What is it?
Attentive's exit intent feature detects when visitors are about to leave your website by monitoring their scroll behavior and mouse movement. It triggers a targeted reminder or incentive—such as a tailored offer or urgency-driven message—to encourage departing visitors to subscribe or complete a purchase.
Note: This feature is designed for sign-up units operating outside of AI Grow. If you are using AI Grow, stick with a single consolidated unit to remain eligible for easy one-click application of AI Grow to new units—creating separate standalone units disables this automated management. To enable exit intent on an existing AI Grow unit, please contact your Attentive representative or Support.
How do I use it?
Recommended Display Configuration
To optimize exit intent units—especially when offering different copy or incentives than your standard fullscreen units—configure your sign-up units to prevent overlap while maximizing overall conversion rates (CVR):
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Pageview 1 (Primary Immediate Unit): Display a standard fullscreen sign-up unit immediately on the first page view to optimize conversion rates. If closed without a sign-up, the unit will collapse into a bubble on the same pageview.
- Set the unit to trigger on First pageview only across Every session.
- Set the bubble to Show immediately after the signup unit is closed
Note: Do not set exit-intent rules on this primary unit. You will do that on a separate unit.
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Pageview 2 and Beyond (Exit Intent Unit): Create a separate sign-up unit configured to trigger specifically on exit intent.
- Set the unit to trigger on Second pageview and beyond across Every session.
- Allow the creative to display on any page rather than restricting it exclusively to cart or checkout pages to maximize impression volume. Use URL allow/block lists to manage page display if you need to prevent two different creatives from firing on the same pageview.
- If using a Bubble unit with exit intent enabled, the bubble will automatically expand when abandonment behavior is detected. Automatic expansion occurs at most once per hour and will pause for 24 hours if a fullscreen exit-intent unit has already been displayed.
Step-by-step setup for exit intent unit
- Create or Duplicate a Sign-Up Unit: Navigate to Subscribers → Sign-up Units in the Attentive platform. Create a new unit or clone an existing one to use specifically for exit intent.
- Update the Display Trigger: Open Display Rules for the unit. Under Timing, set the display trigger to On exit intent.
- Configure Targeting & Frequency: Under Sessions & pageviews, set Session to Every session and Page views to Second pageview and beyond. Exclude active subscribers and configure impression limits or page exclusions as needed.
- Tailor the Creative & Messaging: Customize messaging specifically for abandoning visitors (e.g., "Wait! Before you go..."). Consider using an SMS-only offer to reduce friction for departing visitors, or increase the welcome incentive (e.g., 15% off instead of 10%).
- Assign Offer & Journey: Link your desired coupon offer and welcome journey. You can reuse your standard welcome flow or attach a dedicated journey for exit-intent subscribers.
- Adjust Primary Unit Settings: To prevent visual overlap, if you're using a bubble unit, ensure that your primary unit is set to display on PV1 (pageview 1) ONLY and that exit intent is PV2+ (pageview 2 and beyond).
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Test & Activate: Preview and verify the trigger behavior across devices:
- Desktop: Cursor moves toward the browser close button or top URL bar.
- Mobile: Rapid downward and upward scroll motion.
- Once verified, click Schedule and activate.
Why should I use it?
- Recover Leads: Re-engage high-intent traffic at the precise moment of abandonment to capture subscribers who would otherwise leave without converting.
- Reduce Friction with Targeted Offers: Present streamlined, high-value incentives—such as SMS-only flows or elevated discount codes—specifically tailored to visitors who need a final nudge.
- Maintain a Seamless User Experience: Using separate display rules ensures your primary welcome flows fire smoothly without overwhelming visitors or causing visual unit collisions on-site.