Issuing Promo Codes to Respondents

You can thank respondents with a unique promo code. Upload your codes as a list and attach it to the survey: each respondent who completes the survey gets the next unused code.

How promo codes are issued

• A code is issued when a respondent submits a completed response. Incomplete responses don't get a code.
• Each code is given out once. After that, it is marked as used and linked to the response.
• When the list runs out, respondents get no code. Keep a stock of 5–10% more codes than the responses you expect.
• No codes are issued in preview.

Creating a list of promo codes

1. Open the survey and go to Settings.
2. In the Promo codes section, click Attach. The Promo code lists page opens.
3. Click Add list (or Create list if you don't have lists yet).
4. Enter the List name.
5. Add codes in the Promo codes (one code per line) field (1), or click Upload from file (2). In a TXT or CSV file, each line is one code. In an XLS or XLSX file, the codes are taken from column A.
6. Choose the Promo code display type (3): Text, QR code, Barcode or DataMatrix. For QR code and DataMatrix, set the size in Code size, px. For Barcode, set Width, px and Height, px.
7. Click Create list.
   

To add more codes to an existing list later, open the list and click Add promo codes.

Attaching the promo code list to a survey

1. On the Promo code lists page, click the list name.
2. Click Attach.
3. In the Attaching list panel, check the surveys that should use this list. The survey you came from is marked Current survey.
4. Click Save.
   

The list page now says "The list is attached to the current survey" (1). A survey uses 1 list, and 1 list can be attached to several surveys: they share the same stock of codes. To detach the list, click Unpin, clear the survey's checkbox and click Save.

The same page shows how many codes there are in total, how many are issued and how many remain (2). The table below lists every code with the survey, response and date it was issued. Use the search and the status filter (All promo codes, Used, Unused) to find a code.

Important. Once a list is attached, a code is issued for every completed response, even if the code isn't shown anywhere. Turn on the display right away, as described below.

Showing the promo code on the Thank You Screen

1. Go to Survey → Builder and select the Thank You Screen.
2. Click the gear icon (Settings) next to it.
3. Turn on Promocode (1). A line with the promo code appears on the screen. In the builder it reads "Your promo code: #promo_code#". Until you edit the text before the code, respondents see "Issued promo code" followed by their own code.
4. For a list with QR codes, barcodes or DataMatrix codes, you can also turn on Promo code image (2).
5. Click Publish so respondents see the change.
   

The switches stay inactive until a list is attached to the survey.

To place the code anywhere in the Thank You Screen text, type @ and choose Promocode (or Promo code image). SurveyNinja inserts the respondent's own code in its place. Read more about @ variables in Reusing Answers in Survey Questions.

Sending the promo code by email

In the Notifications section, the email to the respondent can include the promo code. With the standard email template, turn on Include promo code in email. In your own template, type @ and choose Promocode.

Finding issued promo codes

Each issued code is saved with the response. Open the response in Results → Responses to see the Issued promo code, or check the code table on the list page.

Limits

• Up to 1,000 codes can be added at a time, by typing or from a file. Lines beyond 1,000 are dropped, so split a longer list into several uploads with Add promo codes.
• A file for upload can be TXT, CSV, XLS or XLSX up to 1 MB.
• A single code can be up to 250 characters long.
• The list doesn't check codes for duplicates. Make sure every code in your file is unique.
• A Barcode (Code-128) scans reliably only with Latin letters, digits and basic symbols. For other characters, use QR code or DataMatrix.
• A copy of the survey stays attached to the same list and uses the same stock of codes. To give the copy its own codes, detach the list from it with Unpin.

If something doesn't work

The Promocode switch is inactive. No promo code list is attached to the survey. Attach a list as described in Attaching the promo code list to a survey.

The Promo code image switch is inactive. The attached list uses the Text display type. The image is available only for lists with QR code, Barcode or DataMatrix.

A respondent didn't get a code. The list has run out, or the response is incomplete. Check Promo codes remaining on the list page and add codes with Add promo codes.