What is a Post-Purchase Survey?
What is a Post-Purchase Survey?
Definition
A post-purchase survey is a brief set of questions presented to customers directly after they complete a purchase—typically on the confirmation or thank-you page. These surveys capture zero-party data, such as how a customer first heard about your brand, what channels influenced their buying decision, or why they chose your product over competitors.
Why It Matters for Marketers
Post-purchase surveys are a powerful attribution tool—especially for hard-to-measure channels like podcasts, influencers, direct mail, and word of mouth. These channels often fall outside the scope of pixel-based or last-click attribution, leaving marketers blind to what’s actually driving conversions.
With survey data, marketers can:
Fill in attribution gaps left by platforms like Google Analytics and Meta Ads Manager
Validate top-of-funnel awareness efforts across podcast ads, PR, and organic social
Identify overperforming campaigns that deserve budget increases
Detect underperforming spend that isn’t being credited due to tracking limitations
Common Post-Purchase Survey Questions
To maximize attribution insights, the best post-purchase surveys ask direct, strategically designed questions that reveal how customers discovered the brand or what influenced their purchase. Examples include:
“How did you hear about us?”
“When did you first hear about us?”
“Who is this purchase for?”
Many DTC brands use these surveys to detect influence from channels that otherwise wouldn’t show up in attribution reports—like a TikTok mention, podcast shoutout, or friend referral.
Why Fairing Helps
Fairing is the leading post-purchase survey platform built for marketers who care about attribution accuracy and speed. Here’s what sets Fairing apart:
Instant response capture on the order confirmation page
Customizable survey logic to segment by product, geography, or customer type (new vs returning)
Attribution dashboard that quantifies channel performance over time
Integrations with Shopify, Klaviyo, and analytics tools for seamless reporting
Multi-question support for deeper zero-party data capture without hurting UX
Brands use Fairing to detect lift from podcast campaigns, influencer mentions, direct mail sends, and more—often within days of launching a campaign.
How to Calculate Attribution from Post-Purchase Survey Data
While surveys are qualitative by nature, Fairing makes them quantifiable. You can:
Categorize responses by channel (e.g., Podcast, Influencer, Word of Mouth)
Calculate share of response per channel (e.g., “Podcast = 22% of total responses”)
Compare against spend or traffic data to calculate ROAS or cost-per-attributed-order
Run lift tests by comparing survey data before and after a campaign launch
This method, sometimes called survey-based attribution, is especially useful for evaluating awareness-stage tactics where clicks are rare but influence is real.
Use Cases and Examples
A supplement brand runs a podcast ad with limited UTM tracking. Post-purchase surveys reveal a spike in “Heard about you on [Podcast Name]” responses the week it airs.
A fashion retailer sends out direct mail. Survey responses with “got your catalog” confirm that the channel is driving purchases—even without digital tracking.
An influencer campaign is launched across TikTok and Instagram. Survey responses mentioning specific influencers help the team reallocate budget to top performers.
TL;DR: Modern Attribution Starts Here
Post-purchase surveys are your fast lane to real customer insights and better attribution. Especially as cookies crumble and privacy rules evolve, survey-based data is the scalable, privacy-safe way to understand what’s driving your growth.
Looking to uncover what channels are truly influencing your customers? Get started with Fairing.
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