How to Add an Announcement Widget to Your Website
An announcement widget is the bar or pop-up that shows visitors one message while they are on your site. A sale ending, free delivery over a threshold, a new product, a deadline.
Most sites bury that message in a banner nobody reads, or leave it up so long people stop noticing it.
This is how to add one with WiserNotify, what to put in it, and where to show it.
What to Use an Announcement Widget For
It works best when you have one thing worth saying. Use it for everything and people stop seeing it.
- A live promotion. A discount code, a percentage off, a bundle offer.
- A deadline. A sale ending, last posting dates before Christmas, an early-bird price closing.
- A delivery threshold. “Free delivery over 50” gets people adding one more thing to the basket.
- A launch. A new product or a restock, shown to whoever is already browsing that category.
- A trial or free plan. “No credit card required” answers the question before anyone has to ask.
- Something practical. Delayed dispatch, holiday closing, a service outage. Dull, and often the one people thank you for.
What it is not for is a blog post, a social follow, or anything you care about more than your customers do.
Build urgency
Add floating offers with countdown timer & coupon code.
How to Add an Announcement Widget
WiserNotify is a social proof marketing tool that shows announcements, offers, timers and notifications on your site. It runs on a single pixel, works on any platform, and needs no developer.
Here is the full walkthrough on video, with the written steps below it.
Seven steps, in order. It takes about ten minutes.
1. Create your account
Go to the signup page and create an account.
2. Install the pixel
Open the pixel page, click Copy Code, and paste it into your site before the closing head tag.
On Shopify, WooCommerce or WordPress, install the app instead.
3. Open the announcement templates
Go to Widgets, click Add notification, then select the Announcement tab.
4. Pick a template
Templates cover discounts, offers, free plans, festival sales, downloads, videos, reminders, demos, welcome messages and trial invitations.
Click Add notification on the one you want, enter your website name, then click Create & Customize.
5. Design editor
Seven tabs down the left, with a mobile and desktop preview on the right:
- Text editor. Headline, supporting line, an optional image with a size slider, and a language dropdown.
- Click actions. Button text and styling. The Choose link dropdown sets whether it copies a code or opens a URL, with options for same-tab links, staying visible after a click, a close icon, and closing by clicking outside.
- Position and animation. Set separately for mobile and desktop.
- Style. Background colour, corner radius, border and shadow.
- Embed code. Puts it inline in your own HTML instead of floating over the page, with a field for custom CSS.
- Data control. Skip seen hides it from anyone who has already seen it.
- Timing control. Next step.
Each tab has its own Save button.
6. Timing control
Three groups:
- Timing rules. Display in loop, for when you have more than one running.
- Behaviour rule. A start date, an expiry date, and schedule on specific days of week.
- Display rule. A dropdown for exit intent, a delay in seconds, or a scroll percentage. Below it, show widget using javascript turns those off and gives you code to fire yourself, and hide after sets how long it stays.
Save, then click Next.
7. Display and targeting
It shows on all pages by default. To narrow it, open Select pages to display notifications on and set a URL condition.
Add domains under Display notifications on multiple websites to run it across several sites.
Advanced targeting options covers country, UTM, new or returning visitors, referrer site and cookie name.
Click Publish, then refresh your page once or twice to see it live.
Adding It to Your Website Platform
It is one script rather than a plugin, so it works anywhere you can paste code into the head. Find your platform below for the exact clicks.
What to Write in an Announcement
You get about six words before somebody decides to ignore it. Use them on the offer itself.
- Say the thing first. “Get 15% off” beats “We have some exciting news”.
- Put a number in. A percentage, an amount or a threshold gives people something to work with.
- Mean the deadline. “Ends at midnight” works once. Leave it up until Thursday and nobody believes the next one.
- One action only. A single button saying what happens next, not two competing links.
- Match it to the page. What you say on a product page should differ from your pricing page.
There are more worked examples in our roundup of announcement bar examples that actually convert.
Build trust & FOMO
Highlight real-time activities like reviews, sales & sign-ups.
Where to Show Your Announcement
The page matters as much as the message. In the wrong place it is just something to close.
- Product pages. Delivery thresholds and bundle offers belong where somebody is deciding.
- The basket. A threshold reminder lands well here, right as they are working out whether they are done. Our guide to increasing checkout conversion covers the rest.
- The homepage. Fine for a sitewide sale, too broad for anything smaller.
- On exit intent. A last offer as somebody leaves, which is what exit intent popups are built for.
- Not everywhere at once. The same bar on every page and people stop reading it by the second one.
Where Announcements Usually Go Wrong
An announcement people ignore costs you nothing. One that annoys them costs you the visit.
- No expiry date. A sale banner still up weeks later teaches people not to believe the next one.
- Covering the buy button on mobile. Check the phone preview before you publish, not after.
- Running it alongside a popup. Two interruptions on one page and both get closed.
- Leaving skip seen off. Your regulars end up reading the same line every time they visit.
- A countdown that resets. People spot it, and you lose more than the urgency was worth.
The social proof statistics cover how much a real deadline is worth next to a made-up one.
What to Check If It Is Not Showing
Try a refresh or two first, since that is usually all it needs.
If it still will not appear, use the troubleshoot option inside your account, and check that the expiry date has not passed and the day-of-week rule includes today.
If skip seen is on and you have already viewed it, you will not see it again until the cookie clears. After that, live chat support will sort it quicker than you will.
Wrap Up
Pick a template that matches the offer, write six words that lead with the number, and set an expiry date before you publish.
Then show it only where it is relevant, because one message people act on is worth more than one they scroll past every day.
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Krunal Vaghasiya is a marketing tech expert who boosts e-commerce conversion rates with automated social proof and FOMO strategies. He loves to keep posting insightful posts on online marketing software, marketing automations, and improving conversion rates.
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