Once you've chosen an objective for your Onsite Experience, the next step is deciding what kind of experience you want to create and how it should appear on your website. This is where Types and Layouts come in.

A simple way to think about the structure is:

Objective → Type → Layout

For example, you could create an Audience Growth experience using a Form displayed as a Popup. Or an Understand experience using a Form embedded directly into a product page.

Types and layouts can be combined in different ways depending on what you want to achieve.

The Type determines the basic functionality and purpose of the experience you're building.

Triggerbee includes six main types:

Your objective and type are separate concepts. The same type can therefore be used for several different objectives. For example, a Form could collect an email address for Audience Growth or preferences for Understand.

Forms are used to collect information from your visitors. You can collect email addresses, phone numbers, names, preferences, competition entries, and other customer data.

Common use cases:

Forms can contain anything from a single email field to multi-step experiences with several questions.

Promotions are used to highlight offers, products, campaigns, or important messages.

Common use cases:

Promotions don't necessarily need to include an offer. They can also be used whenever you want to communicate something relevant to a particular visitor or audience.

Surveys are used to collect feedback and insights directly from your visitors and customers.

Common use cases:

Survey responses can help you understand your customers while also providing data you can use for future targeting and personalization.

Referral experiences encourage customers to share something with friends or other potential customers.

Common use cases:

Product Tours guide visitors through specific features, functionality, or areas of your website. They're especially useful when you want to explain something in context rather than displaying a standalone message.

Common use cases:

Nudges are small, contextual experiences designed to encourage a specific action without significantly interrupting the visitor.

Common use cases:

Nudges are commonly combined with Sticky layouts so that the message can be anchored to a specific element on the website.

Gamification isn't an experience type of its own. Instead, interactive components can be added to experiences to make them more engaging.

Gamification components include:

These can be used across different objectives and use cases, such as collecting email addresses, learning about customer preferences, or creating engagement around a seasonal promotion.

While the Type determines what you're creating, the Layout determines how it appears on your website.

The available layouts are:

You select and configure the layout from the Canvas settings in the Experience Editor.

A Popup appears above your website content, typically centered on the screen with an overlay behind it.

Best for:

Why use it:
Popups are highly visible and make it difficult to miss an important message or offer.

Things to consider:
Because they interrupt the browsing experience, targeting and timing are particularly important. Avoid showing every visitor an immediate popup unless there's a good reason to do so.

Design tips:

A Panel is a full-width banner displayed at the top or bottom of the page. It can remain visible while the visitor scrolls.

Best for:

Why use it:
Panels are highly visible without covering the main page content.

Things to consider:
Space is limited, so messages should be concise. Also check that the Panel doesn't interfere with navigation, add-to-cart buttons, chat widgets, or other fixed website elements.

Design tips:

A Callout is an overlay positioned in one of the corners of the website, usually the bottom left or right.

Best for:

Why use it:
Callouts attract attention without blocking the visitor's main browsing experience.

Things to consider:
They're easier to miss than Popups and can overlap other fixed website elements.

Design tips:

Embedded experiences are inserted directly into your website's existing content and behave like part of the page.

Best for:

Why use it:
Embedded experiences provide a native, non-intrusive way to personalize your website. They're particularly useful when you want to replace or add content depending on who is visiting.

Things to consider:
You need to define where in the existing page structure the experience should be inserted.

Design tips:

Fullscreen takes over the entire viewport and temporarily covers the website behind it.

Best for:

Why use it:
Fullscreen provides maximum visibility and gives you plenty of space for visual content.

Things to consider:
It's the most intrusive layout and should therefore be used selectively. Targeting, frequency, and timing are especially important.

Design tips:

Edge is a slim experience attached to the edge of the visitor's screen. It stays visible without taking up much space.

Best for:

An Edge can, for example, invite the visitor to click and open a larger Popup or Callout.

Design tips:

Sticky lets you anchor an experience to a specific element on your website, such as a button, menu item, or input field.

The experience moves dynamically with the element as the visitor navigates or scrolls.

Best for:

Why use it:
Sticky experiences let you communicate something in the exact context where it's relevant.

Design tips:

Minimized is not a Layout. It's a step state that allows an experience to remain accessible in a smaller format.

It's commonly used together with Popups. For example, when a visitor closes a Popup, you can switch to a small Minimized step in the corner of the screen. The visitor can then click it to reopen the offer.

Common use cases:

Keep Minimized steps simple. An icon or short message such as "Get 10% off" is usually enough.

Start with the objective, not the format.

Ask yourself:

1. What do I want to achieve?
Choose your Objective.

2. What kind of experience will help me achieve it?
Choose your Type.

3. How much attention does the experience need?
Choose your Layout.

For example:

Audience Growth → Form → Popup
Collect newsletter signups from new visitors.

Understand → Form → Embedded
Ask visitors about their preferences directly on a product or category page.

Activate → Nudge → Sticky
Encourage logged-out members to use the login button.

Convert & Sell → Promotion → Callout
Show a personalized offer without interrupting browsing.

Listen → Survey → Embedded
Collect feedback after a purchase.

Regardless of which layout you choose: