An anonymous link survey campaign works like a regular link survey with one key difference: respondents are never asked to identify themselves, and no real contact information is associated with their responses. No name, no email, nothing that ties a response back to a specific person.
This makes it a good fit for internal surveys, event feedback, shared kiosks, or any context where candid responses require full anonymity.
Creating the Campaign
Go to Campaigns and create a new campaign. Select your metric (NPS, CSAT, CES, or another supported type), choose Link as the channel, and select Anonymous as the campaign type.
Survey Template
Assign a survey template to the campaign. You can select an existing template or create a new one directly from the campaign setup page.
Important: Remove any merge fields (such as {{firstName}} ) from your template. Anonymous surveys have no respondent data to fill in merge fields, so unresolved merge fields will appear as raw placeholder text in the survey.
There is no customer identification screen for anonymous surveys. Respondents who open the link go directly to the first survey question with no email entry required.
The Survey Link
Because Retently does not send the survey on your behalf, there is no audience configuration or scheduling. Instead, a Link section manages everything related to the survey URL.
Copying the Survey URL
Each campaign has a unique URL you copy from the Link section and distribute through your own channels: an email marketing tool, SMS platform, live chat, or wherever you reach your audience.
Respondents who open the URL go directly to the survey with no identification step.
Generating a QR Code
Click the QR code button in the Link section to generate a scannable code. Download it and place it on printed materials, signage, or any physical surface. Respondents scan it with their phone and are taken straight to the survey.
Passing Custom Properties
Even though respondents are anonymous, you can still append non-identifying properties to the survey URL as query parameters. Retently stores these alongside each response, letting you group and filter feedback by cohort without connecting it to any individual.
Typical uses:
The branch or physical location where the survey is deployed
The product line, event, or campaign the respondent was part of
An order date, subscription tier, or any other categorical value that helps segment responses without identifying the respondent
Create the properties in Retently before you use them. If a property arrives via URL but does not yet exist in your account, Retently will create it automatically, and will try to guess its type, and in some cases might get it wrong. Property types cannot be changed after creation. Creating properties first lets you assign the correct type (text, number, date, or boolean) before any response data comes in. You can manage your contact properties here.
Once your properties exist, append them to the campaign URL as query parameters:
https://cx.retently.com/cl/[SURVEY_ID]/?branch=London&orderDate=2026-05-07
If you distribute the link through a tool that supports dynamic variables, you can populate the values automatically:
https://cx.retently.com/cl/[SURVEY_ID]/?branch={{location}}&plan={{subscription_plan}}
Do not append `email`, `firstName`, `lastName`, or any other personally identifying field. Adding them to the URL would display an error screen when the URL is accessed.
Default Session Behavior
Anonymous surveys are session-scoped. A respondent can submit one response per browser session. If they open the link again in the same session after completing the survey, they will not be able to submit another response.
They can answer again once their browser session cookie expires, which is determined by server configuration and typically ranges from a few hours to a few days. There is no configurable cooldown period - the survey does not enforce a fixed time window the way a throttle would.
Kiosk Mode
Kiosk mode is designed for shared physical devices - tablets at reception areas, event booths, or retail locations where multiple people answer the survey in sequence.
When you enable kiosk mode, you configure an idle reset:
Reset survey if idle for X [seconds / minutes]: If a respondent stops partway through without finishing, the survey resets automatically after the configured time. The next person sees a fresh survey from the beginning.
Two additional options are available:
Show Thank You countdown: After a respondent finishes, a countdown on the thank you page shows when the survey will reset for the next person.
Custom Thank You page duration: Set a separate duration for the thank you page if you want it to stay visible longer or shorter than the idle reset timer.
Daily Survey Limit
Set a cap on how many total responses the campaign accepts in a single day. Once the limit is reached, respondents who open the link see a message stating the survey is not accepting responses for the day and inviting them to return the following day.
This is useful at physical locations or high-traffic channels where you want to manage response volume.
Other Campaign Sections
The following sections are available in the campaign editor.
Alerts - Set up email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams notifications when new responses are submitted.
Export - Push survey responses to external platforms and services automatically.
Webhooks - Send response data to any external URL when new responses are recorded.
Analytics - Configure automated classification of open-ended feedback into topics and sentiment categories.
MISC - Two settings live here:
Respondent location tracking - Retently identifies and stores the respondent's approximate location based on their IP address at the time of the survey.
Antivirus and bot protection - Controls how the survey handles automated requests from security scanners and bots. Options range from Off (no protection) to Basic (CAPTCHA), Recommended (CAPTCHA plus Smart Score verification), and Strict (respondent must confirm their rating). See Antivirus and Bot Protection for details on each level and when to use them.
Guide - A reference section within the campaign editor with information about appending properties to the survey URL, embedding the URL in external systems, and copying the link.
Reminders and Auto Replies are not available for anonymous campaigns - both require a respondent's email address to function.
Activating the Campaign
Toggle the campaign switch to ON before you start distributing the link. The URL does not accept responses while the campaign is inactive.
How Responses Are Recorded
When a respondent completes the survey, Retently creates a profile for them with a randomly generated name and email address.
These are internal placeholders only - they have no relation to the actual respondent and cannot be used for follow-up of any kind.
Responses appear on both the Outbox and the Feedback pages. Anonymous respondents are displayed with an anonymous avatar in place of a contact name.
