Displaying Review & Rating Notifications

A review notification surfaces a real customer review as a small, dismissible popup. A typical example shows a five-star rating, an excerpt from the review text, and the reviewer's first name: "James gave 5 stars — 'Exactly what I needed. Setup took under 10 minutes.'" This type of social proof works at the moment of highest doubt — when a visitor is deciding whether to trust you enough to buy.

Data sources for reviews

Activly can pull reviews from several platforms via native integrations or Zapier:

• Google Reviews — connect via the Google integration in your dashboard
• Trustpilot — native integration available
• Yelp — connect via Zapier
• Capterra — connect via Zapier
• G2 — connect via Zapier

If your review platform is not listed, use Zapier's "New Review" trigger with the Activly action, or send reviews to Activly via webhook.

Setup

1. Connect your review platform. Go to Integrations in your Activly dashboard, find your review platform, and click Connect. Follow the authorization flow. For platforms connected via Zapier, set up the Zap first, then proceed.

2. Create a new notification. Click New Notification and choose Review.

3. Configure the display options:

   • Star display — choose which ratings to show. Filter to 4 and 5-star reviews only. Showing a 3-star review in a social proof notification is counterproductive.
   • Excerpt length — set a character limit for the review text displayed in the notification. 80-120 characters is the right range — long enough to communicate something meaningful, short enough to read in the time the notification is visible.
   • Reviewer name — show the reviewer's first name, or anonymize to "Verified Customer" if your privacy policy requires it.

4. Set page targeting. Unlike purchase notifications, review notifications are most effective on pages where trust is the primary barrier:

   • Pricing page — visitors here are weighing the decision to pay
   • Product detail pages — especially for higher-priced items
   • Homepage — for brand-level credibility

5. Activate. Toggle the notification to Active.

Best placement

Pricing pages and checkout flows see the highest conversion impact from review notifications. A visitor who is seconds away from entering their payment details and then sees a genuine five-star review from a named customer has their hesitation addressed at exactly the right moment.

Tips

• Filter for reviews that include text content. A five-star rating with no written review is less persuasive as a notification because there is nothing specific for the visitor to read.
• Rotate through multiple reviews rather than showing the same one repeatedly. Activly cycles through your review pool automatically.
• Avoid truncating reviews mid-sentence. Set your excerpt length so the cutoff lands at a natural break.

What's next

• Setting Up Recent Purchase Notifications
• Connecting Your First Data Source