Post-Purchase Surveys: The Underrated MVP of Offline Channel Insights

If you're investing in offline media—think audio, podcast ads, CTV, or linear TV—you've probably wrestled with the same question: Is this actually working?

Traditional digital attribution won’t give you the answer. Even multi-touch attribution (MTA) can’t account for view-throughs, passive impressions, or brand lift that happens before someone ever clicks an ad. That’s where post-purchase surveys come in.

Why Post-Purchase Surveys Still Matter

In a world obsessed with pixels and UTMs, surveys feel analog. But they serve one critical purpose: they give the customer a voice.

When implemented well, post-purchase surveys can:

• Identify first-touch awareness sources that aren't trackable digitally

• Help isolate incremental lift from new offline channels

• Quantify the halo effect of brand campaigns across platforms

• Validate (or challenge) assumptions made by MMM or media mix modeling

Example: If your TV spend spikes but conversions don’t immediately follow, a well-designed survey may show an uptick in customers selecting "TV" or "podcast" as their first awareness point. That signal, repeated over time, helps inform your triangulation strategy across MMM, MTA, and experimentation.

Best Practices

• Keep the survey short and focused: "How did you first hear about us?" works great.

• Randomize choices and include "Other" with an open field.

• Rotate survey formats to reduce bias and fatigue.

• Segment responses by geography or campaign timing to tie back to media flights.

The Takeaway

Post-purchase surveys aren't a silver bullet, but they fill the gaps left by attribution tools. Especially as we expand into offline and privacy-forward channels, having direct-from-customer feedback is one of the smartest ways to understand what’s driving performance.

Because when the data stops talking, your customers usually won’t.