Have you created an online survey but do not have any participant contact details?
This is not usually a problem with a traditional customer or employee survey, but it is particularly relevant in market and product research. Here, for example, you may need to identify and segment potential customers: people you do not yet know. The same issue arises in academic research. Whether a student needs participants for a bachelor's dissertation survey or a research team is conducting a mobility survey, the same questions come up:
- Where can I find survey participants?
- Who will take part in my survey?
- Can I pay for or recruit participants for my online survey?
Here you can find out what options you have for finding and reaching more participants for your survey. Not every channel is suitable for every survey, but one of these approaches may give you the right idea.
Ways to find participants:
Table of Contents
Recruit participants for your online survey: online panels
Some companies recruit participants and reward them for taking part in surveys. A carefully assembled and profiled group of participants of this kind is known as a “panel”. As a survey creator, you can contact a panel provider, explain your requirements and recruit suitable participants through them.
Online panel costs can vary considerably depending on how difficult your target group is to find. If you only need men, that is relatively straightforward. If you need men from southern Germany who drive a Mazda and have a gluten allergy, the pool becomes much smaller and more expensive. Costs also increase for long or complex surveys. As a very rough guide, you can generally expect to pay between €1 and €7 per participant.
Note: costs can sometimes be reduced considerably if you only book the participants and conduct the survey with LamaPoll. This can make sense because a panel provider specialises in providing the panel, while a survey tool specialises in running the survey.
For example: You can find a list of panel providers here: https://www.marketing-boerse.de/marktuebersicht/details/1738-online-panels/141067
Recommendation: an online panel can be suitable if you have sufficient budget, need responses quickly or have a target group that is particularly difficult to reach. The initial cost may be off-putting, and it can often make sense to try other approaches first, but panels can still be a good option.
Get the word out: use public channels selectively
Recruit participants via social media
Most of us are online and connected to some degree. You can therefore share your survey link widely via Facebook, X, Instagram and other platforms, or target specific communities such as LinkedIn groups and specialist forums. LamaPoll provides options for sharing your survey on social networks when you publish it. Which social network is suitable always depends on the survey's target group. Before publishing your survey on social media, consider who you want to reach and where you are most likely to find them.
Turn participants into survey advocates
Survey creators are not the only people who can share a survey on social networks and help find participants. If the questionnaire is configured accordingly, respondents can also share the survey through their own social media accounts. A survey created with LamaPoll can include a share button and link at the end, making it easy for respondents to share the survey on platforms such as X, LinkedIn or Facebook. In effect, this gives your participants the opportunity to help you reach further respondents through their own networks, for example: “Did you enjoy this survey? Please share it.” Participants can therefore help extend the reach of your survey.
Our Helpdesk explains how to add a share button and share link so that respondents can share your survey on their social networks: Let respondents share your survey on social media.
Offline and partly offline approaches are also possible, for example adverts and posters featuring a QR code. Interested people can simply scan the QR code with their smartphone and go straight to the survey. LamaPoll generates a QR code for every survey alongside the standard survey link. You can download it from the publishing area of your open survey under “Publish” → “Overview” → “Invite via link/QR code”.
Another effective way to recruit participants for an online survey is to embed the survey on your own website. This can be particularly useful when the usual invitation by email is not possible.
You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours: exchange survey participation
Especially for students and academic surveys, although not exclusively, platforms have emerged based on a simple principle: you take part in other people's surveys and, in return, other people take part in yours. Search online for “empirio”, “thesius” or “surveycircle”.
Point-of-sale surveys or the “standing table and gummy bears” approach
This is also known as the “Do you have a moment?” method: you approach participants directly in the real world. It can work well for topic-specific surveys, for example outside a swimming pool or cinema. If your target group is broad, consider places where many people pass by or, even better, spend time waiting. Some locations, such as waiting rooms or school playgrounds, are less suitable.
Found your participants? Motivate them to take part
- Prize draw: encourage participation with the chance to win a prize
- Reward: give every participant something in return
Once you have found ways to reach potential participants, whether through Facebook or specialist forums, the next step is to motivate them to take part. Besides simply asking, you can offer an incentive. There are two basic approaches: reward everyone who completes the survey, for example with a small voucher, or offer the chance of a larger prize to one participant. Which method works better does not appear to have been conclusively established. Our subjective preference is to reward everyone: large prize draws are common, but most people know they are unlikely to win. Small rewards can also be combined creatively with participant recruitment. Even on Kleinanzeigen, you can regularly find survey creators looking for participants when searching for “Umfrage”. If you want to read more about rewards, the technical term is “incentives”, while the practice of using them is known as “incentivisation”.
What is LamaPoll?
LamaPoll is an online survey tool for creating employee surveys and measuring employee satisfaction. With us, you can create, conduct, and analyse all types of employee surveys.
Set up your employee survey in just a few steps, customise it with your company's corporate design, and invite your employees conveniently by email or via your intranet. You'll gather insights to boost employee satisfaction in no time. Sign up for free with our online survey tool. You can then run surveys for up to 50 employees immediately and with no obligation. If you need more responses for your online employee survey, simply use our monthly plans. You can also make use of our templates and examples for employee survey questionnaires.
