Mystery gift pop-ups: the curiosity is free, the gifts aren't
A sign-up form that hides the reward until the visitor's handed over an address. Curiosity does the selling, and your margin pays for whatever's behind the box.
- 086Mystery Gift Pop-Up
- A type of pop-up form that offers visitors a surprise incentive, such as a discount, free shipping, or a gift, in exchange for their email address. The mystery element entices users to engage, creating a sense of excitement and increasing the likelihood of conversion. These are particularly effective during promotions or seasonal sales.
- Also called
- Spin to win, scratch to reveal, mystery discount
- Real cost
- Each reward's cost times its chance of coming up, added together
- In Klaviyo
- A spin-to-win form, with a chance and a coupon set for every slice
- UK rules
- The CAP Code's section on promotional marketing
Curiosity gets the address, the gift list sets the bill
People want to know what's behind the box, so they'll hand over an address to find out. The curiosity's free. The gifts aren't.
So start with the list of rewards, not the design. Every slice has to be something you'd happily give anyone who lands on it, because sooner or later somebody will. Free delivery, a sample, a small extra in the first parcel, a modest discount.
Working out what a spin to win sign-up really costs
Klaviyo's spin-to-win form lets you set the chance of every slice, and gives each one its own success step and coupon. So you set the odds, and the odds are the budget.
- List every reward and what it costs you at margin, not at its shelf price
- Multiply each cost by its chance of coming up
- Add them together: that's the average cost of a redeemed sign-up
- Set that against what your plain pop-up offer costs per subscriber
Give every reward its own code, then watch the orders. You'll see whether the free delivery crowd comes back for a second order, and whether the discount crowd disappears after one.
Gift or prize: wording a mystery offer under UK rules
The CAP Code's rules on promotional marketing cover this. Something most entrants get is a gift, something only a few get is a prize, and you can't exaggerate anyone's chances of winning. A headline prize with odds so low nobody ever lands on it is the obvious way to fall foul of that.
- If everyone gets something, call it a gift, not a win
- Show the result straight away, then repeat it in the first email
- Never say they've won something they have to buy to collect
- If the code expires, say when, on the form and in the email
None of this is legal advice. Read the code itself before a wheel goes live.
Related terms
FAQs
Does spin to win suit a premium brand?
Usually not as a wheel. A fairground game sits awkwardly beside a considered purchase, and a discount slice tells the customer your price is up for negotiation. Keep the curiosity and lose the wheel: a sealed gift in the first parcel, opened at home. The surprise lands at delivery, not at the form.
How many slices should a spin to win wheel have?
Fewer than you'd think. Every slice is another reward to fulfil, another code to manage and another line in the cost sum. Three or four genuinely different rewards are plenty, and every one of them should come up often enough that real people actually get it.
Should the mystery reward be revealed on the form or in the email?
Both, in that order. People expect to see their reward the moment the wheel stops, and the CAP Code expects it too for instant wins. The first email is the receipt: what they got, the code, how to use it and when it runs out. Let that email lag and the excitement you paid for goes cold.
Rather we explained it on your own account?
Bring your Klaviyo account to a growth consultation. We'll walk through what this means for your numbers, in plain English, and what we'd fix first.
Half an hour with Theo, our founder.
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