Publishing and your first responses
Building a survey does not make it reachable. Getting from a finished draft to a first response takes four steps: publish the survey, add a distributor, make sure it is Active, then share the link. If the survey has never had a distributor when you publish it from the builder, publishing usually adds an Active web link for you (step 2 says when it doesn’t), so you can go straight to step 4. A link you add yourself — a web link, QR code, embed or social share — is Active as soon as the survey is published, whichever you did first. An email campaign goes live when you send or schedule it. Steps 2 and 3 cover the rest: adding other ways in, and a distributor that is still a Draft.
This page walks the whole chain and shows how to tell, at a glance, which step you are on.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”Your survey needs at least one question. A survey with no questions cannot be published. Everything else on this page works on every plan, including Free — web links, QR codes and social sharing are not gated by tier. Email campaigns need Solo or above.
1. Publish the survey
Section titled “1. Publish the survey”Publishing takes a snapshot of your draft and makes it the live version. Until you publish, your survey exists only as a draft that you can see and respondents cannot.
- Open the survey in the builder.
- Publish it. You will see a confirmation that the survey was published. If publishing added a web link (see step 2), the confirmation also shows it, with a Copy button.
- If publishing is refused, the message names what to fix. See Troubleshooting below.
Editing a published survey does not change what respondents see. Your edits go into a new draft, and you publish again when you want them live. If you try to publish without having changed anything, SurveyRock tells you there are no changes to publish rather than creating an identical version.
2. Add a distributor
Section titled “2. Add a distributor”A distributor is a specific way in — a link, a QR code, an email campaign, an embed. A published survey with no distributor is live but unreachable. When you publish from the builder a survey that has never had one, SurveyRock usually adds an Active web link named Web Link Distribution. If one link is all you need, go on to step 4.
Publishing does not add that link if the survey already has a distributor of any kind, including an email campaign, or had one you have since deleted. It also doesn’t if your role can’t add distributors. If no link appears for any reason, or you want another way in, add a distributor here.
Open the survey’s Distribute area and add a distributor. The channels are:
- Web Link — a shareable URL. The simplest option and the right default.
- QR Code — generated for a distributor, for print or in-person use.
- Email Campaign — send invitations and reminders from SurveyRock and track opens and completions (Solo and above).
- Embed — a snippet that puts the survey inside a page on your own site.
- Social & Web — share a distributor link straight to social platforms.
- Slack and Microsoft Teams — a ready-made message with your tracked link, to copy and paste into a channel or DM (Team and above).
You can run several at once. A web link and an email campaign side by side are tracked separately in your results, so you can see which one brought which responses.
3. Make sure it is Active
Section titled “3. Make sure it is Active”Check the distributor’s status in your list. Active means the link accepts responses now; go on to step 4. Draft means the distributor exists and has a URL, but collects nothing. A Draft shows a note underneath: “Activate to start collecting”, or “Goes live when you publish” while the survey has never been published.
Which one a new distributor starts as depends on the channel, and on where your survey is when you add it:
| You add | It starts as |
|---|---|
| A Web Link, QR Code, Embed, social share, Slack or Teams link to a survey you have already published, even if it has edits you haven’t published yet | Active — the link works immediately |
| Any of those before the survey’s first publish | Draft, with the note “Goes live when you publish” — publishing activates it |
| An Email Campaign | Draft until you send or schedule it from the email composer |
To activate a Draft, open its actions menu (⋯) and choose Activate. The status changes to Active, and from that moment the link accepts responses. You don’t need to do this for an email campaign: sending or scheduling it from the email composer activates it for you.
If you would rather a distributor open later, give it a start time in its scheduling settings and make sure it is Active. Until that time it shows as Scheduled with the start time, and it opens by itself when the time arrives. A start time on a Draft does nothing on its own; the distributor stays closed until you activate it. Scheduling is available on Team and above.
4. Share the link
Section titled “4. Share the link”Copy the distributor’s URL and send it wherever your respondents are. For an email campaign, SurveyRock sends it for you. For an embed, paste the snippet into your page.
Responses appear in Results as they arrive, broken down by distributor.
How to tell which step you are on
Section titled “How to tell which step you are on”Each status answers a different question, and reading them saves guessing:
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No distributors listed | The survey may be published, but nothing points at it | Step 2 — add one |
| Draft — Activate to start collecting | The distributor exists and is closed | Step 3 — activate it |
| Draft — Goes live when you publish | The survey has not been published yet | Step 1 — publish it |
| Active | Open and accepting responses | Share the link |
| Scheduled | Will open at the time shown | Nothing — or bring the time forward |
| Expired | The close date has passed | Reschedule or create a new distributor |
| Active, but no responses | The link is working; nobody has used it yet | Check who received it, and test it yourself |
Example
Section titled “Example”You are running a post-purchase satisfaction survey for a client.
You build six questions and, before publishing, add two distributors: a Web Link for your own newsletter, and a QR Code to print on the card that goes in every order. Both show Draft, with the note “Goes live when you publish”.
You publish, and both turn Active. You send the card to the printer and drop the web link into the newsletter.
The next week’s results show responses arriving under both, counted separately, so you can tell the newsletter’s contribution from the card’s.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”“Survey must have at least one question to publish.” Add a question. Display text and page breaks on their own are not questions.
Publishing is refused because of survey logic. Skip logic, display logic or branching is pointing at a question that no longer exists — usually one that was deleted or moved after the rule was written. The message names the rule. Open it, repoint or delete it, and publish again.
Publishing is refused because of question piping. Piping — pulling an earlier answer into a later question — needs a plan that includes it. Either remove the piping or upgrade, then publish.
The link says the survey is unavailable, closed or not yet available. The distributor is not open. Check its status: a Draft has never been activated and a Scheduled one has not reached its start time (respondents see Survey Not Yet Available for both), a Paused one was closed by hand, and an Expired one passed its close date.
A link on a published survey shows Draft. SurveyRock could not activate it automatically, or it has been a Draft since before links were activated for you. Activate it from its actions menu (⋯). If activation is refused, the message explains why and lets you request a review.
“Survey must be published before distribution.” You are trying to activate a distributor on a survey that has never been published. Publish it; links you have already added go live when you do.
You published, and no web link appeared. Publishing adds a web link only to a survey that has never had a distributor (one you have since deleted still counts), and only if your role can add distributors. Add one in Distribute (step 2); on a published survey it is Active straight away.
Everything is Active and responses still are not arriving. Open the link yourself, in a private browser window, and complete the survey. It is the fastest way to separate “the survey is not reachable” from “nobody has answered yet,” and a test response is easy to filter out later. If your distributor has password protection or an IP restriction on it, check those first — both silently turn away respondents who would otherwise start.
Your edits are not showing to respondents. Editing creates a new draft; the published version is unchanged until you publish again.
What’s next
Section titled “What’s next”- Distributions overview — every channel, plus scheduling, password protection, IP restriction and custom domains
- Results & Analysis — reading and exporting what comes back
- Survey Builder — question types, logic and display formats