Before you launch anything, you can open your popup exactly as a visitor would see it — over a shot of your own homepage, with every page, button and input field working. It opens in a new window, and you can send the link to a colleague or a client.
How the live preview works
OptiMonk hosts the preview for you. When you open it, the popup is rendered over the screenshot of your homepage that was taken when the design session started, with the same dimmed backdrop your visitors will see.
That means two useful things:
You do not need the OptiMonk code on your site to use it. The preview is a hosted page, so it works from the first minute of your first design.
It is a real popup, not a picture. Click through all pages of a multi-step popup, type into the fields, try the buttons.
Where to open it
From a design, before the campaign exists. Open a concept and click Live Preview.
From the preview step of the plan. Once your popup is built, the panel offers Try it before you launch with a Live Preview link next to the Drag & drop editor link.
From the editor. The top bar has a Preview button. Note that the editor's preview opens the last saved version: if you have unsaved edits it asks first — "You have unsaved edits. The preview opens the last saved version — your unsaved changes won't appear in it." — and offers Open saved version or Save & preview.
From a campaign's design. Open the campaign, click the design, and use Live preview in the header of the overlay. This one is the exception: its tooltip says Open in a new window — your unsaved draft is shown too. The button is greyed out while a rebuild is running (This variant is being rebuilt — you can edit it when the build finishes.) or when there is nothing to show yet (No preview for this variant yet.).
Share the design with your team or your client
Next to a concept there is a Share link button. It creates a public link to that design:
Click Share link. The popover shows the design, its name and the note Anyone with the link can open it.
Use Copy to copy the link, Email link to open your email app with the link already in the message, or Download PNG to save the design as an image.
Whoever opens the link sees the design on a clean public page headed A popup idea for <your domain> — no account needed, and nothing about your OptiMonk account is exposed.
💡 The link is tied to the version you shared it from, so a link you sent last week keeps showing what your colleague commented on.
What the preview cannot tell you
The live preview shows the creative. It does not run your campaign's targeting rules, and it is not a test of your integrations — those only take effect on a published, active campaign.
So the order that works is:
Check the design in the live preview.
Publish and activate the campaign.
Make sure the OptiMonk code is on your site: open the campaign's insert-code page and click Check now. You either get The OptiMonk code is live on <your domain>. or a clear reason why not.
Then check the real thing on your site.