How to Create a Popup That Opens on a Button Click in WordPress

Creating engaging user experiences in web design is essential to captivate visitors and drive conversions. One effective way to grab attention and deliver targeted messages is utilizing popups on your WordPress website. Popups can be powerful tools for displaying important information, promoting offers, or capturing user data.

In this article, we will explore the process of creating a popup that opens specifically when a button or an image is clicked on your WordPress site. By implementing this interactive feature, you can strategically control the timing and context of your popup, ensuring it appears precisely when and where you want it to.

Follow us

We will guide you through selecting a suitable popup plugin, configuring the necessary settings, and creating captivating content. Whether a WordPress beginner or an experienced user, this tutorial will provide you with the knowledge and tools needed to enhance your website with attention-grabbing popups.

By the end of this article, you will have the skills to implement a button-triggered or an image-triggered popup on your WordPress site, enabling you to engage your audience, increase conversions, and deliver targeted messages effectively.

So, let's dive in and unlock the potential of popups in WordPress as we learn how to create a popup that opens on click.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Why Trigger a Popup on Click
• Install FireBox WordPress Popup Plugin
• How to Display Popup on Click in WordPress
  • Trigger the Popup on Button Click
  • Trigger the Popup on Image Click
• Beyond the Click Trigger
• Conclusion

Why Trigger a Popup on Click

When implementing popups on your WordPress website, you have several options for triggering their appearance. While popups can be set to appear on page load, on scroll, or on exit intent, there are distinct advantages to choosing the click-triggered approach.

1. User Intent: Triggering a popup on a button click ensures that it appears when users have already expressed an active interest in your content. By clicking a button or an image, users demonstrate their intent to engage further, making them more receptive to the popup's message or offer. This targeted approach increases the likelihood of conversions and reduces the risk of annoying visitors who may not be interested.
2. Contextual Relevance: Click-triggered popups provide an opportunity to deliver contextual messages. By associating the popup with specific buttons or images related to the content or offer being promoted, you can ensure that the popup appears at the most relevant moment. This contextual relevance enhances the user experience and increases the chances of users finding the popup valuable and engaging.
3. Enhanced User Experience: Popups triggered on click offer a less intrusive and more seamless user experience than popups appearing on page load, on scroll, or on exit. By avoiding sudden interruptions, you respect the user's browsing flow and prevent distractions that can lead to frustration or abandonment. This approach fosters a positive perception of your website and improves overall user satisfaction.
4. Control and Flexibility: Click-triggered popups give you greater control over when and where the popup appears. You can strategically place buttons or images throughout your site to trigger specific popups in relevant contexts. This flexibility allows you to tailor the user experience and guide visitors towards desired actions, such as subscribing to a newsletter, downloading a resource, or purchasing.
5. Conversion Optimization: You can optimize your conversion rates by utilizing click-triggered popups. Since these popups are displayed to users who have already shown an interest, the likelihood of them taking the desired action increases. Furthermore, the ability to customize the popup content and design based on the specific button or image clicked allows for more targeted messaging, leading to higher conversion rates.

While other triggering options like on page load, on scroll, or on exit-intent can be effective in certain scenarios, leveraging click-triggered popups provides unique benefits that enhance user experience, increase engagement, and maximize conversion potential.

In the following sections, we will guide you through creating a popup that opens on a button click in WordPress, empowering you to harness these advantages and create compelling user interactions on your website.

Install FireBox WordPress Popup Plugin

To get started, you’ll need a reliable WordPress popup plugin that offers the necessary features to help you accomplish your goal.

When it comes to WordPress popups, FireBox is the top choice. It’s a powerful popup editor for WordPress that uses the Gutenberg Block Editor. With a user-friendly interface, FireBox allows you to easily create and customize various popups, including sticky bars, sidebars, fullscreen popups, slide-ins, floating buttons, and more.

To install FireBox, navigate to Plugins → Add New in your WordPress dashboard and search for FireBox. Next, click the Install Now button and wait for the plugin to be installed. Once the plugin is installed, you can click the Activate button.

If you face trouble installing the plugin, consult the How to Install FireBox documentation page.

How to Display Popup on Click in WordPress

Now that you have the FireBox plugin installed, let’s look at how to create your first popup. Head to the FireBox plugin in your WordPress dashboard and click New Popup, as shown in the screenshot below.

You will see a dialog with lots of pop-up layouts appearing. FireBox has a big collection of ready-to-use popup templates to help you get started.

You can pick any popup template from the list, as we can easily transform any existing popup into a click-triggered popup.

This tutorial will use the Gym Pass Giveaway Newsletter Popup Form template from the Collect Email Addresses category. It’s a simple yet elegant classic opt-in popup that incentivizes users to enter their email addresses in exchange for winning a 30-day gym pass.

Preview Template

To promote a giveaway, visit the Giveaway Popup Templates page for more giveaway examples.

Once the popup builder loads, you will see the selected sticky bar at the top area of the page. If you preview the popup on your site, you will notice it gets triggered automatically on page load. Obviously, this must be changed and made appear on click.

To do so, while in the popup builder, scroll down in the FireBox settings, go to the Behavior tab, and select the Click option in the Trigger Points section.

To display a popup on click, we need an HTML element on the page representing the trigger element. This can be a button, an image, a link, or any clickable element. The Click trigger configuration expects a query selector with a CSS class or the ID attribute to locate this element(s) on the page. For this example, we will leave the Trigger Element option empty as we create the elements in the next section.

Trigger the Popup on Button Click

FireBox comes with its collection of Gutenberg Blocks. To create our button, we will use the FireBox Buttons Block, which helps us configure a button that opens a popup with a few clicks and without writing any code.

While in your WordPress dashboard, navigate to your Posts or Pages and click to edit the content item where you want to add the button.

Next, click the plus icon to open the block picker box and search "Buttons". It's the one with the blue icon, as shown in the screenshot below:

Once you add a Buttons Block to your content, you will get a result like in the screenshot below:

Next, follow the steps below:

• Type a button label, e.g., "Enter Giveaway"
• In the right sidebar, click Enable FireBox Settings.
• Select the "Gym Pass Giveaway" campaign in the Select Campaign option.
• Select Open in the FireBox Action option.

Congratulations! You now have a popup triggered by clicking on a button!

Trigger the Popup on Image Click

Images can often be more visually appealing and engaging than simple buttons. They provide greater customization and branding flexibility and offer designers more creative freedom than standard button elements.

With FireBox, you can easily trigger a popup by clicking on any image with the help of another built-in Gutenberg block, the "Image" block.

While on the page editor, click the plus icon to open the block picker box as you did, and now search for the "Image" block. It's the one with the blue icon, as shown in the screenshot below:

Next, you can upload a new image or select an existing one from the media library. After you add an image to your content, click on the Image block to enable the block settings at the right sidebar and follow the same steps as you did with the Button block previously.

• Click Enable FireBox Settings
• Select the "Gym Pass Giveaway" campaign in the Select Campaign option.
• Select Open in the FireBox Action dropdown.

Congratulations! You now have a popup that gets triggered when clicking on an image.

Beyond the Click Trigger

While the click trigger is a popular and widely used method to display popups in WordPress, other trigger points can be utilized to engage visitors and enhance their user experience. By exploring alternative trigger options, you can create more dynamic and interactive popups that effectively communicate your message. Let's delve into a few other trigger points and their respective use cases:

• Page Load: The page load trigger displays a popup when the webpage finishes loading. This trigger captures visitors' attention when they arrive at your site. For example, you can fire a popup on page load to highlight a limited-time discount, encourage newsletter subscriptions, or showcase a new product launch. By grabbing the visitors' attention immediately, you can increase the chances of conversions and engagement.
• Scroll: The on-scroll trigger activates a popup when a user scrolls down a certain percentage of the webpage. This trigger effectively guides visitors' attention to important content or provides additional information as they explore your site. For instance, you can create a scroll popup to offer a special promotion when users reach the bottom of a product page, present a related article after reading an informative blog post, or prompt them to sign up for a webinar once they've engaged with your educational content.
• Exit Intent: The on-exit intent trigger detects when visitors are about to leave your site and displays a popup to capture their attention before they exit. This trigger is valuable for reducing bounce rates and recapturing the interest of potential customers who might be leaving without taking action. An exit intent popup can offer a compelling discount or limited-time offer, provide an exit survey to gather feedback or present an enticing call to action that entices visitors to reconsider their decision to leave.
• Mouse Over: The hover trigger activates a popup when users hover their mouse over a specific element on your webpage. This trigger provides additional context or showcases interactive content related to a particular element. For instance, you can create an on hover popup to display product details when a user hovers over an image, reveal more information about a service when they hover over a relevant icon, or present a preview of an article when they hover over a headline. This trigger point adds an element of interactivity and engagement to your website.

By utilizing these alternative trigger points in WordPress, you can maximize the impact of your popups and cater to various user behaviors. Remember to align each trigger point with its use case to ensure a seamless and meaningful user experience. Whether capturing attention on page load, guiding users with on-scroll popups, recapturing interest with exit intent triggers, or enhancing interactivity with on-hover popups, there are plenty of opportunities to engage and convert your visitors using different trigger points in WordPress.

Conclusion

In conclusion, click-triggered popups in WordPress offer numerous benefits for enhancing user experiences and driving conversions. By triggering popups on button or image clicks, you can engage users who have already expressed interest and deliver contextually relevant messages. This approach provides a seamless, less intrusive user experience while offering greater control and flexibility. Implementing click-triggered popups empowers you to optimize conversions and create compelling interactions on your website.

So, start utilizing popups in WordPress and unlock their potential to captivate your audience and deliver targeted messages effectively.