Do Pop-Ups Work?
Popups, the digital equivalent of a tap on the shoulder, are known for their prowess in lead generation, cart abandonment recovery, and user engagement.
The numbers behind their efficacy are quite telling. A recent delve into pop-up performance reveals an average conversion rate hovering around 11.09%, with the very best pop-ups driving an impressive 42.35% conversion rate.
Why Do People Find Popups Annoying?
Pop-ups seemingly annoying nature can be placed down to their intrusive nature. They typically interrupt the user whilst they are trying to achieve something else.
Issues of timing aside, the content of pop-ups can pile on further frustration. For example, if a pop-up is targeting the wrong stage of the user journey, this will cause friction for the user.
This is often caused by poor strategy, such as showing the same universal pop-up and messaging to every user of a website, regardless of what content they are consuming, or at what stage of the user cycle they are.
Take, for example, a typical ecommerce website that shows a ‘new customers get 25% off their first purchase’ pop-up. For some people, that’s a fantastic incentive to make someone convert. But what about the loyal customer who has navigated directly to the website? That is a poor message for them to receive.
Matters can be made even worse if the pop-up impacts the visibility, or even the loading speed, of the main content on the website, which actively harms UX by presenting a suboptimal experience.
Is It Possible To Use Pop-Ups Responsibly?
The journey towards responsible pop-up usage is paved with considerations of relevance, timing, and user control.
Ensuring that pop-ups are pertinent to the user, appear at appropriate times, and are effortlessly dismissible, paves the way for a less intrusive user experience.
The goal is to strike a balance between achieving marketing objectives and maintaining a pleasant user interface.
As the digital landscape evolves, so do the alternatives to pop-ups.
On-page Calls to Action (CTA), Sidebar Forms, Footer Opt-Ins, and Exit-Intent Overlays emerge as less disruptive cousins of pop-ups.
These alternatives nestle seamlessly within the webpage, offering engagement opportunities without the abrupt intrusion synonymous with pop-ups.
The narrative of pop-ups is one of contrasts - they are effective yet often deemed annoying.
But the data doesn’t lie. Pop-ups are effective at driving conversions, when used correctly.