An exit intent popup is a technique used in online shops and websites to retain visitors that are going to leave the site.
With an exit intent popup, visitor’s mouse movements are tracked. When the cursor moves outside the upper page boundary (where the tab bar usually is), a popup window is shown. This ad form is triggered by using a JavaScript snippet. The snippet measures the speed and direction of the mouse. Often, these popups contain discount codes to convince the user to finish the sale. Exit intent advertisements can also be used to push to a demo, collect emails, or segment to a newsletter list.
Exit intent technology, including the detection of exit behavior of an internet user, was invented by Ryan Urban. He is CEO and co-founder of BounceX, and patented the exit intent technology in 2012.
Exit intent technology on mobile devices
Tracking an exit intent works differently on mobile devices than on a desktop. There is no mouse movement to track. Advanced exit intent popup software will show a popup once a visitor tries to click the back button or close the mobile browser tab.
Why are websites using them when visitors hate them?
Exit intent popups are more widely used because they can be so powerful. On average site owners report an increase of up to 300% in their list building efforts and an increase of up 96% in sales when using exit popups.
… And extrapolated worldwide, hours are wasted every day clicking away these banners.
Do you hate exit intent popups too? Don’t worry, you are not alone!
Ryan doesn’t like exit intent popups
And people here are using them but hate them too
17 ugly types of exit intent popups
- Offer a discount
- Push to a demo
- Segment to a specific newsletter
- Give away a free guide
- Provide a custom offer
- Shape the traffic
- Give a course away for free
- Launch a quiz or a contest
- Collect emails for a list
- Address concerns
- Provide free shipping
- Ask a question
- Overcome objections
- Provide social proof
- Get blog subscribers
- Capture a lead
- Offer Customer Service