Popups, popovers, slide-ins, lightboxes, and other web modals are powerful because they demand attention. That’s why so many brands use them to drive email signups, SMS opt-ins, lead generation content downloads, event registrations, and other audience-building efforts.

However, when modals demand too much attention too loudly or too often, they can be incredibly annoying. That can lead to an increase in site abandonment, and even keep consumers from returning if they anticipate being harassed by modals every time they visit. 

Once you’ve determined the goal of your modal and crafted messaging that’s aligned with that goal, use these five modal characteristics to maximize its performance while minimizing its annoyance.

1. The Audience of the Modal

What kinds of visitors will be most receptive to your modal’s message? It’s probably not every person who visits your website.

Depending on the data available to you, the choices are nearly infinite. However, first-party cookies are most often used to trigger modals to:

  • New visitors or returning visitors
  • Customers or non-customers
  • Email subscribers or non-subscribers
  • Loyalty members or non-members

After clarifying your audience, you may want to go back and tweak the content of your modal to ensure that it’s speaking directly to this audience. It’s also at this point that you might realize you’d like to reach more than one audience. That’s fine. It just means you need to create and optimize multiple modals, each with a slightly different message that’s tailored to its target audience.

2. What Triggers the Modal

Now that you have your message and a clear target audience, ask yourself: What is the most appropriate context for them to see your message? When is the most appropriate time for them to see your message? When will they be most receptive to your message? And when will your message be the least disruptive?

Some potential triggers to consider include:

  • Immediately, whether it’s upon arriving on your homepage or as soon as someone visits your website 
  • Time on site, with more time on site indicating greater interest in your brand
  • Time on page, with more time on page indicating greater interest in the page’s content
  • Percentage of page scrolled, for pages that are long and detailed
  • X pages navigated, with more pages viewed indicating greater interest—or potentially greater confusion
  • X seconds without movement on page, which tends to indicate greater interest in the content on the page while also presenting an opportunity to display a modal that’s less likely to interrupt an action by the visitor
  • Exit intent, when the visitor moves their cursor up to the top of their screen to potentially leave your site

Carefully considering these options and others will help you ensure that your modal’s message gets in front of the right people at a time when they’ll be receptive.

3. The Kind and Size of the Modal

Some modals are fairly small and inobtrusive, while others block the entire screen, making it impossible to do anything before dealing with them. Both have their pros and cons, so you’ll want to match the kind of modal to how urgent and important each of your messages are.

From most to least aggressive, some of the most common kinds of modals include:

  • Full screen, a modal that fills the whole screen
  • Light box, a “child” window that typically doesn’t fill the entire screen, but does blur and disable the “parent” window underneath it
  • Slide-in, a modal that appears or slides in from the side or corner of the screen
  • Floating bar, a full-width bar that appears at the top or bottom of the screen

Get inspired by our Marketing Checklist of more than 80 Website Optimization Ideas.

4. Dismissal Method

How can visitors close your modal? Do they only need to click outside of it or do they have to click an “X,” “Close,” or “No thanks” button somewhere on the modal? Is that button really easy to see so it doesn’t frustrate visitors?

Because some visitors will reflectively close any modal that appears, it’s best to avoid placing “X” and “Close” buttons in the upper right-hand corner of your modal. That positioning can also pull visitors’ eyes away from your message, making it less likely that they’ll read it.

Instead, close the model when they select a negative response to whatever it is you’re asking them to consider doing. Often that negative response is a simple “No thanks.” Avoid the temptation to be snarky or passive aggressive and use a negative response like “No thanks, I hate saving money.” In addition to irritating visitors, that’s likely to generate negative social media postings.

Whichever dismissal method you decide on, also make your modal dismissable by pressing the escape key, as that’s the standard for accessibility.

Learn how to make your marketing emails accessible.

5. The Trigger Frequency 

How often should your modal be shown to a visitor? If a modal is presented to the same visitor too often, it becomes annoying and may discourage future visits to your site. But if it’s presented too infrequently, you miss opportunities.

But exactly where that line is between coming on too strong and not strong enough varies from company to company, because every business’s visitors are different. The ideal modal trigger frequency is also likely different across different visitor groups, like customers vs. non-customers.

For each of the groups that you decide to target, testing is key to finding the right balance on modal trigger frequency—which, of course, is also influenced by the other four aspects of your modal. Experiment with all five aspects to get the most out of modals while minimizing the risks.

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Need help optimizing your modals or website? Oracle Digital Experience Agency has hundreds of marketing and communication experts ready to help Responsys, Eloqua, Unity, and other Oracle customers create stronger connections with their customers and employees—even if they’re not using an Oracle platform as the foundation of that experience. With a 94% satisfaction rate, our clients are thrilled with the award-winning work our creative, strategy, and other specialists do for them, giving us an outstanding NPS of 82.

For help overcoming your challenges or seizing your opportunities, talk to your Oracle account manager, visit us online, or email us at OracleAgency_US@Oracle.com.

Now updated, this blog post was originally published on July 26, 2021 by Chris De Marinis.