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URL parameters let you prefill survey fields and candidate attributes by passing values through a study link. This is handy when you’re inviting people in bulk from an external platform and already know something about them, you can carry that data straight into their responses.
This is a different mechanism from the gq_-prefixed parameters used when embedding Great Question data into an external survey tool like Qualtrics. Those flow outward, from Great Question to the external tool. The parameters on this page flow inward, into Great Question’s own study and screener pages.

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When URL parameters work

Prefill works on Invite via link links, the generic, tokenless links you generate and share yourself. It’s more limited on personalized links, like the ones sent in an email invite: those already point to a specific candidate’s record, so name and email come from that existing record rather than the URL, any extra parameters on that kind of link are ignored. You can pass:
  • name
  • email
  • phone_number
  • unique_id
  • referrer — a single reserved field for capturing where a participant came from, stored on the candidate as a hidden value.
  • Any custom attribute enabled for URL population.
There’s no general UTM/campaign-parameter feature (utm_source, utm_campaign, and similar aren’t supported) — referrer is the one built-in field for this. If you need more structured source tracking, use a custom attribute instead.

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What you’ll need

  • Access to Candidate Attributes.
  • An existing survey or screener.
  • Attributes mapped to the relevant survey questions, if you want the value to show up in a survey field rather than just being stored on the candidate.

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Setting it up

  1. In the Survey editor, map survey fields to the custom attributes you want to prefill.
  2. Enable those attributes for URL population under Settings → Custom Attributes — look for Can be set via a URL parameter.
  3. Construct your link with a query string. Separate parameters with &:
Use hidden fields for values you want to track but not show the participant, such as a campaign or source identifier.

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Troubleshooting

Still need help? Contact us at support@greatquestion.co — median response time is 19 minutes during support hours.