Would you like to start building targeted opt-in forms that grow your email list? This guide introduces Thrive Leads’ core concepts and walks you through installing the plugin, understanding its form types, and creating your first campaign from start to finish.
Thrive Leads is a list-building plugin for WordPress that lets you create and display conversion-focused opt-in forms on your site. Whether you want to grow your email list, deliver lead magnets, or display targeted offers, Thrive Leads gives you the tools to design, target, and test your forms.
Installing and Activating Thrive Leads
Before you can use Thrive Leads, you need to install and activate it on your WordPress site.
- Install the Thrive Product Manager plugin if you haven’t already.
- Go to Product Manager in your WordPress admin sidebar.
- Check the Install Product box under the Thrive Leads card.
- Click the button at the bottom of the screen to install your selected products.
Once activated, Thrive Leads gets its own item in your WordPress admin sidebar, separate from Product Manager and the other Thrive Suite plugins.
Core Concepts: Form Types
Thrive Leads offers several ways to display forms on your site. Understanding the difference between them helps you choose the right tool for your campaign. The My Forms page groups every form you build under four tabs: Lead Groups, Lead Shortcodes, ThriveBoxes, and Signup Segue.
1. Lead Groups
Lead Groups are the most powerful way to automate your list building. A Lead Group acts as a container for one or more forms (like a Popup, Ribbon, or Slide In) that share the same display conditions.
- Automatic display: you define where these forms appear (for example, “All Posts” or specific categories) and Thrive Leads automatically inserts them.
- Smart targeting: you can show different offers to different segments of your audience.
- Testing: you can A/B test different form types against each other within a group.
2. Lead Shortcodes
Lead Shortcodes let you manually place a form anywhere you can use a WordPress shortcode.
- Manual placement: ideal for inline forms within a specific blog post or page, where you want exact control over placement.
- Limitation: unlike Lead Groups, you have to manually add the shortcode to every page where you want it to appear.
3. ThriveBoxes
ThriveBoxes are pop-up lightboxes that open on click rather than automatically. A 2-step opt-in lets you link text, an image, or a button to a ThriveBox so the form appears only when a visitor engages with it. Instead of the When/Position rules that Lead Group forms use, ThriveBoxes use an entrance-animation Display Rules tab (Instant, Zoom In, Slide In, and so on) — see our guide on ThriveBox Display Rules for the full walkthrough.
4. Signup Segue
Signup Segue lets existing subscribers sign up for new offers with one click, without re-entering their email address. This is useful for webinar registrations or bonus content delivery.
Building Your First Form
Setting up a form now follows a guided flow: pick a form type and template, name the form, then design, target, and publish it from one editor.
Step 1: Choose a Form Type and Template
- Go to Thrive Leads » Templates.
- Pick the form type that matches where you want the form to appear: In-Content, Popup, Ribbon, Fullscreen, Scroll Mat, Slide In, Widget, or PHP Insert.
- Browse the template grid and select a design. Every template shows a Use Template button when you hover over it. If you would rather start from scratch, choose Blank Template instead.
Step 2: Name Your Form and Assign It to a Lead Group
- Type a name into the Name your Form field. This name is for internal organization only; your visitors will never see it.
- Use the Add form to a group dropdown to place the form in a Lead Group.
- Click Save Form & Proceed to open the form editor.
Step 3: Design, Target, and Publish the Form
The form editor has four tabs: Design, Display Rules, Lead Group, and Review & Finish.
- Select the Design tab, a full Thrive Architect editor embedded directly in Thrive Leads, and add and arrange elements the same way you would on an Architect landing page.
The sidebar on the right gives you Add Element, Display Conditions, Change Template, Settings, and Navigator. At the bottom of the canvas, a state switcher (labeled Default State) lets you add extra states for the same form, such as a “thank you” message after a visitor submits it.
- Select the Display Rules tab to control when, where, and how the form appears to visitors. This tab covers the “When” rule (page load or in-viewport), the position on the page, and which devices the form displays on.
The available rules change based on the form type you picked earlier.
- Select the Lead Group tab to see the conditions already set on the group you assigned the form to. Click Edit conditions if you need to change which pages this Lead Group’s forms are allowed to appear on.
Any change you make here applies to every form in the group, not just the one you are currently editing.
- Select the Review & Finish tab to see a summary of your design, display rules, and Lead Group in one place, then click Publish form in the top right corner.
Thrive Leads then adds the form to its display rotation according to the rules you set.
The Thrive Leads Dashboard
Your command center is the Thrive Leads Dashboard. Here you can:
- View an onboarding checklist and daily performance stats (Unique Impressions, Conversions, Conversion Rate).
- Create and manage Lead Groups, Lead Shortcodes, ThriveBoxes, and Signup Segue forms from the My Forms widget.
- Start a new form from the Choose a form type widget.
- Run A/B tests and access advanced features like Lead Reports and Asset Delivery.
To get a detailed tour of the interface, read our guide on Understanding the Thrive Leads Dashboard.
Next Steps
Ready to keep improving your results? Check out these guides next:
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I change a form’s type after I create it?
The form type (In-Content, Popup, and so on) is set when you first choose a template, and the editor tabs you see (Design, Display Rules, Lead Group, Review & Finish) are shaped around that type. If you need a different form type, create a new form with that type from Templates rather than trying to convert an existing one.
Where do my published forms show up?
Every form you publish appears under My Forms, organized by its Lead Group, along with its impressions, conversions, and conversion rate.
What happened to the old Trigger and Display Frequency settings?
They’ve been folded into the Display Rules tab’s “When” section, alongside the Position and Device Visibility settings.