Google Forms is a free tool that enables to collect information with surveys and feedback forms. It’s easy to use and you only need a Google account to create a Google Survey form. This tool is great for creating a survey in a flash, making it one of the best choices for everyday use. However, if you are looking for an online platform builder that can cater to more advanced actions such as payment integrations, conditional logic, or electronic signature, there are plenty of Google Forms alternatives on the market that would fit your needs better. Keep them in mind, and we, in the meanwhile will discover how to make a Google Form survey step by step! 

Google Forms allow different types of questions, from full-text answers to checkboxes and ratings. Such diversity helps create:

• Online registration for event participants;
• Voting;
• Questionnaire for job applicants;
• Online research;
• Project brief;
• Customer feedback online surveys.

Google Forms has a number of advantages:

• Convenience: you don’t have to download a file and send it to respondents, and they don’t need to send back replies;
• Unique Google Forms Survey design: you can use a service gallery or your own images;
• Accessibility: the form is stored on Google Drive, so you can work with it from different devices;
• Responsiveness: you can create, preview, and edit a form on mobile devices without loss of functionality;
• Public access: you can co-edit a form with other team members;
• Convenient analytics: survey results are automatically formed into tables and graphs.

How to Get Started with Google Forms

So, how to make a Google Survey? Let's get started from the very beginning. To create a Google Form, you need to create or login to your Google account. 

There are several ways to go to Forms:

• From Gmail or Google home page

Click Google apps and select Forms. Choose a ready template or a blank form to create a form from scratch.

• From the browser address bar

Follow the link https://docs.google.com/forms to open Forms home page.

To automatically create a new blank form, enter forms.new into the address bar of any browser and click Enter.

• From Google Drive

Click New > Google Forms and choose the template.

• From any Google File

You can go to Google Forms from Docs, Sheets or Slides by clicking File > New > Form.

If you're already working with a Google Sheet and need to create a form that will be automatically linked to it, click Tools > Create a form. Responses from the form will be saved in this table as a separate sheet, without additional settings.

Top Toolbar

Let's create a Google form from scratch using a blank template.

The Google form survey interface is quite user-friendly. The menu with basic tools is located on top:

1. Theme

Pick an image for a header (select from the templates or upload your own), choose theme color, background color, and font style. You can customize the template by applying your corporate images (logo, banner) and colors.

2. Preview

Use it to check your form before sending. It will open in a new window and will look the way recipients would see it.

3. Settings

So, here is how to create a survey with customized settings.

General

If you want to collect your respondents' email addresses, tick the corresponding checkbox. This way, the user who receives your form will first see the box at the top. Other questions won’t be visible until they enter their email.

You can also opt to limit responses to one response per user. This will help avoid irrelevant results: each user will be able to submit only one response from their Google account.

Also select whether you want your respondents to edit the form and see text responses.

Presentation

Set the appearance of your presentation and also enter the confirmation message the user will see after submitting the form.

Quizzes

You can create survey forms form as a quiz. This way, you’ll be able to set up point values that will be automatically calculated. Recipients can see their responses based on the conditions you choose.

4. Send

You can send the form

• as an email;
• as a link;
• as an HTML code.

You can also share it as a post on Facebook or Twitter. Keep on reading to see how to add a form into an email.

5. Additional Google Forms Survey Settings

In this tab, you have access to various actions with the form: make a copy, move to trash, get a pre-filled link, print, add collaborators, and some default parameters for all new forms.

The Script Editor and Add-ons menu items help to implement some useful functions:

• receive notifications when someone submits a form;
• send notifications to respondents;
• automatically close the form depending on the expiration date, the number of accepted responses or another trigger, etc.

All the necessary information about scripts for developers is collected in the Overview of Google Apps Script, and ordinary users will find the tool they need in the Google Workspace Marketplace.

Google Form Survey Constructor

Let's start creating the survey. In Google Forms, you can not only create questions but also insert images, videos, and divide the form into sections. Use the toolbar on the right:

The Import Questions item allows you to reuse questions from previously created forms. This feature is convenient for those who often work with Google Forms.

You can add an image directly from your device, camera, link, Google Drive, or Google search. Videos are embedded from YouTube: you can provide a link or find a video on this platform without leaving your form.

Adding sections is useful if the survey is too long or contains questions that can be combined under one topic. You can add a title and short description for each section and copy the sections to create similar ones.

In the form constructor, all the blocks have common elements:

• question field;
• description field (it's hidden by default, but you can add it using the menu at the bottom right);
• button for image uploading;
• question type list;
• Make a copy and Delete buttons;
• Required question option (without answering this question, the respondent won't be able to submit the form);
• additional functions depending on the question type.

Google Survey Types of Questions

Google Forms provides different question types. To select the appropriate option, click the drop-down menu next to the question field:

Short Answer

This option is convenient to use for short answers in a few words: respondent's name, age, address, email, link to a social media profile, etc.

To ensure that only valid data gets into the response field, set up validation rules using the menu at the bottom right.

Paragraph

This option is for more detailed answers, e.g., for respondents' testimonials.

Multiple Choice

In this type of survey, respondents can choose one of the proposed options or enter their own in the text field. You can redirect respondents to a specific section of the survey based on the option they choose. To do this, click the three-dot icon at the bottom right, choose Go to section based on answer and specify a section.

Also, after a certain answer, the survey can be automatically completed.

The Shuffle option order is also available for this answer type: each time the form is opened, options will be mixed.

Quizzes in the Google Forms have additional settings for answers:

Here you can indicate the correct answer, as well as the number of points for the correct answer, and add feedback for both correct and incorrect choices.

Checkboxes

The respondent has the opportunity to choose several options from the proposed ones, including the Other option for a short text answer.

The Choose correct answers feature is available for this type of question as well.

Dropdown

In this variant of the survey, respondents can choose one of the proposed answer options. A dropdown is useful when there are too many options: the drop-down list looks more compact.

As in the multiple-choice survey, you can:

• redirect the respondents to the next group of questions depending on their answer;
• display answers in random order;
• set the correct answer and feedback.

File Upload

This option allows respondents to upload their own files as a response to your questions. You can set the type and maximum file size in the settings.

When creating a block with this type of response, take into account the following features:

• to upload the file, the users must log in to their Google accounts;
• the uploaded files place on the survey owner's Google Drive space;
• this type of question cannot be used if the Google form is stored on a shared disk, or Data Loss Prevention is enabled.

Technically, users can upload files without logging into their accounts, but it will be necessary to use additional Google scripts.

Linear Scale

This survey option is great for evaluating something. The respondent should select a grade within a certain numerical range. You can set points from 0 to 10 and labels for the beginning and end of the scale, for example, in the form of emoji.

This scale you can use to determine the NPS – the consumer loyalty index. To find out the customer satisfaction level, you can ask them to rate the company, product or service on a scale. Depending on the answers, it is possible to identify dynamic segments of customers and develop a strategy for interaction with them. You can read more about the consumer loyalty index and how to work with clients from different segments in this blog article.

Multiple Choice Grid

This question type creates a grid in which the respondent can select one answer per each row. In additional settings, you can restrict responses to one choice per column, require all rows to be filled and shuffle the rows.

Checkbox Grid

This survey type is similar to the previous one, but by checking the boxes, the respondent can select multiple answers in a row.

Date

You can ask the respondent to select a specific date from the calendar. If necessary, you can add the year selection or specifying the time to your form in the settings.

Time

The respondent can enter the time value in hours and minutes or indicate the duration in hours, minutes, seconds. You can choose the option you want using the menu at the bottom right. This type of response is convenient to use for booking, specifying delivery time, etc.

Additional Information on Creating Forms

Any form element – section, question, image, or video – can be easily moved by pulling the six dots at the top of the block.

The ability to copy blocks makes it much easier to add similar sections and questions to your form, and you can undo the action with the CMD+Z or Ctrl+Z keyboard shortcuts.

As with all Google office suite apps, you can collaborate on forms with your colleagues. Go to Settings at the top right and select Add collaborators > specify editors from the contact list or configure access parameters.

How to Add Google Form to Email

We’ll show you how to use our editor to make the recipient see in the email not a long link with a set of letters, numbers and symbols but a beautifully designed call to fill out the form.

Text Link

Select with the cursor the corresponding text, clicking on which the user will go to the survey. Select the Change Link icon in the toolbar > insert the form URL on the left and select the link color to highlight it in the text.

Read more on hyperlinks.

CTA Button

To design a CTA button:

1. Select the Content tab > Blocks > Button in the email editor on the left toolbar.
2. Drag the button to the desired place in the template.
3. Customize the appearance of the button and add the form link.

More on CTA creation.

Adding Google Forms Directly to Email

Now, you know how to make a survey and share it via email. However, keep in mind that some email recipients might be too lazy to follow the link, and it would be great for them to fill out the survey in the email itself. Google Forms also offers to create Google Survey and share it in this way, buy, in this case, you can only specify a subject line and add some accompanying text.

Note that such emails aren’t responsive and may be displayed differently depending on the email client and the user's device. Therefore, the recipient may not see the survey as you would like. This is what a survey looks like when created in Google Forms:

And here's how the recipient will see it in the email:

Email Survey Using AMP Form

To conduct surveys directly in the email, our editor provides an alternative to Google Forms – an AMP form, which can be easily added to the email using the built-in block.

To create a form, select the special block from the Content tab and fill in the required data.

You can learn more about setting up an AMP form in the instruction.

Thus, you can send an AMP form directly in the email to recipients whose email clients support this technology, and for the rest – a link to the Google Forms page.

Survey Results Analytics

Responses in Google Forms

After you've sent the form to the respondents, Google Forms will save the received responses in the Responses tab on the form page by default.

Respondents will be able to submit a form as long as the Accepting responses switcher is set to active.

Here you can view in real time the individual answers of each respondent, a summary for each question and general statistics on the answers. That's great for quickly evaluating survey results, but you can link your form to Google Sheets for a more detailed analysis. To do this, click on the green Create Spreadsheet icon or click Select response destination in the menu.

Then create a new spreadsheet or select an existing one to save the answers. Later you can download the created spreadsheet in .csv format.

One of the advantages of Google Forms is that the service always stores a copy of all your form data. If you accidentally deleted something from the spreadsheet, break the connection with the spreadsheet (Unlink a spreadsheet from your form), and then restore it – all your data will be added back to the new one.

Another handy feature in Responses is notifications. Tick the Get email notifications for new responses checkbox, and Google Forms will send you an email every time a form is filled out. You can set additional notification parameters by clicking Tools > Notification rules in the spreadsheet.

Our AMP Form Responses

If you conduct AMP surveys in emails via our platform, you can receive and store responses using the built-in data service in Stripo.email. The data service collects information in the internal storage of Stripo.email and/or transfers it to external storage through Zapier.

Read more on this in our guide.

Alternative Ways of Collecting Customer Data

Besides surveys in Google Forms, there is another simpler way to collect data about potential and existing customers. Place widgets on your website — subscription forms and surveys.

Subscription Forms

If you want to increase your email list, use a subscription form. It can collect contact information about website visitors — first and last name, email, and phone number. When a user fills out such a form, their data is saved in the Yespo system in the contact card, and you will be able to send letters across various channels.

In Yespo CDP, you can easily create forms of the required design and precisely configure the conditions of their display.

Survey Forms

If you need to collect more data about existing customers, use a survey form. For example, you can clarify a person's birthday or other demographic data or preferences.

The data that users enter into the widget on the website is stored in additional fields of the contact card. It can be used for automating communication with the client, personalization, segmentation, and relevant product recommendations.

Moreover, in our system, you can set up the automatic sending of email sequences to subscribers who have filled out the subscription form or survey.

Additionally, it's easy to analyze the effectiveness of widgets, as information about views, clicks, and subscriptions is updated every minute. If you have ideas for experiments, the Yespo system offers the possibility to test different types of widgets.

Summing Up

Now that you have a powerful feedback tool for your audience, consider how you can get the most out of it. Find out the preferences of your customers, the opinion of your colleagues, collect information for work in a simple and fast way. Choose the right channel for communication - (SMS, push notification, widgets, app inbox etc.) and use all the possibilities when implementing Google Forms.