The Psychology Behind Popup Offers
Most people assume popups are evil. Reminds Me Of i mean, you would think that, with the amount of tab closing we do when one shows up every two minutes while youâre busy looking for something online. But thereâs an entire school of psychology behind this often-misunderstood phenomenon. Thereâs a lot more thought that goes into their existence than people realise.
The thing is, people are inherently good at shutting out advertising noise in the background. But popups offer something new - a fresh window to engage with a product or brand and build interaction.
While these are initially used to throw some great deals your way, it is less about the price discount or the free shipping it offers you. People have been using popups because they provide a reward for interacting with brands and it leads to positive associations between the experience and buying. Another fairly interesting psychological aspect of popups is that they offer scarcity as one of their most powerful tools.
Some experts believe that by highlighting urgency through exclusive deals and limited-time offers, customers fear missing out on a good opportunity so they are generally more likely to buy something quickly. At the end of it, like all things in life, there is a healthy balance to using popups. Ultimately, even though they work well to lure customers back on websites or to convince them to act quickly on an offer, it does depend on how relevant the popup is to who sees it and what value it provides them as soon as they read the message or see the image on the screen.
In that way, this can reportedly be rather tricky terrain for brands because too many negative popups can create a bit of distaste around brand identity and therefore drive customers away from ever wanting to interact with your website again in future.
Types of Popup Offers That Drive Sales
You know what most people get wrong about these attention-grabbing popups. They think itâs about the art of persuasion or that only big discounts work. Or just showing up at the right time.
But popups are about capturing the moment and, more so, your audience. Itâs basically collecting information and using it to further your cause. It might seem off-putting and a bit too much to be constantly bombarded with popups when youâre looking to buy something online but thatâs because thereâs a lack of balance. Sure, you need to hit them where they feel it, but you also have to respect boundaries.
Things like gamified popups or wheel-of-fortune offers can often seem intrusive if they pop up mid-purchase. But consider an email popup with 20% off for subscribers if it shows up right at the checkout window or upon completing the purchase - a win-win deal for both parties. And given the choice between getting 10% off in exchange for your birthday and age or just your email ID - you might go for the latter.
Youâd also notice that sometimes products come with additional options like bundles that look like a better deal than others - combo offers are a great way to introduce new products while also increasing sales. And then thereâs the feeling of being left out â giving people an exclusive offer that sounds like theyâre getting a really good deal can be enough incentive for them to either sign up for updates or make a quick purchase. Discounts are definitely persuasive enough but things like a âget an extra ÂŁ100 off on all sales over ÂŁ1,000â can seem too vague (almost scammy) even if they genuinely offer big discounts on luxury items like appliances and gadgets, especially if customers need to make another large purchase to avail of such offers. And at this point, creating sales offers requires one to be ethical about the information being taken and given out in exchange for value, because it comes at the cost of privacy.
Timing is Everything: When to Display Popups
We need to talk about timing. Too often popups appear with the urgency of an overzealous parking inspector. They spring up within seconds, blocking the thing you were most interested in, then demand you hand over your email address or get a 'limited time offer' you know is going nowhere fast.
These are the most hated type of popups and they miss a crucial truth: unless there's some strategy behind when they pop up, they're unlikely to motivate a customer. The way I see it, popups work when they align with the customer's current moment in their journey. Because as irritating as popups can be, customers don't mind being nudged to add more to their cart or asked for their birthday in exchange for a discount - if it's at the right time.
And while there are many moments that can work for different types of offers, it's best not to be too generic or predictable about it. For example, exit-intent popups can be clever if they're combined with a first-time user discount and well-timed reminder about what they're missing out on - but only if they're easy to dismiss and don't keep coming back after every click away from the page. And who knows how those exit intent popups really work anyway.
Sometimes they seem smart, almost mind-reader-like with their timing and other times they spring up at odd times making you reconsider shopping from that site. Sort of. But for return customers, a popup is best placed at checkout.
It adds an element of surprise and delight that also motivates them to buy again soon. For first-time customers though, a popup works well when it appears after they've been browsing around for a few minutes (so not too quickly but also not too late into their journey). This way there's enough context for them and it's less likely they'll ignore or block the popup altogether.
Designing Eye-Catching Popup Offers
Popups are a bit like Tupperware. You need them, you want them, but you donât want the ugly ones. So while the offer is supposedly important - and I think some brands focus on a great offer without realising their bland as bran design is turning off the customer at the popup - itâs also about whatâs appealing to the eye.
We are meant to avoid pop ups, so what is it that makes you take another look. Put simply, colour and voice. Obviously you need something that stands out - for both web and mobile, so itâs about having bold options with customisable backgrounds.
Even better are those platforms that use analytics tools to determine which offers are working and which are not. So you can target your customer with well designed options that work for them, not ones that donât work for anyone. More or less.
It's also about giving simple and clear instructions - something those of us who have ever assembled flat pack furniture will tell you. There is a lot of noise in the online space, so a good pop up has to be more than that white box with a join our newsletter message. I mean sometimes the best newsletter in the world will be missed because your pop up didnât pop enough. You need engaging copy - does it have a joke.
Is it fun. Is it inviting. There is nothing quite as unmotivating as feeling like youâre just another email address. If you want to get people excited then you have to bring your story.
Your story isnât âI am selling stuffâ - well maybe it is, but if thatâs your story then at least make it interesting âWe sell stuff no one wantsâ. I would click on that pop up - because I am always trying to gift friends things no one wants (not really). The best pop ups donât feel like pop ups.
They feel like invitations, and they get people engaging in your brand story through clever designs with catchy copy and awesome incentives for action.
A/B Testing Your Popup Strategies
Most people seem to think A/B testing is just about finding âthe winner. â A silver bullet. The best popup with the best numbers that you can then roll out everywhere, and job done. But in reality, effective split testing isnât about discovering a mythical âbestâ strategy.
Sort of. Itâs a way to constantly challenge assumptions - sometimes your own, sometimes the teamâs, often even the customersâ. Because anything that relies on human behaviour doesnât have clear answers. Sometimes A/B testing throws up more questions than answers.
And that's sort of the point - it makes you look at things differently, from multiple perspectives. You may find yourself re-creating tests to verify results and sometimes you may even go round in circles if you test too many variables at one go. The trick is to focus your tests on the most impactful elements like copy, colours or timing - one at a time. There is some uncertainty though as your customers evolve and behaviour adapts so what worked last month may not work today.
And I think thatâs where many brands trip up. They want clear numbers and clean cut answers but nothing in popups are black-and-white. So while A/B testing can be insightful, it isnât a substitute for other qualitative research like surveying customers or speaking to them directly. It might help to establish what you want your popups to do before running tests.
Are they an extension of your brand. Or are they a quick coupon dispenser. The answer can help you decide how aggressive you want them to be and what elements may need changing.
Measuring the Success of Popup Campaigns
It's far too easy to think that if people are arguably clicking on popups, they're converting. People might click because the popup is nearly always nicely designed, or it truly interests them. What happens after they click on the popup - that's what can actually tell you if it succeeded at what you planned for it to do.
When running a popup campaign, something I've found really helps is potentially knowing what you're looking to get out of it. I've seen many a brand set up a campaign without really being sure about what success looks like. Maybe they're not clear about why they're even running this popup.
A lot of people talk about measuring the success of a campaign, but all that talk is moot unless one knows exactly what success looks like. If you want people to sign up for your newsletter using your email capture popups, measure how many times they did that and what percentage of new visitors signed up. If you've got a discount code running with a limited time pop-up, find out how many people used it and on what products.
It gets tricky when you don't know what's working and why it's working - or when something isn't working, and you can't seem to pinpoint the reason. That's happened more than I'd like to admit. What also tends to happen is that once you've got some data in front of you, you decide to change things around based on it.
Figuring out whether or not your popup campaign was successful can take time. Sometimes months at end, if you've got loads of data to sift through. The best thing to do though, is figure out what counts as a successful conversion for you and your brand before you even start planning the campaign. That way you're better prepared to plan a more specific campaign that's easier to measure with relevant metrics later on in time.