Creating a sense of urgency has a major tenet of marketing since, well, the market existed. “Buy this” suddenly worked better when it changed to “buy this now”. And then it got even better when it changed to “buy this now before it’s too late”. Enough of that. The Timer is now used to help translate the importance of urgency to improving email opt-in conversion rates, as well as conversion rates for other calls to action such as:
- Free Trials
- Account Sign-Up
- Limited Time Offers
- Etc.
On this page, we’ll look at the various email opt-in and popup platforms which offer timers built in to the solution.
Count Down Timers for Website Popups and Call to Actions
| Provider | Starter Pricing | Learn More | Free Trial | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 OptInMonster | $19/Month | Learn More | Free Trial | @optinmonster | Drag and drop builder, yesno, Mobile friendly popups, Custom success message, Canvas, Animations and effects, Lightbox Popup, Fullscreen welcome mat, Slide-in Scroll Box, Floating Bar, Countdown Timer, Sidebar Forms, Inline Forms, Content Locker, Coupon Wheel Optins, Tiggers - Exit, Scroll, Inactive, Time Display, Scheduling, Targeted, Integrations, Analytics, |
 Poptin | $19/Month | Learn More | Free Trial | @poptin | Mobile friendly popups, Lightbox Popup, Fullscreen welcome mat, Slide-in Scroll Box, Floating Bar, Countdown Timer, Sidebar Forms, Inline Forms, Content Locker, Tiggers - Exit, Scroll, Inactive, Time Display, Scheduling, Targeted, Integrations, Analytics, Drag and drop builder, |
 Listagram | $29/Month | Learn More | Free Trial | @listagram | Mobile friendly popups, Animations and effects, Coupon Wheel Optins, Drag and drop builder, |
 GetSiteControl | $9/Month | Learn More | Free Trial | @getsitecontrol | Mobile friendly popups, Animations and effects, Forms, Surveys, Drag and drop builder, |
Count Down Timers for Your Website
You could probably hire a programmer to create and maintain code for website countdown timers. But why do it when there are inexpensive solutions which likely work better anyways? And while the timers themselves aren’t typically related to your popups, they are useful on landing pages and throughout your website. Considerations:
- Static Timers: Can you create a timer which is based on a specific day/time? For example, count down to a Black Friday sale.
- Dynamic Timers: Can you create a timer which simply ads a set amount of time to the current. For example, start the timer at 3 minutes from current time as to when a sale “ends”.
- Location: Where and how can timers be shown on your website? In popups? Embedded in landing pages? As part of a floating bar?
Final Thoughts
We only found a few timer plugins (listed above). While it’s a great add-on to compliment popups, it’s not necessarily worth engaging a 3rd party just for the timer feature itself.
Sample Timer via OptinMonster