How to add a popup on WordPress: a plugin, footer code or Tag Manager

How to add a popup on WordPress: three routes

You add a popup on WordPress with a plugin, a line of footer code or Google Tag Manager. WordPress has no popup block of its own, so a popup always comes from a plugin or a script. The plugin route needs no code. The other two need only one pasted line, either in your theme's footer.php or in a Tag Manager tag.

That line is the embed code, the one line of JavaScript that loads a hosted tool such as Popupsmart on your site. Popupsmart builds popups in its own dashboard. Popup Maker's free plugin builds them inside WordPress, and its listing says your data stays on your server.

Route 1: a popup plugin from the WordPress directory

1. In your dashboard, go to Plugins, then Add New, and search for the plugin.
2. Click Install Now, then Activate.
3. For Popupsmart, copy your Account Id from your Popupsmart account, paste it into the plugin's Account Id field and click Save Settings.
4. Open your site in a private window and load a page the popup targets.

Popup Maker's free core gives unlimited popups with two free triggers, Click Open and Auto Open. Its exit-intent trigger, which shows the popup when a visitor seems about to leave, and its scroll trigger need Popup Maker Pro. Popupsmart vs Popup Maker sets the two plugins side by side.

WordPress says a plugin not updated since the latest core update may be incompatible. The Popupsmart plugin's WordPress.org page carries a notice that it hasn't been tested with the latest three major WordPress releases.

Route 2: one line of embed code in footer.php, in a child theme

Paste the embed code into footer.php, just before the closing body tag, and add it once. Popupsmart says not to add the code to the same site twice. Then verify the website in your Popupsmart dashboard, because popups show only on a verified site.

Edit a child theme, not the parent. WordPress warns that edits made in the Theme File Editor are lost when the theme updates, and a child theme lets the parent update without losing your changes.

Route 3: Google Tag Manager on a block theme

A block theme has no footer.php, so the plugin or Google Tag Manager is the route there. In Tag Manager, add a Custom HTML tag, the tag type Google describes for code Tag Manager has no template for. Paste the tool's Tag Manager embed code, with JavaScript inside script tags, and fire the tag on All Pages, as Popupsmart's guide has it.

Then click Submit at the top right and publish. Nothing runs on your site until the container is published.

WooCommerce stores and exit intent on WordPress

WooCommerce runs on WordPress, so Popupsmart installs the same way. It does not read the WooCommerce cart, so a cart popup is aimed at the cart page address instead.

Popup Maker's listing says its free core has no traffic limits. Popup Maker Pro, which adds exit intent, renews at $99 a year for one site, as read on October 23, 2026.

A blogger who needs only a popup that opens on load or on a click can stay on Popup Maker's free core. Popupsmart's free WordPress plugin needs only your Account Id, and its free plan includes exit intent and scroll triggers. It covers one WordPress site at 5,000 pageviews a month, with Popupsmart branding. The best popup builder for WordPress list compares the plugins, and how to create an exit intent popup covers the trigger.