CRO Glossary
Exit-Intent Popup
A popup triggered when behavioral signals suggest a visitor is about to leave the page, often used to prevent abandonment.
An exit-intent popup is typically triggered by tracking cursor movement toward the browser's close button, back button, or address bar on desktop, or by scroll-and-time heuristics on mobile, where true exit-intent detection is trickier. When the trigger fires, the site shows a last-chance offer, discount code, email capture form, or reminder, aiming to convert a visitor who was otherwise about to abandon without converting.
These popups are a common CRO tactic because they target users precisely at the moment of highest abandonment risk rather than interrupting everyone. However, they're also a classic candidate for careful guardrail metric monitoring: while they can lift email capture or discount redemption, they can also annoy users, increase bounce rate on future visits, or cannibalize full-price purchases if the discount trains customers to always wait for a popup before buying.
A typical experiment might test an exit-intent popup offering 10% off against no popup at all on a cart abandonment flow, measuring not just immediate conversion rate but also longer-term repeat purchase behavior and average order value, since discount-driven urgency (see urgency) can pull forward purchases that would have happened anyway at full price.
Related terms
Above vs Below Median Split
A segmentation technique that divides users into two groups at the median of a metric to compare high and low engagers.
Qualitative Feedback Loop
A recurring process of collecting and acting on user comments, session recordings, and survey responses to inform test hypotheses.
Experiment Metadata
The structured record of who, what, when, and how for a test — hypothesis, owner, dates, variants, and metrics used to track and audit it.
Pre-Test Analysis
The upfront work of validating traffic, metrics, and baseline data quality before launching an experiment.
Above-the-Fold vs Below-the-Fold Messaging Hierarchy
How the order and prominence of value-proposition messaging is split between the visible screen and the rest of the page.
Experiment Contamination
When a control or variant group is unintentionally exposed to the other condition, corrupting the comparison.
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