Plinko is a gamified element that invites visitors to drop a ball through a field of pegs and watch it bounce into one of several reward buckets at the bottom. Like Spin-to-Win, Scratch-Off, and Card Game, it makes the opt-in moment feel like a fun, low-effort interaction rather than a standard signup form. Plinko works well as the first step of a new campaign or as an added step in an existing popup flow.
How to Add the Plinko Element
There are two ways to add Plinko to your popup:
From Scratch: When creating a new popup, select the Plinko template in the first step of the editor to start with a pre-configured layout.
To an Existing Popup: Open your popup in the editor, click the + (Plus) icon in the step management area, and select Plinko from the element list. You can then drag and drop the step into position. To make it your first step, drag it to the top, then delete your old first step by right-clicking the step name and selecting Delete. If that old first step is a Mini Quiz whose answers feed your ESP flows or segmentation, keep the quiz and add Plinko as an extra step instead.
š” Note: Like Spin-to-Win and Card Game, Plinko performs best when it's the central focus of its step. We recommend avoiding competing calls to action on the same screen.
Configuring the Board
Once the element is added, select it to open its settings on the right-hand side. From there, you can control how the board is laid out:
Buckets: Add, remove, or rename the buckets at the bottom of the board. Each bucket's label is what the visitor sees the ball land on (for example, "15% OFF", "Free Shipping" or "Mystery Discount"). Keep labels short, since long labels can wrap or crowd the buckets on mobile.
Number of Rows: By default, Plinko uses a standard number of peg rows. You can override this to make the board taller or shorter. More rows means a longer drop, so balance this against your popup's overall flow and available space on mobile.
Drop Button: Visitors start the game by clicking the drop button (for example, "Try Your Luck"). A clear button makes it obvious how to play, so make sure its text tells visitors exactly what to do.
Setting Rewards and Winning Probabilities
Unlike a pure animation, Plinko lets you decide how likely the ball is to land in each bucket. The ball's path still looks random to the visitor, but where it ends up follows the probabilities you set.
Select the Plinko element to open its settings.
For each bucket, set its winning probability. For example, 60% for 10% off, 30% for 15% off and 10% for free shipping. Weighting lower-value rewards more heavily keeps the game feeling random while you stay in control of your average discount.
Single reward: If you want every visitor to get the same offer, set one bucket to 100%. The other buckets still add to the excitement, but the ball always lands on your main offer.
Different rewards per bucket: Point each bucket to its own next step, then set the reward on each of those steps. This way, the success screen and discount code always match the bucket the visitor landed in.
Adding a "Try Again" moment: Add two Plinko steps. Set the first one to always land on a "Try Again" bucket that leads to the second Plinko step, where the visitor wins their reward.
Visual Customization
To match your brand, use the Style Editor to customize:
Pegs: Peg color, so the pegs stand out against your popup background.
Buckets: Bucket background color and border color.
Bucket Text: The color of the reward labels inside each bucket. Pick a color with strong contrast against the bucket background so each reward is easy to read.
Typography: Font family, size, and weight for the headline, body text, and drop button.
Layout: Spacing and alignment of the board within your popup on both desktop and mobile.
š”Tip: Want to restyle the board without digging through settings? Lia, Alia's built-in AI assistant, can change bucket labels, colors or layout for you with no CSS required, including styling beyond these settings like bucket gradients, spacing between buckets, or rounded corners. See Getting started with Lia.
Functional Behavior of the Drop Interaction
When the visitor clicks the drop button, the ball falls from the top of the board, bounces off the pegs, and settles into a bucket based on the probabilities you set.
Once the ball lands:
The winning bucket is revealed, and the visitor moves to the next step connected to that bucket.
The reward set on that next step is applied, so the code they see always matches what they won.
Use Preview mode to test the full drop on both desktop and mobile before publishing. Run it a few times to confirm each bucket leads to the right next step and reward.
š”Note: Long headlines can push the board and buckets out of alignment on desktop. If the board looks skewed after you change the copy, shorten the headline. After any copy change, check both desktop and mobile in Preview.
Performance Signals
Plinko is one of Alia's strongest list-growth formats. Based on live A/B tests run across multiple merchants:
Results will vary by industry, audience, and your current baseline performance. We recommend validating Plinko against your existing first step using Alia's A/B Testing tools before rolling it out to all traffic. When testing, change only the first step so you get a clean read on Plinko itself.
Publishing Your Campaign
Once you're happy with your buckets, probabilities, rewards, and styling, click Publish in the top right corner. You can track Plinko's performance alongside your other campaigns from your Alia dashboard.