Creating and Configuring a URL Survey
Last updated: July 30, 2026
Build a survey anyone can answer from a single shareable link — no recipient list required.
Who this is for: All users, Admins, CX and marketing teams distributing a feedback link somewhere Unwrap doesn't manage directly
Overview
A URL survey (Survey Type: Link on the Settings tab) is a standalone, public link to your survey. There's no recipient list to upload and no email is sent — anyone who opens the link can respond. Use it when you want to put a feedback link somewhere outside of email or your website's widget: a newsletter, a QR code, a support-ticket footer, a social post, or a link pasted into a tool that isn't otherwise connected to Unwrap.
Like every Unwrap survey, responses flow back into your Unwrap data layer and are analyzed alongside your other feedback once the survey is connected to a View.
Prerequisites
An active Unwrap account (Admin or Survey Admin access)
A place to put the link (a newsletter, a page, a QR code, etc.) — Unwrap doesn't distribute it for you
At least one View set up in your organization, if you want responses analyzed alongside your other feedback
How It Works
Once the survey is Active, its link accepts responses. Once it's Inactive — or — opening the link shows:
Survey not found! The link you've used might be invalid or expired. Please check and try again.
Because there's no recipient list, Unwrap has no record of who might open the link ahead of time — anyone who has it can respond, as many times as they open it. There's no per-recipient delivery status or snapshot behavior the way there is for an email survey, and no protection against the same person submitting more than once or any cap on total responses.
Personalization still works, just differently than email: values come from URL query parameters instead of a recipient list. See below.
Getting Started
Step 1: Create the survey
Navigate to Surveys from the left navigation and click Create New Survey.
Enter a survey name (internal only) and an optional description, then click Create.
Step 2: Add your questions
On the Settings tab, add your questions: Rating (1–10), Open-Ended Text, Single Choice, Multiple Choice, Yes/No, or Matrix Table.
Toggle Allow AI Follow Up on open-text questions where you want a targeted clarifying question to fire automatically on a low-detail answer. Add a system prompt for company/product context if useful.
Reorder or delete questions using the drag handle or up/down arrows.
Personalize question text with
{paramName}syntax if you want values from the link's query parameters — see .
Step 3: Design the respondent experience
Click the Design tab to set your logo, background image, and layout alignment (left/center/right) — layout alignment applies here, unlike a widget survey. See Survey Design Page.
Step 4: Copy your shareable link
On the Settings tab, copy the Public Survey Link field — a URL in the form https://surveys.unwrap.ai/s/<survey-id>. This is the link you'll distribute.
Step 5: Connect your survey to a View
The Settings tab shows a Connected Views panel. If it says "Not connected to any view" (responses won't appear in your feedback until you connect one), click Connect to current view. You can also connect from the View's Integrations tab. See Adding Surveys to Views.
Step 6: Activate
Toggle Status to Active on the Settings tab. The link will now accept responses. Distribute it wherever you're using it.
Personalizing with Query Parameters
Insert {paramName} anywhere in a question to personalize it per respondent. Values come from URL query parameters — append ?paramName=value to the survey link:
https://surveys.unwrap.ai/your-survey?locationName=Main+StA question containing {locationName} would render with "Main St" substituted in for that respondent. This is how a URL survey personalizes without a recipient list: encode the value directly into the specific link you distribute (e.g., a different query string per store location, per QR code, or per email footer).
Archiving a Survey
From the Settings tab, Archive survey finishes the survey and hides it from your active list. The public link stops accepting new responses, but existing responses are kept. This is distinct from toggling Inactive — it's a one-way action and cannot be undone.
Configuration Options
Option | Description | Default | Available Values |
|---|---|---|---|
Status | Whether the public link currently accepts responses | Inactive (not yet active) | Active, Inactive |
Public Survey Link | The shareable URL respondents use to reach the survey | Auto-generated per survey | N/A (copy as-is) |
Allow AI Follow Up | Whether Unwrap asks a clarifying question on a low-detail answer | Off, per question | On, Off |
Personalization parameters |
| None | Must match a query parameter name on the link exactly |
There's no subject line, test email, or recipient list for a URL survey — those concepts are specific to email delivery.
Best Practices
Preview your design before sharing the link widely. There's no test-send step like there is for email, so previewing is your main way to check the respondent experience before it's public.
Connect to a View before activating, so analysis starts from the first response.
Keep it short. Without a recipient list or subject line to set expectations, a long survey is more likely to lose respondents partway through — lean on AI follow-ups for depth instead of adding more questions.
Treat the link as public and unprotected against resubmission. Anyone with it can respond, more than once if they choose, so don't rely on it for anything that needs a controlled or one-response-per-person audience — use an email survey instead if you need that.
Use query parameters to personalize per distribution point (per store, per location, per campaign) rather than creating a near-duplicate survey for each one.
Limitations
There's no recipient list, so there's no per-respondent delivery status or snapshot behavior — everyone who opens the link gets the current version of the survey at that moment.
No protection against duplicate submissions, and no cap on total responses.
Archiving a survey cannot be undone.
FAQ
Q: Do I need to add recipients for a URL survey? A: No. A URL survey has no recipient list — anyone with the link can respond once the survey is active.
Q: Can I use the same link across multiple channels (a newsletter and a QR code, for example)? A: Yes — it's the same public link regardless of where you put it. Use query parameters if you want to tell those channels apart or personalize by channel.
Q: How is this different from a widget survey? A: A widget survey shows itself in-page on your website based on targeting rules (see Creating and Configuring a Widget Survey); a URL survey is a standalone link you distribute yourself, wherever you choose, with nothing embedded on a website required.
Q: What happens if someone opens the link while the survey is Inactive or archived? A: They see "Survey not found! The link you've used might be invalid or expired. Please check and try again."
Q: Can the same person respond more than once? A: Yes — unlike an email survey, there's no per-recipient link enforcing a single response, so nothing stops the same person from submitting multiple times.