A “How did you hear about us?” survey asks customers which source introduced them to your business. Use it to learn about recommendations, events, content, and other routes customers remember. Ask about one moment—first discovery, the latest visit, or the decision to buy—so you know what the answers mean.
Youform lets you collect a source question, show relevant follow-ups, and send responses to Google Sheets. Start with the short survey below, then use the worked report to turn answers into a useful next action.
Start collecting: Draft your survey with Youform AI, or create a free form and copy the question below.
Useful extras: Download the editable survey (TXT), get the blank coding worksheet (CSV), or see the completed report. The downloads are free and need no signup.
What Is a How Did You Hear About Us Survey?
It is a short customer acquisition survey that records the source a customer remembers. A first-discovery question measures the introduction to your business; a current-visit or purchase-influence question measures a different moment. Choose the moment before choosing the answer options.
Quick answer: ask “Where did you first hear about [business]?” with a short relevant list, such as Search, Instagram, A recommendation, or An event. Add Other and “I don’t remember,” and keep this extra research optional.
Why Should Businesses Ask How Customers Heard About Them?
A referral in a private conversation or a sign outside your shop may not appear in a website report. The customer’s account helps you identify sources to investigate and the language people use to describe them. It adds context to acquisition data; it does not establish incremental return on advertising spend.
How Did You Hear About Us? Free Survey Template
For customers making their first purchase, use this introduction and one optional single-choice question. Replace the business name and channels with your own.
Thanks for choosing [business]. One optional question helps us understand where new customers first find us. Your answer will not affect your order.
Where did you first hear about [business]?
- A friend, family member, or colleague
- A search engine
- YouTube
- An event or market
- An article or review
- Something else — let the person describe it
- I don’t remember
Ask a follow-up only when it adds useful detail. A search answer can lead to “Which search engine?”; an event answer to “Which event?” Keep these optional. You do not need the name of the person who made a recommendation unless there is a separate, explained reason to collect it.
Tailor the list to your customers: podcasts, LinkedIn, an AI assistant, or a shop window may be more relevant than the channels above. For a service enquiry, change “order” in the introduction to “enquiry” and ask after the person has finished their main task.
The survey download includes the question, options, follow-up rules, stable reporting codes, and a before-sharing checklist.
How to Customize Survey Answer Options for Your Industry
A restaurant, a software company, and a local tradesperson will have different discovery sources. Use this prompt in ChatGPT, Claude, or your preferred AI to make a short list for your business. Replace the brackets, then check the suggestions against real customer answers.
Edit your industry prompt
Or open the prompt in your AI:
Your AI’s sign-in and prompt support may vary; use Copy industry prompt if needed. Once you have a useful list, draft it in Youform or add it as a Single Select question in your free form.
How to Ask “How Did You Hear About Us?”
| What you need to learn | Question to ask | What the answer describes |
|---|---|---|
| First discovery | Where did you first hear about [business]? | The source the customer remembers first. |
| This visit | What brought you to our website today? | The reason or route for the current visit. |
| Purchase motivation | What most influenced your decision to buy today? | A buying influence, which may be a price, product feature, or recommendation. |
Use one of these when one decision is enough. “How did you hear about us and why did you buy?” combines two jobs and produces an answer you cannot reliably assign to either. Ask them separately if both are needed.
A customer can first discover you through a friend, return through Google, and buy after reading reviews. The discovery question captures the introduction; the click report captures the visit. Keep both to understand the journey.
20 Best How Did You Hear About Us Survey Answer Options
Begin with an open-text pilot if you do not know the likely sources. Review those answers, group repeated channels, and turn the common ones into a short choice list. Pew Research Center explains how pilots, wording, answer choices, and option order influence survey answers.
- Use recognizable names. “Instagram” or “a friend” is easier to answer than “paid social” or “referral acquisition.” A person may not know whether a post was sponsored.
- Make choices distinct. Avoid a list containing both “social media” and “Instagram” without explaining the difference.
- Include unpaid discovery. A list containing only channels you advertise on can miss recommendations, organic content, and offline discovery.
- Keep Other and uncertainty available. “I don’t remember” is different from “Something else,” and both are different from skipping the question.
- Keep the meaning stable. Use the same reporting code when you shorten a label. Record when the question or options change, so a new list is not mistaken for a change in customer behavior.
Single choice fits “where did you first hear.” If you ask people to select every source they remember, you are measuring multiple mentions: the totals can exceed the number of respondents and the percentages need a different explanation.
20 possible sources to adapt
Use this as an option library, not one default menu. Platform and advertisement choices can overlap: either ask for the platform first and paid detail in a follow-up, or use mutually exclusive labels tailored to your campaign. Add “I don’t remember” outside this 20-source library.
| # | Possible source |
|---|---|
| 1 | Google Search |
| 2 | Bing or another search engine |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | YouTube |
| 6 | TikTok |
| 7 | |
| 8 | X (formerly Twitter) |
| 9 | A friend or family member |
| 10 | A colleague or business partner |
| 11 | An online review |
| 12 | A blog or online article |
| 13 | A podcast |
| 14 | An online advertisement |
| 15 | An event or conference |
| 16 | A newsletter or email |
| 17 | A flyer, poster, or printed advertisement |
| 18 | A physical store or sign |
| 19 | An AI assistant, such as ChatGPT |
| 20 | Another source (please specify) |
How Did You Hear About Us Survey Question Examples
How Did You Hear About Us Question for Websites
“What brought you to our website today?” measures the current visit. For discovery, use “Where did you first hear about our business?” Do not mix the answers in one trend.
How Did You Hear About Us Question for Ecommerce
“Where did you first discover our store?” belongs after the purchase rather than in the way of payment.
How Did You Hear About Us Question for Service Businesses
“Where did you first hear about our services?” fits an enquiry confirmation. Ask separately whether someone recommended you if you need referral information.
How Did You Hear About Us Question for Events
“How did you first learn about this event?” names the event rather than assuming the attendee already knows the organizer.
| Purpose | Question |
|---|---|
| First discovery | Where did you first hear about our business? |
| General customer survey | How did you first find out about us? |
| Local business | How did you first learn about our business? |
| Referral | Did someone recommend our business to you? |
| Content discovery | Where did you first come across our content? |
| Purchase influence | What most influenced your decision to purchase? |
How Did You Hear About Us Survey Examples by Industry
How Did You Hear About Us Survey for Ecommerce Stores
Ask: Where did you first discover our store?
Possible sources: Search; Instagram; TikTok; YouTube; a recommendation; a product review. Add Other and “I don’t remember.” When: on the order-confirmation page or in a post-purchase follow-up.
How Did You Hear About Us Survey for Restaurants
Ask: How did you first hear about our restaurant?
Possible sources: Search or maps; a friend; Instagram; a local article; walking past; an event. Add Other and “I don’t remember.” When: after a booking or visit, away from the payment task.
How Did You Hear About Us Survey for SaaS Businesses
Ask: Where did you first hear about [product]?
Possible sources: Search; a colleague; YouTube; LinkedIn; a review site; an AI assistant. Add Other and “I don’t remember.” When: after signup, without blocking activation.
How Did You Hear About Us Survey for Marketing Agencies
Ask: Where did you first hear about our agency?
Possible sources: A client referral; LinkedIn; search; an industry event; a podcast; an article. Add Other and “I don’t remember.” When: after an enquiry is submitted.
How Did You Hear About Us Survey for Healthcare Providers
Ask: How did you first learn about this practice?
Possible sources: A personal recommendation; a clinician referral; search or maps; an insurer directory; a local sign. Add Other and “I don’t remember.” When: after appointment booking; keep the question optional and avoid requesting a diagnosis or referrer’s personal details.
How Did You Hear About Us Survey for Educational Institutions
Ask: How did you first hear about this course?
Possible sources: Search; a teacher or adviser; a former student; an open day; social media; an education directory. Add Other and “I don’t remember.” When: after an enquiry or application, without affecting eligibility.
How Did You Hear About Us Survey for Local Businesses
Ask: How did you first learn about our business?
Possible sources: A neighbor; search or maps; a shop sign; a flyer; a community event; local social media. Add Other and “I don’t remember.” When: after the customer’s request or purchase.
How Did You Hear About Us Survey for Events and Conferences
Ask: How did you first learn about this event?
Possible sources: An email newsletter; a colleague; LinkedIn; a speaker; an event directory; a partner organization. Add Other and “I don’t remember.” When: after registration.
How Did You Hear About Us vs. How Did You Find Us
“Hear about us” usually suggests awareness; “find us” can mean the route to this visit or even directions to a venue. Add “first” for discovery or “today” for a current visit. The exact moment matters more than which conversational phrase you prefer.
Single-Choice vs. Multiple-Choice Survey Questions
Use one choice when each response should identify one remembered first source. Use multiple selections for all influences, and report the share mentioning each source. Multiple-selection percentages can exceed 100% in total. Include a separate uncertainty option rather than forcing a guess.
When Should You Ask “How Did You Hear About Us?”
For a store, place the question after checkout on a confirmation page that supports your form, or link to it from a post-purchase email. For an agency or service business, ask after the enquiry or booking. Keep the question optional and avoid making payment or a useful reply depend on answering it.
Choose whether the survey is for first-time customers or everyone. For first discovery, invite first-time buyers from your existing customer or order system. Report first-time and repeat customers separately.
Your checkout platform controls where forms can appear. A Youform link can work from an email even when a checkout page cannot accept a general embed. For Shopify Thank you and Order status pages, check Shopify’s current customization options to choose a supported placement.
Record the invitation dates, audience, channel, and number of people invited. Use a known invitation count when calculating a response rate.
How to Analyze How Did You Hear About Us Survey Responses
Northline Prints is a fictional small print shop. It invited 40 first-time buyers to answer an optional discovery question; 20 submitted the survey. The complete 20-row example (CSV) shows each original answer, its reporting bucket, the coding decision, and a separate observed first-visit source from an illustrative analytics record.
Open the CSV in Google Sheets or Excel. Keep the original-answer column, add your bucket and note beside it, and count the buckets. Keep observed visits in their own columns alongside the customer’s answer.
| Original answer | Reporting bucket | Coding decision |
|---|---|---|
| A friend sent me your name. | Word of mouth | Keep the remembered recommendation even if analytics records Google. |
| An Instagram ad. | Preserve “ad” in the original answer; review campaign records separately for paid performance. | |
| Google—I searched your name. | Search | Code the reported source. Branded search may follow an earlier influence the customer did not mention. |
| A flyer at the library. | Other | Keep the detail; consider a flyer option in the next version if it recurs. |
| I’ve known the name for ages; not sure where from. | Don’t remember / unclear | Keep the source marked unclear. |
| No answer | Skipped | Keep missing answers separate from explicit uncertainty. |
Use the same rule for every row. Map spelling variants such as “IG” and “Instagram” to one code. Preserve uncategorizable answers for review. If someone names several sources and cannot identify the first, mark the first source as unclear.
For the 20-row example, =COUNTIF(C2:C21,"word_of_mouth") counts four recommendations. =COUNTIF(C2:C21,"word_of_mouth")/COUNTA(A2:A21), formatted as a percentage, returns 20%. Column A contains one ID for each submitted survey; column C contains the source code. Adjust both ranges for your own rows and include submissions with skipped source answers.
Download the blank coding worksheet (CSV) to apply the same structure to your own responses. Keep access appropriate to any customer information you include.
How Did You Hear About Us Survey Results: Worked Example
Northline Prints — fictional first-customer discovery report. Audience: first-time buyers invited by email. Invitations: 40. Submitted surveys: 20. Source answers: 18, including two uncertain answers; two people skipped the source question.
Invitation-response rate: 20 ÷ 40 × 100 = 50%. The source shares below use all 20 submitted surveys, so uncertainty and skipped answers stay visible.
| Remembered source | Count | Share of 20 submitted surveys |
|---|---|---|
| Word of mouth | 4 | 20% |
| 4 | 20% | |
| Search | 3 | 15% |
| YouTube | 2 | 10% |
| Event or market | 1 | 5% |
| Article or review | 1 | 5% |
| Other | 1 | 5% |
| Don’t remember / unclear | 2 | 10% |
| Skipped | 2 | 10% |
| Total | 20 | 100% |
What the owner can do next
- Preserve the useful signals: recommendations and Instagram are commonly named among these respondents. Review those customer journeys and the messages people saw.
- Investigate one mismatch: row R01 reports a friend while the observed first visit is Google organic. The original introduction may have happened offline; check the question and collection context rather than rewriting it as Google discovery.
- Keep a question open: four of 20 submissions are uncertain or blank. Improve the wording or pilot the options if that pattern persists. Keep them visible in the next report.
- Assign an action: the marketing owner reviews Other answers and the discovery options before the next monthly survey. Keep the existing list until a revision is agreed, and record that revision.
These shares describe the respondents’ remembered sources; the 20 nonrespondents may have different journeys. Use this report to choose what to investigate, then bring in campaign and revenue data for budget decisions.
Download the completed report and blank report template (TXT). Keep the period, audience, denominator, uncertainty, owner, and next action when you adapt it.
How to Track Customer Acquisition Sources Using Survey Responses
Keep a stable source code, the original answer, collection date, survey version, and the defined acquisition stage. Where appropriate, join to your existing order or customer record with the identifier your process already uses. Keep the survey’s remembered source separate from measured campaign and visit fields. Review the coding rules before comparing periods.
How Did You Hear About Us Survey vs. Website Analytics
The survey records remembered discovery. Analytics records observable visits and events within its tracking rules. A customer can hear about you from a colleague, search your name later, and arrive through a search result. Both records can be accurate. A campaign tag on the survey invitation identifies that invitation, not the customer’s original introduction.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Asking How Customers Found You
- Mixing first discovery and purchase influence in one result.
- Offering overlapping channels without a coding plan.
- Treating “I don’t remember” or a skipped answer as direct traffic.
- Assuming respondents represent every customer or non-buyer.
Best Practices for Writing Customer Acquisition Survey Questions
Ask one clearly defined question after the main task, use a short relevant list, make Other available, and preserve uncertainty. Pilot the wording before a campaign. For related pitfalls, see response bias and double-barreled questions.
How to Improve Your Marketing Using Survey Responses
Choose one pattern to investigate. If respondents repeatedly mention a particular podcast, review that audience and message before committing more spend. Compare source answers with qualified leads, order value, and campaign costs. A frequently named source can deserve attention without proving that increasing its budget will create more customers.
How to Create a How Did You Hear About Us Survey With Youform
- Start a form. Add the introduction and a Single Select question with your source options. Leave the source question optional; one answer should represent first discovery.
- Allow Other. Youform’s choice-question settings provide an Other option with a text answer and an option to randomize choices while keeping Other at the bottom.
- Add relevant follow-ups. Configure conditional logic for a useful detail, such as the event name. Send people who do not remember to the ending instead of requiring a guess.
- Choose the distribution route. Publish a direct link or use a supported website embed. Your own email or customer system determines who receives the invitation and when.
- Connect the response destination. In Integrate, authorize the appropriate Google account and connect Google Sheets. Use the resulting response columns as your raw inputs; the downloadable coding/report sheets are a separate analysis structure you adapt.
- Check the paths before inviting customers. Review a normal choice, an optional follow-up, Other, “I don’t remember,” and a skipped question on desktop and phone. Confirm the published link, labels, and destination you will actually use.
If you pass campaign context through hidden fields, keep it separate from the customer’s answer. A UTM on the survey link tracks the invitation. To compare original acquisition data, use your existing order or analytics process and keep that data in separate columns.
Youform Free includes conditional logic, website embeds, Google Sheets, and unlimited forms and responses within fair usage. Your logo, custom domains, partial submissions, and advanced drop-off analytics require Pro. Check the current plans; connected tools may have their own costs.
Create your source survey in Youform. For a broader decision-journey questionnaire, explore the path-to-purchase template; for satisfaction rather than discovery, use the customer-feedback question guide.
For a campaign that needs its own destination, build a free landing page with Youform Pages and connect your form. Page analytics shows referral traffic and form activity; the survey adds the customer’s own account of how they found you. Keep those two sources of evidence separate when you interpret the results.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should “How did you hear about us?” be required?
Keep it optional when it is extra marketing research rather than information needed to deliver the customer’s request. Include a way to say the person does not remember, and do not make checkout depend on the answer.
Should I use a dropdown or single-choice list?
A visible single-choice list makes a short set easier to scan. Use a dropdown for a longer list when it helps the layout, and check it on a phone. Reduce or group irrelevant options before adding a long menu.
Can the survey replace analytics?
No. It records what respondents remember. Analytics records observed visits and events under its own collection and attribution rules. Keep the two signals separate and investigate differences.
What if several sources influenced the customer?
For first discovery, ask for the earliest source they remember and allow uncertainty. To study all influences, ask a separate multiple-choice question and report mentions; do not treat its percentages as mutually exclusive discovery shares.
Why should you ask customers how they heard about your business?
To learn remembered discovery sources, including recommendations and offline routes that tracking may miss.
What are the best How Did You Hear About Us answer options?
Use the channels your customers recognize, plus Other and “I don’t remember.” Treat the 20-option table as a library to shorten.
How do you ask How Did You Hear About Us professionally?
“Where did you first hear about [business]?” is clear and neutral. Explain briefly that the answer helps you understand discovery.
What is another way to say How Did You Hear About Us?
“How did you first find out about us?” keeps the first-discovery meaning.
Can customers select more than one source?
Yes, when you ask about all influences. Use a separate single-choice question if you need one earliest remembered source.
When should I ask customers how they heard about us?
After their purchase, signup, enquiry, or registration, without blocking that task.
How do you track customer acquisition sources?
Keep original source answers and stable reporting codes, then compare them with separate customer, order, and analytics records.
What should I do if customers don’t remember how they found us?
Let them say so. Preserve uncertainty in the report rather than assigning a source.
Can I use a How Did You Hear About Us question on a checkout page?
Prefer an optional post-purchase question or confirmation-page survey. Avoid introducing a marketing requirement before payment.
How do I create a free How Did You Hear About Us survey?
Copy the starter into Youform’s free survey builder, choose relevant options, and preview the Other, uncertainty, and skipped-answer paths.
How do I use survey results to improve my marketing strategy?
Use repeated patterns to choose investigations, then check qualified leads, revenue, and costs before changing budgets.
Reviewed . Question-writing reference: Pew Research Center. Product setup references are linked beside the instructions. The Northline Prints example and worksheets are original fictional examples.