Skip to main content
A provider link sends participants into the study and returns them to the provider after completion, screen-out, quality stop, or quota closure. Each link belongs to one provider: the provider parameter it carries is what selects the outcome URLs a participant returns through. Configure a provider before distributing any link. Providers and links apply to a panel set to Bring your own panel. A panel DeepField recruits needs neither, so its provider and link settings are not shown. See Configure your audience.

Before you start

Obtain the provider’s outcome URLs and participant-identifier macros. Confirm which panel and languages the traffic should use.

Add a provider

Open Create → Quotas, panels & links and select the panel. Under Source, select Add panelist, then enter:
  • Provider ID — the identifier that appears on the link and selects this provider’s redirects. It is fixed once saved.
  • Display Name (optional) — optional, for your own reference.
  • The four outcome redirects, described below.
Add a provider to obtain its open participation link. Email campaigns instead create personal links for their selected recipients.
Provider dialog with four outcome URLs, identifier previews, and Save Provider

Each provider has four outcome URLs. The preview shows how the identifier will be returned.

Add redirect URLs

Each provider has four outcomes: Paste the URL supplied for each outcome, reviewing the generated result shown beneath every field, then select Save Provider. A blank provider redirect uses the panel’s stored URL for that outcome. If neither defines a URL, the participant sees the corresponding DeepField end screen.

Pass provider identifiers

Write a variable in a redirect as {{name}}. The invite link is generated from the four redirects: every external variable they reference becomes a placeholder on the link. For example, a redirect containing {{rid}} and {{psid}} produces an invite link with placeholders for both. Give that link to the provider and ask them to replace the placeholders with their participant macros. Built-in values are available without a provider macro: An external value that arrives empty is omitted from the redirect. A participant arriving with unchanged placeholder text is not accepted, because the provider identifier is unresolved.
Include the identifier required by the provider in every outcome URL. Without it, the provider may receive the participant without enough information to assign the outcome.
Under Source, use Copy link beside the provider’s name. Send each provider its own link. A provider that leaves an outcome blank falls back to the panel’s stored URL for that outcome. Before the main launch, ask each provider to send test participants through every applicable outcome and confirm that:
  1. The participant enters the intended panel and language.
  2. The provider identifiers appear in the return URL.
  3. Completion, screen-out, quality-stop, and quota outcomes reach the correct endpoints.
  4. The provider records each outcome correctly.
Source lists each provider with its own Copy link action.

Source lists each provider with its own Copy link action.

Editing during fieldwork

Providers and their redirects stay editable while the study is live, so a wrong outcome URL can be corrected without touching the questionnaire. A provider cannot be removed once the study is published: its links are already in the field and its participants are recorded against it. Fieldwork shows recruitment progress, launch and distribution controls, live results, and the cost summary: coding fees in credits and, for panels DeepField recruits, the recruiting fee in euros. Its Configure link action opens the panel in Create → Quotas, panels & links, where every panel setting is authored.

Check the result

The provider confirms that each tested outcome carries the expected identifier and is recorded correctly. Recheck the link after editing a provider’s redirects.

Check customer-file restrictions

A study holding a customer-keyed file cannot accept open provider links. Use personal campaign invitations or personal test links instead. A file keyed by consumer_survey_id for existing respondents remains compatible with providers. See Use customer files and link attributes. Insert supported entry-link attributes from the redirect editor’s chips rather than typing an unverified placeholder. Test the substituted identifier at every outcome. Returning through a different entry link before giving consent or answering can restart the session’s entry values; do not reuse a personal test as evidence for another recipient’s link.