Definitions for terms commonly used to describe surveys and the data collection process. Click each term below to be taken directly to its definition or read through the entire list below.
Age of Consent
The age of consent is a legal term denoting the age at which respondents can consent to having their information collected without parental interaction. For surveys based in the United States, the age of consent is 13 years old per the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (otherwise known as COPPA).
To survey respondents younger than 13 years old in the United States, you must obtain parental consent within your survey build.
International countries have different qualifications for their age of consent. Per the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the age of consent is 16. It’s important to note that EU countries can establish their own age of consent with the cap being 13 years old. Teens under minimum age in the EU cannot be targeted without parental consent if Centiment is managing your survey project. Please verify the age of consent in your target country for all international studies.
Attention Check Question
An attention check question is a tool to measure respondent engagement as they move through your survey. If a respondent fails an attention check question, they’re removed from the survey and will not count toward your completed response total.
Attention checks are included in most surveys as a best practice to ensure engagement. However, they should be placed within the first three minutes of the survey to be even-handed and respect the respondents' time.
Example Attention Check:
To show that you are paying attention, please select "none of the above" option as your answer.
Strong - SCREEN-OUT
Indifferent - SCREEN-OUT
Weak - SCREEN-OUT
Hostile - SCREEN-OUT
None of the above - PASS
Completed Responses
Survey responses from members of your target audience that have answered every required question, passed the attention check question (if applicable), and completed the survey. Centiment only charges researchers for this type of response.
Cost-Per-Interview (CPI)
Dollar-cost per fully completed survey response. Audience targeting and survey length (number of questions and LOI) both play a role in determining the CPI for a particular audience. The CPI is baked into your quoted cost-per-response.
Length of Interview (LOI)
The median number of minutes it will take a respondent to complete your survey. Shorter surveys tend to yield higher respondent engagement. Surveys at 15 minutes or longer have drastically reduced engagement rates from respondents. The LOI is one factor that contributes to calculating the cost per response for any given survey project.
Incidence Rate (IR)
The number of respondents who pass your screening question(s) and complete your survey divided by the number of targeted respondents that enter your survey.
Pricing tends to increase based on a lower incidence rate given that we need to introduce more respondents to the survey, knowing that only a percentage will qualify and count toward our completed response goal for the project.
Incidence Test
Incidence tests establish our reach with audiences when we don’t have historic data to calculate our respondent pool depth within a highly specific population. As a result, we combine profile targeting with custom screening question(s) in-survey to find your exact audience. We use the data from this test to determine how much we must incentivize members of your target audience to consistently reach them.
Example:
You want to survey mothers with kids ages 7-12 who play in a soccer league.
Profile targeting:
Mothers with kids ages 7-12
In-survey screening question:
Do one or more of your children play in a soccer league?
Yes = PASS
No = FAIL
When an incidence test is required to hone in on a highly specific population, we typically collect 10-20 completed responses. This data will allow us to calculate this audience’s incidence rate. We’ll also use that information to finalize your cost per response based on the compensation required to consistently reach members of your target audience.
Quotas
Quotas are set caps on the number of completed responses you’d like collected for a segment of your target audience. Introducing quotas can increase your cost per response to account for their management and the more nuanced incentivization system required to ensure we can consistently reach the populations you’re looking to collect.
For example, let’s say a project has 300 total responses but requires equal distribution between males and females. A quota would be set for 150 males and 150 females.
When considering quotas, keep in mind that you may want each segment to be statistically significant depending on how you intend to filter the data post-collection. If you have questions about statistical significance and how many completed responses you should collect, ask with your project manager for guidance. A typical consumer audience consists of 200 to 3,000 completed responses. A sample of 1,000+ responses allows for plenty of segmentation opportunities across multiple demographic data points. For example: after filtering responses down to males over 45, you want to have a sizable sample to analyze (100+ responses).
A Typical B2B audience (professional audience) is 100 to 500 total responses.
Soft Launch
An initial wave of 10-20 completed responses for you to review. These completed responses come from real respondents, so they’ll count toward the project’s overall response total.
The soft launch phase allows you to understand how your questions are being interpreted by survey respondents. It also allows you an opportunity to check that your survey build and logic are working as anticipated. While your Centiment fielding expert is happy to help you test through your build and provide feedback, any build errors are the responsibility of the researcher unless our team is hired to program your survey project.
Please note that soft launch results are not indicative of balancing, quotas, or representative of the sample as a whole. If you have any concerns about these elements, please let your fielding expert know!