Nelio Popups makes it easy to show popups to visitors who have been referred to your site from another specific website (the referrer).
In this article, you’ll learn how to target referrers to show your popup.
Using Referrer Condition
When you are ready to use theReferrer condition, follow these steps:
- Go to Nelio Popups » All Popups and edit the one you want.
- In the editor sidebar, go to the Settings panel, and open the Conditions tab.
- Add or modify a condition by selecting ‘Referrer’.
The following options are available for a Query Parameter condition:
- is equal to
- is not equal to
- includes
- does not include
- matches regular expression
Let’s review each option.
Is equal to
When you want to display a popup for visitors coming to your site from an URL referrer that has a particular value, select ‘is equal to’ in the condition field.

Set the exact value for the referrer in the last field of the setting.
Then, popups will only be shown to visitors coming from an URL with the exact value you set in the settings.
Is not equal to
When you want to display a popup for visitors coming to your site from an URL referrer that has a value different from a particular value, select ‘is not equal to’ in the condition field.

Set the value to check the referrer in the last field of the setting.
Then, popups will only be shown to visitors coming from a referrer URL different than the one you set in the setting.
Includes
When you want to display a popup for visitors coming to your site from a referrer URL whose value contains a specific value, select ‘includes’ in the condition field.

Set the partial value to check in the referrer in the last field of the setting.
Then, popups will only be shown to visitors coming from a referrer URL containing the value set in the settings.
Does not include
When you want to display a popup for visitors coming to your site from a referrer URL whose value does not contain a specific value, select ‘does not include’ in the condition field.

Set the partial value to check in the referrer in the last field of the setting.
Then, popups will only be shown to visitors coming from a referrer URL that does not contain the value set in the settings.
Matches regular expression
When you want to display a popup for visitors coming to your site from a referrer matching a regular expression, select ‘matches regular expression’ in the condition field.

Set the regular expression to check in the referrer value in the last field of the setting.
Then, popups will only be shown to visitors coming from an URL referrer whose value matches the regular expression set in the settings.
After setting the condition, save the popup and then it will open if the condition is met.
Referrer Detection isn’t working for my popup, why?
Referrer Detection checks if a specific value has been passed as referrer in the browser.
If the referrer passed is empty then the condition will fail for your popup and your popup might not load as you expect.
There are several reasons in which the referrer could be empty, including if the website visitor:
- entered the site URL in the browser address bar itself
- visited the site by a browser-maintained bookmark
- visited the site as the first page in the window/tab
- switched from a secure (HTTPS) site to a non-secure (HTTP) site
- has security software installed (antivirus/firewall/etc) which strips the referrer from all requests
- is behind a proxy which strips the referrer from all requests
- visited the site programmatically without setting the referrer header