Pop-up elements on the website - their advantages and disadvantages

When browsing the Internet, there is no way you have not come across pop-up elements by now. Usually, these suddenly appearing, uninvited windows disturb and annoy you. For this reason, you are probably wondering why companies use them on their websites. Do pop-ups make sense and (above all) are they effective? In today's article, we will answer this and many other questions relating to this form of advertising.

What are pop-ups anyway?

In order to be able to consider the advantages and disadvantages of pop-up elements on a website, we must first explain what they actually are. They are nothing more than pop-ups (for example, in the form of an additional banner) appearing automatically on the website. The pop-up does not necessarily have to appear as soon as the user accesses the site; it can also appear while the user is performing various actions on the site. 

What do pop-ups contain? There are plenty of possibilities. However, the most common are: newsletter sign-up forms, forms encouraging instant contact with an adviser, sometimes simply banners presenting great bargains, news and promotions. As is often the case in the world of advertising, this form has its supporters and staunch opponents.

Get to know the types of pop-ups

We can distinguish between three basic types of pop-up. The first is the pop-up, which opens a new page in a new tab or window (new page pop-up). This type has become rather a thing of the past, as such sites are often blocked by default browser plug-ins. In addition, their quality is poor on the smaller screens of mobile devices. They are being abandoned because they have rarely proved effective.

The second most common type of pop-up are small dialogue boxes that appear, for example, along the side of a page, in the form of a chat box or floater (in-browser pop-up). This type of pop-up is definitely more effective than the "new page pop-up" mentioned earlier, and certainly less distracting to the user. Among its advantages are: its small size (it only fills part of the page being viewed); the fact that it does not "force" any action on the user; it behaves as a single, separate element; its content can be context-dependent (content The pop-up can and should harmonise with the content of the page). 

The final, scorching type of pop-ups are those that obscure the entire page, preventing the user from reading the content or navigating the site until the desired action is performed. Most commonly used for subscriptions, they appear when the visitor intends to leave the site. Full page pop-ups are used too often and in an incorrect way. They should be chosen infrequently and in exceptional cases, on the grounds that they require the user to leave data. 

Pop-up elements on the website - advantages

We already know what pop-ups are and the types of them. It's time to look at their general pros and cons. Let's start with the advantages, because pop-ups have quite a few of them. First and foremost point out visitors to your pages and inform (remind) them of an important piece of information. Secondly, they can stop users from leaving the site and keep them for longer. Thirdly, they can initiate an interaction and cause a conversion, and even if they don't directly cause a conversion, by collecting data they can contribute to it. 

If you are not convinced by theoretical theories, let us look at the figures. According to a study carried out by Sumo The conversion rate of an average pop-up is 3,09%and 10% of the best pop-ups achieve a decent click-through rate of 9.3%. It is also worth mentioning that the most polished and effective pop-ups can be incredibly successful, with conversion rates as high as 50%!

Disadvantages of pop-up elements

Each type of pop-up has its own advantages and the right time and place to use it. However, this form of advertising as a whole has quite large disadvantages, for which reason careful use of pop-up elements is required. The biggest disadvantage is that, regardless of their location and size, they are annoying and unwelcome to website visitors. There are some users who will be so annoyed by a pop-up window that they will automatically leave your site, no matter how much time has been spent on creating relevant content and how attractive the form is.

As well as being an annoyance, pop-ups also encourage people to take action instead of encouraging them to do so (through appropriate CTA messages), may confuse user. This happens when the messages in question appear at the wrong moment during the customer's purchase path, especially in the case of pop-ups containing questions - they may be too general or too fine-grained for the moment for the site visitor.

A final, but equally important disadvantageous aspect that pop-up elements have on a website is that they can reduce the loading speed of the website. Because of this, impatient potential customers of your business, will leave the site and.... visit a competitor. Website loading speed is also an important parameter that Google's robots take into account when determining position in search results. So pop-ups can also have a negative impact on SEO.

A pop-up on your pages - how do you create one?

If, after analysing your situation, you decide that a pop-up would work well on your site, then simply adding it should not be a problem. However, if you want the design of the window and its implementation to go smoothly and efficiently, then you should enlist the help of specialists. Some of the most popular tools for creating pop-ups include Layered Pop-ups, OptKit or PushPushGo. When designing your windows, remember to consider the customer experience, their impression and comfort when using the website first and foremost. Otherwise, a pop-up will be counterproductive and not a very successful form of marketing. 

You already know the advantages and disadvantages of pop-up windows on websites. It is quite a controversial form of advertising. However, it is true that it can have a huge conversion potentialIf it is properly thought out and time and effort are spent on its preparation. Many factors determine the success of a pop-up: the right content, location, context, size or timing of the 'pop-up'.