How Did You Hear About Us Survey: Options and a Worked Report

A 'how did you hear about us?' question is one of the cheapest pieces of marketing research you can run, but only if the options are specific enough to change a decision.

Start with the decision, not the question

Decide what you would do differently depending on the answer. If the answer cannot change a budget or a channel, the question is just decoration.

A starter set of options

• Search engine (Google, Bing, …)
• A friend or colleague recommended you
• Social media
• A podcast or video
• Newsletter or blog
• A directory or marketplace
• An event or conference
• Somewhere else (please tell us)

Make it easy to answer

• Keep it to a single, optional question so it never blocks a submission.
• Add a short free-text follow-up only for the 'somewhere else' option.
• Put it at the end of the form, not the start.

Turn responses into a report

Group answers into a few buckets — owned, earned and paid — then read them as a trend rather than a single snapshot. A channel that produces a tenth of your leads but the best-fit clients is worth more than its share of the count.