Popup overlays catch your visitor by surprise, grab their attention immediately and direct them to click since they are on top of the page.
A custom popup overlay helps effectively protect your business from spam, offers discounts and unique experiences, compels visitors to sign up for a newsletter, and sell your product instantly.
Such overlays have the power to increase conversion and sales.
Yet, there are certain rules and popup design practices that you can follow to make a successful popup campaign.
Here are a few tips and some of the best popup overlays examples from famous brands to inspire you.
A Few Tips for Creating an Effective Popup
Following is a shortlist of the tips to consider while creating a popup for your brand:
- Identify Your Objectives & Take Action
- Make Sure Your Call-To-Action is Eye-Catching
- Be Brief But Persuasive with Your Copy
- Use Contrast to Draw More Attention to Your Message
- Choose Creative Images and Make the Most out of Them
- Adapt Your Popup Design to Your Website Style
- Don’t Ask For Too Much Information
- Create Customized Mobile Popups
That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? So now that you have a general idea let's show you how five other brands use overlay popups.
Aside from the popup overlay examples, we've got a rundown of how to set up an overlay popup in a few seconds with our no-code, user-friendly popup builder.
What is a Popup Overlay?
Popup overlays, also known as lightbox popups and modal popups, are website popups that are designed to cover the screen by darkening or blurring out the background.
The problem is that popup overlays are often a huge hit—or a huge miss.
When visitors encounter an overlay popup that doesn’t offer any value to their experience, it tends to be annoying or distracting.
But when the overlay popup does add value (like offering a discount or exclusive deals),visitors tend to be interested**in what you have to offer.
Popup overlays can be used for a variety of purposes, such giveaways for lead generation, offering a first time or returning visitor discount, a limited-time deal such as free shipping, upselling/cross-selling products.**
Popup Overlay Examples
Let's look at some of the best examples of effective pop-up overlays from well-known brands.
1- Dolce & Gabbana Newsletter Popup Overlay
The famous fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana uses a newsletter popup to grab its user’s attention.
Its popup design is simple and elegant with an interesting and eye-catching image and black and white usage.
The popup adopts to brand’s style and uses relevant imagery while asking the users for their gender and language to provide more customization.
2- Nike Email Popup Overlay
Nike chooses a brief yet compelling copy to grab the users' attention and persuade them to sign up for its emails to be the first to know.
To offer the most relevant content, this popup overlay asks for the user's email address and additional information like date of birth, and product preference.
The marketing team will be able to offer discounts or limited offers to relevant groups of customers with these detailed data.
It’s a simple and elegant solution with a nice, minimalistic design and catchy text.
This is a great way to grow your email list and create an effective email marketing campaign.
3- Brunomagli Discount Popup Overlay
Brunomag discount popup overlays appear when you enter the website, offering 15% off in exchange for your e-mail address.
This is a nice product promoting a light popup overlay that delivers relevant value exactly when the website visitor wants it.
15% off your order is mostly worth the user’s email address. Particularly if they have already visited the website! See how the popup is in style with the brand and the colors of the shoes complement the call to action button.
4- Coschedual Exit-Intent Popup Overlay
CoSchedule is an all-in-one content marketing platform that allows you to plan, organize, and execute your content marketing campaigns.
In this exit intent popup overlay, CoSchedule is promoting its marketing calendar service with a related image while adapting it to the brand’s style.
CoSchedule asks the visitors to check their product and services and calls them to schedule a demo in the end with a strong CTA.
In turn, this promotion pop-up gives them the opportunity to convert sales that they wouldn't have otherwise.
5- Revolvea First-Time Buyer Coupon Popup Overlay
The following discount offer is displayed as soon as you enter the Revolve e-commerce site.
The popup overlay asks for the visitor's email address in order to offer a discount to potential buyers!
Revolvea uses this pop-up not only to build an email list but also to promote the products and persuade the audience to purchase. catching two birds with one stone!
According to Cision PR Newswire, 92% of the website visitors aren’t yet ready to buy, but that doesn’t mean they’re not interested! So, a quick first-time buyer discount offer may be triggering.
The user also has an option to close the popup by clicking on the X button or the phrase “No thanks, just let me shop” and resume browsing, which is another positive aspect of this popup.
Create an Interactive Overlay Popup with Popupsmart
Creating popup overlays for your website can be time-consuming and complicated. The good news is that you don’t need to go through this process anymore.
It is easy and quick to create a professional-looking and effective popup with Popupsmart popup builder.
A no-code popup builder, Popupsmart gives you the opportunity to create a popup to fit your needs with a variety of options and features in just a few minutes.
Let me show you how easy it is by providing a step-by-step guide:
1- Sign up for Popupsmart and then go to your dashboard.
2- Click on the "Create a new popup" button and start creating your first popup.
3- Select your business objective. For example, you can choose "Grow Your Email List" to improve your email marketing campaigns and send newsletters and quality content or customized discounts.
4- You can either create a pop-up from scratch or use a ready-made template and customize it to fit your objectives.
5- You can then customize your popup's design by selecting the "Customize" tab once you have selected your layout.
You are also able to change the headline, text input and the privacy policy section.
Adding strong CTAs to your popup's headline and description can make it more appealing to your target audience.
Related images can also be added at this step if needed.
6- Then you may move on to the "Target" section. Here, you can select your popup's target audience, schedule details, visitor behavior, visitor device, and view frequency.
This allows you to reach your audience effectively.
For example, here you can add a particular time in the “Visitor behavior” part to create a first-time buyer discount popup and grow your email list.
Save and click "Next to Publish" after completing this step.
7- Copy the embed code for your popup in the "Publish" section, as shown below. Verify your domain and paste the code into your website’s back office.
Remember it’s very important to verify your website before running your popup campaign, otherwise, it’s not going to work properly. You can also use Google Tag Manager to embed your popup codes on your website.
Learn How to Embed the Code on Your Website!
8- After you have completed your pop-up, click on the "Save & Publish" button.
9- That’s it! once you publish the popup, you can visit your website to check the final look. Pretty easy, huh?
Try to create your own popup campaign for free now and give us your feedback by simply commenting here or contacting the support team.
As a Final Thought
Following the above examples and our guide to best popup overlays, you will have a clear idea of what kind of popup overlay should you use to grab your audience's attention and increase your conversion rate.
However, don't just stop at one technique. Combine it with other marketing techniques mentioned above, and learn from other successful brands that are using popups successfully.
In the worst-case scenario, you can just come up with one good popup and follow it religiously with your customers.
Try to be creative in implementing the best ways to build trust and offer something of value.
Related Articles:
- How to Build Vue Modal Popups
- How to Create Modal Tailwind CSS Popups for Your Website
- 16 Must-Know Lead Generation Automation Solutions in 2025
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a pop-up overlay?
A pop-up overlay (also called a lightbox or modal popup) is a type of on-page window that appears above your website content and temporarily “overlays” the screen—often dimming or blurring the background—to focus the visitor’s attention on one message or action. Unlike a new browser window, it’s part of the same webpage and is typically triggered by a user action (clicking a button, image, hotspot, or link) or a behavior rule (exit intent, time on page, scroll depth, or after adding an item to cart). Brands use overlay popups to share additional information without forcing a page change, such as offering a first-time discount, collecting an email for a newsletter, promoting a limited-time deal, confirming age or cookie preferences, or preventing spam with quick verification steps; the key is that the overlay should be easy to dismiss and provide clear value so it feels helpful rather than disruptive.
What is a pop-up example?
A pop-up example is any small window or message that appears in the foreground while someone is browsing a site, designed to capture attention and prompt an action. Common examples include a “Get 10% off your first order” email signup overlay, an exit-intent popup that appears when the cursor moves toward the close button offering free shipping, a limited-time countdown promo for a sale, a “Spin to win” giveaway wheel for lead generation, a cart reminder popup (“You left items in your cart—complete checkout now”), or a content upgrade popup on a blog post (“Download the checklist”). The best pop-up examples are specific, brief, and action-oriented: they use a strong headline, a clear benefit, one primary call-to-action button, and minimal form fields (often just email), while matching the site’s branding and being optimized for mobile so it doesn’t block the entire screen or frustrate users.
Why are popups illegal?
Popups aren’t automatically illegal—most are perfectly legal marketing UI—but they can become “illegal” or non-compliant when they break specific laws, regulations, or platform policies. For example, popups can violate privacy and consent rules if they collect personal data without proper disclosure or consent (such as GDPR in the EU, ePrivacy rules for cookies, or CCPA/CPRA requirements in California), or if they use deceptive “dark patterns” that manipulate users into agreeing or make it unreasonably hard to decline. Some popups (especially pop-ads that open new windows, auto-download files, or mimic system alerts) may violate consumer protection laws or anti-malware rules, and copyrighted content used inside an ad/popup without permission can raise copyright issues. In practice, the risk usually isn’t the popup format itself—it’s how it’s implemented: be transparent about data use, provide real choices, avoid misleading copy/buttons, respect age-restricted content rules, and ensure the popup doesn’t hijack the browser or install anything without explicit permission.
What does a pop-up notification look like?
A pop-up notification typically looks like a small, temporary message box that appears on top of what you’re doing to deliver an update, alert, or prompt—often in a corner of the screen on desktop (like bottom-right) or as a banner/overlay at the top of the screen on mobile. It usually includes a short title and one or two lines of text (for example, “Order confirmed” or “New message from support”), sometimes an icon or app/site name for recognition, and occasionally quick action buttons such as “View,” “Dismiss,” “Allow,” or “Reply.” Website-based notifications may appear as a subtle toast message (non-blocking) or as a more prominent modal overlay (blocking until closed), while browser push notifications often show even when the site isn’t open, depending on the user’s permission settings; in all cases, the hallmark is that they’re brief, attention-grabbing, and designed to communicate one clear piece of information quickly without requiring a full page change.
What is Popup overlay examples free?
“Popup overlay examples free” usually refers to free, ready-to-use popup designs (templates) or free tools that let you create overlay popups without paying upfront, often with limitations such as branding, fewer templates, fewer targeting rules, or a cap on monthly views/leads. Free examples commonly include newsletter signup overlays, first-order discount popups, free shipping threshold reminders, exit-intent offers, announcement modals for new product launches, and simple lead magnet popups (like “Download the guide”). If you’re looking for truly “free,” check whether the builder offers a free plan (not just a trial), whether it includes mobile-responsive templates, whether you can customize colors/fonts to match your site, and whether it supports basic triggers (time, scroll, click) and integrations (email marketing tools). Even when using free examples, the conversion best practices remain the same: keep the copy short and benefit-driven, use high contrast for the CTA, ask for minimal information, and make the close option obvious to avoid frustrating visitors.
What is Pop-up Overlay ui design?
Pop-up overlay UI design is the practice of designing modal or lightbox interfaces that appear above the page to guide users toward a specific action—like subscribing, claiming an offer, confirming a choice, or completing a step—without navigating away. Good overlay UI design balances attention and usability: it uses a clear visual hierarchy (headline → value → CTA), strong contrast and readable typography, a single primary call-to-action, and supportive elements like trust cues (ratings, “no spam,” privacy note) or a small product image. It also considers interaction patterns such as an obvious close icon, keyboard accessibility (Esc to close, focus trapped inside the modal), a backdrop that indicates the page is inactive, and responsive layouts for mobile (often a smaller, less intrusive slide-in or a properly sized modal that doesn’t cover critical content). In conversion-focused contexts, effective overlay UI design pairs aesthetics with targeting and timing—showing the right message to the right visitor at the right moment—so the popup feels like a helpful nudge rather than an interruption.
What is Website overlay examples?
Website overlay examples are real-world instances of on-page elements that sit above the main content to highlight a message, request input, or guide the next step, typically by dimming the background and centering the overlay. Common examples include promotional modals (seasonal sale, first-time discount), lead capture overlays (newsletter signup, ebook download), cart and checkout overlays (free shipping progress, limited-time offer), informational overlays (maintenance notice, shipping delays, holiday hours), compliance overlays (cookie consent preferences, age verification), and interactive overlays (video lightboxes, product quick-view modals, appointment booking forms). The best website overlay examples are tightly aligned with user intent—like showing a size guide overlay on a product page or a content upgrade overlay on a related blog post—while keeping friction low with short copy, minimal fields, fast loading, and a clear exit option; when overlays respect the visitor’s experience and deliver genuine value, they can meaningfully improve conversions without harming engagement.
