Exit intent triggers show a popup when a visitor is about to leave your site, giving you one last chance to capture their email before they go. This guide covers how exit intent works, how to add it to an existing popup, and how to set up a separate exit intent popup alongside your main one.

How Exit Intent Works

Exit intent is detected differently depending on the device:

On desktop: it fires when the visitor moves their cursor toward the top of the browser, for example, to close the tab or switch tabs.
On mobile: since there's no cursor, it fires when the visitor scrolls up quickly, which usually means they're done browsing.

Because mobile and desktop use different signals, you'll set up a trigger for each.

Choose Your Approach

There are two ways to use exit intent:

Add exit intent to a popup you already have. Your existing popup gains an extra trigger, so it can also catch visitors who are leaving.
Create a separate exit intent popup. Your main popup keeps its current triggers, and a second popup with its own last-chance message appears only when visitors are leaving.

Add Exit Intent to an Existing Popup

Set up the mobile trigger

Go to your Campaigns Dashboard and select the popup you want to update.
In the trigger settings, edit the existing Trigger (or add a new trigger) and choose When user scrolls up quickly from the dropdown.
Under Open step, choose which popup step should appear when the trigger fires.

Set up the desktop trigger

In the same popup, select desktop only in the Applies to dropdown menu.
Select When mouse leaves the page from the Exit intent dropdown.
Under Open step, select which step should appear when the trigger fires.
Click Save in the top-right corner of the editor.

Decide how exit intent works with your other triggers

You have two options:

1. Trigger on either condition. Keep your existing triggers and add exit intent. For example, the popup shows after 5 seconds or on exit intent, whichever happens first.

2. Trigger on exit intent only. Remove your other triggers, including Smart Trigger, and keep just the exit intent triggers.

💡 Tip: A popup set to exit intent only will be seen by fewer visitors overall, because it fires only for people showing signs of leaving, not everyone who lands on your site.

Create a Separate Exit Intent Popup

Use this if you want to keep your main popup as-is and add a second popup with a last-chance message.

Go to your Campaigns Dashboard and find your main popup.
Duplicate the popup. Your copy keeps the same design, so you don’t have to build it from scratch.
Rename the copy so it’s easy to tell apart from your main popup, for example “Exit Intent – Spring Sale.”
Adjust the copy for a visitor who’s about to leave (see the tips below in Best Practices).
In the trigger settings, set up the mobile and desktop exit intent triggers as described above, and remove any other triggers, including Smart Trigger.
Add a cooling period so the two popups don’t overlap: select the option to not trigger if another popup was viewed within a set window, such as the last 15 or 30 seconds.
Click Save.
Open your main popup, add the same cooling period, and save it. Whichever popup shows first, the visitor won’t also see the other.

Best Practices

Messaging

Since this popup appears when someone is about to leave, acknowledge that directly in your headline. For example:

"Wait! You still have X% off"
"Before you go, you still have X% off"
"Leaving so soon? You still have X% off"

💡 Tip: Before you publish, have Lia check your popup for mistakes that are easy to miss, like a floating button that shows a different offer than your popup, or offers that don’t match from one step to the next. Open the dropdown within the Publish button and select Review popup, or ask in the Lia chat panel: “Check this popup for consistency before I publish it.” If you make more changes afterward, run the check again so Lia reviews the final version. See Getting started with Lia for details.

Other tips

Ask for email right away. Skip extra steps so you're not asking more of someone who's already leaving.
Remove floating buttons. An exit intent popup is a one-time catch, not something that should linger as a re-openable button.
Keep the close (X) button visible. Visitors should always have an easy way to dismiss the popup.

Setting Up Exit Intent Triggers In Your Popup