Targeting & triggering surveys
Choose who can see a Survey, where it appears, and when it can run.
Written By Markus Palm
Last updated 4 days ago

Overview
Use Survey rules to control who can receive a Survey, where it appears, how often it can show, and when it can run.
Survey audiences are dynamic: Featurebase continuously checks who matches while the Survey is active, so people can enter or leave the audience as their attributes or page context change.
Choose where & when the Survey appears
Trigger rules determine the page context where the Survey can be shown. If you do not add trigger rules, Featurebase shows the survey on every page that the survey widget is installed.
Start by configuring where & when the survey triggers:
Current page URL - show the Survey only on matching pages
Time on page (seconds) - wait until the person has spent enough time on the page
CSS selector - show the Survey only when an element matching the selector is present on the page. Enter the selector exactly as it appears on your site, such as
#pricingor.upgrade-banner. Negative comparators match when no element with that selector exists.
For Current page URL and CSS selector, use these string comparators:
isis notcontainsdoes not containstarts withends with

Tip: Keep trigger rules close to the question you are asking. For example, ask feature feedback on that feature's page, and use Time on page (seconds) when the person needs time to understand the page before answering.
Choose who can receive the Survey
Then, under the same Rules section, configure the audience who can receive your survey. Depending on whether you want to reach users, visitors, or leads, you can target:
Users - anyone who has signed up to your product or logged in to an existing account
Visitors & Leads - anyone who visits your sites or starts a conversation with you
Visitors - people visiting your site before they become known users
Everyone - users, visitors, and leads
Then add audience rules to further narrow the Survey. Audience rules can use grouped AND/OR logic over available user and company attributes, such as plan, company, lifecycle stage, role, or custom attributes your workspace tracks.
Use Preview audience before setting the Survey live. It helps you check whether the current audience is too broad, too narrow, or empty.

Note: Survey matching stays dynamic while the Survey is active. If someone stops matching the audience or trigger rules, they stop being eligible for the Survey.
Set frequency and scheduling
Under the Frequency and scheduling section, decide how often the Survey can be sent and when it can run.
Choose one send frequency:
Send once when the person matches the rules - best for one-time research or launch feedback
Send based on a fixed schedule if the person matches the rules - best for recurring check-ins and NPS that should run weekly, monthly, or yearly
Send every time the person matches the rules until dismissed - best for contextual Surveys that can show again when the person returns to the same situation
For Every match, use Limit to once every and Maximum sends to limit repeat exposure. This prevents the same person from seeing the Survey too often while they continue matching the rules.
Then configure the timing:
When to send - choose Any time, During office hours, Outside office hours, or Custom times
Start sending - choose Immediately or Custom date
Stop sending - choose Never or Custom date
All scheduled dates and custom-time windows use your workspace timezone.

Save and launch
Use Preview audience to confirm the estimated matching audience, then choose the right state action:
Save - saves the survey version without publishing it to your users
Set live / Schedule - starts a Survey with an immediate start date (Schedule is only available if ‘Start sending’ is a date in the future)
After a Survey is live, use Responses to review results. For the full reporting workflow, see View & export Survey results.

FAQs
Do Survey audiences update after the Survey is live?
Do Survey audiences update after the Survey is live?
Yes. Survey audiences are dynamic, so Featurebase keeps checking audience, trigger, frequency, and scheduling rules while the Survey is active.
People can become eligible later if they start matching the rules, and they can stop being eligible if they no longer match.
What happens if I do not add trigger rules?
What happens if I do not add trigger rules?
The Survey can run for every visit that matches the audience, frequency, and schedule. In the editor, this appears as Runs for every visit.
Add trigger rules when the Survey should only appear on specific pages, after a certain time on page, or when a specific page element is present.
Can I show a Survey only when a page element exists?
Can I show a Survey only when a page element exists?
Yes. Add a CSS selector trigger rule and enter the selector for the element, such as #pricing or .upgrade-banner.
Use negative comparators when the Survey should only run when that element is not present.
Why is my Survey not appearing?
Why is my Survey not appearing?
Check the Survey state, audience, trigger rules, and schedule. The Survey must be live or scheduled to start, the person must match the audience rules, the page must match the trigger rules, and the current time must fit the configured send window.
If the audience is empty or too narrow, adjust the audience rules and check Preview audience again.