup campaign types
1. Standard popup overlays
Standard popup overlays are the most popular and most well-known form of popups. They appear in the center of your site.
Standard popups are highly effective because they focus your visitors’ attention on only one message, eliminating the paradox of choice. Popups can be used for email list building, providing offers and coupons, or stopping cart abandonment.
Standard popup overlays are great when you want to display a secondary offer to visitors who are between two actions. This moment can be when your visitors:
- Read to the end of an article
- Are about to close the page
- Are inactive for several seconds
- Or, when they click on a call-to-action button
These are the best moments to get your visitors’ attention with standard popups.
2. Fullscreen popups
Fullscreen popups are similar to standard popups. You should use them at the same time – when visitors are between two actions. The only difference is that fulscreens cover the entire screen.
They can be used for the same reasons as popups: email list building, providing offers and coupons, or stopping cart abandonment.
In our experience, fullscreen campaigns often work better than standard popup overlays. Because they focus the attention of visitors, and they do it in a BIG way.
3. Sidebars
Sidemessages are really popular when it comes to email list building. They appear at the right or left side of your webpage and stick there while people continue browsing the page.
Sidemessages can also be used for redirecting people to another page. One reason people choose sidemessages is that they are less intrusive than standard popups. They don’t disturb visitors while reading an article or reviewing a product on your site.
Why are they great? If you have a regular offer – e.g. promoting your newsletter subscription – you can display it all the time without stopping your visitors and distracting their attention. You can also use them when you have a new eBook or a brand-new product you want to make sure everyone sees when they visit your site, without “throwing it in their face”.
4. Sticky bars
Sticky bars are sticky notification bars. They appear at the top or bottom of your website and they stick there as visitors browse the pages on your site.
For this reason, just like sidemessages, nanobars are often chosen because they are less “intrusive” than standard popups. They don’t cover the content or cause a major disturbance to visitors who are browsing.
Depending on the design of your site, sticky bars may even be less intrusive than sidemessages.
They are great a way to promote your hottest deals and offers, or to remind visitors about their coupon codes. You can also use sticky bars for cart notifications.
5. Lucky wheel popups
Lucky wheel popups help you to create a memorable website experience, mostly because they’re a lot of fun! Visitors can spin the wheel for a chance to win certain rewards or discounts. The lucky wheel is good for email list building.
People like to win and winning something will make them feel special. It’s definitely one of the most engaging campaign types.
If you would like to create a more memorable experience that leaves your visitors with a positive feeling about your site, you definitely want to choose this campaign type.
6. Multi-step campaigns
Multi-step campaigns can be used with standard popups or with fullscreens. They work by displaying multiple pages in a series of popups. First, you only ask a YES or NO question. Then you ask for an email address on the second page.
Results show that it’s easier to convince your visitors to take some action first, rather than persuade them to provide their name and email address immediately.
Clicking on the YES button on the first “YES or NO” popup puts your visitors in a positive mindset and makes them more receptive to your offer.
How to choose the right campaign for your site?
Now we’ll show you which questions to consider while choosing the right campaign type for your site.
1. What’s your goal?
Would you like to…
- save cart abandoners?
- grow your email list?
- promote your eBook?
- remind visitors about an offer?
Your goal is the most important thing you need to consider. For example, if you would like to stop people who put something in their cart but are trying to leave without finishing the purchase, a gentle reminder in a sidemessage or sticky bar won’t stop them.
On the other hand, a standard popup overlay or a fullscreen campaign can work wonders to stop cart abandonment.
If you would like to grow your email list, the lucky wheel is one of the best options you can choose from. Multi-step campaigns work well for eBook promotions, and sticky bars and sidemessages are the best for reminding visitors.
2. How aggressively do you want to push your message?
If you don’t want to push your message too much, don’t want to appear too aggressive, or don’t want to risk the chance of annoying visitors, you should use a sidemessage or a sticky bar.
However, if you used advanced segmentation and you that your visitors will be happy to see your offer, then you should use a standard popup. With a well-targeted campaign, your visitors will be grateful that you brought the offer to their attention.
3. Where is your website traffic coming from? What is the traffic source?
If your visitors are coming from a newsletter or an ad that promoted a specific offer, you should use a sticky bar to remind them of the offer.
If they come from organic search, display a standard popup or lucky wheel campaign.
4. Are your visitors coming from mobile or desktop?
If most of your traffic comes from mobile, you shouldn’t set up a fullscreen campaign because it covers the whole screen, visitors will leave immediately if they don’t know where to click.
A lucky wheel is also not a good choice in this case unless you use the setting to only display these campaigns on desktop.
A sticky bar or a standard popup is the best choice when you want to display your campaign on mobile and achieve the best results.
5. How much of a commitment is what you’re asking?
If you feel like what you’re asking might be too much, or your visitors may need a little bit of encouragement, use a multi-step campaign. It will put visitors in a positive mindset, as the results will put you in a positive mindset too.
Conclusion
By carefully choosing the right campaign, you can achieve better results with popups on your site.
There are quite a few things you need to consider when choosing your campaign type. What is your goal? How do you want your visitors to respond? How well-targeted are your campaigns?
When you take some time to consider these questions and the options we covered in this article, you’ll master the process and soon you’ll know exactly which popup campaign is right for each of your marketing efforts on your site.
We hope this article helps you get more conversions on your site. If you would like to learn more about choosing the right onsite retargeting campaign and how to use popups effectively, register for our webinar now!
