It’s the worst-case scenario: you visit a website and (ARGH!!!) something just pops up over its content … getting under your skin.

It happens to us all the time.

Pop-ups not just interrupt – they’re terrible, terrible conversion killers. As a matter of fact, people seem to universally dislike a pop-up.

That’s the reason Copyblogger prefers not to use pop-up ads:

“There is no question that pop-ups “work” — but to what end? We’re not willing to risk the relationship with our audience for a spike in opt ins.”

But we’d like you to imagine what if pop-ups were intuitive enough to understand what users want?

What if they could act as nudge and not interruption?

What if they could double your conversions while enhancing your users’ experience?

In reality, this can all be possible if you optimize your pop-up opt-in forms in the right manner. (Websites such as Kissmetrics, Quicksprout, Traffic Generation Cafe and Social Media Examiner are a great example to consider.)

Let us discuss how.

Make sure your pop-up renders correctly

A pop-up not rendered properly is the most common pain in the neck. For example, you go to a site and are hit by a pop-up, but you don’t have any option to close it. What would you do?

Jump over to another site, right? You can expect the same from your visitors. Even worse, most of ‘em will never return to your site.

Make sure it’s delayed

Your readers don’t want to come across even the best of sales pitches unless they’ve spent some time scanning your site, looking around it or, maybe, just maybe, reading it.

One way to fix this is to show your pop-up after your visitors have spent around 30 secs on your site.

Another way is to show it after your they have scrolled down to the bottom of your page.

One more way is to show it after their first page view.

Delayed pop-up ads are much like a prominent call to action that users need when they’re interested in something and want to buy it, right then.

Test whether it works for you

When you’re unsure whether to go for a pop-up or not, don’t go by your gut feeling. Rather, try to understand what makes your users tick through A/B testing.

Check not just the best way to render pop-ups, but also the design that works for you. Keep on testing and improving them as you would your product and customer service.

Conclusion

Remember, pop-ups can help skyrocket your revenue only when you know and fulfill this prerequisite: make a remarkable website. Website that delivers useful content. That sells products/services which deserve people’s attention.

Agree? Disagree? Shout out below.