Ok, most web designers advise that you time your pop-up so the visitor can get to know your business before you ask for their info. So instead of it popping up right away within seconds of them landing on your homepage, it takes, say, 20 - 30 seconds or even longer.
This is not bad advice, but my take is different!!
Because when it comes to pop-ups, I believe in a more trial-and-error approach than a one-size-fits-all answer (because everyone's audience is different, right?!)
I recommend you try different times and see how that affects your conversion (of actually getting their email address or phone number). For example, does it make a difference if the pop-up comes up after 5 or 15 seconds? Exactly when your pop-up should appear is something you need to test.
(But here's the thing: if you aren't driving enough traffic - you won't be able to gather enough data to experiment with - so focus on that first.)
Another thing to test is what to ask for - email, phone number, or both. Some pop-ups (or app pop-ups) are multi-step, so here you want to make sure the first information you're asking for is what is most important to you - whether that's phone number or email. It will always be more challenging to get people to give both, so make sure if they click out after the first step, at least you've got the info you need most!
Now I hear you saying, "But Angela pop-ups can annoy people," - and yes, they can irritate visitors, especially if they aren't done right - i.e., with the user experience in mind! Again - it's something you need to test with your audience.
Pop-ups everywhere!
What you absolutely cannot have is more than one pop-up. Now, a multi-step pop-up is different from multiple pop-ups. With a multi-step, it's the same box, and once you enter the info, you get the next one, and it's all cohesive and streamlined.
But with multiple pop-ups, they are coming from different directions in different sizes and aesthetics with different timing, even overlapping, and this can just really irritate a user to the point that they just bounce.
You can set up your pop-up through your theme on Shopify, your email platform, or an app, and I've seen websites with multiple pop-ups because they've added new ones and forgot to remove the old ones, so that's always something to keep in mind too!
Considerations for mobile
When it comes to checking your pop-ups on mobile, you want to be very careful about the placement of your widgets (for your accessibility app, for example). You need to be sure these widgets aren't covering important like an add-to-cart button or something like that!
Test on YOUR mobile!
Finally, many apps will add a widget to your website, so you also want to make sure they don't overlap each other or have too many, especially on a mobile screen that is already small. Prioritize the widgets/apps most important to you! Anything over two is usually not a great idea and might look cluttered.
Okay, so the main takeaways here:
✋ There is no "perfect" timing for your pop-up. A/B test to see what works best.
😲 Don't ever have multiple pop-ups - check for old ones
🤓 Always check - and double-check on mobile!
Remember - pop-ups are an excellent way to gather email addresses for your marketing efforts, so putting some time and a little love into making them fun and easy for your visitors will be worth the effort!
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