You’ve got a workshop coming up. You posted about it, pinned it, maybe mentioned it twice. Someone logs in, scrolls past three new posts and a chat thread, and never sees it.
They didn’t ignore it. It just got buried.
A Circle custom popup fixes that. It puts the one thing you most want members to notice in front of them a few seconds after they log in, then gets out of the way.
By the end of this, you’ll know what to point it at, which four settings to change, and exactly where the code goes in Circle.
What Is a Circle Custom Popup?
It’s a small box you add with a code snippet that slides in a few seconds after someone logs in on desktop and points them to the one thing you most want them to see.
Most communities have one thing happening at any given time that you really want people to notice. A workshop. A launch. A new resource. The feed is where that thing goes to get scrolled past.
A popup isn’t the ambush you’ve met on other sites, the one that demands your email before you’ve figured out why you’re there. Mine waits a few seconds, slides in gently from the corner, gives one clear next step, and disappears if someone isn’t interested.
Polite, useful, not annoying. That’s the whole brief.
It’s also code you fully control. The timing, the design, the link, the message, the button text. None of it is locked behind a third-party app or another monthly subscription.
What Should Your Popup Point To?
One timely, specific thing with a quick action attached, like a workshop registration or a launch, that you don’t want buried in the feed or scrolled past.
When I built mine, I pointed it at a live workshop. It was time sensitive, it was one click to register, and I wanted every person who logged in to see it. That’s exactly the moment a popup earns its place.
Good candidates look like this:
- A workshop or live session people need to register for
- A launch, sales page, or opt-in
- A new resource you want people to actually open
- A calendar link for something bookable
If you’re running workshops inside your community, here’s how I host a workshop in Circle from setup to replay. The popup is one more way to get people to the registration page, alongside everything that helps you increase event attendance.
Does a Custom Popup Work in Circle’s Mobile App?
No. Circle’s mobile app doesn’t run custom code snippets, so the popup only shows to people using your community in a desktop browser.
I’d rather you know that going in than find out after. For most communities, plenty of members and visitors still come in through a browser on a laptop, so the reach is real. It just isn’t universal.
If your community lives almost entirely inside the app, factor that in before you build. For the phone side, Circle push notifications are the tool made for reaching people there.
How Does the Popup Code Work?
The code comes in two parts: a styling block at the top that controls how the popup looks, and a script block at the bottom that controls how it behaves.
The styling block handles colors, fonts, and spacing. The script block handles when it appears, what it links to, and when it stays hidden.
You don’t need to understand every line. The part you’ll actually touch is what I call the customization section, where you fill in the blanks.
Which Popup Settings Should You Change?
Four fields: the link the button sends people to, the delay before it appears, how many days it stays hidden after someone closes it, and the text.
The link
This is where people land when they click the button. Get it wrong and the whole popup is decoration.
Swap in your URL, whether that’s a workshop registration like mine, a sales page, an opt-in, or a calendar link. Then click it yourself before you publish.
The delay
How many seconds the popup waits before it appears. Mine is set to six.
Five to ten seconds is the sweet spot. Anything faster feels aggressive. Anything slower and people have already moved on to something else.
The hide setting
How many days the popup stays hidden from someone after they’ve closed it or clicked through. Mine is three.
Don’t be the person whose popup shows up every single time someone refreshes the page. Three days feels respectful and still keeps the message in rotation.
The text
There are four pieces:
- The small label at the top
- The headline
- The short paragraph underneath
- The button text
This is where your voice goes. Make it sound like you, not a generic template someone copied off the internet.
If code isn’t your thing
You don’t have to learn it. You can drop the whole thing into Claude with a prompt, and it’ll hand back a version customized to your link, timing, and text, ready to paste into Circle. If you’ve never touched code, you can still pull this off.
Where Do You Add Custom Code in Circle?
Paste it into the head code snippet: open the menu from the caret at the top left, go to Site, then Code Snippets, paste it in, and save changes.
The exact path:
- Open the menu from the caret at the top left of your community
- Go to Site
- Open Code Snippets
- Paste your customized code into the head code snippet
- Save changes
Then go back out to your feed. Give it your delay, and the popup should slide in from the corner.
Try This Prompt
If the text is the part you stall on, this gives you drafts to react to instead of a blank field.
“I run a [type of community] on Circle for [who]. I’m adding a small popup that slides in from the corner a few seconds after members log in on desktop, pointing them to [the one thing, like a workshop or a new resource]. The button links to [what the page is]. Write three versions of the popup copy, each with a short label, a headline, one or two sentences of body text, and button text, in a warm, direct voice that sounds like [describe how you talk to your members]. Give me a numbered list with each field labeled.”
Pick the version that sounds like you, then trim it. Shorter almost always wins in a box this small.
One Thing, at the Right Moment
A popup isn’t about getting louder. Your feed is already loud. It’s about making sure the one thing that matters this week doesn’t get lost in it.
That only works if you’re choosy. One thing, not five. A few seconds of patience, not an ambush. A few days of quiet after someone says no thanks.
Get that right and members stop seeing it as an interruption. It’s just the heads-up they would have wanted anyway.
So pick the one thing. Give it six seconds. Then get out of the way.
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More Like This
Listen: The Secret Sauce to Skyrocketing Event Attendance. What else gets people from seeing the workshop to actually showing up.
Watch: How I Automated My Community’s Weekly Digest with Circle AI. Another way to surface what matters without asking members to dig for it.
Listen: Workshop 101: Hosting Your Circle Workshop Made Easy. The workshop setup worth pointing a popup at in the first place.
Watch: Transform Your “Start Here” Space: Streamline Onboarding for Your Circle Community. The evergreen version of putting the right thing in front of people first.
Keep Going
coCreator Society is where community builders and membership founders work through this together, with the templates, the walkthroughs, and people who are one step ahead of you. Join coCreator Society
If you would rather not do this part alone, Rachel and the team build, migrate, and run communities for founders who need it done properly the first time. Talk to the team
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