13 High-Converting SMS Opt-in Popups from Real Brands

Your top goal as an ecommerce merchant is to convert website visitors into customers.

But even if that doesn’t happen the first time—or second, third, or fourth time—someone lands on your site, there’s major long-term upside to capturing their phone number instead. And one of the best ways to do that is through SMS subscription popups.

You can easily create, customize, publish, and track your brand’s SMS opt-in popup right within Postscript.

But, how do you optimize it for conversion? It’s a great question—and honestly, there’s no one right way to design and deploy a popup. And of course, we suggest testing your popup offer and settings, iterating, and then testing again—preferably on a continual basis.

To help get your creative juices flowing, though, we’ve rounded up 13 examples of high-converting popups that brands have created within Postscript. All of these examples fell within our all-time top 50 best-converting popups for SMS marketing (based on overall conversion rate for phone number submission). They’ve also driven a considerable volume of opt-ins for their respective brands—most in the thousands or tens of thousands. 

Before we dive into specific examples, here are a few stats on those top 50 mobile popups, which may be helpful as you consider your own strategy:

• The average delay—that is, the amount of time between a visitor landing on the website and being shown the popup—was just over 3 seconds.

• 35 of the top 50 best-converting mobile popups were presented in a full-screen format; the other 15 were partial-screen.

• Only 6 of the top 50 best-converting popups offered discount incentives greater than 20%. The vast majority offered discount incentives lower than 20%.

• 32 of the top 50 best-converting popups—or 64%—offered a discount incentive of exactly 10%.

• The average conversion rate for the top 50 popups was 13.33% (compared to an average conversion rate of 3.99% for all Postscript mobile popups that have at least 1,000 total conversions).

One best practice our team always recommends is leading with a phone number capture—rather than email—on mobile, since the process is easier (yay for less friction!), and it better aligns with the experience of consumers who are shopping on their phones.

Conversely, you may want to lead with email collection on desktop—though many brands have been successful with a phone-first approach there, too. And depending on what promotions you’re running or which channel you’re optimizing at any given moment, you can always tweak your approach.

Ultimately, it boils down to where your primary acquisition focus lies.

Okay, without further ado, here are some top-notch popup examples.

At the time this article was published, collagen supplements brand Obvi was running a special mobile opt-in popup in the lead-up to BFCM. The higher-than-normal discount offer of 30%—in conjunction with a secondary incentive of “up to 4 free gifts”—helped generate a conversion rate of 13.3% for phone numbers and 24.7% for emails. (Interestingly, the brand asked for email first with this push—even on mobile).

A free gift offer is super enticing on its own, but we really love the way Obvi used imagery on the full-screen popup to give folks an idea of what those free gifts might be.

As a side note, Obvi’s regular mobile popup racked up an impressive 14.3% conversion rate for phone numbers and 7.6% conversion rate for emails.

That version expertly leveraged the mystery factor to drive opt-ins, prompting site visitors to claim their “surprise discount” and get their “secret code.”

Continuing with the free gift strategy, sticker and phone case brand Hailey’s Stickers leveraged a free case offer to achieve an 11.8% conversion rate on this partial-screen mobile popup.

While this particular popup was not live at the time of publication, the point stands that sometimes, a free product can be a more effective incentive than a discount. If you’re looking to dramatically increase the size of your list in a short amount of time, this could be an excellent temporary strategy. For example, you might earmark a certain number of items to give away and run the “free gift” popup until they’re gone.

On a more permanent basis, if the cost of your giveaway item is lower than your average Subscriber Lifetime Value (LTV), then it might be worth sticking with a free gift offer as long as it continues converting.

Shapewear brand J Sculpt Fitness has generated an impressive 11.3% conversion rate with this full-screen mobile popup.

While the higher-than-average discount incentive of 25% likely plays a role here, we also love that the popup copy highlights some of the other benefits of joining J Sculpt’s SMS list—like weekly workout tips.

This full-screen mobile popup from sea moss supplement brand Deep Sea Remedy boasts a 14.2% conversion rate for phone numbers.

While the text is a bit difficult to read (we’d recommend using a lower-opacity photo instead), the background image is eye-catching, and the “Save Big $$$” button CTA is hard to resist.

While this full-screen mobile popup from health and beauty brand The Fit Fine Flawless is no longer live, we included it as an example that does a great job using a low-opacity background photo to keep the text readable.

Plus, the popup’s all-time phone number conversion rate of 12.9% is pretty darn impressive.

With a conversion rate of 10.7%, this partial-screen mobile popup from jewelry and accessories brand Stella and Jules proves that sometimes, a massive discount incentive might be just the thing you need to turbocharge your SMS subscriber acquisition.

Remember, just because you start out with a high-discount incentive doesn’t mean you have to keep it forever. Once you have a solid subscriber list, you can decrease the discount while still maintaining a steady stream of opt-ins, or simply run it during high-traffic times to capitalize on the increased opportunity to convert.

Jewelry and accessories brand BYO also leverages a high-value offer for their current full-screen mobile pop, which currently has a 12.3% phone number conversion rate.

The “limited time only” messaging creates a sense of urgency, which may also add to the popup’s effectiveness. And the “no thanks” line adds a nice touch to make site visitors think twice before closing out.

Hair care and beauty brand Blaq Luxury Hair Solution has achieved a conversion rate of 9.6% with this partial-screen mobile popup.

We love the custom background and product images. Remember, pretty much every brand has some type of popup running on their website at this point, so taking the time to style yours in a way that stands out can really make a difference.

Soft Serve Clothing has achieved impressive results for both email and phone with this full-screen mobile popup. It boasts a 14.8% conversion rate for email (which it leads with), and a 5.6% conversion rate for phone numbers.

Notably, they’ve chosen a dollar-based discount rather than a percentage-based one. Depending on your product line, this could seem more enticing to site visitors—particularly for items consumers purchase regularly, meaning they have a good idea of what those products cost.

Hair care brand Ericka J. Products has achieved an impressive 16% conversion rate with this full-screen mobile popup—and even the desktop version boasts a 4.7% conversion rate for phone numbers.

Although the incentive is simply the standard 10% off, the contrast they’ve created with the dark background makes this popup really “pop.” The recent sales mini-popup at the bottom of the screen also helps to spark FOMO and demonstrate social proof.

This partial-screen mobile popup from A Deluxe Cosmetics has an 11.8% conversion rate for phone numbers.

Notably, the brand uses a longer-than-average delay of 7 seconds before the popup displays—giving site visitors time to see a few product offerings before deciding to opt in. We also love the large logo and soft purple button to match the shop’s branding.

This simple, partial-screen mobile popup from Drag Up Coffee has a conversion rate of 10% for phone numbers.

This is a great example of using simple design principles—a.k.a. large, bold, clear CTA copy and a bright red button—to drive conversions without a ton of custom design work. The higher-than-average discount incentive of 20% doesn’t hurt, either.

This partial-screen mobile popup from Y’all Sweet Tea has generated a 9.5% conversion rate for phone numbers as well as an impressive 5.8% conversion rate for emails.

The CTA text is large and bold, and the subheading does a great job communicating the benefits of subscribing. The yellow text against the blue button is also a great use of contrast and complementary colors—both of which draw the eye in.

The brand also leads with phone number collection on the desktop version of their opt-in popup, though the CTA is slightly different. This version calls out a specific discount incentive—which may be slightly more effective in motivating visitors to type in their numbers.

Keep in mind that Postscript also integrates with a variety of popup platforms, which you can review here.

Whatever solution you use, make sure you have a collection popup in place before the holiday season, as this high-traffic time presents a huge opportunity to add site visitors to your SMS subscription list!

For more pre-holiday SMS marketing tips, be sure to check out this blog post. And if you’re looking for other ways to grow your list of subscribers, we recommend this post on acquisition through social media and this post on converting email subscribers into SMS subscribers.