Home › Popup glossary

Popup & conversion glossary.

38 terms every popup builder and conversion marketer should know — written for founders, not textbooks. If something here is wrong or missing, hi@leadyup.com — we'll fix it.

A

A/B testing
Running two or more versions of a popup simultaneously and measuring which one converts better. The 'winner' replaces the others. Statistically significant tests need 100+ conversions per variant; LeadYup uses Thompson sampling to promote the winner before classical significance is reached, which works well at SMB traffic levels.
Abandoned cart popup
A popup that fires when a shopper is about to leave a Shopify or WooCommerce store with items in their cart. Usually combined with exit-intent triggers and a discount offer. Industry average recovery rate: 6-11%.
See also: exit-intent · shopify popup
Above the fold
The part of a webpage visible without scrolling. Popups firing above the fold (i.e., on initial pageview) typically convert worse than scroll- or exit-triggered popups because the visitor hasn't engaged with the page yet.
See also: exit-intent · popup trigger
AI popup builder
A popup tool where copy, timing, and A/B variants are generated by an AI model rather than written by a marketer. The AI reads the page (or the visitor's intent) and produces a matching headline. LeadYup is an example.
See also: popup builder

B

Bounce rate
The percentage of visitors who leave a site without interacting with anything. A well-timed exit-intent popup can convert 1-3% of bounces into leads — that's why popups exist in the first place.
See also: exit-intent
Brand voice
The consistent tone, vocabulary, and style your brand uses across copy. In AI popup tools, you set a one-line 'brand voice' instruction that the model honors in every generated headline — e.g. 'casual American English, never use the word unlock'.
See also: ai popup builder

C

CCPA
California Consumer Privacy Act. US privacy regulation for California residents. Requires explicit opt-out mechanisms for data sale and basic disclosure. Less strict than GDPR but increasingly enforced. LeadYup includes CCPA-compliant consent flows out of the box.
See also: gdpr · consent checkbox
Click-through rate (CTR)
Of the visitors who see a popup, the percentage who click the CTA. Distinct from conversion rate (which counts completed form fills). Average CTR for a well-targeted popup: 8-15%; conversion rate of the same popup: 2-5%.
See also: conversion rate
Conversion rate
The percentage of popup viewers who complete the form. Industry baseline: 2-4%. Top decile: 9%+. Mobile generally underperforms desktop by 30-40% unless the popup is mobile-first.
See also: click-through rate

E

Email capture
The most common popup goal: collecting a visitor's email address. Almost everything else (lead nurturing, SaaS trial, e-commerce flash sale) downstream depends on it.
See also: lead magnet
Exit-intent
A popup trigger that fires when the system detects a visitor is about to leave. Classic implementation: mouse cursor crosses the top of the viewport. Modern ML implementations (like ExitSense) watch dozens of behavior signals — that's the only kind that works on mobile, where there's no mouse-out event.
See also: exitsense ml · popup trigger
ExitSense ML
LeadYup's proprietary exit-intent model. An XGBoost classifier trained on 1M+ session signals — scroll velocity, idle taps, hover patterns, viewport-bottom dwell, etc. Catches 60-80% more genuine exit moments than classic mouse-out, and works on mobile where mouse-out doesn't exist.
See also: exit-intent · behavioral targeting

F

Form abandonment
When a visitor starts filling a form but leaves before submitting. Progressive forms (revealing fields one at a time) and shorter forms reduce this. LeadYup tracks partial form data when consent allows.
See also: progressive form
Form fields
The inputs in a popup form. Each additional field reduces completion rate by roughly 8-12% (industry rule of thumb). Email-only forms convert highest; email + phone + name forms convert lowest.
See also: progressive form

G

GDPR
General Data Protection Regulation. EU privacy law. Requires explicit consent before collecting personal data, transparent privacy policies, right to deletion, and data portability. Mandatory for any site serving EU visitors.
See also: ccpa · consent checkbox

L

Lead
Any visitor who submits contact info through a popup. Quality matters more than count: 100 leads with good intent beat 1,000 vague signups every time.
See also: lead magnet · qualified lead
Lead magnet
The thing you offer in exchange for an email — a discount code, an ebook, a checklist, a free trial. Stronger lead magnets convert better but also attract lower-quality leads.
See also: email capture

M

Mobile exit-intent
Detecting exit intent on mobile devices where there's no mouse to leave the viewport. Requires watching scroll patterns, idle taps, viewport blur events, and orientation changes. Most popup tools don't do this; LeadYup's ExitSense does.
See also: exit-intent · exitsense ml

P

Privacy policy
A document explaining what data your site collects and what you do with it. Required by GDPR, CCPA, and basic ethics. LeadYup provides editable privacy policy templates pre-wired to your popup's consent text.
See also: gdpr · ccpa
Progressive form
A form that reveals fields one at a time after the previous one is filled. E.g., email first, then phone, then name. Cuts perceived effort and lifts conversion 10-15% over showing all fields at once.
See also: form fields

Q

Qualified lead
A lead that matches the criteria of your ideal customer — right industry, right role, right intent. Popup tools can do basic qualification through quiz mode (asking 2-4 segmenting questions before requesting email).
See also: lead magnet · quiz mode
Quiz mode
A popup format that presents 2-4 multiple-choice questions before asking for email. Each click is a 'micro-commitment' that lowers form-abandonment psychology. Conversion lift over plain forms: 1.5-2×.
See also: progressive form

S

Scroll-depth trigger
Fires the popup when the visitor has scrolled past a threshold (e.g. 50% of the page). Good for engaging readers who've shown interest. Combine with exit-intent for the strongest signal.
See also: popup trigger
Session deduplication
Counting a popup show only once per visitor session, even if the page reloads. Prevents inflated 'show' numbers and frustration from the same visitor seeing the popup three times in five minutes.
Shadow DOM
A browser technology that isolates a widget's HTML and CSS from the parent page. LeadYup uses Shadow DOM so the popup's styles never conflict with your site's CSS — no z-index fights, no broken layouts.
Sign-up form
A form that collects basic info to create an account. Functionally identical to a 'popup' in the popup-tool sense — same widget, different copy.
See also: popup
Smart timer
A popup trigger that auto-calibrates show delay based on real visitor behavior on your site (40th percentile dwell time, typically). Beats a hardcoded '30 seconds' by 20-40% in conversion.
See also: popup trigger
Social proof
Phrases or badges on the popup that signal others trust you: '4.9 stars on G2', '12,000 founders signed up', 'Trusted by Shopify'. Lifts conversion 8-15% when honest and specific.

T

Thompson sampling
A multi-armed bandit algorithm that allocates traffic to A/B variants based on their performance. Promotes winners faster than classical A/B testing at SMB traffic levels. LeadYup uses this for the 5-angle headline test on every Pro+ widget.
See also: a/b testing
Trial activation
The process of converting a free-trial signup into an active user. SaaS metrics: percentage of signups who use the product at least once. LeadYup's popup-based signup automatically starts the visitor's 14-day Pro trial on email click.
See also: magic link

W

Webhook
A URL endpoint that receives an HTTP POST when an event happens (e.g. lead captured). Lets popup tools send leads to Zapier, Make, custom CRMs, or your own backend. LeadYup supports webhooks on every paid plan.
White-label
Removing the popup tool's branding ('Made with LeadYup') from the popup itself. Available on LeadYup Business; on Pro and Free the badge is required (and clickable to /).

Now go ship the popup.

Free forever, unlimited views. One script tag, AI does the rest.

Start 14-day Pro trial →