Panels Grow in Popularity
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
As it becomes more and more difficult to generate acceptable participation rates with online surveys and focus groups, panels are gaining widespread popularity. Online panels are pre-screened and selected communities of people that have applied to take surveys on an ongoing basis in return for some form of compensation.
Many large companies, such as Microsoft and Disney, build and maintain their own custom online panels of pre-qualified research participants. Other companies and private research firms turn to vendors that market online panels. Some offer access to consumer panels, while others offer B2B panels for targeting professionals, including CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, managers, directors, and other business decision makers.
Accessing your online research audience via pre-selected panels offers some significant advantages.
• Detailed population data: Reputable panel providers usually have fairly detailed and sophisticated data on a very large community of members. This enables researchers to refine their list selects down to a “needle in the haystack” level yet still maintain an acceptable sample size.
• Higher response rates: Because panel members opt in as willing participants, researchers can successfully survey an audience that would otherwise be very difficult or even impossible to access and recruit via rented email lists. For example, IT panels are in very high demand, as these titles can be challenging to reach via traditional research recruitment methods.
• Significantly faster turnaround: Because they eliminate the time typically required for e-mail list research as well as participant recruitment and qualification, panels enable researchers to accelerate their research project schedules.
Researchers find panels particularly useful when pre-testing a desired audience will help determine the feasibility of and a more accurate cost estimate for a proposed study. For example, a government agency wanted to gather some specific data from international travelers. Once the researchers had identified an appropriate panel provider, they first surveyed a targeted segment of the panel to learn how many had traveled overseas in the last six months, if they’d be willing to answer specific questions related to those trips, when they’d be traveling overseas again, and so forth. This inexpensive pre-testing helped the agency determine the study was a viable option for them.
Because incentives play a very important role in panel research, Market Connections has used pre-testing to determine the minimum incentive value required to maximize participation. We recently presented three incentive values to three different groups within a study’s targeted sample and learned that the highest value wouldn’t necessarily yield a higher response rate. This helped us better manage the client’s research budget as well as avoid the recruitment delays that can result from incentives that aren’t high enough.
Of course, before proceeding with a panel audience, first weigh the pros and cons of online research in general to determine if it’s a suitable method for your project. For many studies, telephone surveys are still a more effective methodology. If online research via a panel audience is indeed appropriate, it’s important to carefully qualify the best panel vendor based on your specific targeted sample, the integrity and rigidity of their recruitment/ opt-in processes, how effectively they build and maintain their database, their reputation, and so forth.
Have an experienced research partner at your side to help with these assessments and decisions as well as to develop the questionnaire, manage the process, and analyze the results. Remember – good panel providers offer fast and precise audience access, not necessarily full research expertise.
