Most visitors never click a widget, no matter how pretty it is. They scroll, read, and leave. Smart triggers change that by having the widget expand on its own at the moment a visitor could use a little nudge. It's a small change with a surprisingly big effect on conversion.
LeadOcto has four triggers. They are independent, you can enable one or run them all together. This article walks through each one and explains how to set it up.
Smart triggers require a Pro plan or higher. You can still expand the section on Free and Basic, but the toggles are locked.
Auto-open after delay
The simplest trigger: a visitor lands on your page and after N seconds the widget opens on its own. Works well on landing pages where you know most visitors linger for five to ten seconds before deciding what to do.
Turn the toggle on and fill in a number of seconds. Restraint pays off: three seconds feels like a tap on the shoulder, fifteen seconds works on slower pages where people are still reading.
Scroll depth
Opens the widget once a visitor has scrolled past a certain percentage of the page. Useful on long pages, for example 50% on a detailed product page. The idea: someone who makes it halfway down is engaged enough to appreciate a targeted nudge.
Set the percentage to taste. 30% is early and often too pushy; 50 to 70% hits the sweet spot for most pages.
Exit intent
Detects when a visitor moves their mouse toward the top of the browser window (a strong signal they're about to navigate away or close the tab) and opens the widget before they click away. A last chance to catch someone who'd otherwise disappear.
This trigger only works on desktop. Mobile devices have no cursor, so it quietly stays off there. That's fine because mobile visitors tend to have their own rhythms.
Inactivity
A timer that resets on every mouse move, scroll, keystroke or tap. Once the visitor has been completely still for N seconds, the widget opens. Great for content-heavy pages where readers pause while taking something in.
Thirty seconds is a safe starting value. Shorter values only make sense if you know your audience skims fast.
How the four work together
You can turn all four on if you want, but they work toward the same goal: open the widget once. The first trigger that fires wins; the rest are disabled for the remainder of the page view. So no double-pop, no fighting over who opens first.
If the visitor opens the widget themselves before a trigger fires, all triggers shut down immediately. We don't pile on top of a conversation that's already started.
Triggers fire at most once per page load. A refresh counts as a new page, so the trigger can fire again. That's deliberate: otherwise inactivity would interrupt your visitor every minute.
Which combination should you pick?
Two combinations carry most of the weight. For fast pages (homepage, short landing page): exit intent only, leave the rest off. For long pages (product page, blog post): scroll depth at 50% plus inactivity at 45 seconds. Don't enable everything 'just in case'. More triggers isn't better; one well-chosen trigger at the right moment is.
And then?
After a week, check your Inbox and widget analytics to see whether the triggers are driving more conversations. If not, tweak the numbers or turn one off. Triggers aren't set-and-forget; they're a dial to adjust until the conversation starts flowing.