How to Show Personalized Content to Different Users in WordPress

Sometimes, you may want to show custom content to users from specific locations, on specific dates, or under other conditions. Website personalization is not available in WordPress out of the box.

However, there are simple and easy tools you can use to handle this. For instance, at WPBeginner and our other brands, we use OptinMonster to create custom campaigns and show personalized content to our readers.

In this article, we will show you how to easily show personalized content to different users in WordPress.

Why Show Different Content to Users in WordPress?

Normally, when you publish content on your WordPress website, it just becomes available to everyone. What if you wanted to show a different version of the content to specific users?

For instance, you may want to offer free shipping to customers in a specific geographic location or show different content to users coming from a particular landing page.

One way to deal with this is by making a membership site and restricting access to content based on a user’s profile. However, not everyone wants to require user login to offer personalization.

That’s where WordPress website personalization solutions can help.

You can use smart conditions to add content personalization on your blogs, product personalization in your online store, and dynamic text replacement on your landing pages.

These conditions can include specific user interactions, their geographic location, time of day, specific pages they are visiting, specific traffic referrer sources, past behavior, and more.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to show different content to different users in WordPress. You can use the links below to go directly to the method you want to use.

Method 1: Showing Different Content to Users Using OptinMonster (Website Personalization Made Easy)

OptinMonster is the best lead generation and conversion optimization tool on the market. It comes with powerful targeting rules that allow you to show personalized campaigns to users based on a large set of display rules.

This method is recommended for all users because it gives you the ability to design your content and comes with more powerful targeting rules. It also works with email marketing tools and third-party apps.

For more details, see our complete OptinMonster review.

First, you will need to sign up for an OptinMonster account. It is a paid tool, and you will need at least a Pro or Growth plan to access all targeting features.

Simply visit the OptinMonster website and click the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button to set up an account.

Next, you need to install the OptinMonster plugin on your WordPress site. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you will see the OptinMonster setup wizard in the WordPress admin panel. Next, you need to click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button to connect your WordPress site to your OptinMonster account.

After that, a new window will open.

Simply click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button to move ahead.

Design The Content You Want to Show to Users

Once connected, you can head to OptinMonster » Campaign from your WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ button.

This will take you to the OptinMonster website, where you will be asked to choose a campaign type and template.

OptinMonster offers different campaign types that you can use to show various types of content or targeted messages to your users. These include lightbox popups, floating bars, fullscreen, inline widgets, slide-in popups, and gamified campaigns.

For instance, if you want to show dynamic content inside a WordPress post or page, then you can choose the Inline campaign type.

Each campaign type has dozens of templates to choose from. Simply click to select and use a template.

After that, you will be asked to enter a name for this campaign and click the ‘Start Building’ button.

Next, you will enter OptinMonster’s campaign builder interface. It is a drag-and-drop tool where you can design your campaign with a live preview.

Simply drag new elements from the menu on your left and drop them onto the template. Plus, you can click on an element in the preview to edit it.

OptinMonster also connects with all top email marketing services, so you can show an email sign-up form.

You can use the campaign builder to create campaigns to add any type of content, such as a coupon code, free shipping offer, smart product recommendations, or anything you want.

Once you are done with the design of your campaign, you can click on the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your changes.

You can always edit your design to match your display rules. We will show you a few design examples tailored for different display scenarios in the next step.

Setting Up Display Rules for Campaign

This is the part where you set up the display rules to decide when to show your campaign.

Inside the OptinMonster builder interface, switch to the ‘Display Rules’ tab.

It allows you to create smart rule sets and choose from a ton of targeting options.

First, you need to choose the conditions to match. There are plenty of options here. Let’s take a brief look at each one of them.

1. Time-Based Triggers

These triggers allow you to set display rules based on time or date. You can show your campaign content at a specific date, time, or day of the week.

These triggers allow you to show custom messages designed for specific dates and times.

For instance, you can set OptinMonster to show a flash sale coupon on holidays or display a message on special events.

2. Targeting Users Matching Specific Criteria

The targeting section lets you set display rules based on smart recognition technology.

For instance, you can show a campaign to users coming from a specific website, referral, landing page, or geographic location. You can also target based on cookies, ad blockers, and JavaScript variables.

As an independent publisher, you may want to ask visitors to support you by disabling the AdBlock software. You can show a message only to the users with AdBlock software installed.

Another great way to use this is to give special offers to visitors from a specific URL. For instance, you may want to offer an exclusive discount to users coming from an affiliate partner website.

3. OnSite Targeting

OptinMonster allows you to set on-site display rules based on user behavior.

You can show custom campaigns to new users, returning visitors, those on specific devices, users who have already converted, not converted, have seen another campaign, visited a page, and more.

You can also use OptinMonster’s smart tags feature to display a user’s name, location, and more to show them even more personalized content.

This allows you to tailor the content to specific users.

4. eCommerce Display Rules

These triggers are explicitly made to boost conversions on eCommerce websites.

You can show content to users based on their shopping behavior. OptinMonster supports WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify eCommerce platforms.

eCommerce targeting allows you to show content based on what products users are viewing, the number of products in their cart, the total cart cost, and more.

Once you select a condition, you will then be asked to select what to look for. For instance, if you choose a geographic location, then you will be asked to select locations that need to be matched.

After setting up your condition, you can validate it to ensure it is set up correctly and then click on the ‘Done? Go To Actions’ button.

Next, you will be asked when your campaign is displayed.

There are also options to add a MonsterEffect and sound effects for your campaign.

If you scroll down, then you’ll also see Cookie settings for your campaign. For instance, you can select whether to show a campaign to users who have converted or to visitors who closed the campaign but didn’t convert.

Once that’s done, click on the ‘Done? Go To Summary’ button to continue.

You will now see a summary of your display rule set. If you want, then you can add more rules or simply click on the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your changes.

Publish Your Content and Add It to Your Website

OptinMonster also makes it super easy to display campaigns on your website.

Simply switch to the Publish tab inside the builder and change the ‘Publish Status’ to ‘Publish.’

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.

You can now go back to your WordPress site and visit the OptinMonster » Campaigns page, and you will see your new campaign listed there.

If the ‘Status’ of the campaign is shown as ‘Pending,’ then click the ‘Change Status’ option under the campaign name. From here, simply select the ‘Publish’ status from the dropdown menu.

You can now test it by visiting your website while matching the conditions you set in the display rules.

OptinMonster’s display rules give you many powerful options to show different content to users in WordPress without modifying your templates and code.

Essentially, OptinMonster lets you leverage additional digital real estate on your site to increase your sales and conversions. With their A/B testing technology, you can easily test and improve your campaigns to drive better results.

Method 2: Showing Different Content to Users Using a Plugin

This method is recommended if you want to change the entire content of a post or page in WordPress or show different variations of the same content to your users.

First, you need to install and activate the If-So Dynamic Content plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the If-So » All Triggers page and click on the ‘Add New’ button.

This will bring you to the page where you can create a trigger and add the content.

First, you can enter a name for the trigger at the top. Next, you will see a ‘Select a Condition’ dropdown menu to the left.

The plugin offers a number of conditions based on time, date, URL, geographic location, IP address, and more.

After choosing the trigger, you can add the content you want to show users when that condition is matched.

Below that, you can add another version and use another set of rules to display different content.

Lastly, you will see the default content area. This is the content you want to show the users who don’t qualify for the conditions you set above.

Once you are finished, don’t forget to click the ‘Publish’ button for your trigger.

After publishing the trigger, you will see the shortcode meta box appear. Simply copy the shortcode shown on the screen.

You can now edit any post or page and add the shortcode in your content where you want to display the trigger.

You can now save and publish your post or page.

After that, visit your website to see the trigger in action. If you match the required conditions, then you will see the message you set for those conditions.

Otherwise, you will see the default message you added for the trigger.

Method 3: Showing Personalized Content in WooCommerce Using FunnelKit

While the above solutions help you display personalized content to different users, they will not be able to do deep personalization when adjusting WooCommerce offers.

If you run an online store using WooCommerce, then you may want to show dynamic offers, such as relevant upsells based on various cart conditions.

This is where you need FunnelKit. It is one of the most powerful WooCommerce plugins to grow your sales.

It lets you add custom one-click upsells or order bumps in your store, so you can increase profits without increasing traffic or ad spending.

You can use their Dynamic offers to show custom upsells and make any personalization rules that you want.

You can see an example in the diagram below.

FunnelKit also comes with built-in A/B testing.

So, you can show different headlines, checkout designs, buttons, and more in less than 5 minutes.

Basically, if you are running a WooCommerce store and want to do content personalization, then you need FunnelKit. A lot of users use FunnelKit for cart personalization alongside with OptinMonster for overall website personalization.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily show different content to different users in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to add a customer reviews page in WordPress and the best user management plugins for WordPress.

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