It’s been a wild ride for popups.
Although many folks think of them as unnecessary, popups continue to be one of the most effective ways to convert website visitors. They help build email lists, sell with discounts, recover abandoned carts, drive traffic to sales, and do other things.
We know because we scanned 513+ million displays of email popup campaigns made with Wisepops from 2021 and 2022. We calculated the average CVR for different factors for the entire sample and differentiated the data from the top-performing 10% of the campaigns to show that using the best practices pays off.
Here’s a quick breakdown of our research results:
Popup Statistics
1. The average conversion rate of email popups
On average, email popups convert 3.8% of website visitors.
That’s about 400 emails for a website visited by 10,000 people monthly (from just one popup campaign). If that campaign shares a relevant offer, those will be high-quality leads interested in buying or staying updated.
| 🏆 CR of the best performers The top-performing 10% of popup campaigns averaged a CVR of 23.67%. That’s almost six times higher than the performance of the entire sample. |
2. The conversion rate of mobile vs desktop popups
Popups created for mobile devices had a higher CVR than the desktop ones: 4.08% vs 2.85%.
This result shows that many online shoppers prefer to browse ecommerce sites on mobile. They increasingly use mobile devices for buying, too: up to 43% of all online purchases will be made on mobile in 2024 (that equates to $620.97 billion).
3. A/B testing is an effective way to increase conversions
Experimenting with popup content and design can help achieve up to 25% CVR.
Below, you can see the timeline of a campaign that was changed and tested again. The brand, Asphalte, tried different images and copy and was able to achieve a consistent CVR of about 20% (which equaled 4K new emails every month).
| Learn more: 👉 How Asphalte generated 4K leads with one popup |  |
4. The number of fields in popups and their impact on CVR
Website popups with only one signup field had the highest CVR of 4.3%, followed by four fields with 3.45%.
In most cases, that single signup field included either an email or phone number signup form. Interestingly enough, popups with four fields also performed well, generating about 3.4% of conversions.
Let’s see what these types of popups look like.
Here’s a one-field popup campaign from Art of Play 👇
Next—
This welcome popup campaign from SurfStitch has four fields: email, first name, phone number, and gender selection 👇 This way, their team easily segments subscribers, which allows to personalize marketing offers based on the data visitors provided.
| Want to know more about Art of Play and Surfstitch campaigns? 👉 How businesses use Wisepops (examples) |
5. Popups with images vs. without images
Popups with images converted 4.96% of visitors while the ones without images had a lower CVR of 2.85%.
So, using images in popups is an effective way to boost CVR. A good-looking image can reinforce popup copy, convey more information, and support your brand image.
| 🏆 The top 10% campaigns The 10% of top-performing Wisepops popup campaigns with images converted $25.33% of visitors on average. |
Let me demonstrate how impactful images can be.
Here’s a popup without visuals—it’s simple and focuses on the marketing message.
Here’s my take on this:
While this campaign does a great job of conveying the offer, it might not be very appealing to many people who see it. In other words, the popup is very basic. Also, the popup totally misses branding elements, which is also very important for company recognition and design consistency.
But images can help fix that.
Check out this campaign below. The folks from King Arthur Bakery added a product image in the background of the popup. The image complements the overall website design beautifully while showcasing the product.
And… Isn’t it just stunning?
| See more cool designs: 👉 25 examples of great popup designs |
6. Popups with offers vs. no offers
Popups with marketing offers outperform those without (4.60% vs 1.20%).
So, if you’re using popups, consider including some kind of an offer to make the campaign more engaging. The list of popular offers includes discounts, coupon codes, free products, ebooks, reports, webinar registrations, etc.
7. Discount codes are the top-converting incentive in popups
Popups with discounts convert 4.87% of visitors on average.
Other popular incentives like ebooks (0.92%) and giveaways (3.37%) convert fewer visitors. This result does not mean that every popup should include a discount—a giveaway, for example, can be more effective for time-limited promotions.
| Related: 👉 Discount popup: how to create 👉 18 discount and coupon code ideas 👉 How to make unique Shopify discount codes in Wisepops |
8. Popups with a countdown vs. without a countdown
Adding a countdown to a popup increased the conversion rate by 41%: 5.36% vs 3.79%.
One reason why countdown popups work better is that they create a sense of urgency to get the best deals. This tactic is especially effective during limited-time sales, Black Friday marketing campaigns, and other quick offers.
| 🏆 Performance of the top 10% of campaigns The best-performing campaigns with countdowns converted 20.87% of visitors. |
9. CVR of spin-to-win popup campaigns
Spin-to-win popups (also called wheel popups) can convert up to 30.3% of website visitors.
Online businesses use them for product giveaways and contests (and, more rarely, to build an email list). The spin-to-win popups work best for time-limited offers as the attractiveness of the deal diminishes if it stays on a website for a long time.
Example of a spin-to-win campaign 👇
10. Spin-to-win popups vs email popups
If we compare the average conversion rate of spin-to-win popups and the traditional email signup popups, the former perform much better: 30.33% vs 3.8%.
But it’s worth mentioning that wheel popups generate more leads when used for exclusive, time-limited deals while email popups perform better for long-term campaigns such as newsletter subscriptions.
| Spin-to-win popup case study Read how one wheel popup with a product giveaway became a major lead generation channel: Campaign breakdown: Faguo wheel popup 👉 |  |
11. Popups that appear on click convert best
| 💡 Note Triggers are conditions under which popups appear (immediately on landing on a web page, on exit, on click, on reaching a certain part of a page, etc.). You can set a unique trigger for every campaign you make. |
The average conversion rate for:
- On-landing popups: 3.93%
- On-exit popups: 2.87%
- On-scroll popups: 3.09%
- On-click popups: 37.34%
- On custom event popups: 5.43%
So, popups that appear on click convert much better than other types. Explanation: in most cases, people click on buttons because they’re likely to be interested in the offer.
| 🏆 Top 10% campaigns‘ CVR: ✔️ On landing: 38.14% ✔️ On exit: 19.63% ✔️ On scroll: 18.07% ✔️ On click: 53.45% ✔️ On custom event: 41.42% |
12. Popups added to the “top left” position on websites generated the highest CVR
If you’re using Wisepops (or another top popup software), you know you can choose a screen position for your campaigns 👇
We wanted to find the best-converting position and tested all of them.
The result: the top left position converted almost 15% of visitors—the highest percentage of all options. The “bottom left” position had second highest CVR of 5.2%
13. Proper popup timing is essential for conversions
The best time to show a popup on a website is about four seconds.
The campaigns shown within the first four seconds had the highest CVR of 3.88%. Most campaigns shared within this time were welcome popups with offers to convert first-time visitors. An unexpected second best time was over 30 seconds, which supports the long-standing UX truth: “the longer users stay on a page, the less likely they are to bounce.”
| Related: 👉 Popup timing guide |
Popup statistics: summary
Website popups often get a bad rap because of their impact on the website experience.
But the truth is:
If you take into account all the best practices for implementing popups, they can easily become your main cost-effective source of quality leads.
Hope these popup statistics have also helped you to understand how to convert website visitors with popups. Each business is unique, but trying these best practices should be a great start.
If you’d like to learn more about popups, let me suggest these guides from our blog: