"Exit-intent popups recover lost conversions." [MOSTLY MYTH]

"Exit-intent popups recover lost conversions." [MOSTLY MYTH]

The pitch: catch them as they leave, save the sale.

Why it spread: the dashboard shows "emails captured," and a positive-looking number ends the conversation.

The truth: most exit-intent captures are low-intent people who'd never buy — you're inflating a list, not recovering revenue. Worse, the popup is desktop-only theater (exit-intent barely works on mobile) and it teaches your real prospects that your site is a nag.

What the advice skipped: measure downstream conversion of popup-captured leads, not the capture count. Usually they convert far below your average. If you must interrupt, do it with a genuine offer, not a guilt-trip "No thanks, I hate saving money" checkbox.