How to open a Tally popup on exit intent, on scroll or after a delay in WordPress

This guide uses Embed for Tally 1.1.0 or newer, our free plugin for Tally forms. New to popups? Read how to add a Tally popup form to WordPress first.

Four ways to open a popup

Opens	When	Good for
When the button is clicked	The visitor clicks your button	Contact forms, and anything the visitor chooses to open
After a delay	A number of seconds after the page loads	Newsletter sign-ups on blog posts
When the visitor is about to leave	The pointer leaves the page at the top. Desktop only	“Before you go” feedback and last-chance offers
After scrolling part of the page	The visitor has scrolled a set share of the page	A question after reading, or a survey at the end of an article

All four work for popups and slide-ins. A popup opens in the middle of the screen; a slide-in opens in a corner and is less in the way.

Set it up in the block editor

1. Add the Tally Form block and paste your form’s share link.
2. In the block sidebar, set the display mode to Popup or Slide-in.
3. Under Open the form, choose After a delay, When the visitor is about to leave or After scrolling part of the page.
4. For a delay, set the seconds. For scrolling, set the Scroll depth.
5. Save the page and open it in a new tab to try it.

The popup doesn’t open by itself while you’re editing, so it doesn’t get in your way.

Set it up in Elementor

The Tally Form widget has the same options. Drag it onto your page, paste the form link, choose Popup or Slide-in, and pick how the form opens. The Style tab changes the button’s colours and corners.

Set it up with a shortcode

For the classic editor and other page builders, add open_trigger to the shortcode. On exit intent:

[tally_form id="abc123" mode="popup" button_text="Give feedback" open_trigger="exit"]

After 60% of the page has been scrolled, as a slide-in:

[tally_form id="abc123" mode="slidein" button_text="Quick question" open_trigger="scroll" open_scroll="60"]

Ten seconds after the page loads:

[tally_form id="abc123" mode="popup" button_text="Subscribe" open_trigger="delay" open_delay="10"]

Replace abc123 with your form ID. You don’t have to type these by hand: Tally Forms → Shortcode builds the shortcode from the options you choose.

Don’t ask the same visitor twice

A popup that opens on every page view gets closed, not answered. Three options keep it polite:

• Show only once per visitor. After the form has been shown, it doesn’t open by itself again. In a shortcode: show_once="1".
• Don’t show again after submitting. Visitors who sent the form aren’t asked again. In a shortcode: hide_after_submit="1".
• Hide the button. The form then only opens automatically, with no button on the page. In a shortcode: hide_button="1".

An exit-intent feedback form that asks each visitor once, with no button on the page:

[tally_form id="abc123" mode="popup" open_trigger="exit" show_once="1" hide_after_submit="1" hide_button="1"]

These choices are remembered in the visitor’s browser. Someone who comes back on another device or browser will see the popup again.

Tips

• Exit intent needs a mouse. On phones and tablets it never fires. For mobile visitors, use scrolling or a delay.
• One automatic popup per page. Two popups competing for the same visitor help neither.
• Give people time. A popup in the first seconds interrupts someone who hasn’t read anything yet. Ten seconds, or half the page, is a better start.
• Keep the button for important forms. If the popup is the only way to reach the form, a visitor who closed it can’t get back to it.
• Using “Ask before loading forms”? Popups that open by themselves then wait until the visitor has chosen to load a form.

To see whether your popup gets answers, read how to track Tally form submissions.