A full guide on survey creation.

1. How To Be A SurveyMonkey
Audience Pro
Impress your friends, colleagues and clients with
your survey skills - look no further for all the tips
and best practices to create a great SurveyMonkey
Audience project
The Process of Creating a Great Survey Project
Picking A Target Audience
Survey Writing Guide
Start backwards
Keep your objectives and focus narrow
Choose 2­3 top goals
Create 1­3 questions for each goal
Use the Jumpstart Question Library
Write questions so they are easy to understand
Select the correct question type
Normalize industry terms
Avoid Yes or No answer choices where possible
Don’t use numbers in rating scales
Use time increments wherever possible
Use portions instead of percentage
Pricing questions
Provide fully inclusive answer options
Overlapping ranges
Specific settings guidelines
Require all questions
Randomize answer choices when possible or relevant
Audience Pro Preferences
For Multiple Choice (Multiple answer) questions
When similarly worded questions are asked, specific keywords should be highlighted:
Use sentence case for all answer choices
Skip logic
Make your survey more inviting by doing the following:
Survey Formatting Guide

2. Formatting Key
References
Survey Example
The Process of Creating a Great Survey Project
1. Decide what you want to know about your topic. Almost all SurveyMonkey Audience survey goals can be
framed as a hypothesis to prove or disprove.
○ Ex: “I think the Kindle Fire will do well in the tablet market.” One of the main goals of the survey will
be to find out what people think about the Kindle Fire and its features.
○ The SurveyMonkey Audience Survey Writing Guide will guide you more on how to come up with
survey goals.
2. Decide on targeting and how many respondents you need
● Tip from the Audience Pro: If you can’t figure out exactly who you need to target, contact your sales rep
or audience@surveymonkey.com and we’ll help you with custom targeting.
3. Write your survey with the SurveyMonkey Audience Survey Writing Guide
4. Use our format guide to help you draft offline and use formatting notes to help for fast survey programming
in SurveyMonkey
5. Once your survey is finalized, upload into SurveyMonkey
a. Easily upload the survey yourself
b. Or have us do it for you using SurveyMonkey’s Custom Programming Service
● Tips from the Audience Pro:
○ Make sure you setup your survey so it’s simple for respondents to complete and that questions and
answer options are clear and understandable.
○ Customize your survey with Skip Logic and special formatting if needed and make sure all
respondents are taken to the appropriate sections in the survey with screener questions.
○ Underline and bold specific question and answer text to make certain words stand out when
needed.
○ When our Audience team programs surveys, we always hide asterisks after we have made sure all
questions are required, hide survey and page titles (so internal labels aren’t confusing for
respondents), and hide question numbers to keep a clean appearance to the survey.
6. Get responses!
a. You can see responses as soon as they start coming in, on the “Analyze Results” tab of your
SurveyMonkey account. Simply login to your account, click on the Analyze Results tab, and a full
summary of results will be displayed.
b. You can see the status of your project in a summary report on the “Collect Responses” tab in your
SurveyMonkey account.
7. Use SurveyMonkey Analyze Tools

3. a. You can filter and crosstab your results by demographics, answers to other questions in the survey,
and other values.
b. For more rigorous analysis, you can download results in Excel, CSV, PDF, and SPSS.

4. Picking A Target Audience
After you’ve decided on your project goals, decide who you need to answer your survey. Keep in mind that the
narrower your audience group is, the tougher it will be to collect responses. This is due to the limited availability of
that people who fit that description in the general population.
E.g., It’s very difficult to find a large number of women who are vegetarian, drive a pickup truck and have a pet
goldfish.
Take a look at the following list to see what SurveyMonkey Audience can target on or reach out to us to learn more
about our detailed targeting capabilities. If you need international or advanced targeting that is not available in our
self­service tools, please inquire with your sales representative as our targeting attributes are always increasing
and custom targeting is available. Our sales team is well equipped to help with any custom needs.
Based on the list above, select the criteria that will create a profile of the type of person who would likely qualify for
your survey.
E.g., If you want luxury bag owners, you can choose a target audience of females that have a household income of
$100,000 or higher.
You will still be charged for the group of females who have household incomes of $100,000 but answer “No” to the
question asking if they own a luxury bag.

5. Survey Writing Guide
Start backwards
Create your objectives by thinking about how you plan to use your data, and what you will need the output of your
data to look like before creating any questions.
● Tip from the Audience Pro: Write your research conclusions first and then work backwards to draft
questions that will allow you to fill in the blanks. This will streamline the number of questions you need to
ask, and speed up your analysis since you can focus on the things that matter most.
Keep your objectives and focus narrow
Choose 2­3 top goals
Focus on key data needs, not “nice to have” information. This keeps survey creation simpler and makes data
analysis easier. Make sure your goals are very clear and measurable.
Example:
Goal 1: How many people subscribe to Netflix?
Goal 2: How satisfied are Netflix subscribers?
Goal 3: What are people using instead of Netflix?
Create 1­3 questions for each goal
Write out the questions to answer your goals directly. It’s best to focus on questions that can be answered by the
general pool of respondents who will be taking your survey.
Example:
Question for Goal 1: Are you currently subscribed to Netflix?
Questions for Goal 2: How satisfied are you with Netflix? How likely are you renew your Netflix subscription at the
end of your billing cycle?
Question for Goal 3: What other service(s) do you use to watch streaming video?
Use the Jumpstart Question Library
Don’t know how to ask your questions? Use the our Question Library,which includes commonly used survey
questions written by our in­house survey experts. They are written to be methodologically sound and easy to
analyze.
Write questions so they are easy to understand
Select the correct question type
Often, survey creators pick the wrong question type to use. This is frequently just a simple mistake. If you want
users to only select one answer in a multiple choice question, use the Multiple Choice (Only One Answer) question
type. If you want them to be able to select multiple options in a multiple choice question, use the Multiple Choice
(Multiple Answers) question type.

6. Normalize industry terms
Be careful when using terminology that may be familiar to you or your industry, but not to the average consumer or
potential targets of the survey. Seek out industry terms then adjust them to use common English. Examples
should be added where relevant.
For example: If you are targeting iPad or Android tablet owners, asking if they own a "tablet PC" may be ok since
they are likely to know the terminology. But if you were asking a more general audience, you may want to use
clarifying language or examples like "tablet computer (e.g., iPad, Android tablet)" to ensure the respondents
understand question language and answer choices.
Avoid Yes or No answer choices where possible
Asking Yes/No question can be valuable if you need a straightforward answer. On the other hand using a question
with ranges can give you more insight and will allow respondents to answer more truthfully. Ranges also give
midpoints that respondents can choose.
For example: Ask “how likely are you to cancel your subscription in the next 6 months” instead of “will you cancel
your subscription in the next 6 months?”
Avoid:
Will you be upgrading to the iPhone 5 in the next month?
Yes
No
Use:
How likely are you to upgrade to the iPhone 5 in the next month?
Extremely likely
Very likely
Moderately likely
Slightly likely
Not at all likely
Don’t use numbers in rating scales
Rating scales should be labeled, ideally with descriptive language to increase option clarity for respondents. Rating
scales should also typically use 5 or 7 point scales so that a midpoint exists and can give give evenly spaced
respondent choices that you can use to assign percentage numbers to (e.g., 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). The
word choices we use in our ranges were built by our methodology team after rigorous testing on which descriptive
words were evenly spaced to provide a comprehensive range. We recommend the following:
Unipolar: the response can be thought of as having a five point scale (0 to 4)
Extremely
Very
Moderately
Slightly
Not at all
Bipolar: the response can be thought of as having a seven point scale (­3 to +3)

7. Much more
Moderately more
Slightly more
Neither more nor less
Slightly less
Moderately less
Much less
Avoid:
Please rate 1 to 5 how important the the checkout process is in a shopping site.
1 ­ Very important
2
3
4
5 ­ Not important
Use:
Please rate how important the checkout process is in a shopping site.
Extremely important
Very important
Moderately important
Slightly important
Not at all important
Use time increments wherever possible
It is often very helpful for both data analysis and for question clarity, to limit the scope of a question to a specific
time period. Not defining a time period in a question can lead respondents to define their own time ranges, or
attempt to answer based on a period of time "ever" that is difficult to recall. In some cases, such as demographic
questions or yes/no questions, time definitions are unnecessary. In other cases, consider adding or refining
language to includes statements such as:
In the past week, have you …
In the past 30 days, have you …
In the past 12 months, have you …
In a typical day, do you …
In a typical week, do you …
Avoid:
How much do you usually spend on groceries?
Use:
In a typical week, how much do you usually spend on a groceries?
Use portions instead of percentage
This allows respondents to do minimal mind work before answering and provides less room for error. Common
portion breakdown can be:
All

8. Most
About half
Some
None
Avoid:
About how much of your marketing budget do you spend on online advertising?
0­25%
26­50%
51­75%
76­100%
Use:
About how much of your marketing budget do you spend on online advertising?
All of it
Most of it
About half of it
Some of it
None of it
Pricing questions
Asking respondents for their feedback on pricing can be tricky. To normalize answer options so respondents can
use familiar words and a 5 or 7 point range, use the standard ranges we provide that have been developed by our
methodology team.
For example:
Is $XXX too expensive, too cheap, or about right?
Do you think the price is too high, too low, or about right?
How much would you be willing to pay?
Avoid:
What do you think of the current price for an Amazon Prime subscription?
I like it
I don’t like it
Use:
Do you think $76 for an Amazon Prime subscription is too high, too low, or about right?
Much too high
Somewhat too high
Slightly too high
About right
Slightly too low
Somewhat too low
Much too low
Provide fully inclusive answer options
When providing answer options, it can be helpful for data quality to ensure that all possible response options for
respondents who have reached a question are included. In many cases, respondents have been targeted on a

9. certain attribute or have answered previous questions in the survey in a manner where full inclusivity is not
necessary. But providing options that allow users who cannot find an answer choice that suits them is helpful.
Answer choices that can be helpful in accomplishing inclusivity include:
None of the above
I don’t know
Other (please specify)
Avoid:
In the last 30 days, which of the following organic products have you purchased? (Select all that apply.)
Organic foods
Organic skin care products
Organic hair care products
Organic clothing
Organic housewares
Organic toys
Use:
In the last 30 days, which of the following organic products have you purchased? (Select all that apply.)
Organic foods
Organic skin care products
Organic hair care products
Organic clothing
Organic housewares
Organic toys
None of the above
Other (please specify)
Overlapping ranges
When using ranges in a multiple choice (single answer) question, it is a best practice to ensure that ranges do not
have any overlap and are mutually exclusive. Overlapping ranges can cause data quality issues since two different
respondents with the same answer would be able to accurately select different options. A common range
convention we use is:
0
1­2
3­5
6­10
More than 10
Avoid:
In a typical day, how many times do you view updates or other information on Facebook?
0 times
1­2 times
2­3 times
3 or more times
Use:

10. In a typical day, how many times do you view updates or other information on Facebook?
0 times
1 time
2­3 times
More than 3 times
Matrix/Grid questions
While SurveyMonkey does allow users to create matrix or grid questions, and in some cases they are very useful,
in many cases they are harmful to data quality. A matrix with 6 rows is essentially 6 questions, so should be asked
as such. When matrices are used, survey creators are often asking respondents to answer several questions
using the same scale, when the scale or wording should be altered. Matrix questions also lead to respondent
fatigue and long surveys and satisficing. While a 6 row matrix question may seem like 1 question, the cognitive
decisions required to answer accurately may mean that it should take nearly a full minute to answer. Our
suggestion, when possible, break down your matrix/grid questions into multiple questions, one question for each
row, and appropriately label the scales used.
Specific settings guidelines
Require all questions
Survey respondents might skip a question by mistake, or click the “next page” button too early, so requiring
answers to questions can help avoid missing key data.
Randomize answer choices when possible or relevant
Remove order bias by randomizing answer choices in multiple choice questions.
Audience Pro Preferences
The following tips are SurveyMonkey Audience Survey Expert preferences for consistency purposes. They are
internal guidelines and not necessarily needed to ensure methodological soundness, but can lead to better
respondent experience.
For Multiple Choice (Multiple answer) questions
At the end of the question, always add: (Select all that apply.)
When similarly worded questions are asked, specific keywords should be highlighted:
In survey questions: use underlines
In survey response options: use bold
Use sentence case for all answer choices
Capitalize only first letter of each option
This does not apply in the case of proper nouns
Skip logic
Label all pages where you may skip respondents to indicate specific sections. This can be a significant help when
editing a survey and making changes since pages will be clearly labeled.

11. Make your survey more inviting by doing the following:
Hide asterisks
Hide survey titles
Hide page titles
Do not include progress bars

12. Survey Formatting Guide
● Tip from the Audience Pro: If you are programming your survey offline, use this formatting guide to make
it easy for you or anyone else to understand and upload your survey into SurveyMonkey.
Formatting Key
● Items in [BRACKETS] are instructions for inputting the survey into SurveyMonkey, examples include:
○ [randomize] = randomize responses
○ [skip to PAGE TITLE] = skip that answer choice to PAGE TITLE
○ [skip to DISQUALIFY] = skip that answer choice to DISQUALIFY
■ if [skip to DISQUALIFY] is used on a PAGE TITLE, use page logic to skip all to DISQUALIFY
○ [open text] = use an open text or paragraph question type
● Items on their own line, in ALL CAPS, indicate that a new page should be added, and the page title of the
new page
○ SPLIT PAGE indicates to add a new page or use the “split page” button
● Numbered items (e.g., 1. Lorem ipsum...) indicate questions
● Specific formatting guidelines
○ When a question ends with “(Select all that apply.)”, this question should be a multiple choice,
multiple answer question type
○ When needed, the “add Other as an answer choice” option should be checked while inputting the
survey into SurveyMonkey
○ When [randomize] is used, if the last answer choice, or second to last answer choice when an
“Other (please specify)” option is used, should not be randomized (this is an option in the relevant
question types)
○ If words in a question or answer choice use underline or bold formatting, use HTML in the question
for the designated words or phrases
■ for question language, use underline, since all questions are bolded: <u>word or phrase</u>
■ for answer language, use bold: <b>word or phrase</b>
● All questions should be required unless otherwise noted
● Hide asterisks for required questions
● Hide all page titles
● Hide all question numbering
References
● How to add Other as an answer choice
● How to require questions
● How to hide page titles and question numbers
● How to enable HTML in your account
Survey Example
PAGE: DEMOGRAPHICS
1. How much income did all members of your household earn in 2011?
a. Less than $20,000

13. b. $20,000 to $49,999
c. $50,000 to $99,999
d. $100,000 to $149,999
e. $150,000 or more
f. Prefer not to disclose
PAGE: UNAIDED BRAND AWARENESS
1. Which websites/mobile apps have you heard about that allow you to make restaurant reservations online?
a. [open text]
PAGE: OPENTABLE SCREENER
1. Have you heard of OpenTable?
a. Yes, and I have used it
b. Yes, but I have never used it [skip to DISQUALIFY]
c. No [skip to DISQUALIFY]
PAGE: OPENTABLE USERS
1. About how many times do you use OpenTable in a typical month?
a. 0
b. 1­2
c. 3­5
d. 6­10
e. More than 10 times
2. When needing to make a restaurant reservation, how often do you use OpenTable when it’s available?
a. All the time
b. Most of the time
c. About half the time
d. Some of the time
e. None of the time
3. Overall, how satisfied are you with OpenTable?
a. Extremely satisfied
b. Very satisfied
c. Moderately satisfied
d. Slightly satisfied
e. Not at all satisfied
4. What do you like most about OpenTable?
a. [open text]
5. What do you dislike most about OpenTable?
a. [open text]
6. Do you have a smartphone (e.g., iPhone, Android, BlackBerry) or tablet computer (e.g., iPad, Kindle Fire)?
a. Yes
b. No [skip to END]
PAGE: OPENTABLE MOBILE APP

14. 1. Do you have the OpenTable mobile app on your smartphone or tablet computer?
a. Yes
b. No