Overview
Not every pop belongs in front of every visitor. With the Targeting tab, you set rules for each pop, like showing a free shipping offer only to US shoppers on product pages, or saving a “welcome back” pop for returning visitors. Targeting replaces the old Pages tab and does everything it did, plus a lot more.
Key benefits
Show pops on specific pages: include or exclude pages by their URL path.
Target by location: show or hide a pop for visitors in specific countries, US states, Canadian provinces, or Australian states.
Separate new and returning visitors: give first-timers and repeat visitors different messages.
Target by device: show a pop only on mobile or only on desktop.
Target campaign traffic: show or hide a pop based on UTM parameters in your campaign links.
Combine rules: require visitors to match all of your conditions, or any one of them.
Save on visitor usage: visits where targeting hides all of your pops don’t count toward your usage.
Targeting works with every pop type.
Your old Pages tab rules
If you set up page rules in the old Pages tab, they’ve been moved into the Targeting tab as Is on page(s) conditions, and they work the same as before. A banner on the tab lets you know they’re still active.
They stay in place until you click Save on the Targeting tab. From then on, whatever you’ve saved is what applies.
Important: Choosing always or removing those conditions only changes your draft, but if you then click Save, your old page rules are cleared for good. To keep them, leave their Is on page(s) conditions in place when you save.
How to set up Targeting
Targeting is set per pop, so each pop has its own rules.
Log in to your Sales POP dashboard.
Go to Pops Library.
Find the pop you want to target and click Edit.
Click the Targeting tab.
Next to Show this Pop when, choose always, any match, or all match. These options are explained in the next section.
Click Add condition and choose a condition: Visitor is, Is/is not on page(s), Device is, User location, or UTM.
Choose an operator, for example is in, then enter a value. Click Add to add more values to the same condition.
Repeat for any other conditions. To remove a condition, click the X to its left.
Click Save in the Unsaved changes bar at the top of the page. To undo your changes instead, click Discard.
New rules apply on your store as soon as the page is refreshed.
Choose when your pop shows: always, any match, or all match
The Show this Pop when setting decides how your conditions work together.
always: the pop shows to every visitor, with no targeting applied.
all match: the pop only shows when a visitor meets every condition.
any match: the pop shows when a visitor meets at least one condition.
For example, say you set User location is in United States and Device is Mobile. With all match, only US visitors on mobile see the pop. With any match, every US visitor sees it, and so does every mobile visitor anywhere.
You can only use one setting per pop, so you can’t mix “and” and “or” logic, like “US visitors on mobile, or anyone in Canada.”
Important: Switching to always deletes your conditions. A message tells you how many conditions will be removed, and you can click Cancel to keep them.
Target by user location
Use User location to show or hide a pop based on where your visitor is browsing from.
is in: shows the pop only to visitors in the places you add.
is not in: hides the pop from visitors in the places you add.
You can pick countries, US states, Canadian provinces, and Australian states, and add as many as you like to one condition. The pop matches visitors in any of them.
Good to know: location targeting
Location comes from the visitor’s IP address: a visitor using a VPN shows up in the VPN’s country.
Undetected locations count as “not in the list”: with is in, the pop won’t show. With is not in, it will.
Failed lookups are retried: if a visitor’s location can’t be found, we try again on their next page. Once it’s found, it’s remembered for the rest of their visit.
City-level targeting isn’t available: you can’t target individual cities.
Target new or returning visitors
Use Visitor is to choose who sees the pop based on whether they’ve been to your store before.
new: the visitor’s very first page view on your store in that browser.
returning: every page view after that, including the second page of the same visit or a reload.
Good to know: new and returning visitors
New only covers the first page: combine Visitor is new with a page condition, and the pop only shows if the visitor lands on that page first.
There’s no time limit: once a visitor is returning in a browser, they stay returning.
Visitors are recognized by browser: a new browser, an incognito window, or cleared storage means a new visitor.
Blocked storage means always new: if a browser blocks storage, every page view counts as new.
Target specific pages
Use Is/is not on page(s) to show a pop only on certain pages, or to hide it from them.
Choose how the page path should match:
path is: matches one exact page.
path contains: matches any page whose path includes your text.
path starts with: matches every page under a section of your store.
Enter the URL path, not the full URL. For the page mystore.com/products/blue-hoodie, the path is /products/blue-hoodie. Shopify uses /products/ for product pages and /collections/ for collection pages, so to target every product page, use path starts with /products/. You can add several paths to one condition, and the pop matches any of them.
Good to know: page matching
Matching is case-sensitive:
/Products/Hoodiewon’t match/products/hoodie, so copy paths exactly as they appear in your store’s URLs.Trailing slashes don’t matter:
/products/hoodieand/products/hoodie/match each other.Query strings are ignored by default:
/products/hoodie?variant=123matches/products/hoodie. Tick include query to match the full path and query string exactly. [CONFIRM: checkbox label]Use * as a wildcard: with path is,
/products/hoodie*matches every page starting with/products/hoodie.Translated URLs need contains:
/fr/products/hoodiewon’t match a path is rule for/products/hoodie. Use path contains instead.
Target by device
Use Device is to show a pop only on Mobile or only on Desktop. The device is based on screen width:
Mobile: screens narrower than 550px.
Desktop: screens 550px wide or wider.
Good to know: device targeting
Tablets count as desktop: most tablets are wider than 550px.
A phone held sideways usually counts as desktop: it’s often wider than 550px when rotated. The pop updates when the phone turns.
Target by UTM parameters
UTM parameters are the tags added to campaign links, like ?utm_source=newsletter, that tell you where a visitor came from. Use UTM to show or hide a pop for visitors arriving from a specific campaign.
Choose the parameter: source, medium, or campaign.
Choose how it should match: is, is not, contains, or does not contain.
Enter the value, for example
newsletter.
Good to know: UTM targeting
UTM values aren’t case-sensitive:
Newslettermatchesnewsletter.Only the current page’s URL counts: UTM parameters aren’t remembered, so once a visitor clicks through to a page without them in the URL, the condition stops matching.
How Targeting works with discount pops
A discount pop only shows on pages where its discount can actually be used. Targeting can narrow that down further, for example to mobile only or to certain pages, but it can’t make the pop show anywhere else. Choosing always just means no extra limits are added.
Where a discount pop can show depends on the discount type:
Discount for specific products: only on those product pages.
Discount for specific collections: only on those collection pages, not on the product pages inside the collection.
Discount for all products, or a free-shipping discount: on every page.
If your targeting rules only match pages where the discount can’t be used, the pop won’t show at all. For example, Is on page(s) path starts with /products/ combined with a collection discount means the pop never appears.
Examples
Free shipping for US shoppers on product and collection pages: choose all match, then add User location is in United States and Is on page(s) path starts with
/products/and/collections/. The pop shows on either type of page.Mobile-only pop: choose all match and add Device is Mobile.
Welcome-back message: choose all match and add Visitor is returning.
Hide a pop from newsletter clicks: choose all match and add UTM source is not
newsletter.
Troubleshooting
If your pop isn’t showing when you expect it to, work through these checks:
Check you saved: if the Unsaved changes bar is still showing, click Save.
Refresh your store page: new rules apply after a page refresh.
Check the mode: with all match, a single failed condition hides the pop.
Check your paths: look for typos, capital letters, a missing
sin/products/, a full URL instead of a path, or a language prefix like/fr/.Check whether you saved over old page rules: if a pop used to show only on certain pages and now shows everywhere, your old Pages tab rules may have been cleared when you saved with always selected. Add them back as Is on page(s) conditions.
Check your location: if you’re testing with a VPN, your location is the VPN’s location.
Check your visitor status: only your very first page view counts as new. To test a new visitor pop, open a fresh incognito window and land directly on the page.
Check your phone’s orientation: a phone held sideways usually counts as desktop.
Check UTM rules: they only match while the UTM parameters are in the page URL.
Check your discount type: a collection discount pop shows on the collection page only, not on the products inside it.
FAQs
What happened to the Pages tab?
It’s been replaced by the Targeting tab. Your old page rules were moved over as Is on page(s) conditions and keep working until you save new targeting. After that, only what you’ve saved applies.
Does Targeting reduce my visitor usage?
It can. A visit only counts toward your visitor usage when at least one of your pops is eligible to show. If targeting hides all of your pops from a visitor, that visit isn’t counted. If a pop becomes eligible later in the visit, for example when a visitor rotates their phone, the visit is counted at that point.
Does Targeting work with every pop type?
Yes. Targeting works with every pop type, including abandoned cart, nudge, low inventory, and discount pops. You set it separately for each pop.
Can Targeting make my discount pop show on more pages?
No. A discount pop only appears on pages where the discount can be used, and Targeting can only narrow that further. Even with always selected, a discount for specific products only shows on those product pages, and a collection discount only shows on those collection pages.
If I’m A/B testing a pop, can each variant have different targeting?
No. Targeting applies to the whole pop, so every variant in the test uses the same rules. This keeps your test fair, because both variants are shown to the same audience. Learn more in our Guide to A/B testing.
Why does my “new visitor” pop only show on the first page?
Visitor is new only matches a visitor’s very first page view in that browser. From their second page onward, including a reload, they count as returning.
Can I hide a pop from visitors who came from my newsletter?
Yes, on the page they land on. Add UTM source is not newsletter, using whatever source value your newsletter links use. Once the visitor clicks through to a page without UTM parameters in its URL, the pop can show again.
Can I target a specific state or province?
Yes, for US states, Canadian provinces, and Australian states. Choose User location and pick the state or province from the list. Regions in other countries aren’t available, so target the whole country instead.
Can I show a pop after a delay, on scroll, or when someone’s about to leave?
Not right now. Targeting controls who sees a pop, not when it appears.
Can I target by city, cart value, order count, Shopify Markets, or logged-in customers?
Not right now. You can target by country, US state, Canadian province, Australian state, page, device, new or returning visitor, and UTM parameters.
Need a hand setting up Targeting?
Our team is happy to help. Book a 1:1 video call with the Sales POP support team and we’ll walk through it with you.