When implemented properly, a popup can be a great marketing tool to grow your website. For instance, you can use an email subscription popup to collect the email addresses of your visitors to turn them into your website subscribers. In WordPress, you can use a dedicated plugin like Ninja Popups to create a popup. Or, if you use Elementor, you can upgrade to the pro version to unlock its popup builder feature. A Divi user? Divi plugins like Divi Overlays, Divi Modal Popup, to Divi Supreme allow you to create a popup on your Divi-powered WordPress site.
One of the perks when using a popup to collect email addresses is that you can set a delay before the popup shows up. This practice can be an extra filter to collect active subscribers. Say you set the delay to 60 seconds. This means that the popup will only show up to visitors who stay on your website for 60 seconds or longer. If visitors stay on your website longer than 60 seconds, you can assume they enjoy your content. And when they subscribe via your email subscription popup, there will be a bigger chance they will open your emails when you send them newsletters.
In addition to email subscription popup, you can also make use of a popup to create something else, but it depends on the features offered by the popup builder plugin you use.
Features to Consider When Choosing a Popup Builder
A good popup builder should allow you to control the behavior of a popup. You should, for instance, be able to control how a popup appears. Whether on page load, on click, on page scroll, and so on. More importantly, it should also allow you to control the design of your popup.
Elementor Pro and JetPopup are two of the best popup builder plugins for WordPress. The two allow you to set the behavior of your popups. You can also control on which pages a popup appears thanks to their display condition feature. Here are the features to consider when choosing a popup builder plugin for WordPress:
— Display Condition
Display condition is a feature used to control where a popup appears. For instance, you can set a popup to appear only on a specific page. This feature is crucial especially if you want to create a popup for a marketing purpose. With the feature, you can display different popups on different pages or blog posts.
Elementor Popup Builder (available in Elementor Pro) and JetPopup are two examples of popup builder plugins that come with a display condition feature. Both Elementor Pro and JetPopup allow you to display a popup on specific pages and posts. For instance, you can set a popup to show up on posts under a certain category, post with a certain tag, post written by a specific author, and so on.
— Trigger Type
A popup won’t show up without a trigger. In the context of popup, the trigger can be page load, click, page scroll, and so on. In general, there are five events to trigger a popup to appear:
- Page load
- Page scroll
- Click
- Exit intent
- After inactivity
The more trigger types a popup builder offers, there are more things you can do with a popup as well. For instance, if your popup builder supports on click trigger, you can create an off-canvas menu.
For your information, Elementor Popup Builder supports advanced trigger types to allow you to display a popup based on the following rules:
- After x page views (e.g., 3 page views)
- After x sessions (e.g., 3 sessions)
- When arriving from a specific URL
- When arriving from search engines
- Based on login status (loggen in and logged out)
- Based on web browers
- Based on device types (desktop, tablet, smartphone)
— Ability to Control the Design
The ability to control the design is another feature you need to consider when choosing a popup builder plugin. In general, a popup consists of the following elements:
- Overlay
- Close button
- The content of the popup itself
You should be able to control all elements above so that you can create a popup that fits your site design (e.g., color scheme). If you create a popup using Elementor or JetPopup, you can control everything related to design. Not just the elements above, but also layout, alignment, box shadow, border radius (and width), and so on.
Best Popup Builder Plugins for WordPress:
Before picking a popup builder, make sure to always define your needs first. If your main intention is to create email subscription popups, make sure the popup builder you want to use supports integration with the email marketing tool you use.
Here are five popup builder builders for WordPress you can consider:
1. Elementor Pro
If your WordPress website is built with Elementor, no need to install an extra plugin to create a popup. As mentioned earlier, the pro version of Elementor comes with a popup builder you can make use of. You can create the popup using the visual editor of Elementor. You can add any element you want, including a form which you can connect with MailerLite, Mailpoet, GetResponse, and other email marketing tools of your choice.
Key features:
- Display conditions
- A wide range of trigger types
- Custom position
- Full control over the design
2. JetPopup
If you enjoy using Elementor but are not interested in using the pro version, you can use JetPopup to create a popup. JetPopup is an Elementor add-on from Crocoblock designed specifically to create popups. JetPopup can also be used to create an email subscription popup, unfortunately, the integration is limited to Mailchimp.
Key features:
- Display conditions
- A wide range of trigger types
- Custom position
- Full control over the design (you design your popup with Elementor)
3. Brizy Pro
Brizy is a feature-rich page builder plugin just like Elementor. The pro version also comes with a popup builder. You can control the design using the visual editor of Brizy which offers a live editing experience just like other page builder plugins. When creating a popup using Brizy Pro, you can add any element, including a form which you can connect with an email marketing tool. Brizy Pro supports integration with many email marketing tools, not just Mailchimp.
Key features:
- Display conditions
- A wide range of trigger types
- Custom position
- Full control over the design
4. Divi Supreme
If you use Divi Builder on your WordPress site, Divi Supreme is a plugin you can use to create a popup. Divi has no built-in feature to create a popup. Divi Supreme allows you to create a popup using the visual editor of Divi. However, it doesn’t allow you to set a display condition like other popup builders above.
Key features:
- A wide range of trigger types
- Custom position
- Full control over the design
9 Things You Can Create with a Popup Builder
The open ecosystem of WordPress allows developers to create plugins. As a user, you can solve a problem or add a new feature/functionality to your website using a plugin. However, installing too many plugins on a single website is not good practice. Instead, you can install a single plugin that can solve multiple problems.
If your popup builder plugin supports display condition, custom position, and multiple trigger types, you can use it to create the following things on your website:
1. Full-Screen and Off-Canvas Menu
To create a full-screen or off-canvas menu, your popup builder needs to support on-click trigger type. The idea is simple. You create the popup and set the trigger type to on-click. You can then call the popup using a certain element (e.g., button). You can place the button in the header or any area you want to place the menu item. Here is an example:
Elementor Pro, JetPopup, and Brizy Pro are examples of popup builders that allow you to achieve such a thing above.
2. Email Subscription Form Popup
We have mentioned email subscription popup a couple times in this post. The fact is that it is the most common form of popup found on websites on the internet.
There is one crucial thing to consider before you pick a popup builder to create an email subscription: the email marketing tools it supports. In Elementor Pro and Brizy Pro, you can use the Form element to add the email subscription form to your popup. The two allow you to connect a form with the following services:
- MailerLite
- ConvertKit
- ActiveCampaign
- GetResponse
- Mailpoet
- Sendinblue
- Campaign Monitor
- Mailchimp
A simple tip. To increase email open rate, you can set a delay to your popup (e.g., 60 seconds). Assuming those who stay on your website longer are really interested in your content, the chance they will open the emails is higher if they subscribe. If your email marketing service supports double opt-in, make sure to enable it to add extra filtering.
3. Back to Top Button
Back to top button is another thing you can create with a popup builder. The requirement for this is that your popup builder needs to support custom position so that you can place the button in any area you like.
Elementor Pro, Brizy Pro, and JetPopup are three examples of popup builder plugins that make it possible to create this type of button. In Elementor Pro and Brizy Pro, you can add a back to top button to blog posts or specific area by taking advantage of their theme builder feature.
4. Notification Bar
Some website owners use a notification bar to convey something to their visitors (special offer, featured content, etc.). Instead of installing a notification bar plugin, you can use your popup builder to create a notification bar.
In order to be able to create a notification bar, you need to make sure that your popup builder allows you to set the vertical alignment of the popup to top and width to full-width.
Which popup builders support those setting options?
Brizy Pro, Elementor Pro, and JetPopup are examples of popup builders that support those setting options.
5. Cookie Consent
Transparency is important to every online business. You need to disclose what data your website stores. The vast majority of websites have a privacy policy page the visitors can read. But it seems very few visitors really read the page. To “force” them to read the privacy policy page on your website, you can create a cookie consent page. You can set it to always show up until visitors close it. To do this, you need a popup builder that has a setting option to close the popup via a link or button.
Elementor Pro, Brizy Pro, and JetPopup are three popup builders that support a setting option to close a popup on button/link click.
6. Age Verification/Content Locker
The idea of this type of popup is pretty similar to cookie consent above whereby you require a visitor to close the popup via a button or link. In order to make the content invisible, you need to enable the popup overlay as well. The following settings are required to create an age verification/content locker popup:
- Enable popup overlay
- Disable close button
- Disable pressing escape key to close the popup
Here is an example of age verification popup.
7. Floating Button
Do you want to create a floating button on your website? A popup builder also allows you to do so. But you need to make sure that your popup builder allows you to add a button element. The core of Elementor and Brizy are a page builder plugin. In other words, you can add any element to your popup, including a button. To make your content visible, you can disable the overlay of the popup. The capability of setting a custom position would be a great addition as you can place the button in any area to your liking.
8. Floating Social Sharing Buttons
The idea of this popup type is pretty similar to the floating button above whereby you disable the popup overlay and then place the popup to an area you want by making use of the custom position feature. But first, you need to make sure that your popup builder allows you to add a social sharing buttons element. Elementor is a page builder that has this type of element. That said, you can use its popup builder to create floating social sharing buttons. There are even premade popup templates for this purpose.
9. Promotional Banner
Last but not least. Another popup type you can create with a popup builder is a promotional banner. You can create a promotional banner to offer a special discount or other types of marketing strategies. You can make use of the display conditions and trigger types offered by your popup builder to target specific visitors to get a better result. For instance, you can set a popup to show up only for visitors coming from search engines. Avoid displaying a popup on a page without a delay. Otherwise, it will be considered annoying by your visitors. Also place the popup in the right position.
The Bottom Line
Popup is a great tool to grow your website, but you need to implement it properly as the vast majority of visitors consider popup annoying. Never create a popup that hinders your visitors from viewing your content. Also always consider adding a close button to give an option to your visitors to hide the popup so that they can focus on the content.
In WordPress, you have lots of options of popup builder plugins, but consider the features we mentioned above every time you want to install one (especially if you want to use a paid plugin). You can achieve many things with a popup builder only if your popup builder supports the following features:
- Display conditions
- Multiple trigger types
- Full design control
- Custom position
Elementor Pro — in our opinion — is the best popup builder out there, but you have freedom to pick your own option. As long as the option matches your needs, then it’s enough.
