DHTML Popups a study...

[Majic]

The Problem

Monetizing the 80 / 100 that click your ads and leave immediately but keeping potential customers happy.

The Solution

An unblockable DHTML popup that will only appear if the visitor is not browsing.

Example (mouse up up to leave)
images.expertschoice.co.uk

I am gettign the users mouse position when they move to navigate away the popup is triggered.

The popup is an invisible div box with a good 'free' offer that is made visible via javascript remember these people are not out to spend money minimal catchy content.

Server Side (templating helps)

if (preg_match('/site name/',$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'],$hit))
{
$body->assign("BOUNCE_POPUP", '');
$body->assign("POPUP_AD", '');
}
else
{
$body->assign("BOUNCE_POPUP", $bounce_stopper);
$body->assign("POPUP_AD", $diino_popup);
}


simple enough if they are not referred from my site e.g browsing then give a pop up on exit if they are browsing the popup code is not triggered so good visitors are not spammed.

Conclusion / Results

Most people won't buy (90% + for me) so any money we can get from this influx of traffic goes a long way. For me it means in most cases I have cut my CPC effectively in half.

I have seen no drop in sales at all only a return on the people that are leaving my site anyway.

Problems / Discussion

People that type in my domain will see the popup as they will navigate downwards from the address bar. Links in are fine.

Initially I did think to offer an incentivised newsletter sign up but this is junk traffic so only segmentation would work.

Next step for improvement is to also time a users visit and get smarter with popup content.

EDIT: for clarity

 

[Gumby!]

A simple fix to the firing of the popup as the user mouses down from the address bar or bookmarks is to not allow the popup to fire until the mouse has been below the area that fires the popup.

Any stats on the returns of people who were apparently leaving the site?

 

[wdmny]

You could also add a referrer check to look for a blank referrer and group that in with people who are browsing. They intentionally typed your URL in or picked it from a bookmark, so it's likely they want to be at your site.

 

[fm1234]

I like this a lot ... I'm a little ignorant on how the styles work. Is the external popup simply an HTML file that ends up "embedded" into the code, or is it an image map that looks like a popup, or what?


Frank