In the earlier days of the Internet, everyone remembers how frustrating pop ups were. You would open a web page and fifty new windows would explode on your page, causing you increased frustration as you closed each one. However, pop ups have evolved over the years. Pop up offers no longer open as a separate window and have become far less intrusive and far more relevant to website visitors. If done correctly, pop up offers can help you capture leads and offer value to your visitors. We’ve broken down the pros and cons of using pop ups and the best practices to keep in mind when using pop ups on your site.

Types of Popups

There are a few different types of popups that you might use on your website. Each of these ads comes with its own set of benefits and disadvantages, and might be right for your website depending on your goals.

Full Screen

There are full screen popups, which will occupy the entire screen when a visitor views the page. Typically, the rest of the window will blur when these full screen ads appear and a user must close out of the ad to view the page. This type of popup is the most intrusive, but the most attention-grabbing.

Corner

Corner popups are much less intrusive than full screen popups. These offers will appear in the corner of a visitor’s window when they visit a page of your site. Visitors can still view and navigate the page of your site while a corner popup is open, making them less intrusive. However, they are not quite as attention grabbing as full screen ads and can be ignored.

Banner

Banner offers are by far the least intrusive type of popup offer that you can feature on your site. These offers appear as a small banner in the top of the window when a user visits a page on your site. Visitors can easily navigate your website without closing out of the offer. Banner offers are fairly attention grabbing, as visitors’ attention will naturally drift to the top of the screen, however, they do not command the attention of full screen ads, which cannot be ignored.

Advantages

There are a few advantages to using pop up offers on your website. One of the main advantage to this type of offer is that it’s an added opportunity to generate more leads. When you create blog posts and other educational content, you will probably place a call to action at the bottom of the page to generate leads. However, popups can be placed on any page of your website an add opportunities to generate leads. Additionally, popups are very attention grabbing, increasing the possibility of capturing leads.

Disadvantages

The biggest disadvantage to popup offers is that they can often frustrate users. Especially when using full screen popups, which are the most intrusive, users can become frustrated because they just want to access your content. For this reason, it’s important to choose your popup ads carefully and make the offers as unintrusive as possible.

Best Practices

If you’re considering using popup offers on your website, it’s important to use them strategically. Follow these practices to ensure the success of your popup offers.

Make It Relevant

One of the most important things to ensure the success of your popup offers is to make them relevant to your users. You should be offering something that the visitor wants. Consider who your typical visitors are and what would be valuable to them. You should also consider the page they are visiting and make the offer relevant to the page as well. Making the offer relevant will help you capture more leads and decrease the likelihood of frustration.

Display the X Prominently

To avoid making pop offers feel too intrusive, make sure they are very easy to exit out of. You should display the X prominently. Do not feature popup offers that are difficult to close out of or confusing. If a user wants to click away from your popup offer, they should be able to do so with ease.

Use Cookies

When creating your popup offers, make sure you’re utilizing cookies. Using cookies will help avoid showing the same visitors the same ads repeatedly. It will also prevent you from showing the same popups on different pages of your site. Finally, the use of cookies will ensure that your offers will not appear for users who have already converted into leads. Using cookies will help keep your ads from feeling repetitive or frustrating to your users.

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