15 Website Popup Statistics: Conversions and Click-Through Rates

Much like our previous stat, we found mobile popups convert an average of 6.57% of visitors, while desktop popups convert only 3.77%.

The top-performing users converted 25% of visitors on mobile and 20% on desktop. The worst 10% of performers convert less than 1% on mobile and less than 0.5% of visitors on desktop.

Now that we’ve established the baseline, let’s see how other elements – such as images, lead magnets, and opt-out buttons – can affect popup conversion rates.

Images can increase click-through rates by 28.69%

Marketers often say using images in a popup makes them more persuasive than when no images are present. But is it true?

In the same experiment as before, we found that popups with images engaged 7.49% of visitors, whereas showing no images saw the number drop to 5.82%.

It's important to note that our analysis was solely focused on desktop devices, as many of our users didn't use any images on mobile (which can be a good design practice for mobile popups).

Images can increase email signups by 63.49%

When we repeated the same analysis only for email form popups, we found that showing images converts 4.3% of visitors, whereas they only convert 2.63% when no images are present. That means adding an image can increase your email popup conversion rate by 63.49%.

The lesson here is that you should always use images on your popups, at least when you’re targeting visitors on desktop devices.

When choosing an image for your popup, consider using product images, photos of your customers using your product, or even GIFs. Here is a list of email popup examples for your inspiration.

Opt-out buttons can increase popup CTR by 14.34%

Adding an “opt-out” button to your popups is a good way to give visitors a chance to reject your popups without having to search for the exit button.

You can also use them to make the visitor think about the cost of rejecting your offer. Joanna Wiebe, the founder of Copyhackers, explains that it's a good idea to write opt-in copy that “focuses on enjoyment and opt-out button copy that focuses on pain or work.”

When we compared the popups with one action button against those that had two (the second one being an opt-out), we discovered the latter had 14.34% higher conversion rates (8.05% versus 7.04%).

Modal popups generate up to 75.95% more email signups than slide-ins

We analyzed the same dataset to see whether modal popups converted visitors into subscribers better than slide-ins.

For the reference, this is what modals and slide-in look like. The former pops up in the middle of the screen, while the latter slides in from the corner 👇🏼

Expectedly, modals won this comparison, however, the results on mobile devices differed significantly more than on desktops.

The results for mobile devices were as follows:

Modals: 7.39%

Slide-ins: 4.20%

Our analysis showed modals convert 75.95% better than slide-ns.

On desktop, the results were a bit more subtle, with modals (4.44%) outperforming slide-ins (3.49%) by only 27.22%

In case you’d like to know popup statistics for other formats, earlier this year, we tested email signup rates on our own website. We ran five different popups against each other: a fullscreen, modal popup, slide-in, sidebar, and sticky bar.

At the end of the test, we found that the fullscreen popup had received the highest signup rate at 3.41%. Following it was the modal popup, with a conversion rate of 2.95%, and the sidebar at 2.61%. Last came the sticky bar (2.3%) and slide-in (2.17%).

Although fullscreens won that competition, we still recommend being cautious with this popup type because when overused, it can easily worsen UX on your website. The best practice would be testing them against less intrusive alternatives to ensure the best visitor experience.

Lead magnets increase signup rates by 155.43%

Lead magnets have been proven time and time again as a surefire way to build an email list and increase signup rates. In our analysis, we expected popups with lead magnets to beat those without them; we wanted to see for how much.

Our research found that email form popups without lead magnets converted 3.83% on mobile and 1.84% of visitors on desktop. Adding a lead magnet increased the average conversion rate to 7.73% on mobile and 4.7% on desktop — a 101.82% and 155.43% difference, respectively.

Interestingly, our research didn't find a large difference in conversion rates for popups offering percentage-based discounts, regardless of their amount (10%, 15%, or 20%).

Consent checkboxes can decrease conversion rates by 25.82%

Laws like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) force website owners to ask for consent when inviting a visitor to sign up. Some choose to obtain consent via a double opt-in, others choose to add a consent checkbox directly to the newsletter signup form.

However, when it’s mandatory, asking for consent can lower the conversion rate slightly. This is expected, as anything that adds friction does so.

In our tests, we found that when we tested adding the mandatory consent checkbox, our email signup rate decreased by 25.82%.

Although this isn’t a huge deal, it’s something that you must consider when planning and designing your popups.

Contextual popups convert times better than non-contextual popups

The quality of your popup offer will depend greatly on its context. For example, a free shipping coupon on a contact page won’t look as enticing as when you show it after someone added a product to cart.

We found this to be true in our blog. When we offered a content upgrade, an email list building checklist, it converted times better in the articles closely related to email list building.

Here's what the content upgrade looked like:

And here are its conversion rates for different articles on our blog:

When possible, make your popup offers relevant to the context surrounding them. And in your blog, use content upgrades if you want to take your list building to the next level.

Exit-intent popups can save up to 15% of visitors

The popularity of exit-intent popups stems partly from their supposed power to stop potential leads or customers from leaving your store. By offering a last-minute offer that entices someone to add a product to your cart or complete a purchase, exit popups can increase your sales.

But how much so?

Our data suggests that you can convert up to 7% of abandoning visitors into email subscribers if you offer a discount for the next purchase, and save up to 13.5% of abandoned sales if you encourage customers to finish checkout with a coupon:

Other researchers have got similar results. For example, according to data from Conversion Sciences, you can save between 10 to 15% of abandoning visitors — assuming that you present a “well-crafted message.”

Countdown timers generate 112.93% more conversions

Scarcity plays a major role in persuasion, as Robert Cialdini showed us in his book Influence.

One way to magnify an offer scarcity is by using countdown timers.

To see whether countdown timers actually worked, Drip analyzed millions of their users and found that popups with a countdown timer converted 8.07% of the time, 112.93% better than popups without one (3.79%).

Countdown timers work best when used in time-sensitive offers, like a short sales promotion or a one-time abandoned cart discount.

Lower the input fields to a minimum

Another popular way to increase the conversion rate of popups is to reduce their signup friction, such as lowering the number of input fields shown.

Drip analyzed their users’ popups with one to five input fields and found the following conversion rates for each one:

• Five input fields: 0.81%
• Four input fields: 0.90%
• Three input fields: 1.08%
• Two input fields: 3.31%
• One input fields: 3.20%

There’s an almost linear inverse relationship between input fields and conversion rates — the more input fields, the lower the conversion rate, and vice-versa.

The most interesting part is that popups with two input fields outperform those with three by 206.48%. However, the ones with one input field lowered the performance by 3.43%.

Remember: whenever possible, you shouldn't use more than two input fields in your popups — unless you really need them. Also, we'd suggest you test one and two-input field popups on mobile as the UX isn't as optimal as on desktop.

Time-delay your popups by at least 8 seconds

There’s nothing worse than shoving a popup to a visitor as soon as they land on your site. Even welcome popups should be delayed a few seconds.

Now, the question is, how long should you wait?

Our test results showed that delaying popups for more than five seconds (5.26%) generated 52.02% more conversions than delaying them for two to five seconds (3.46%). Interestingly, we saw that popups delayed for less than two seconds converted at 4.01%.

To give you a more specific recommendation, we have to rely on Drip's study. They found that popups delayed for eight seconds converted better than popups shown before or after. In fact, the eight-second mark outperformed the second one by 34.57%.

All the results show that the ideal time to delay your popups is between three to 30 seconds.

However, use these marks as a benchmark. You should use a delay time that best fits your average time on site. For example, if it's 20 seconds, delay your popups five to ten seconds before that mark.

Scroll-delay your popups by at least 35%

Besides time, you can also delay your popups by scrolling depth.

Drip analyzed the same dataset from the previous statistic and found that the top 10 highest-performing popups by scroll percentage show up after a visitor scrolled at least 35% of a page.

The minimum scrolling depth is 10% (1.99%), and 80% is the highest (1.62%). However, 10 to 50% seems to be the ideal range.

Learn from these 15 popup statistics to boost your conversions

Now that you are done, you’ve got a lot to think about. Where do you start?

To put everything you learned today, let’s take a quick recap of what these website popup statistics can teach you about running high-converting popups:

• Use popups both for mobile and desktop devices
• Adapt your popups for mobile devices to maximize their power
• To generate the most conversions, use modal popups over slide-ins and sticky bars
• Use lead magnets and promotional incentives whenever possible
• Make your lead magnets and promotional incentives relevant (contextual) to the page the visitor is on
• Use images that represent your offer, at least on desktop
• Avoid annoying your visitors by time and scroll-delaying your popups at least eight seconds and 35%, respectively
• Reduce the number of input fields to one or two
• Use exit-intent popups to present last-minute offers to high-intent visitors
• Use countdown timers when running sales or other time-sensitive promotions

And if you’re looking for an easy-to-use popup builder that will allow you to use the best practices, consider Getsitecontrol. It comes with a free plan and requires no technical knowledge. Give it a try and let us know what your popup conversion rates are!