How Do You Feel About Pop-Up Boxes?

Personally, I just never found them effective when I tested them.

That is not to say other have not, though !

- Robert Andrew

I find them super annoying if they pop up while I'm trying to read something like an article. Especially if it's on a tablet or mobile device and the exit or X is super tiny and it won't go away. I usually leave.

That said, I'm thinking about putting an opt-in as an exit pop up since the customers probably gone anyways. Probay offering a discount and trying to capture those people who are on the fence.

When I am reading and get a pop up box 90% of the time I just leave.

However people claim they work well, so?

The pop-up form on IMCD converts around 9%.

The sidebar from converts at 2%.

The pop-up only shows if you land on certain pages. After you've seen it, it won't show again for seven days.

The only time they bother me as a reader is when they hinder the page load or have no close control.

If a pop-up appears right after the page loads, then I usually ignore the offer (without taking time to read the offer), since I just want to view what I went for ...

If a pop-up appears a few minutes after the page loads and while I'm viewing the page, then I expect it to be an offer for live chat support. Otherwise, I ignore the pop-up and continue viewing the page ...

If a pop-up appears when I try leaving the page, then, for me, it's all about the offer, how it's packaged and how it's communicated to me via the pop-up -- The message should better be clear, professional and non-spammy, while the offer should better be relevant to what I want at that time, and the offer should better be packaged in attention-grabbing, enticing and compelling ways ...

As for using pop-ups -- No, we haven't tested it in any of our campaigns (not even for live chat support or reminders to call our support numbers), and we don't recommend it to our clients, and we neither plan to use it in any of our own campaigns, nor in any of our campaigns for our clients -- We prefer it this way ...

Interruption Marketing is something used by beginners who don't know any better, and by webmasters who have no interest in developing a relationship with their visitors (which is sometimes a valid intent).

If a pop-up blocks access to content, then I leave the site 100% of the time. Pop-ups are not a professional approach to business growth and customer retention. When bookmarking a site to read later, and I am stopped from leaving the page by an exit pop-up, I always delete the bookmark.

I no longer trust exit pop-ups, so will never click on one of those. I learned the hard way that hackers know how to use an exit pop-up to install malware, using your click as permission to perform an action (including the click on the X that was supposed to close the window).

Don't interact with an exit blocker unless you completely trust the website you are visiting. As most exit blockers are JavaScript, the FireFox QuickJS 1.3 add-on places an icon at the top of your FireFox browser, to disable JavaScript on a site that does this to you, so you can safely exit from the page that has taken control of your browser.

Popups are annoying but get results and if what you are delivering on it is highly valuable I would suggest you use them.

Pop up boxes do work better than just a non-moving optin form. Most marketers, like here on the WF, don't like them because they know how overused they are. Most consumers probably don't run into them as often as we suspect, so the average consumer probably just thinks it not as big of deal. I do, however, see a day coming soon when everyone, consumers included, are going to grow tired of them.

That's what my research shows.

I don't think so.

It's not like it's only MMO marketers who use them.

As a reader, I hate them!
As a marketer, I love them

They can be effective, you just may need to experiment with your text and various variables around them

I have an experience with this..

I got quite good amount of leads with it when my blog was around social media tips, traffic tips, and some motivational posts. But it dropped a lot when I started to post around IM/MMO niche so I removed it from now on

I never forced people to do such things, most of the blogs in these days forces to like an article to have read that post. Shame to those blog owners who forces to do actions.

I hope Google will remove such types of blogs in Top searches.

Pop-ups do not have to be annoying to be extremely effective.

On my sites, the pop-up triggers once every 30 days and only once the reader has gotten to the bottom of the article. This gives the new visitors (typically arriving from search engines) something to do next without bugging my regular readers. Although my pop-up doesn't get near the impressions as some of my other forms, it is the highest converting out of all of them.

I do get annoyed by entrance pop-ups or pop-ups that pop up on every page, but if the content is great than clicking an X to get access to it doesn't bother me that much.

I find them very annoying and intrusive, although if done right (timing and placement) then there is a possibility they may be effective.

It convert well then sidebar but I really hate it as reader..

Well If a blog or article is really good, I'll just ignore the pop up. But otherwise it's just annoying.

Stop following your 'gut' and let data guide you on the best decision.

Hello Bar and OptinMonster allow you to A/B test. Put one up and see what happens. If your conversions drop (signups, time on site, etc) or your bounce rate goes up then ditch the popup.

If the good metrics go up, keep the popup and start optimizing it with more tests.

popup boxes, hmm, tough question, haven't seen one of those for few years, oh year, i remembered why, they so annoying that i ended up using extension to block them.

I am guessing, don't like them that much

"How Do You Feel About Pop-Up Boxes?"

If my computer wasn't so expensive I'd brake it every time I saw one. Does that answer your question?

I can't stand them. As a marketer they can be rather annoying. However...

On the flip side, they do work.

Most of the big systems use them. So that has got to tell you something.

Everybody whines and cries about them, but the fact is they work. That's why you see them everywhere. Do the testing and follow the numbers, people!

That being said, HOW you use them is crucial. Just read through this thread and you'll see a few common themes that annoy people.

I would look at this differently.

First off asking people here how they feel about pop up boxes is not representative of the average visitor. Many of us here get an eye twitch if a site does something tiny that nobody but an internet marketer would notice.

The real question is why do you want to use a pop up? Is it to build a list? Is building your list slightly more important than if you piss a few people off? If yes then test different ways to do it and see if you get more sign ups.

To demonstrate my point when all you feel like doing is listening to music and you head over to YouTube does it not make you want to punch the screen when they throw loud ads at you between songs? Of course it does. Does youtube know it pisses us off? Yup. But their value makes us stay and their business goal is more important to them than us being pissed.

Hate them.

Though not as much as I hate autoplay videos...

I contend that it depends on how they are used and in which market. I particularly liked a site I visited on three occasions to read quality niche articles. On the the third occasion a pop up suggested "now you have read three really useful articles by us, don't you think its time you trusted us with your email so we can send you some more?" - or words to that effect.

It was in an offline business niche so as some have already suggested would probably not annoy the average user.

Who cares how you feel about pop up boxes the bottom line is this is a business and they work

Your #1 goal on your website or blog should be to capture as many email addresses as possible because chances are you will never see these potential customers again if you do not.

So if a popup effectively accomplishes your goal then you are 1 step closer to your goals.

In some cases (like an email marketing funnel) pop-up boxes can statistically help you to increase your immediate ROI.

So, if you're in this business to make money, then pop-ups are a genius idea.

As far as bloggers are concerned, I think they can be tactfully implemented, and help you to build your audience at the same time as building rapport, prestige, and authority.



I do have a few rules though... Chiefly among them - make it so your end users only see ONE pop-up.

An endless array of pop-ups is shameful, tasteless, and can make it so your end users loathe your very online presence.

Just my humble $.02, and wish you the best.

Hover ads (not pop-ups) are great for blogs and forums. But if you already have a squeeze page setup as your main site, and then you want to add a hover ad on top of the squeeze page... it won't be too effective for you. Just a redundant and unnecessary message.

I hate them but more than that I hate that they actually work (usually)

I guess it does depend on test data however. Sometimes you'll find that simply putting a sidebar with the same details does just fine. On sales pages if you can make a nice pretty one; a light box or whatever you want to call it and you offer let's say a discount or proper downsale, that tends to work well on many occasions. But still... hate them with a passion.