What is URL metadata?

URL metadata essentially allows additional information to be appended to the survey URL. The additional information can encompass various aspects, such as demographic data of your members, specific countries you wish to target in a multi-country research project, etc.

For example, in the following survey URL https://demo.nexxt.in/p/2362?PSID=[ID]&COUNTRY=CA, anything after "?" are URL metadata, which are split by "&". "PSID=[ID]" is one type of URL metadata that's automatically added to the link by the system to record the IDs, while “COUNTRY=CA” can be another URL metadata added by users to indicate the country.

The use of URL metadata enables us to do a couple of things -

1. To reference extra information in the survey wording that is not part of the survey questions themselves

2. To manage the survey logic or flow based on information beyond what is not collected within the survey questions 

3. To target specific audiences and manage quota groups based on external information

4. To append extra data to the survey data for analysis purposes

5. To help manage complex studies such as multi-country research projects or monadic concept studies

In the following sections, we are going to talk through the above use cases one by one. In each section, we will start with a typical example and then illustrate how to set it up using the example.

How to reference URL metadata in the survey wording?

Example

We want to send out a survey asking our clients about their recent experience working with us. We have compiled a list of client names and would like to personalise the survey's greeting message with their names.

How to set it up

1. Move the cursor to where you want to reference the name, and then click Answer Reference

2. Choose URL Metadata as the source question, specify the URL key for the clients’ names, let’s say we will use NAME, and then we can also choose to Uppercase first letter when showing the clients’ names.

3. After that, the URL key NAME will be used to reference the clients’ names in the greeting message. E.g. When we add “&NAME=kathy” after the preview link, we’ll see “Hi Kathy” in the greeting message.

How to manage survey logic using URL metadata?

Example

An insurance company wants to understand why their customers decided to cancel their AUTO or HOME insurance policies. They want to direct specific questions to those who cancelled their AUTO policy and likewise for the HOME policy, based on the type of insurance customers previously held.

In their existing database, customers are already labelled based on the type of insurance they cancelled, so there’s no need to re-ask the information again in the survey. In this case, we can use URL metadata to append the policy types and incorporate them in the survey logic.

How to set it up

For the questions designed for the AUTO policy, add the following pre-condition.

1. Choose URL Metadata as the source question, 

2. Specify POLICY as the URL key, 

3. Use the logic rule that POLICY Equal [text] AUTO

What this pre-condition does is when &POLICY=AUTO is appended in the survey URL, the question will be asked, otherwise, the question will be skipped.

Similarly we can add the pre-condition for questions related to the HOME policy.

How to target the audience and manage quota groups using URL metadata?

Example

Let’s use the example in the previous section. An insurance company wants to understand why their customers decided to cancel their AUTO or HOME insurance policies. They aim to gather n=300 complete responses for AUTO and HOME policy respectively.

In their existing database, customers are already labelled based on the type of insurance they cancelled, so there’s no need to re-ask the information again in the survey. In this case, we can use URL metadata to append the policy types and set up the quota.

How to set it up

The quota groups can not be set up using URL metadata directly, instead we need to create a Virtual Question incorporating the policy types. 

To do this, 

1. Create a Virtual Question named Policy

2. Add a variable for AUTO, along with the logic. More specifically, choose URL Metadata as the source question, specify POLICY as the URL key, and use the logic rule that POLICY Equal [text] AUTO

3. Similarly add another variable for HOME, along with the logic. More specifically, choose URL Metadata as the source question, specify POLICY as the URL key, and use the logic rule that POLICY Equal [text] HOME

After that, add the Virtual Question Policy to the Audience page as a Custom Screener

For the Custom Screener Policy, toggle on Custom Quota, and specify 300 for both AUTO and HOME.

How to append extra data to the survey data for analysis purposes using URL metadata?

Example

Let’s use the example in the previous sections. An insurance company wants to understand why their customers decided to cancel their AUTO or HOME insurance policies. In their existing database, customers are already labelled based on the type of insurance they cancelled, so there’s no need to re-ask the information again in the survey. However, they still want to include the policy types in the data file as well as the dashboard to support analysis by policy types. In this case, URL metadata can be used to append the policy types, which can then be incorporated into the data file and dashboard.

How to set it up

By default, all the URL metadata will be separated columns in the data file including CSV and SPSS data files, with each URL key per column. So we don’t need to do anything except adding "&POLICY=AUTO" or "&POLICY=HOME" to the survey URL.

However, in order to use URL metadata on the dashboard as filters and/or crosstab variables, we need to create a Virtual Question incorporating URL metadata, i.e. the policy types in this case. 

To do this, 

1. Create a Virtual Question named Policy

2. Add a variable for AUTO, along with the logic by choosing URL Metadata as the source question, specifying POLICY as the URL key, and using the logic rule that POLICY Equal [text] AUTO

3. Similarly add another variable for HOME, along with the logic by choosing URL Metadata as the source question, specifying POLICY as the URL key, and using the logic rule that POLICY Equal [text] HOME

After that, the Virtual Question will be showing up in the filter and crosstab on the dashboard for any analysis purposes.

How to manage complex studies such as multi-country research projects or monadic concept studies using URL metadata?

We include separate articles for the use of URL metadata in complex studies. Here are the article links -

• How to manage multi-country research projects using URL metadata?

• How to manage Monadic concept studies using URL metadata?