Banner isn't appearing

Work through these checks in order. Most issues are caught in the first three steps.

Check that Appcues is installed

Open the Appcues debugger on the page where you expect the Banner to show. Confirm all rows display green checkmarks.

If any rows show red errors, you have an installation issue that needs to be resolved before the Banner can appear. See Installation Testing / Debugging for next steps.

Check user eligibility

1. Click Audiences > Users and search for the affected user. See Find and inspect users.

2. Open the Eligibility tab. It lists every live experience and whether the user qualifies for it.

3. To include page and domain rules, enter the page's URL in Page URL and click Check page.

4. If the Banner shows Not eligible, click See why. Each group of rules shows Met or Not met:

   • Audience not met: the user doesn't match the audience rules.

   • Page not met: the page doesn't match the page or domain rules.

Check page targeting

Use Test URL targeting on the Banner's settings.

1. Open the Banner. Its settings open first.
2. In Where this appears, click Test URL targeting.
3. Enter the URL where you expect the Banner to appear. The result is Will show, Will not show, or Will show when installed (the rules match, but Appcues isn't installed on that domain).

If the result is Will not show, review your URL conditions. Common mistakes are covered in the Page targeting isn't matching section below.

Also confirm the domain where you're testing is ticked under Only the domains I choose in Where this appears. If you're testing in staging but only have your production domain selected, the Banner won't appear.

User dismissed the Banner

If the Banner is configured as dismissible and a user dismisses it, the Banner won't appear to them again.

To verify whether a user dismissed the Banner:

1. Open the user's Activity tab in Audiences > Users. Experiences seen shows the Banner's outcome, such as Dismissed.
2. Search the export for the appcues:v2:experience_dismissed event for the affected user.
3. If the user dismissed the Banner and you need it to reappear, reset the user's profile: in Audiences > Users, open the user, click ⋮, then Reset profile. The next time the user is identified, their profile is recreated and they become eligible again.

Resetting a user profile clears all Flow history, event history, and properties — not just Banner data. Use this with caution.

Banner is overlapping or pushing page content

Banners render at the top of the page and, depending on how you configure them and how your app is built, they can either overlay your UI (potentially covering a sticky header/nav) or embed inline (pushing content down).

Banner overlaps a sticky header or nav bar

This can happen when the Banner is configured to Overlay your site content, since it floats above the page rather than taking up space in the layout.

• Switch the Banner’s embedding to Inline if you want it to push the page content down and keep top navigation available while the Banner is present.
• If you need to keep Overlay, adjust your app’s CSS to prevent collisions (for example, z-index changes or adding top padding/margin while the Banner is active). This kind of styling adjustment typically needs to be done in the customer’s application code.

Banner pushes page content down unexpectedly

If the Banner is configured as Inline, it is inserted into the document flow and will push your site content down beneath it. This is expected behavior.

• If the layout shift is disruptive, switch the embedding to Overlay so the Banner floats above content instead of shifting the page.
• If your app relies on fixed offsets, coordinate with your development team to account for the Banner’s height dynamically (for example, by adding conditional spacing when the Banner is present).

Multiple Banners appearing

If a user qualifies for more than one published Banner, multiple Banners may display at the same time. This can create a poor user experience — especially if both are positioned at the top of the page.

To resolve, review the audience and page targeting of each published Banner to ensure they don't overlap for the same users and pages. Use segments to separate audiences or narrow page targeting.

User properties are stale or missing

If you're targeting the Banner based on a user property that is no longer being sent — or is being sent with incorrect values — users won't match the audience criteria.

Check the Properties page in Studio. Find the property you're targeting and check the Last received timestamp. If the property hasn't been received recently, work with your development team to confirm it's still being sent in the Appcues.identify() call.

Page targeting isn't matching

Regex patterns

If using a regex pattern for URL matching, confirm:

• The operator is set to matches regex (not "contains" or "is").
• The pattern is valid. Test it with a regex tester.

AND vs OR conditions

If using multiple URL conditions, check whether they use All (AND) or Any (OR) logic.

Example of a common mistake: You want the Banner to appear on pages containing "account", "dashboard", or "payments." If you use All (AND), the Banner only appears on a URL that contains all three words simultaneously (e.g., https://yourapp.com/account/dashboard/payments) — which may not exist.

Switch to Any (OR) so the Banner appears on any page containing at least one of those words.

Content Security Policy blocking Appcues

Some applications use a Content Security Policy (CSP) that blocks external resources not explicitly allowed. This can prevent the Appcues SDK or Builder from loading.

1. Open your browser's console (right-click > Inspect > Console tab) and look for errors that mention a Content Security Policy related to Appcues.
2. If you see CSP errors, your development team needs to add Appcues domains to the allow list. See Content Security Policies for the required configuration.

Still stuck?

Collect the following and contact support:

• The Banner's name and Experience ID (on its Settings tab, in Who changed this).
• The affected user's User ID.
• The page URL where the issue occurs.
• The Banner's position setting (Fixed or Sticky) and placement (top or bottom).
• A screenshot or screen recording showing the problem.
• Any console errors visible in the browser's developer tools.