Understanding targeting and behavior settings

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. 

Before you begin

Based on your Customer Privacy settings in Shopify, Klaviyo may not track onsite events (and thus, not apply certain types of form targeting) for visitors to your Shopify store in the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland, unless they have provided consent. If a visitor hasn’t consented, and would otherwise have been included per the targeting requirements, they will not see the form because they will not be identified. Targeting for these visitors will apply as follows:

• Overall, if the visitor hasn’t consented and would otherwise have been included per the targeting requirements, they will not see the form because they will not be identified.
• If you select “Don’t show to existing Klaviyo profiles”, the visitor will still see the form because they won’t be identified as an existing profile.
• If you select “Target visitors in a list or segment”, the visitor will not see the form (even if they are otherwise in the list or segment) because they will not be identified.
• If you select “Show to all visitors” the visitor will see it.
• Certain custom triggers based on cookie information and user properties will not trigger due to a lack of identification.
• Targeting by location is not affected.
• Targeting to show on device type (desktop, mobile) is not affected.

Choose when a form should appear

The Display Timing section gives you control over when your sign-up forms are triggered and displayed on your site. If you want your form to appear right away when someone visits a page on your site, choose Show immediately on page load in the Display Timing section. Otherwise, choose Show based on rules and select one or more of the options below:

• Show when visitor is exiting the page
  This allows you to target a browser when they are about to navigate away from the page. Exit intent forms are triggered when someone mouses above the top of the viewport on desktop, and if someone scrolls quickly upward on mobile.
• Show __ seconds after page load
  Input the number of seconds someone must be on the page before the form loads. For example, if you input one second, the form will display after someone has been on a site for one second. As a general rule, visitors usually do not spend more than a few seconds on each page. If your message is crucial, make sure to display the message immediately or after one or two seconds.
• Show after scrolling __% of the page
  If you choose a scroll delay, someone must scroll to a certain point on the page for the form to load; 0% is the top of the webpage, whereas 100% is the bottom.

You also have the option to Only show on a custom trigger. Select this option if you want your form to display based on any condition, such as a button click or in your own code. See installation documentation for more details on this Display Timing option. 

These settings are available for popup and flyout forms; embedded forms will always appear immediately upon page load. 

Choose how often a form should display 

Display frequency settings determine how often a popup or flyout will appear for each visitor. 

If you want a form to never appear again after someone fills it out, check the option Don't show again after submit form or go to URL action. If you’d like the same visitor to have the opportunity to fill a form out more than once, leave this option unchecked. 

Use the Show again __ day(s) after closing 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 visit. Choose a longer timeframe (e.g., 5 days) to limit the form from appearing too often. 

These settings rely on Klaviyo’s cookie, so if a visitor clears their cookies or uses an incognito browser, the form may reappear the next time they visit your site. 

Access a form’s embed code

In order to install an embedded form, you must copy the form’s embed code and paste it onto your site. Popup and sign-up forms don’t require the use of an embed code. If you're unsure of where to paste the code for your embedded form, head to our article on Where to Paste a Form's Embed Code.

Device type settings

Sign-up forms can be set to display on desktops, mobile devices, or both. A form set to appear on desktops will also appear on tablets. 

Note that this setting will be disabled for forms with a click-to-text button (a button with its action set to Subscribe via SMS), and forms with this type of button will appear only on mobile devices.

Form dismissal settings

If your form is a popup, choose whether your form should close when a site visitor clicks the area outside the form. If this setting is toggled off for a certain device (i.e., desktop or mobile), the form will only close if the visitor clicks the close icon or fills it out.

Targeting

You can further target your forms to give browsers a personalized onsite experience based on their data within Klaviyo. You can target your form to display only to certain people using the below criteria.

Targeting by visitor

Target your form to display only to visitors who meet certain criteria. Note that a form will only display when all criteria are met, including device and display timing settings. Visitor targeting relies on Klaviyo’s cookie, and a visitor who has recently cleared their cookies, is using a new device, or visits your site with an incognito browser will be treated as a new, anonymous visitor. 

• Show to all visitors
  The form will appear for all site visitors 
• Don’t show to existing Klaviyo profiles
  The form will only appear to visitors who are unknown to Klaviyo
• Target visitors in a list or segment
  • Show to visitors in certain lists and segments
    The form will appear to cookied visitors who are members of any of the lists or segments you select 
  • Don't show to visitors in 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

Whenever someone joins or is removed from a segment or list, those changes will be reflected by your signup form’s targeting. Head to our article on Understanding how segments update for more information.

Targeting by URL 

You can configure which URLs a form does and does not appear on. Use Only show on certain URLs to select a specific set of URLs to display the form on, and Don’t show on certain URLs to choose the URL(s) where the form should be hidden. 

You can toggle between "Containing" and "Exactly Matching" for each setting. 

• Containing 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 means that you can target one specific URL. For example, "help.klaviyo.com/The-Signup-Form-Builder" will include only that exact URL, and will not include "https://help.klaviyo.com/The-Signup-Form-Builder".

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 location

You can choose to show or not show a form to visitors based on their location. Klaviyo uses each site visitor's IP address to determine whether they meet the criteria. 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.

Sample behaviors & targeting settings 

Welcome sign-up form

To create a sign-up form for site visitors who are not yet subscribers, use the following settings as a starting point: 

• Display timing: Show immediately on page load
• Devices: Show on Desktop and Mobile 
• Display Frequency: 
  • Don't show again after submit form or go to URL action
  • Show again 90 days after closing
• Targeting: Don’t show to existing 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, use the following settings as a starting point: 

• Teaser: Before displaying form and after form is closed 
• Display timing: Loading Delay
  • Show 15 seconds after page scroll
  • Show after scrolling 30% of the page
• Devices: Show on Desktop and Mobile 
• Display Frequency: 
  • Don't show again after submit form or go to URL action
  • Show again 90 days after closing
• Targeting: Don’t show to existing profiles

Exit intent form: subscribe before you go

To create an exit intent form and encourage visitors to subscribe before they leave, start with the following settings: 

• Display timing: Loading delay > Show when visitor is exiting the page 
• Devices: Show on Desktop and Mobile 
• Display Frequency: 
  • Don't show again after submit form or go to URL action
  • Show again 30 days after closing
• Targeting: Don’t show to existing profiles

SMS form for email subscribers

To show your email subscribers a form encouraging them to subscribe to SMS updates, use the following settings: 

• Display timing: Loading delay > Show 3 seconds after page load 
• Devices: Show on Desktop and Mobile 
• Display frequency: 
  • Don't show again after submit form or go to URL action
  • Show again 90 days after closing
• Targeting: Target visitors in a list or segment
  • Show to visitors in certain lists or segments > [Your main email list]
  • Don’t show to visitors in certain lists or segments > [Your SMS list]

Next steps

Once you’ve published a sign-up form, you can: 

• Customize your opt-in confirmation email, if double opt-in is turned on for your list
• 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 
• Learn how to view form responses
• Optimize your forms by A/B testing your message and targeting settings

Additional resources

• Course: Creating an effective acquisition strategy using signup forms
• Understanding sign-up form analytics
• Getting started with signup forms