How to Target the Right Audience on Privy
Emel DalabasmazPrivy targeting in 2026 lives on the Settings step of a display. The 2023 "When To Show / Who To Show It To / How Long to Show It" cards are gone from the docs. Current source: Audience Targeting + Settings.
A welcome discount that fires for every visitor, once a day, after ten seconds is still a fine default. Change it when you have a reason. Cart-value rules need Shopify, BigCommerce or Squarespace. Product IDs need Shopify or BigCommerce.
Where are the settings?
Open Displays, pick a display, go to Settings at the top of the editor.
How do you set the trigger?
Under Triggers and Visibility pick one or more of:
- Time on page
- Show on scroll
- Show on exit intent
If several are on, the first event wins. If none are on, the display will not auto-show. Privy then expects a tab the visitor clicks.
Limit display appearance defaults to once per day. Uncheck it and the display can fire on every pageview in the session, which is how you get rage-closes. Automatically end the display after X signups is the cap for a campaign with a finite coupon pool.
What audience rules exist?
Click Audience Targeting > Add targeting condition. Groups, from the vendor docs:
Customer attributes. Country (IP), region (US states, UK counties, CA provinces, AU states), postal code (exact codes, one per line), language (BCP 47 without region, so en not en-US), custom fields.
Shopping activity. Cart product IDs, cart variant IDs, cart value, order count. Cart IDs: Shopify or BigCommerce. BigCommerce does not sync the catalog, so you type the numeric ID. Cart value: Shopify, BigCommerce or Squarespace. Order count: Shopify only.
Website behaviour. Display seen / signed up (all time and this session), current URL, initial URL, referring URL, device (tablets count as mobile), pageviews, sessions, day of week, time of day, traffic type and initial traffic type (from UTM).
Other. Known vs unknown visitor. Custom JavaScript, which Privy support will not write for you.
A session dies after 30 minutes idle.
When do you use AND vs OR?
Several conditions can Match All (every rule) or Match Any (one rule). Example from Privy's own screenshot: Massachusetts OR social traffic vs Massachusetts AND social traffic. Empty targeting means everyone.
How do you schedule it?
Ongoing until you disable it, or Custom Dates with a start and end. That is the replacement for the old "How Long to Show It" card.
Frequently asked questions
Why is cart value missing?
The store is not on Shopify, BigCommerce or Squarespace, or the integration is not linked under Settings > Linked Accounts.
Can I target Smile.io VIP tiers?
Yes, after you connect Smile.io. Those land as custom fields (smileio_vip_tier, smileio_points_balance). See How to integrate Privy with Smile.io.
Product: Privy. Help: Privy help.
Written and reviewed by
SEO Executive at Flatart
Emel Dalabasmaz graduated in Advertising and Public Relations from Anadolu University. She began in social media and carried that grounding — content, brand communication and performance — into SEO. For more than ten years she has worked on growth for brands across a range of industries, pairing a communications perspective with data and technical analysis to build a digital presence that holds up over time.
- Education
- Advertising and Public Relations, Anadolu University
- Writes about
- Popup builders, Conversion rate optimization, On-site messaging, SaaS pricing research, SEO, Technical SEO, Content strategy, Digital marketing