Software as a service
For survey tools: which buyers pay for one study, and which stay after it.
Survey tools are bought by researchers, product teams, HR and students, often for a single study with a deadline, then kept or cancelled. Tally ties every plan to the visit that won it and follows renewals, which separates the channels that bring one-study buyers from those that bring teams who run surveys all year.
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01How they sell
- SubscriptionMonthly or yearly plans by responses, seats or features; a single study may need only one month.
- FreemiumA free tier capped by questions or responses, upgraded for logic, exports or more responses.
- One-offResponse packs or extra exports for one study, paid once.
02Payments it reads
- StripePlans and response packs through Checkout; renewals, refunds and one-off packs are read.
- PaddleUsed by survey tools selling to universities and companies worldwide with tax handled; transactions and adjustments are read.
What Tally can't read
- Responses and respondents' answers are never read.
- University purchase orders paid by bank transfer outside Stripe or Paddle aren't counted.
- Respondents taking a survey are not your prospects; Tally counts only pages with the tag, so leave it off the survey pages you host.
- Respondents bought through a third-party panel provider are paid for at that provider and aren't read.
03Where buyers come from
- Use-case searchesSearches for an employee engagement survey, a customer satisfaction survey or a thesis questionnaire bring buyers with one study to run.
- University departmentsStudents and supervisors share tools within departments; visits come near thesis deadlines and arrive without a referrer.
- Sample question pagesPages of example questions rank in search and bring people drafting a survey before choosing a tool.
- 'Made with' links on surveysRespondents who click your mark at the end of a survey arrive as a campaign once the link has UTMs.
- Research and product communitiesResearchers and product managers recommend tools in newsletters and forums.
04What Tally answers
Do students buy one month for a thesis and leave?
Lifetime value by first source gives repeat rate and renewals per source, so an academic campaign whose buyers pay once can be seen beside a product-team channel whose buyers keep renewing.
Lifetime valueWhich use-case page brings teams that pay?
The page breakdown gives each landing page its visitors and the revenue of the buyers it brought, so the employee survey page and the customer survey page are compared on money.
Sources with revenueDo buyers read the sample question pages?
Engaged time and scroll depth per page, buyers against everyone else, show whether the sample pages are read closely by people who go on to pay.
What they readWhen in the week do research buyers pay?
Peak hours by weekday and hour, on sales, shows when payments happen; students working to a deadline and teams buying in office hours can leave different marks, and the busiest three hours are named only when the data holds.
Peak hoursDoes publishing a first survey lead to payment?
Send tally('survey_published') from the builder and read it in the goals view: completions, converting visitors and the revenue of those visitors.
Goals and funnels
05Numbers worth watching
- Repeat rate
- The share of customers who paid more than once, by first source, which marks one-study channels.
- Renewals
- Renewals by first source, showing which channels bring teams that survey all year.
- Conversion
- Paying visitors over all visitors, once respondents are kept out of the count.
- Scroll depth
- How far visitors go down long sample question pages, buyers against the rest.
06An example
Lifetime value by first source
All time: every payment since 1 Nov 2025. The period above doesn't apply.
| First source | Customers | Lifetime revenue | Average value | Renewals | Repeat rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoogleOrganic Search | 325 | $40,560 | $125 | 845 | 52% |
| ChatGPTAI Assistants | 126 | $21,071 | $167 | 391 | 61% |
| Direct | 178 | $18,216 | $102 | 374 | 44% |
| NewsletterEmail | 94 | $17,362 | $185 | 357 | 69% |
| Hacker NewsOrganic Social | 84 | $11,741 | $140 | 227 | 55% |
| x.comOrganic Social | 115 | $10,190 | $89 | 161 | 33% |
| RedditOrganic Social | 84 | $9,016 | $107 | 160 | 40% |
| PerplexityAI Assistants | 42 | $6,342 | $151 | 101 | 57% |
| Every source | 1,048 | $134,498 | $128 | 2,616 | 51% |
A customer is a visitor linked to a sale, counted under the source of their first visit. Lifetime revenue is net of refunds and chargebacks; repeat rate is the share who paid more than once (a renewal, an upgrade or another purchase). $13,167 from 426 payments not linked to a visitor is in no row.
07Setting up
- Any HTML sitePut the tag on the marketing site and sample question pages, not on the hosted surveys respondents fill in.
- StripeAdd tally_visitor_id to each Checkout Session's metadata for plans and response packs, and to subscription_data for plans.
- Tag the 'made with' link at the end of free surveys with UTMs, so those visitors are one campaign.
08Questions
Do respondents' answers pass through Tally?
No. It counts visits to pages that carry the tag and reads payments; survey content and answers are never read.
A university pays by purchase order. Is that counted?
Only if the invoice is issued and paid in Stripe or Paddle; then it links by email if the buyer was identified on your site. A purchase order paid by bank transfer outside them isn't read.
Is a one-month plan for one study a sale or a subscription?
It's a subscription's first payment. If it doesn't renew, the customer stays a one-payment customer in the repeat rate, and the source's lifetime value reflects that.