# The popup builder

Every visitor who lands on your store and leaves without joining your list is a conversation you'll never get to have. The popup builder is how you catch them. It's the OneText tool for designing on-site opt-in popups that turn browsers into SMS and email subscribers you can text later.

This is a full run-through of what it does, from a blank canvas to a live popup you can measure. If you've only ever poked at it, here's everything that's inside.

## A canvas that shows exactly what ships

You build a popup by dropping elements onto a canvas and arranging them, with a live render of the real popup the whole time. No code, and no guessing what it will look like once it's live. The left panel holds your pages and the layer tree, the canvas in the middle is the popup itself, and the right panel holds styling and your live color palette. Undo and redo work the way you'd expect, and every change saves as you go.

![The popup builder: a drag-and-drop canvas with your popup in the middle, your pages on the left, and your live color palette on the right](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203964272/e4566587-83ff-4b9d-a83b-0cb6558da9be.png)

## Design for the phone and the laptop in the same place

Most of your shoppers are on a phone, some are on a desktop, and a popup that looks great on one can fall apart on the other. The builder keeps a mobile and a desktop version of every popup side by side, so you style each one for the screen it's on. Flip into preview and switch between the two to see exactly what a shopper sees before you publish.

![The popup previewed on mobile, rendered in a phone frame with the device switch at the top](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203964405/273781b4-65a4-4788-9bb7-13edc5a19f47.png)

Every element carries its own mobile and desktop styles, and you can hide an element on one device while keeping it on the other. The same popup, tuned for each screen.

![The same popup previewed on desktop with a single tap of the device switch](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203964546/2bbe71f9-2f53-4b0b-84c3-4427756fc72a.png)

## Every element you need to capture and convert

Open the **Insert** menu and you get a full toolbox. Alongside the basics (text, images, your logo, and buttons) there's everything you need to actually collect a contact and hand back a reward.

![The element menu: text, image, logo, quiz, email and phone fields, button, terms, spinner, coupon code, countdown, payment form, and scratch-off, all shown on a live popup](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203964714/063984d8-38d1-4d3a-a861-fa57de612d11.png)

- **Email and phone fields** to collect the contact info, with a country selector built into the phone field.
- **A terms element** that adds the SMS consent language for you, so your opt-in is compliant from the start.
- **A quiz** to collect zero-party data, so you learn something about a shopper while they sign up.
- **A countdown timer** for urgency, a **coupon code** element to reveal the reward, and a **payment form** for taking a card right in the popup.

Every **button** can do more than submit. Point it at a URL, close the popup, or start a tap-to-text conversation, so one button can be a submit, a link, or a text starter depending on what you need.

## Games that make signing up worth it

Two of the elements turn a plain form into something a shopper actually wants to finish. A **spin-to-win** wheel lets them spin for a prize, and a **scratch-off** hands them a ticket to scratch and reveal. The scratch-off comes with real ticket textures (crinkle, metallic, velvet, and lotto) and one-click presets, so it looks like a genuine scratcher rather than a gray box.

![A gamified popup: a gold scratch-off ticket that reveals a discount, above the email and phone fields](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203964865/0cb5c379-984f-411e-b70b-182ad76f01d0.png)

Both drop a real reward behind the fun, and both feed the same opt-in, so the shopper plays, wins, and joins your list in one motion.

## Style every detail to match your brand

Styling is where it becomes *yours*. As you pick colors, the builder keeps a live palette of every color already in use, so it's easy to stay on-brand, and changing one swatch updates it everywhere it appears. You can set fonts and typography, background colors and images, borders, shadows, spacing, corner rounding, and reusable button styles, right down to a single element.

![Selecting an element opens its styling controls: content, variant, color, font, and per-device visibility, next to the layer tree](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203965012/92c4ffb5-f2ae-44b5-bae8-728843da5889.png)

Because those controls live on every element, and every element has separate mobile and desktop styles, you can get a heading exactly right on a phone without touching the desktop version.

## A card, or the whole screen

A popup doesn't have to be a small box in the corner. Under **Layout** you choose between a **Card** that floats over the page and a **Full Screen** takeover that owns the moment, and you can switch a popup between one and two columns to fit an image alongside your form.

![The Layout panel: switch between a card and a full-screen takeover, and between one and two columns](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203965182/0be21fce-e0e9-4d81-b95e-b391e8a171d9.png)

## Build a multi-step flow

A popup can be more than a single window. You can build it as a flow of pages, so a shopper moves from a teaser, to the signup form, to a confirmation. Add a page and you start from a ready-made layout (Email Signup, Phone Signup, a Quiz, a Confirmation screen, and more) or a blank one.

![The Add Page dialog: start a new page from a Micro Yes, Email Signup, Phone Signup, Quiz, Confirmation, Payment Form, or Blank layout](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203965311/af341c1a-e5a8-40e0-bbc9-a172b5537df1.png)

The confirmation page is where you pay the shopper back for signing up. Drop in a coupon code element and their reward is right there the moment they join.

![A confirmation page thanking the shopper and revealing their coupon code](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203965448/3eefd6e0-1397-4a0d-b734-39b63afbc298.png)

## Decide when it shows up

A popup is only as good as its timing. In the settings you choose whether it opens on its own when someone arrives, how many seconds to wait first, and a cooldown so a shopper who already closed it isn't shown it again for a set number of days. Turn auto-open off and the popup waits behind a small teaser button until the shopper taps it.

![The settings panel: auto-open, a trigger delay in seconds, and a cooldown in days](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203965592/2f188e56-4c17-4631-8386-3a1a8b24b371.png)

## Show it to the right shopper

You also decide *who* sees a popup. Targeting rules let you show or hide it based on the page URL or path (a collection-specific offer only on that collection), a keyword or query parameter in the link a shopper arrived from, their location, or their device. Layer the rules to get as specific as you want.

![The targeting panel: show or hide a popup by device, location, URL, path, or keyword, alongside the popup's opt-in charts](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203965728/22cc301b-8982-492a-8498-a101276b0512.png)

## Publish now, or on a schedule

When it's ready, take it live in one click. Or set a **schedule**: give the popup a start and end date and it runs itself for a sale or a seasonal push, then steps aside on its own. The same screen shows how the live popup is performing, so you publish and measure in one place.

![The publish panel showing a popup that's currently live, next to its text and email opt-in charts](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203965889/153e9be3-39eb-4945-86b3-0d774ff661d4.png)

## Start from a proven template

You don't have to start from a blank canvas. The **templates gallery** gives you pre-built popups designed to convert, each shown as a live preview, so you can pick a proven layout and swap in your brand. There's also a quick-start option that generates a popup from a short description when you'd rather begin from an idea.

![The templates gallery: pre-built popups you can start from, each shown as a live preview](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203966057/4525a302-98ea-441c-bc7b-96f83407417a.png)

## See what's actually working

Once a popup is live, the builder measures it. You get site visitors, popups shown, and text and email opt-ins, each with its conversion rate and a trend over the range you pick.

![The popups dashboard: site visitors, popups shown, and text and email opt-ins with conversion rates and a daily breakdown](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203966181/c440fd0a-dc4d-4a59-b8bb-dbf4bdccaebc.png)

Break the numbers down by device, switch to net-new opt-ins to see only fresh subscribers, change the date range and interval, and export the whole thing to CSV. Every popup also has its own breakdown, so you can tell which offer is really pulling its weight.

## Run as many as you want

You're not limited to one popup. Run a welcome offer, a scheduled sale popup, and a cart saver at the same time, each with its own targeting and schedule. Your popups list shows at a glance which are live, which are scheduled, and which are still drafts, and you can clone any of them to start the next one.

![The My Popups list: several popups at once, tagged live, scheduled, or draft](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1783203966319/5ae3f3b3-8ecc-4ca7-becc-7d0d9548b8c4.png)

## Why it matters

Your list is the audience you actually own, and the popup builder is how you grow it, from your own store, on your terms. A popup that looks like your brand, shows to the right shopper at the right moment, and hands them a reason to join is the difference between a visitor who leaves and a subscriber you can bring back again and again.

**Head to Popups in your OneText dashboard.** Start from a template or a blank canvas, drop in an email and phone field, publish it, and watch your list grow.