How to test an exit popup

IN THIS ARTICLE YOU WILL:

• Get introduced to testing exit pop-ups

• Know the Recommended Approach

• Learn when to use Custom JS

• See an Example

• Summary

Testing exit-intent pop-ups is a common way for ecommerce teams to validate offers, messages, or interruption strategies before rolling them out more widely.

Today, Convert provides a native Pop-up Creator that allows CRO teams to create and A/B test pop-ups directly inside Convert, using the same targeting rules, stats engine, and experimentation workflow as any other test.

This is the recommended approach for testing exit pop-ups and other interruption-based experiences.

This article also includes guidance on using custom JavaScript-based exit pop-ups for advanced or legacy scenarios where a bespoke implementation is still required.

Recommended approach: use Convert’s native Pop-up Creator

If your goal is to test an exit pop-up (rather than permanently deploy one), we strongly recommend using Convert’s Pop-up Creator.

With Pop-up Creator, you can:

• Create exit-intent pop-ups directly in the Visual Editor

• Run proper A/B tests using Convert’s experimentation framework

• Use the same targeting rules and stats engine as any other experiment

• Iterate quickly without custom JavaScript or engineering support

This ensures exit pop-ups are evaluated with speed, rigor, and confidence, instead of being shipped based on assumptions.

🔔 Tip: For most use cases, such as offer validation, message testing, or interruption strategy testing, Pop-up Creator should be your first choice.

👉 Learn how to create and test pop-ups using Convert’s Pop-up Creator (link to Pop-up Creator documentation).

When to use custom JavaScript exit pop-ups

In some cases, teams may still choose to test an exit pop-up using custom JavaScript, for example:

• Maintaining or modifying a legacy implementation

• Requiring highly bespoke behavior that falls outside the scope of Pop-up Creator

• Testing a third-party widget that cannot be recreated natively

The example below shows how a JavaScript-based exit-intent pop-up can be added to a Convert experiment for these advanced scenarios.

Note: This approach requires custom code and extra QA to make sure experiment results are tracked correctly.

Example: testing an exit-intent pop-up using JavaScript

Convert allows you to add JavaScript or HTML to specific variations in an A/B experiment, which makes it possible to test custom components such as exit pop-ups.

We decided to choose an open-source Exit-Intent Popup that is freely available for anyone use. We do not endorse, guarantee, or recommend the linked software. We only show it for demonstration purposes.

Firstly, we create a Convert AB Experiment. Then, while in the Visual Editor, we open our Variation JS editor:

Then copy the minified Exit Intent Pop Up minified javascript code in the editor. After that add the template code. Then apply the changes and save it.

You can have a preview of your variation with the Live Preview.

Your page where you created will show. Try to navigate out of it, and your popup will show:


You can customize the code to your desire. 

Summary

- Use Pop-up Creator for most exit pop-up testing scenarios
- Rely on custom JavaScript only for advanced or legacy needs
- Treat exit pop-ups as experiments, not just UI elements

By testing exit-intent pop-ups with the same discipline as any other experiment, you can validate interruption-based UX decisions with confidence.

👉 Learn how to create and test pop-ups using Convert’s Pop-up Creator (link to Pop-up Creator documentation).