7 Great Popup Ad Scripts and Plugins – A Powerful Advertising and Marketing Tool | International Association of Digital Marketing Professionals (IADMP)

Back in the early days of the web, businesses were scrambling to make their advertising and marketing stand out.

An “early to the scene” web hoster, Tripod, became a haven for webmasters and business owners alike – giving companies the potential to design their homepages, and sponsor adverts across different sites.

In one freak accident, a car company advertising with Tripod purchased a banner ad on a page that was…decidedly not about cars.

Everyone was trying to find the next big thing and monetize the web, yet in that moment of sheer dread, the designers at Tripod conceived the bothersome window we’ve all come to recognize:

The popup ad.

Now let’s fast-forward to today, and the internet we know.

Ad blockers and popup-stoppers are virtually ingrained in our browsers’ DNA.

As marketers and publishers, we need to work around these barriers and use popup ads for the powerful advertising tool that they are and communicate important CTAs with our audience.

Whether your goal is to build up our subscriber numbers, create an enviable mailing list, or establish rapport within your communities; how better to get (and keep) their attention than popups?

Thankfully, the requirement for a new window for a popup has fallen out of favor, and the more versatile, lightbox-style of (unblockable) popup ad has found a home on nearly every blog page and website.

Today’s popups are not only unobtrusive, but they can also be customized to fit your site’s design, personality, and tone of voice as well as triggered only when certain events (such as scrolling to the end of an article) have taken place.

These kinds of features not only serve to make the popup feel like a more integrated part of your website, but also make it a more welcome feature to your visitors by adding value every step of the way.

With that in mind, here are a few of the best free and premium popup scripts and plugins for nearly every type of project.

jQuery Modal Popup Ads

JQuery model popups are popups that display as an overlay, usually darkening the content on the page so that the user’s attention is focused squarely on the popup message. They range from simple designs to complex, customizable screens.