Understanding targeting and behavior settings for sign-up forms

You will learn

Learn about the Targeting & behavior section of the sign-up form editor, where you can control and change when a form appears on your site, and who sees it. Open the form editor for an existing sign-up form, then select Targeting & behavior to adjust the display and targeting settings covered in this guide.

Before you begin

In the Targeting & behavior tab, you can toggle between Display and Targeting menus.

On the Display menu you can edit:

• Display priority
• Timing
• Frequency
• Devices
• Custom trigger

On the Targeting menu you can choose who sees your form by targeting:

• Audience
• URLs
• UTM parameters
• Locations

This guide will walk you through each of the options in the Display menu, followed by each of the options in the Targeting menu.

Adjust a form's display options (timing, frequency, device display, etc.)

Display priority

Use display priority to control which sign-up form appears first when multiple eligible forms could display at the same time. Klaviyo compares queued forms by priority and shows the highest-priority form first.

Before you set display priority for website forms:

1. On the Sign-up forms page, click Form settings (the gear icon).
2. Select Don't show multiple forms at the same time, then choose Show only one form per session or Show next form after a time delay. If you choose a delay, enter its duration.
3. Click Save, then return to your form’s Targeting & behavior > Display settings.

Display priority is most useful when you have overlapping forms, such as a generic welcome form and a more specific promotion, SMS, or UTM-targeted form that can qualify on the same page.

You can choose from 4 priority levels:

• Low
• Medium (default)
• High
• Highest

Use Low for forms that should appear after other eligible forms, Medium for standard behavior, High for forms that should appear before Medium and Low forms, and Highest for forms that should appear before all other eligible forms. If multiple forms share the same priority, the order is not guaranteed.

Display priority applies to automatically displayed popup, flyout, and full page forms. Embedded forms appear within the page when their targeting and device conditions are met; they do not use display priority. Custom-triggered forms also bypass display priority.

For an A/B test, priority is shared across variations. Select Edit on main form to change it from a variation.

Timing

In the Timing section of the Display menu, you can choose when your sign-up form should display on your website. By default, your form will be set to show Immediately, meaning it can appear as soon as the visitor meets your targeting and frequency settings. You also have the option to show the form:

• Based on rules
  Trigger your sign-up form to display based on 1 or more of the following rules:
  
  

• When visitor is exiting the page
  Trigger the form when a visitor shows signs of leaving the page. Commonly referred to as "exit intent forms," these forms appear when someone moves their cursor outside the page’s visible area on desktop or scrolls quickly upward on a mobile device.
• After time delay
  Trigger the form to display after a certain time delay. You can input the number of seconds someone must be on the page before the form loads. As a general rule, visitors usually do not spend more than a few seconds on each page. If your message is crucial, display the form immediately or after 1 or 2 seconds.
• After visitor has scrolled a certain amount
  Trigger the form to display after a visitor has scrolled to a certain point on the page; 0% is the top of the webpage, whereas 100% is the bottom.
• After visitor sees a certain number of pages
  Trigger the form to display after a visitor has seen a certain amount of pages on your site. For example, if you input 3 pages, the form will display when a visitor views 3 unique pages on your website, such as 3 different product pages.

• Only on a custom trigger
  Trigger the form to display based on any condition, such as a button click or in your own code. See how to trigger a sign-up form to appear when a button is clicked for more details. With this option, the form opens when your custom trigger fires; the usual targeting, frequency, and device restrictions do not apply. Embedded forms do not use these timing options, but still follow their targeting and device settings.

Frequency

In the Frequency section of the Display menu, you can determine how often your sign-up form should appear for each site visitor. You can edit display frequency for popup, flyout, or full page forms. Embedded forms do not use these frequency settings, but still follow their targeting and device settings.

• If visitor closes form, show again after __ day(s)
  Use this setting to determine how often a visitor who has closed the form should see it.
  • Set this option to 0 days to show the form on every page load after it is closed, as long as the visitor meets the other display and targeting conditions.
  • Choose a longer timeframe (e.g., 5 days) to limit the form from appearing too often.
• Don’t show again if form was submitted or if go to URL button was clicked
  Use this setting to determine if a visitor will see the form again after completing it.
  • Check the box if you want a form to never appear again after someone fills it out.
  • If you’d like the same visitor to have the opportunity to fill a form out more than once, leave this option unchecked.

Devices

In the Devices section of the Display menu, you can choose whether you want your sign-up form to display to visitors browsing on desktops, mobile devices, or both.

A tap-to-text button (a button with its Action set to Subscribe via text messaging) is shown only on mobile devices. The form itself can still use All devices, with different blocks for desktop and mobile. For example, show a phone number input on desktop and the tap-to-text button on mobile.

• All devices
  Sign-up forms set to show on both devices will display for all shoppers, regardless of the device they are browsing on.
• Desktop only
  Sign-up forms set to display on desktop will not appear for shoppers on mobile devices. A form set to appear on desktops will also appear on tablets.
• Mobile only
  Sign-up forms set to display on mobile will not appear for shoppers on desktop devices.

Click outside form to close

Popup, flyout, and full page sign-up forms all have a dismissal icon (X button) automatically added in the top right corner. Viewers must click the X button to close the sign-up form; however, if you're using a popup form type, you can also choose to allow viewers to close the form by clicking the area outside the form.

• On desktop
  Check this option to allow viewers on desktop to close the form by clicking the area outside the form, in addition to the X button.
• On mobile
  Check this option to allow viewers on mobile to close the sign-up form by clicking the area outside the form, in addition to the X button.

If both options are selected, a user can click outside the form to close it on both devices.

Adjust a form's targeting settings (by visitor, URL, UTM, cart contents, etc.)

In the Targeting & behavior section of the form editor, toggle to the Targeting menu. From here you can further target your sign-up forms to give browsers a personalized experience based on their profile data within Klaviyo. You can choose from multiple targeting options (i.e., target by visitor, by URL, by UTM, or by location) to display only to certain people.

Targeting by visitor

In the Audience section of the Targeting menu, you can choose to display your sign-up form only to visitors who meet certain criteria. Visitors must also meet your Devices and Timing settings. Klaviyo can recognize visitors through its cookie or identifying links. A visitor who has recently cleared their cookies, is using a new device, or visits your site with an incognito browser may be treated as a new, anonymous visitor.

• Don't show to existing Klaviyo profiles
  The form will only appear to visitors who are unknown to Klaviyo.
  
• Show to all audience members
  The form will appear for all site visitors.
• Show to any existing profile
  The form will appear to visitors Klaviyo identifies as an existing profile in your account, whether or not they have opted in.
• Show to email only subscribers
  The form will appear to email subscribers that haven't signed up for your SMS marketing yet.
• Show to text messaging only subscribers
  The form will appear to SMS subscribers that haven't signed up for your email marketing yet.
• Show to specific profiles in a list or segment
  • Include certain lists and segments
    The form will appear to cookied visitors who are members of any of the lists or segments you select.
  • Exclude certain lists and segments
    The form will only appear to visitors who are not known to be members of any of the lists or segments you select, including both anonymous visitors and visitors who are cookied, but not known to be a member of any of the selected groups. If you also include lists or segments, the visitor must belong to at least 1 included group and none of the excluded groups.

Targeting by URL

In the URLs section of the Targeting menu, you can configure which URLs a form does and does not appear on.

• Only show on certain URLs
  Check this option to select a specific URL(s) that the sign-up form will display on.
• Don’t show on certain URLs
  Check this option to choose the URL(s) where the sign-up form should be hidden.

You can toggle between Containing or Exactly matching for each setting.

• Containing
  This option includes any URL with part of the value you input. For example, if you input "Containing www.klaviyo.com/," this will include www.klaviyo.com/blog, www.klaviyo.com/features, and so on.
• Exactly matching
  This option means that you can target 1 specific URL. For example, "https://help.klaviyo.com/The-Signup-Form-Editor" will include only that exact URL, and will not include "https://help.klaviyo.com/The-Template-Editor".
  If you select Exactly matching, be sure to include the correct protocol (e.g., http:// or https://) at the beginning of your URL.

An asterisk (*) can be used as a wildcard in your URLs. For example, if you'd like a sign-up form to appear on both "help.klaviyo.com/The-Signup-Form-Builder" and "help.klaviyo.com/The-Template-Builder", set the form to appear on URLs containing "help.klaviyo.com/The-*-Builder".

Targeting by UTM parameters

In the UTM parameters section of the Targeting menu, you can target customers based on UTM values added to a URL (e.g., only showing a sign-up form to shoppers coming to your website from Facebook). UTM parameters can help you provide your target audience with unique offers or promised content from the original ad.

To target a form by UTM parameters:

1. Turn on Show based on UTM parameters.
2. Select a UTM parameter and enter a Value that matches the value in your campaign URL. If you use underscores in the URL, use the same underscores here.
3. To add another condition, click Add parameter and enter its parameter and value.

Klaviyo supports the following UTM parameters, and the ability to add multiple:

• Source
• Medium
• Campaign
• Term
• ID

Alternatively, you can use URL targeting based on UTM parameters. To set this up, select the Only show on certain URLs option and enter a URL that includes your UTM parameter. For instance, if you want to target based on the utm_content parameter, choose Only show on certain URLs > Containing, and then input your parameter (e.g., "utm_content=example").

You also have the option to Store UTM parameters in shopper’s profile upon consent. By enabling this, Klaviyo will store the UTM parameters from the source a shopper came from as a custom property on their Klaviyo profile. This allows you to see where a subscriber originated from, so that you can use this information for segmentation in your future campaigns and flows.

Targeting by location

In the Location section of the Targeting menu, you can choose to show or not show a sign-up form to visitors based on their location.

• Show to audience in certain locations
  The sign-up form will show to site visitors whose location is identified in the specified location(s).
• Don’t show to audience in certain locations
  The sign-up form will not show to visitors whose location is identified in the specified location(s).

Klaviyo uses each site visitor's IP address to determine whether they meet the criteria. This is helpful if you sell in certain countries and want to show language-specific forms to customers based on where they're located. This may be useful if, for example, you want to include specific data protection language for people in the EU, but do not want browsers in another region to see the same information.

Targeting by cart contents

In the Cart contents section of the Targeting menu, you can choose to trigger a sign-up form based on a shopper's cart attributes (e.g., total cart value, total number of items in cart, or specific product criteria). For more specific instructions head to our guide on triggering a sign-up form based on cart contents.

Sample behaviors & targeting settings

Welcome sign-up form

To create a sign-up form for site visitors Klaviyo does not recognize, start with the following settings in the Targeting & behavior section:

• Under Display:
  • Timing: Immediately
    
  • Frequency:
    • If visitor closes form, show again after 90 days
    • Don’t show again if form was submitted or if go to URL button was clicked
  • Devices: All devices
• Under Targeting:
  • Audience: Don’t show to existing Klaviyo profiles

Welcome sign-up form with offer

To create a sign-up form for engaged visitors that includes an incentive, like a 15% off coupon, add and design a teaser that's set to show before displaying form and after form is closed.

Next, set the following settings in the Targeting & behavior section:

• Under Display:
  • Timing: Based on rules
    • After time delay > Show after 15 seconds
    • After visitor has scrolled a certain amount > 30% Scroll distance
    • Turn on Only display if all selected conditions are met to require both the 15-second delay and 30% scroll distance.
  • Frequency:
    • If visitor closes form, show again after 90 days
    • Don’t show again if form was submitted or if go to URL button was clicked
  • Devices: All devices
• Under Targeting:
  • Audience: Don’t show to existing Klaviyo profiles

Exit intent form: subscribe before you leave

To create an exit intent form that encourages visitors to subscribe before they leave your site, start with the following settings in the Targeting & behavior section:

• Under Display:
  • Timing: Based on rules > When visitor is exiting the page
  • Frequency:
    • Don’t show again if form was submitted or if go to URL button was clicked
    • If visitor closes form, show again after 30 days
  • Devices: All devices
• Under Targeting:
  • Audience: Don’t show to existing Klaviyo profiles

SMS form for email subscribers

To show your email subscribers a form encouraging them to share their phone number and subscribe to your SMS updates, start with the following settings in the Targeting & behavior section:

• Under Display:
  • Timing: Based on rules > After time delay > Show after 3 seconds
  • Frequency:
    • If visitor closes form, show again after 90 days
    • Don’t show again if form was submitted or if go to URL button was clicked
  • Devices: All devices
• Under Targeting
  • Audience: Show to email only subscribers

Publish your changes

1. Click Publish or schedule in the form editor and resolve any blocking alerts.
2. To apply the changes now, choose Publish now and click the Publish now button.

Next steps

Once you’ve published a sign-up form, build a welcome series to deliver your form’s offer (e.g., a discount or free shipping on their first order) and introduce new subscribers to your brand.

Additional resources