15 "How Did You Hear About Us?" Answer Options (and How to Use Them)

Useful "How did you hear about us?" answer options include Google search, social platforms, a friend or family member, a creator, a podcast, a store, and Other. Choose a short set that fits your business, leave room for unexpected sources, and include I don't remember so customers can answer honestly.

For customer acquisition, ask "How did you first hear about us?" The word first separates discovery from what brought someone back to buy today. Below are 15 options to choose from, a shorter list you can copy, and conditional follow-ups for the answers that need more detail.

Product details reviewed October 25, 2026.

15 answer options to choose from

Treat this as a menu, not a recommendation to show all 15 at once.

1. Google or another search engine
2. Instagram
3. TikTok
4. Facebook
5. YouTube
6. A friend or family member
7. A creator or influencer
8. A podcast
9. A news article or blog
10. Reddit or an online community
11. ChatGPT or another AI assistant
12. I saw your products in a store
13. An event, market or pop-up
14. Other
15. I don't remember

You can replace an option with Pinterest, LinkedIn, a trade show, or another source relevant to your store. Email can belong in a first-discovery question if people first encounter your brand through a newsletter or a forwarded message. For returning customers, "What brought you back today?" is a different question and may need a different list.

A shorter list you can copy

Question: How did you first hear about us?

• Google or another search engine
• Instagram
• TikTok
• A friend or family member
• A creator or podcast
• ChatGPT or another AI assistant
• Other
• I don't remember

This is an example starting point. If podcasts are an important channel to investigate, split them from creators. If you need to distinguish specific social platforms, list them individually. If you have little evidence about discovery, start with broader choices and use the write-ins to learn what is missing.

Install OrderSurvey to use these choices on Shopify's Thank you and Order status pages. You create the survey in the app, then add and save its block on each page in Shopify's editor. Book a 20-minute setup call if you would like help doing that.

Choose options that customers can distinguish

Include sources you want to learn about, even when you haven't paid for them. A customer's friend, an unpaid creator mention or an AI recommendation can introduce your store. Restricting the list to funded channels would miss part of the discovery picture.

Avoid overlapping choices where possible. Someone may discover a creator through Instagram and reasonably choose either answer. One approach is to ask for the platform first, then use a follow-up about the account. Another is to ask for the type of source, such as a personal recommendation or a creator. Pick the approach that serves your question and keep it consistent.

Use familiar wording. "A friend told me" is easier to interpret than a marketing category such as "earned referral." Avoid asking customers to distinguish an ad from an organic post unless that distinction matters and they can reasonably remember it.

Keep Other and I don't remember separate. Other means the source is missing from your choices. I don't remember means the customer cannot recall it. Combining them makes it harder to improve the list.

Question wording and answer choices can affect responses. Pew Research Center's survey-question guidance explains why clear wording, answer design and consistent questions matter when comparing results over time.

Add a follow-up only when the detail is useful

A conditional follow-up lets customers provide detail for one answer without making everyone answer an unrelated question.

Selected answer	Example follow-up
A creator or influencer	Which creator or account?
A podcast	Which podcast?
ChatGPT or another AI assistant	Which assistant did you use?
I saw your products in a store	Which store or location?
Other	Where did you hear about us?

In OrderSurvey, create the main choice question and the follow-up question, then use the visual branching builder to connect the relevant answer to that follow-up. You can show or hide questions, or route customers through steps. Preview every route, including an answer that should skip the follow-up.

A free-text follow-up can capture a source you did not anticipate. A predefined list is useful when you already know the possible answers. Avoid requesting private conversations or unnecessary personal details when a source name is enough.

See the survey playbook for how to interpret the answers, or the AI-discovery guide for a more focused example.

Should the question be optional?

Keep participation voluntary and make uncertainty easy to express. If you require a choice to complete the survey, include I don't remember and Other so customers have a suitable answer. A post-purchase survey asks for feedback after the order has been placed.

An optional short-text follow-up can reduce the effort required to finish. Decide whether the extra detail is necessary before marking a follow-up as required. The required versus optional question guide explains what the setting controls, how to test blank follow-ups, and how to report missing detail.

Set up the survey on Shopify

1. Create the discovery question and choose the answer options in OrderSurvey.
2. Add any conditional follow-up and check its path in the visual builder.
3. Choose the Thank you page, Order status page, or both, and enable the survey.
4. For an acquisition question, consider First orders only in the Audience setting. Use All orders when you want feedback from both new and returning buyers.
5. Add the OrderSurvey block to each selected page separately in Shopify's checkout and accounts editor, then save the active configuration.
6. Confirm that a matching order shows the intended question and that submitting it creates a response in OrderSurvey.

Installing the app does not add these blocks automatically. Shopify documents the separate install and block-placement steps. Our Thank you page walkthrough covers the setup in more detail.

First-order targeting depends on Shopify's order context. When that context cannot identify the order as first or repeat, the targeted survey stays hidden. Use an order that matches the intended audience when testing.

Review answers without overstating what they prove

Count answers for the discovery question separately from its follow-ups. If 8 of 40 respondents choose Podcast, that is 20% of respondents in that example. It is not proof that podcasts caused 20% of all store sales. Customers may not respond, may remember a different touchpoint, or may interpret overlapping options differently.

Review Other answers periodically. Group repeated names consistently, then decide whether a recurring source deserves its own option. Record the date when you change the list so a new choice is not mistaken for new channel growth.

For a worked spreadsheet process, follow the guide to categorizing Other survey answers. It covers ambiguous sources, missing details and the difference between counting question rows and answering orders.

OrderSurvey's $24 USD/month Unlimited plan includes CSV export. Exports contain question-and-answer rows, so filter to the discovery question before calculating its answer shares. Use the order identifier when reviewing related follow-ups; counting every exported row as a separate buyer would overcount multi-question surveys.

The Free plan includes 100 responses per rolling 30 days and supports conditional branching. Unlimited adds unlimited responses, CSV export, webhook alerts and priority support. Start with the plan that fits your response volume and reporting workflow; see current pricing.

Create your first discovery survey or book personal setup help. We can help choose the options, check both page placements and confirm that the first response reaches your dashboard.