CTA overlays. Turn every shared link into a billboard.
Show a call-to-action splash screen, banner, or modal on the redirect interstitial before forwarding the user to the destination. Customizable templates, brand colors, click-through tracking, and A/B testing of overlay copy.
- Banner, modal, or splash — pick the format
- Branded templates with your colors and logo
- Click-through and dismiss tracking built in
- A/B test overlays to find what converts
LAUNCHOverlay types
Three formats. Three friction levels.
Pick the overlay that matches the importance of your CTA. Splash demands attention; banner adds context without interrupting; modal requires a deliberate dismiss before the redirect proceeds.
Non-blocking · no timer
Exclusive offers for subscribers.
Requires dismiss · medium friction
Use code LAUNCH at checkout
Full-screen · countdown timer
Overlay builder
Design your overlay — no design tool required
Set the template type, write your headline and CTA, pick brand colors, and assign the overlay to one link or an entire campaign. Live preview renders a simulated mobile viewport on the right.
- Template typeBanner, modal, or splash — switch without losing copy
- Brand colorsBackground, text, and button — hex picker with contrast check
- CTA copyHeadline (60 chars), body (200 chars), button label (30 chars)
- Link assignmentApply to one link, tag-filtered set, or entire campaign
- Live previewSimulated mobile viewport updates on every keystroke
Overlay analytics
Know what’s clicking. Know what’s dismissed.
Every overlay fires three events into the same ClickHouse pipeline: shown, cta_clicked, and dismissed. Per-overlay metrics give you CTR, dismiss rate, and median time-to-click — without any additional tracking script on the destination site.
- Impression, click-through, and dismiss tracked per overlay
- Time-to-click histogram — see how long users read before acting
- UTM passthrough to destination on CTA click
- Revenue attribution via Stripe / Shopify conversion webhooks
- Cookieless — no cookie set by the overlay
- A/B confidence surfaced inline — z-test at 200 impression floor
What you can do
- Splash screen, banner, and modal overlay types
- Branded templates with custom logo and colors
- Click-through and dismiss tracking
- A/B test overlay copy and design
- UTM passthrough on click-through
- GDPR-compatible: no cookies, consent-aware
How CTA overlays turn a redirect into a conversion moment
Every shared link is an opportunity to deliver a message before the user reaches the destination. Overlays let you insert your brand, offer, or call-to-action into that moment.
Three overlay formats: full-screen splash, bottom banner, and modal dialog — each with different friction profiles
Splash screen: the user sees a full-screen interstitial before being forwarded. Highest visibility, highest friction. Use for major campaign moments where the CTA is worth the extra step (product launches, limited-time offers). Configurable redirect timer (1.5–5 seconds) plus an optional 'Skip' link. Bottom banner: a non-blocking banner overlaid on a transparent redirect; the user sees the banner while the destination page loads behind it. Lower friction, lower visibility — best for remarketing messages where you want to add context without interrupting flow. Modal dialog: a centered overlay that dims the background and requires a dismiss action. Higher friction than the banner, lower than the splash. Use for single-question surveys, newsletter opt-ins, and gated offer reveals where a deliberate user action is required before the redirect. All three formats fire their own click-through and dismiss events for analytics.
Branded overlay templates: logo, headline, body copy, CTA button, background color — no design tool required
Each overlay template defines: workspace logo (auto-fetched from workspace settings), headline (up to 60 characters), body copy (up to 200 characters), CTA button label (up to 30 characters) and URL, background color (hex), and optional background image (uploaded to MinIO, served from Elido's CDN). Templates are saved at the workspace level and reused across links and campaigns. Link-level overrides let you change the headline and CTA button for a specific link without creating a new template. The overlay preview in the dashboard renders the template in a simulated mobile browser viewport so you can see how it looks on the device type where most of your traffic is. Typography is fixed (system font stack, accessible contrast ratios enforced); full CSS customization is not supported — the constraint keeps overlays accessible and fast-loading.
Per-overlay analytics: impressions, click-throughs, dismiss rate, and time-to-click
Each overlay fires three event types: overlay_shown (the user saw the overlay), overlay_cta_clicked (the user clicked the CTA button), and overlay_dismissed (the user clicked 'Skip' or the close button). These events flow into the same ClickHouse click event pipeline as standard short-link clicks. Per-overlay metrics in the dashboard: total impressions, click-through rate (CTA clicks / impressions), dismiss rate, and median time-to-click (how many seconds after the overlay appeared did the user click). Click-through events pass UTM parameters from the originating short link through to the CTA destination URL, so conversions driven by the overlay CTA are correctly attributed in your analytics platform. If the CTA destination is a Shopify checkout or Stripe link, conversion tracking closes the loop: you can see revenue attributed to overlay click-throughs.
A/B test two overlay templates on the same link — measure which headline or CTA drives higher click-through
Overlay A/B testing splits the overlay shown to the user (not the redirect destination) — both variants forward to the same destination, but the overlay headline, copy, or CTA label differs. Configure two overlay templates and assign them as variants on a link (weighted split or round-robin). The z-test confidence model (same as smart-link A/B) surfaces 'Overlay A headline leads with 87% confidence' once both variants clear the minimum sample (default 200 overlay impressions each). This is the right instrument for optimizing CTA copy, button text ('Get the deal' vs 'Claim 20% off'), and imagery without running a full landing page test. Overlay A/B results are independent of any smart-link destination A/B tests on the same link — they compose without interfering.
No cookies, no fingerprinting — CTA overlays are privacy-safe and GDPR-compatible by design
CTA overlay analytics track impressions and click-throughs using the same cookieless method as Elido's standard click analytics: IP-based geo resolution (IP discarded after geo lookup), User-Agent device classification, and a session identifier derived from a hash of anonymized signals (no persistent cookie). The overlay itself doesn't set any cookies. If the overlay is used as a consent-gate (requiring the user to accept before being redirected — a valid use case for GDPR-regulated redirect flows), you configure the CTA button as the consent action: only on click does Elido proceed with the redirect and fire any configured retargeting pixels. This means the overlay can double as a consent mechanism without a separate CMP widget. The legal adequacy of this depends on your privacy policy and legal basis — review with your DPO before relying on it as a GDPR consent mechanism.
Marketing teams using CTA overlays on Elido
Names are placeholders — real customer case studies land here as they are published.
“Bottom-banner overlays on every outbound link in our newsletter let us promote our upcoming webinar without changing the destination links our editorial team spent time curating. One overlay template, applied across 40 links in the campaign.”
“We A/B tested two overlay headlines on our product launch link — 'Try it free for 30 days' vs 'No credit card required'. The second drove 23% higher click-through on the CTA. The z-test confidence hit 95% after 600 impressions. Took three minutes to set up.”
“Modal overlays on affiliate links let us show a discount code to users before they reach the partner's site. We track click-throughs as conversions and see which affiliate links with overlays outperform those without. The revenue difference justified the Pro upgrade in the first week.”
Elido CTA overlays vs Sniply vs Rebrandly CTA
Sniply is the dedicated CTA overlay tool. Rebrandly added basic CTA on Business. Elido's overlays are integrated with the link management and analytics stack.
| Feature | Elido | Sniply | Rebrandly CTA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overlay types | Splash, banner, and modal | Button CTA + form overlay types | Button CTA only |
| Click-through analytics | Impressions, CTR, dismiss rate, time-to-click in ClickHouse | Click count and CTR | Basic click count |
| A/B testing overlays | Yes — z-test confidence model | Not available | Not available |
| Conversion tracking via overlay CTA | Yes — Stripe/Shopify revenue attributed to overlay clicks | No native conversion tracking | No native conversion tracking |
| Retargeting pixel alongside overlay | Yes — overlay and pixel fire together on splash | Limited pixel support | Not available |
| Cookieless analytics | Yes — no cookies set by overlay | Uses cookies for CTA tracking | Cookie-based |
| Part of link management platform | Yes — overlays compose with smart-link rules, campaigns, analytics | Standalone CTA tool — no native link management | Integrated but limited |
CTA overlay questions
Does the overlay work on links that point to external sites I don't control?
Yes — the overlay fires from Elido's redirect interstitial before the user reaches the destination. You don't need any access to or modification of the destination site. This is exactly the use case: showing a CTA before sending the user to an affiliate link, partner landing page, App Store listing, or any other external URL. The overlay is served by Elido's edge, entirely on the Elido-controlled redirect page.
Will the overlay slow down my redirect?
The overlay adds a deliberate delay (configurable 1.5–5 seconds) to give the user time to read the CTA and optionally click it. The redirect page itself loads from Elido's edge in under 50ms — the timer is the variable, not the page load. If you're using a banner overlay (non-blocking), there's no explicit timer — the banner appears while the destination page loads, adding no meaningful delay to the perceived navigation.
Can I show a newsletter signup form in the overlay?
The current overlay templates support CTA buttons and static copy — not embedded forms. For newsletter signups, the recommended pattern is: CTA button label 'Join the newsletter', CTA URL pointing to a dedicated signup landing page (your own domain). The click-through to the landing page is tracked as a conversion event. Full embedded form support in the overlay is on the roadmap for Business.
How do I apply an overlay template to 500 links at once?
Use the API: PATCH /v1/workspaces/{ws}/campaigns/{campaign_id}/links with an overlay_template_id in the body to apply a template to all links in a campaign. For cross-campaign bulk assignment, use the links bulk-update endpoint with a filter (e.g., all links with tag 'newsletter-outbound'). The dashboard supports bulk-select → assign overlay on up to 100 links per action in the campaign link table.
Can I exclude specific links from showing an overlay even if the campaign has a default overlay?
Yes — set overlay_template_id: null at the link level to explicitly disable the overlay for a specific link, even if the parent campaign has a default overlay configured. Link-level overlay settings always override campaign-level defaults. This is useful for links where the CTA would be inappropriate (e.g., links to legal/compliance pages that shouldn't have marketing overlays).
Is the overlay compatible with iOS Universal Links and Android deep links?
No. When an OS intercepts the redirect as a Universal Link or App Link (app is installed, domain is verified), it opens the app directly without loading the Elido redirect page — no overlay is shown. Overlays only fire in the browser redirect flow. If deep-link interception is active for a given link, the overlay will not fire for users with the app installed. For links where overlays are important, disable deep-link configuration on those specific links, or accept that app users won't see the overlay.
Are overlays visible to Google Bot?
No. Google Bot and other known crawlers are excluded from overlay rendering — they receive a standard 302 redirect to the canonical destination. The overlay HTML is not served to crawlers. This means overlays have no SEO impact (positive or negative) on the destination URL's ranking. Crawlers always follow the direct redirect path regardless of overlay configuration.
What's the overlay dismiss behavior — does the user get redirected even if they don't click the CTA?
For splash overlays: yes — after the configured timer expires (1.5–5 seconds), the user is automatically forwarded to the destination regardless of whether they clicked the CTA. They can also click 'Skip' to redirect immediately. For modal overlays: the redirect is held until the user actively dismisses the modal (close button or 'Skip'). For banner overlays: the banner appears while the destination loads — the redirect is not held at all. Configure the overlay type based on the friction level appropriate for your CTA.
Keep reading
Fire retargeting pixels alongside CTA overlays — the overlay and pixel coexist on the same splash page.
Attribute revenue to overlay CTA click-throughs via Stripe and Shopify conversion webhooks.
Combine smart-link routing rules with overlays — show different CTAs based on geo, device, or time.
Apply overlay templates at campaign level and A/B test overlay copy at scale.