Adding Triggers for Surveys in VWO

Triggering your survey at the most relevant moment could be a better strategic move that could help you grasp the opportunity of sourcing better insights from your visitors. To configure the triggering of your surveys in VWO, you can either choose from a set of predefined trigger templates or create your own. Based on the triggering condition, VWO triggers your survey when a visitor meets it.

Adding a Simple Trigger

VWO provides you with a set of simple triggering conditions that can be used in certain generic scenarios, such as the ones based on the number of pages viewed, time spent on a page, when a visitor is trying to close a page, etc. Here, you can choose a triggering condition and specify a value to the trigger factor.

To apply a simple trigger to your survey, perform the following steps:

1. Log in to your VWO account.
2. Go to Insights > Surveys.
3. On the Surveys dashboard, click Create to create a survey.
4. On the URL page, specify the URL where you want your survey to appear. To know more about setting up the URL for your survey, refer to Creating a Survey in VWO.
5. Click Next.
6. On the Triggers page, select a trigger type from the Select from this list of commonly used triggers to show your survey section.
7. Once you have selected the trigger type, specify its value by selecting it from the corresponding dropdown.
   

Adding a Custom Trigger

In the custom trigger section, you get to use multiple simple triggering conditions and link them using AND/OR operators to produce a complex one. Also, you can even define your own custom condition by writing additional code.

To apply a custom triggering condition for your survey, on the Triggers page, click on Create advanced trigger conditions to show your survey. From the trigger dropdown, select a trigger and enter its value in the corresponding field(s). 

Some Commonly Used Triggers

The following triggering conditions are available to be used individually as simple triggers or can be grouped to form custom triggers:

• Time spent on a page is more than x seconds
  Selecting this trigger pops up the survey when a visitor spends “x” seconds on a single page. In the case of a simple trigger, you will be able to select a predefined amount of time, starting from 15 seconds to 240. Whereas while using it as a custom trigger, you will be able to enter any number to specify the time.
  
  For example, if you have defined the trigger as >10 seconds, the survey appears when the visitor spends more than 10 seconds on a page.
  
  NOTE: If the time spent on a page trigger is set to 0, then the survey displays the moment the page loads.
• Time spent in a session is more than x seconds
  Selecting this trigger pops up the survey when a visitor spends “x” seconds in a session.
  
  NOTE: A VWO session is typically defined as the visitor's duration on a website with the VWO SmartCode installed before closing the browser.
  In the case of a simple trigger, you will be able to select a predefined amount of time, starting from 15 seconds to 240. Whereas while using it as a custom trigger, you will be able to enter any number to specify the time.
  
  For example, consider that your campaign URL is www.example.com/page1, and you set the session trigger to >60 seconds. Now, if a visitor lands on page1, then navigates to page2, and finally comes back to page1 again, then the time spent on these pages is considered toward the final count of time spent in a session. So even the time spent by a visitor on a page that is not part of the campaign URL is counted as the time spent in a session.
  
  
• Number of pages viewed in a session is equal to
  Displays the survey after a visitor has browsed the specified number of pages in a single session.
  
  In the case of a simple trigger, you will be able to select a predefined number of pages starting from 1 to 10. Whereas while using it as a custom trigger, you will be able to enter any number to specify the count.
  
  For example, consider that the campaign URL is www.example.com/page1, and you have set the trigger to 3 pages in a session. If a visitor goes to page1, then page2, and finally page1 again, the count of pages in a session is 3. It counts all the pages on which any survey is running.
  
  NOTE: VWO considers page refresh as a new page view. There are three different page refresh scenarios considered for this trigger. All the pages in the session were on the same page (the same page refreshed multiple times), the pages in the session were different (different pages browsed), and the pages were a combination of the two (single page refresh as well as browsing of different pages).
• When a visitor is trying to close the page
  The exit trigger is only executed if the cursor has moved out of the viewport with more than the predefined threshold speed. Then, it considers that the user is exiting the page. This means that the survey may not appear in a case where you move the cursor very slowly towards the close button, nor in the case of closing the browser tab using the keyboard.
  
  
• If the visitor scrolls more than “X” pixels from the top
  Displays the survey when visitors scroll a certain number of pixels on a page. For example, you can set the trigger when the reader has reached a certain section of your webpage.
  
  NOTE: When this trigger is selected in Advanced Triggers, a few more options are available. A user can choose either pixel scrolled or the percentage page height scrolled from the page's top or bottom. The percentage page height scrolled works for a fixed height page because the height is static and doesn’t change. But for dynamic pages where the height is not constant, it is recommended to use pixels scrolled as it would be more accurate and reliable.
  For example, an e-commerce product search page with infinite scrolling. Also, the reference point for the scroll can be either the top or bottom of the page.

Exclusive Advanced Triggers

In addition to the simple triggers, the following triggers are exclusively available in the Advanced Triggers section: 

• Click on an element
  Displays the survey when visitors click a predefined element on a page. Select this option and specify the CSS selector path of the element.
  
  NOTE: If the element happens to be a hyperlink that redirects to another page, the survey will display only if the redirected-to page is also part of the test. 
• When a campaign variation is shown
  Displays the survey when a specific variation is shown. Select this trigger and specify the Campaign ID and the Variation ID.
  
  
• When a campaign goal is executed
  Displays the survey when a specific goal is executed. Select this option and specify the Campaign ID and Goal ID.
  
  
• Custom Trigger
  Displays the survey when the executeTrigger() function is executed. Here, you can add your own custom code and call the executeTrigger() function. This way, whenever the custom trigger condition is fulfilled, the survey is displayed.