Set up PopUplift — from installation to your first live popup

This guide walks you through the entire setup: installation, the one-time settings, your first popup, and finally the best practices that help it do more than simply work — they help it perform well. Every topic also has its own article with all the details.

1. Installation (2 minutes)#

1. Open the installation link (we will send it to you) and click Install in your Shopify admin.
2. The first time you open the app, it asks you to accept the data processing agreement — more in Consent and DPA.
3. On the popups page, Activate in theme editor takes you to the theme editor: switch on the PopUplift app embed there and click Save in the top right.

No popup can appear without this embed — it is the master switch. Likewise, turning it off is the quickest way to stop ALL popups at once without deleting anything.

Good to know: nothing is visible in your shop immediately after installation. A popup only appears once you publish it. You can take your time setting things up.

2. One-time settings (Settings)#

Take care of these once and you are set:

Connect Klaviyo. Under Integrations, click “Connect with Klaviyo” and approve the connection on the Klaviyo login screen. First, quickly check which Klaviyo account you are currently signed in to — if you manage several accounts, it is easy to authorize the wrong one with a single click. The message “This app has not been reviewed by Klaviyo” is normal until we are listed in the Klaviyo Marketplace.

Complete Shop & legal. Add your legal company name and the URLs of your privacy policy and terms and conditions. The URLs feed the links in the popup's privacy notices (the company name is not inserted; write it into the notice if you want it shown); if a notice links to them, the popup can't be published without a valid address. Under Brand assets you also add your logo. You edit the notice text itself per popup in the Collection step of setup, field Privacy small print. A proven text:

By signing up, you agree to receive marketing emails from us and accept our privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails.

Check your sending setup in Klaviyo (only relevant when the discount code will arrive by email): In Klaviyo, Settings → Email → Sender information must contain a sender name, a sender address on your own domain, and your company address. Under Settings → Account → Domains, your sending domain must be verified AND activated — “Activate” is a separate click that is easy to miss. An account without a sender does not send anything, without even showing an error.

Add your Shopify branding (optional but useful): In Shopify, enter your logo and brand colors under Settings → Brand. Setup then suggests them automatically, so you don't have to set colors and a logo by hand for every popup.

3. Your first popup#

The path in short — all details are in Popups and templates:

1. Popups → Create popup and pick a template: Email-Quiz, Spin-to-Win or Scratch-Off.
2. Setup walks you through eight steps: Theme, Logo, Floating, First, Collection, Reward, Opt-in and Triggers. Everything saves itself as a draft.
3. Create a reward in the Reward step — our recommendation: unique codes, i.e. Percentage, Fixed amount or Free shipping. Details: Rewards and codes.
4. List and code delivery in the Opt-in step: the Klaviyo list for new signups, and whether the code appears in the popup or only arrives by email after confirmation. For the email path the list needs double opt-in, and Klaviyo sends the code from your own flow; PopUplift doesn't create one — see The reward email. If the step shows the warning “Another Klaviyo flow can send a second reward”, see Your welcome flow.
5. Set triggers: time, scroll depth, exit intent on desktop, or “item added to cart”. You can combine them — whichever happens first wins.
6. Continue to editor for the fine-tuning; under Targeting you can decide on which pages and for whom the popup applies.
7. Publish. The popup goes live and its campaign becomes active. Later changes only reach the shop with Publish changes.

If “the popup isn't showing”: check the theme embed first, then whether the popup is published and not paused — Troubleshooting.

4. Test without customers seeing anything#

The preview shows how the popup looks, but a complete journey (signup, confirmation email, code, and flow) needs to be tested in the actual shop. Here is how to do that discreetly:

1. In Targeting, add a condition Page path is exactly for a page that is not linked anywhere (an unpublished test page or your legal notice page).
2. Publish.
3. Open the page in a private window and complete the entire popup with a real email address of your own, all the way through to receiving the code.
4. Remove (or adjust) the condition afterward and publish again.

5. List strategy: a separate popup list or your existing one?#

This question matters as soon as you already have a welcome flow — otherwise, a popup visitor would receive two discounts: the personal popup code and your general welcome offer. There are two clean approaches:

Option A — a separate popup list (the fastest start). Create a new list in Klaviyo (for example, “Popup signups,” with double opt-in enabled) and select it in PopUplift. Your existing welcome flow remains completely untouched because it listens to the old list. There is no risk of breaking anything already in place.

If you want popup signups to receive your welcome series too, clone the existing flow in Klaviyo, select the new list as the trigger while cloning, and replace the generic coupon in the clone with {{ person.popuplift_offer }}. All emails remain intact — you do not need to rebuild them.

There is one catch worth knowing: Your signups now live on two lists, so campaigns must go to both. The easiest solution is to create an “all newsletter signups” segment across both lists in Klaviyo and always send campaigns to that segment. Forget this, and you will collect popup leads who never hear from you again.

Option B — the same list plus a split (the cleanest long-term setup). All signups stay on one list, and a single condition in your existing welcome flow makes popup signups skip the generic coupon email. Follow the guide: Popups and your existing welcome flow.

Check what your welcome flow reacts to first: with Added to list, option A works reliably. If it runs on Added to segment, a condition applies instead of a membership — popup signups can then qualify despite the separate list, and you need option B.

Two Klaviyo facts can help you decide:

• The trigger of an existing flow cannot be changed later — not even by cloning if you want to switch from a list to an event. Cloning from one list to another works without a problem.
• Klaviyo does not support email attachments. Upload a PDF (such as a guide offered as a signup bonus) to Shopify under Content → Files and link to it with a button in the email — that is also the more reliable way to deliver it.

6. Custom flows and segments using PopUplift data#

Any custom Klaviyo flow can react to PopUplift:

Path 1 — profile property, works in ANY flow. The code is stored on the contact's Klaviyo profile. That lets you print it in a list-triggered flow — for example in your own welcome series:

Two things make this reliable:

• Put a short delay at the top of the flow (a few minutes). The property travels with the signup; an email that starts instantly can outrun the data.
• The property always holds the most recent code. For a welcome series that runs once, that is exactly right.

Path 2 — event trigger. The metric PopupLift Reward Released fires when a code delivered by email is released after confirmation, and appears in your trigger selection once it has been sent at least once. Event variables such as {{ event.code }} and {{ event.discount_url }} exist only in a flow with that trigger — in a list-triggered flow they stay empty. Details: The reward email.

The segments: for a quiz, every signup also stores the selected answer on the profile. PopUplift automatically turns these into one segment per answer option plus the “All popup leads” catch-all segment (everyone who received a code through a popup — signups from a popup without a reward are not included). You can tailor flows and campaigns by interest — for example, someone who answers “sensitive ears” can receive a different follow-up flow than someone looking for “waterproof jewelry.” Details: Quiz answers become Klaviyo segments.

7. Best practices#

• One question is enough to start. Every additional question reduces the completion rate; every answer adds segment data. Begin with the one question whose answer you will actually use in your marketing.
• Do not rephrase answers after going live. A renamed answer starts a new segment; the old one stops growing. Check for typos beforehand.
• Use double opt-in where required. Delivering the code only after confirmation increases the confirmation rate because the click unlocks something of value.
• One offer, one message. If your footer form and popup promise the same thing (for example, 10% off), both can stay. Never run two competing popups side by side (such as a Klaviyo form and PopUplift).
• Set up the sending domain before using email delivery. Without a verified, activated domain of your own, confirmation and code emails land in spam — or never go out. When in doubt, start with the code in the popup.
• Watch the first 48 hours. Are signups arriving under Leads? On each popup's detail page: Are enough visitors seeing it, and how many complete it? Measure first, then optimize — Reports and revenue.