A popup is an interruption. It only earns the interruption if what it offers is worth more than the annoyance.
TL;DR One field, one offer, and never on the first ten seconds or on mobile as a true exit-intent. Give something genuinely useful rather than a discount. Suppress it for anyone who already converted.
Exit intent does not exist on mobile
Say this out loud before building anything. Exit-intent detection works by tracking the cursor moving toward the browser chrome. Phones have no cursor.
Every “mobile exit intent” implementation is a substitute trigger: scroll depth, time on page, or the back button. Some are fine. Some are terrible.
Google has penalised intrusive mobile interstitials since 2017. A full-screen popup on mobile that blocks content can hurt your rankings, not just your conversion rate.
The mobile rules
- Never full-screen. Use a bottom bar or a small slide-in.
- Never in the first 15 seconds.
- Always dismissible with an obvious, large X.
- Trigger on scroll depth (60%+) or time (30s+), not on back-button hijacking, which people hate and which can break navigation.
Discount or value
| Offer | Works when | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage discount | Fixed-price services | Trains people to wait for discounts |
| Dollar-off first service | Recurring services | Attracts price shoppers |
| Free useful guide | High-consideration jobs | Low. Attracts genuine researchers |
| Free checklist or template | Anything technical | Low. Positions expertise |
| Priority scheduling | Busy seasons | None, and it costs nothing |
| Free inspection or estimate | On-site trades | You already offer it, so weak |
Value beats discount for service businesses. A discount attracts people optimising for price, who are the customers you least want. A genuinely useful guide attracts people who take the job seriously.
The strongest offer nobody uses: “Get our pre-hire checklist: 12 questions to ask any contractor before you sign.” It is useful, it costs you nothing, and it frames you as the honest option while quietly setting criteria your competitors will fail.
One field only
Email. Or phone. Not both.
Every additional field on a popup collapses completion. This is not the place for qualification.
Name is optional and usually not worth it. You can personalise later. On an exit-intent popup, one field converts substantially better than two.
Trigger rules that respect people
| Rule | Setting |
|---|---|
| Minimum time on site | 20 to 30 seconds |
| Minimum scroll depth | 50 to 60% |
| Show once per visitor | Per session at minimum, per 30 days ideally |
| Suppress after conversion | Always |
| Suppress on booking and thank-you pages | Always |
| Suppress for returning customers | If you can identify them |
The suppression rules matter more than the trigger rules. A popup offering a first-time discount to an existing customer is worse than no popup.
Copy that works
Headline: name the value, not the mechanism.
Bad: “Wait! Don’t go!”
Bad: “Subscribe to our newsletter”
Good: “Before you go: the 12 questions to ask any contractor”
Good: “Get our seasonal maintenance checklist”
Body: one sentence on what it is and why it helps.
Button: describe the outcome. “Send me the checklist” beats “Submit.”
Dismiss link: make it polite and visible. “No thanks, I’m just looking.” A hidden or guilt-trip dismiss (“No thanks, I like overpaying”) is a cheap trick people remember badly.
Deliver what you promised, immediately
The fastest way to burn the goodwill you just earned is a delay.
- Send the file within seconds, automatically.
- Also show it on screen so they get it even if the email lands in spam.
- Follow up once, two days later, with something related and useful.
- Do not dump them into a weekly newsletter they did not ask for.
What to build instead, if you would rather not use popups
Popups are not mandatory. Two alternatives perform respectably without the interruption.
- A sticky bottom bar. Always visible, never blocking, much less irritating. Lower conversion per impression, far higher goodwill.
- An inline offer mid-article. A boxed callout in the flow of the page. Converts well on long content and reads as helpful rather than interruptive.
For most local service sites, a sticky bar plus one inline offer outperforms an aggressive popup once you account for the people it drives away.
Measure the full picture
- Popup conversion rate. 2 to 5 percent is normal. Over 10 percent means your offer is genuinely good.
- Bounce rate before and after installing it. If bounce jumps, the popup is costing more than it earns.
- Leads that become customers. Popup emails convert to jobs at a much lower rate than a phone enquiry. Judge accordingly.
- Mobile separately from desktop, always.
Build the sticky bar version first. It takes twenty minutes, it cannot hurt your rankings, and it tells you whether the offer itself is any good before you interrupt anyone.
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