Popups and templates — create, edit, go live
Every popup starts from a template. Setup walks you through the essentials in eight short steps, the editor handles the fine-tuning — and nothing appears in your shop until you explicitly publish.
Choose a template
Popups → Create popup opens the template gallery (“Choose a template”). Every template belongs to one of three mechanics:
| Mechanic | What the visitor does |
|---|---|
| Email-Quiz | answers a question and enters their email — the answer is saved to their Klaviyo profile |
| Spin-to-Win | spins a prize wheel and sees what they won |
| Scratch-Off | scratches a card and sees what they won |
Clicking a template creates a draft that you can change freely. The gallery itself never changes existing popups. While you are still in setup, the first item of the step rail, Template, takes you back to the gallery; your draft is kept until you explicitly switch to another template.
Setup: eight steps
The steps run across the top, with the preview on the right (switch between desktop and mobile):
- Theme — colors and fonts.
- Logo — your logo in the popup.
- Floating — the small element at the edge of the page that lets visitors reopen the popup: bottom left, bottom right, or no floating button.
- First — how visitors start.
- Collection — what you collect (usually the email address) and the privacy notice below it (Privacy small print).
- Reward — the offer. Details: Rewards and codes.
- Opt-in — your Klaviyo list, its opt-in process, and how the code is delivered. Details: Klaviyo, SMS and WhatsApp.
- Triggers — when the popup appears (see below).
Everything saves itself as a draft. Continue to editor takes you into the editor.
The editor
The editor has six areas: Structure (steps and elements), Design, Reward, Klaviyo, Triggers and Targeting. You edit a text, a button or an image right in the preview; the settings of the selected element appear next to it. Undo and redo are at the top.
Preview and Publish sit in the top right. The preview shows the look with a sample code — it creates no lead and uses up no code.
Publish and pause
A popup always has a draft and — once published — a live version:
- Publish puts the draft into your shop and, the first time, activates the campaign.
- After that, changes save to the draft only. Your shop keeps showing the live version until you click Publish changes.
- Pause (under More actions) stops delivery immediately without unpublishing the popup. Resume turns it back on without publishing again. A published popup that is paused carries a Paused badge.
- “Publish changes” on a paused popup keeps it paused — updating a text never quietly switches anything back on.
More actions also holds Revert to published (discard the draft and go back to the live version), Unpublish, Duplicate and Delete. Delete archives the popup and pauses its campaign; archived popups are listed in the Archived tab of the popup list.
Publishing is free: a popup goes live on the Free plan too. How the visitor limit works is explained in Billing and plans.
Triggers: when the popup appears
In the Triggers area you build Basic triggers. Quick-add options:
- Time delay — after X seconds on the page,
- Scroll depth — from X % scroll depth,
- Exit intent · Desktop — when the mouse leaves the window,
- When item added to cart — as soon as a product goes into the cart.
Each group can be limited to mobile, desktop or all devices and decides which step the popup opens with. With several groups, whichever fires first wins.
Below that are the frequency rules: Do not trigger again for … (a pause after this popup was shown) and Do not show if any popup was shown within the last … (a quiet period across all popups, so visitors don't get a different popup on every page).
These always apply as well:
- At most one popup per page view. Anyone who closes one does not get a second on the same page.
- Done means done. Once a visitor has completed or closed a popup, it no longer appears on its own in that browser. The only exception is a second chance from the Smart Trigger.
Targeting: who sees the popup
The Targeting area starts with the campaign switch: Campaign active or Campaign paused. Below it, Advanced conditions define who the popup is for — all conditions must match (AND) or any one is enough (OR):
| Group | Examples |
|---|---|
| Page | page path contains / is exactly, full URL contains, has visited a page, pages viewed this session |
| Source | UTM source, medium, campaign, referrer domain |
| Device | mobile (below 1024 px) or desktop |
| Visitor | new or returning visitor, has already submitted an email, recognized by Klaviyo |
| Cart | contains a product, cart value at least / below, empty or not empty |
The rules are evaluated in the visitor's browser. Signals from earlier visits (history, source, new or returning) are only used with the visitor's consent — see Consent and DPA. Cart conditions read the cart live and store nothing.
Several popups at once
You can publish as many popups as you like at the same time — for example a quiz for new visitors and a prize wheel on exit intent. On every page view PopUplift decides like this:
- Only published popups with an active campaign are candidates.
- Targeting removes whatever doesn't match.
- Completed popups and frequency rules remove more.
- Of the rest, the popup whose trigger fires first appears.
A typical test impression that is exactly as intended: close popup A → nothing else on this page → next page → popup B appears.
Test without customers seeing anything
- In the theme editor (Online Store → Themes → Customize), PopUplift shows a preview of one published popup per page view — immediately, without triggers, statistics or leads.
- For a real run with a code and an email: in Targeting, set a condition Page path is exactly to an unlinked page, publish, and open that page in a private window. Afterwards remove the condition and publish again.
If nothing shows up, see Troubleshooting.