The readme cites an increase of 7 to 15 percent in landing page conversions, but couldn't that be attributed simply due to the added content?
I assume these statistics are based on comparing conversion rates on site A with conversion rates on site A + some free offer when the user tries to leave. Wouldn't conversion increase with around the same amount if the free offer would be already visible on page load?
Over time as more sites attempt to make use of these anti-bounce pop-ups the benefit of using one will plunge, and the user annoyance factor will skyrocket. User rage is all these things accomplish: imagine when every site you visit daily throws you a pop-up every time you try to navigate away.
It's a self-destructing concept that only works so long as relatively few sites make use of it. You'd be better served to invest time into adding improvements to your site that people will actually appreciate rather than annoying them with pop-ups.
If Google isn't penalizing sites that make use of these, on the basis of abusive site tactics, they should be. It's one notch removed from the plague of javascript pop-ups that were so common a few years ago that would attempt to literally stop you from leaving.
Oof. I hate these pop-ups. To the point where I write a user-style to stop them on sites that use them. I'm not representative of the regular user, but honestly, I wouldn't suggest these if your target market is tech-savvy, and be careful: those conversion numbers might not show what goodwill you're losing in the quest to gain that couple of percent. That's my $0.02 anyway.
This is getting ridiculous, whenever I see popups like this (e.g when scrolling down the article and a giant popup appears ) I immediately close the website. If your website has an interesting content and if there is a newsletter subscription box somewhere on the website, I will subscribe - without any of this bullshit. It's like shouting to the guest face "You've been on the website for a whole minute, it's time to subscribe to the newsletter!!!1"
That's exactly what this is trying to avoid. The point of this is to not show popups to the visitor who's already engaged with the site (eg, scrolling ), and instead only show it to the visitor who's about to leave anyway.
I get just as annoyed with those timed popups, but that's exactly why I hope more people will use an option like this instead.
There should be no popups at all - if I'm leaving your page without subscribing it's either a) your site is not interesting enough or b) your subscription box is in a wrong place. Unwanted popups are annoying, simple as that.
I hate these kinds of popups. But what I find interesting is that whenever I get one of these annoying elements, that display on exit-intent, I always feel the need to close them before closing the browser tab. It makes no sense because I was going to close the tab anyway. Am I alone in this?
How about this: The modal shows up when you move the mouse out of the viewport (e.g. via the top edge), but then the modal closes immediately once the mouse cursor enters the viewport again. So, as long as (and only when) the mouse is above/outside the viewport, the modal is displayed.
Also, the modal doesn't have any buttons or fields. It's just displayed for informative purposes, e.g. to inform the user about a site update, or to point out a site feature.
The point of this is to target someone who is already about to bounce. So if you see it and bounce, either the popup wasn't triggered properly or nothing was lost.
There's a few points I'd like to address/ clarify since I'm likely to have a different perspective than most HN users on this.
1) Pop-ups are terribly annoying and provide a bad user experience. I agree, they're not the best. The question then remains "If they're so bad, then why do websites have them". Short answer: "Because it works. They drive sales. They drive engagement." I would pick a pop-up that fires when I'm about to leave the site v.s. one that shows on pageload or after X seconds any day of the week.
> Please use Ouibounce to provide value to your visitors. With tools like these it's very easy to create something spammy-looking. Not sure what I mean by provide value? Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing: Free ebook, Upcoming webinar invite, Exclusive access to XYZ, A full educational course, Valuable content.
3) This may increase revenue in the short term but will likely decrease goodwill in the long run. This one is so tricky and hard to measure. There's definitely a fine line that can be (very) easily crossed. My belief is that, so long as you add value to your visitors, you should be fine.
If you want to continue the convo off HN, feel free to reach out @carlsednaoui
My browsing habits are bit different, I'll browse indexing sites (HN, reddit, etc.), click on interesting title, quickly scroll through site, read introduction and if it seems interesting, I'll leave the tab open and go back to indexing site. Now what would happen is popup would show, my rage level goes through ceiling and I quickly close the tab, no matter how interesting the topic or product was.
Wouldn't onclose work better for examples like this?
>The question then remains "If they're so bad, then why do websites have them". Short answer: "Because it works. They drive sales. They drive engagement."
Thanks for creating this! I just this morning started a test for a client using Ouibounce (another paid solution didn't have an effective Javascript API so we couldn't integrate it into the test).
I agree about the effectiveness of these (exit intent popups). I can see how they're perceived as annoying but having run many tests with these types of popups the numbers seem to support it. It is possible use them in a way that has value and isn't spammy.
I see a lot of hate here. But don't discard this tool just because of that. It works since most of the people are not like you, and they pay attention to this stuff.
Now, you can do evil things with it, and totally legitimate. It is up to you and that's where you get or loose karma points.
I'm not a fan either but I must admit I've taken advantage of offers presented to me in this fashion before. Some shopping sites will do this. If you've added items to the cart then go to close the page they'll offer an x% discount for you to complete the purchase.
However, I much prefer the sites that send me an email days later with an offer to purchase what is still in my cart but to do that you already have to be a user of those sites.
22 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 71.3 ms ] threadI assume these statistics are based on comparing conversion rates on site A with conversion rates on site A + some free offer when the user tries to leave. Wouldn't conversion increase with around the same amount if the free offer would be already visible on page load?
It's a self-destructing concept that only works so long as relatively few sites make use of it. You'd be better served to invest time into adding improvements to your site that people will actually appreciate rather than annoying them with pop-ups.
If Google isn't penalizing sites that make use of these, on the basis of abusive site tactics, they should be. It's one notch removed from the plague of javascript pop-ups that were so common a few years ago that would attempt to literally stop you from leaving.
I get just as annoyed with those timed popups, but that's exactly why I hope more people will use an option like this instead.
Also, the modal doesn't have any buttons or fields. It's just displayed for informative purposes, e.g. to inform the user about a site update, or to point out a site feature.
I think that could work.
There's a few points I'd like to address/ clarify since I'm likely to have a different perspective than most HN users on this.
1) Pop-ups are terribly annoying and provide a bad user experience. I agree, they're not the best. The question then remains "If they're so bad, then why do websites have them". Short answer: "Because it works. They drive sales. They drive engagement." I would pick a pop-up that fires when I'm about to leave the site v.s. one that shows on pageload or after X seconds any day of the week.
2) Your marketing message is spammy and nobody likes spam. Very true too. It's extremely easy to abuse something like Ouibouce. I tried covering this in the readme: https://github.com/carlsednaoui/ouibounce#the-philosophy-beh....
> Please use Ouibounce to provide value to your visitors. With tools like these it's very easy to create something spammy-looking. Not sure what I mean by provide value? Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing: Free ebook, Upcoming webinar invite, Exclusive access to XYZ, A full educational course, Valuable content.
3) This may increase revenue in the short term but will likely decrease goodwill in the long run. This one is so tricky and hard to measure. There's definitely a fine line that can be (very) easily crossed. My belief is that, so long as you add value to your visitors, you should be fine.
If you want to continue the convo off HN, feel free to reach out @carlsednaoui
My browsing habits are bit different, I'll browse indexing sites (HN, reddit, etc.), click on interesting title, quickly scroll through site, read introduction and if it seems interesting, I'll leave the tab open and go back to indexing site. Now what would happen is popup would show, my rage level goes through ceiling and I quickly close the tab, no matter how interesting the topic or product was.
Wouldn't onclose work better for examples like this?
The same argument could be made for spam email.
I agree about the effectiveness of these (exit intent popups). I can see how they're perceived as annoying but having run many tests with these types of popups the numbers seem to support it. It is possible use them in a way that has value and isn't spammy.
Glad to know that Ouibounce was helpful for your client work :)
Now, you can do evil things with it, and totally legitimate. It is up to you and that's where you get or loose karma points.
However, I much prefer the sites that send me an email days later with an offer to purchase what is still in my cart but to do that you already have to be a user of those sites.