Attest allows you to send surveys to your own audience, such as customers, users, or event attendees. This is useful when you already have access to respondents and want to collect structured feedback while still using Attest’s survey design and analysis tools.

You can combine own audience surveys with Attest panels, run them across multiple countries and languages, and optionally link responses back to your customer data using respondent IDs.

How own audience surveys work

When sending a survey to your own audience:

you distribute the survey link yourself, for example via email or CRM tools
respondents access the survey using that link
responses are collected and analysed in Attest

You can also upload your own audience data, such as customer attributes or internal fields, and link it to survey responses using respondent IDs. This allows you to analyse results using your own fields, create segments, and compare responses across different customer groups.

Unlike Attest panel surveys, demographic targeting is not applied automatically. Any segmentation or enrichment comes from the data you provide.

Setting up an own audience survey

To send a survey to your own audience:

Go to the Audience page of your survey draft.
Select Add audience and choose Send to your own audience.
Add one or more own audiences if you want to segment different groups.

You can also create a hybrid survey by combining your own audience with Attest panel audiences. This is covered separately in the Hybrid Audience Research article.

Using respondent IDs

For own audience surveys, each respondent should receive a personalised survey link that includes a respondent ID.

The respondent ID:

is a pseudonymised identifier you provide
links survey responses to uploaded audience data
allows responses to be analysed by your own field.

If the respondent ID is missing from the survey URL, responses cannot be matched to uploaded data.

For security and data protection purposes, this Respondent ID must be pseudonymised to ensure it doesn't include any information that could be easily linked to individuals (for example names, email addresses, etc.). For more information on this, please see paragraph 4 of our Acceptable Use Policy.

Uploading your own audience data

Uploading your own audience data allows you to segment your respondents, enrich analysis, and generate deeper insights from your research.

Watch our video tutorial

Step 1: Import your data file

Select Import own audience data to upload your file.

Your file must:

be in .csv or JSON format
include headers in the first row
contain a column with a unique identifier for each respondent

You cannot upload personal data or information that could identify an individual. Uploaded data must be pseudonymised.

Step 2: Select a unique identifier

Next, select the column in your file that should be used as the unique ID.

This ID is used as the Respondent ID, which links:

your uploaded data
the survey link you send to respondents
the responses collected in Attest

The Respondent ID allows you, but not Attest, to identify respondents and match survey responses back to your own systems.

The identifier can be anything you choose, as long as it is pseudonymised and not easily traceable to an individual. For example, you might use a customer reference number or a generated ID.

Step 3: Choose fields to analyse

You can then select which fields from your file you want to analyse in Attest.

For each field you want to use:

confirm the field name
select the appropriate data type

You can deselect any fields that are not relevant, and these will not be imported.

If your file includes age or gender, name the field accordingly and select the Attest version of that field. This allows you to compare age and gender across both your own audience and Attest panel respondents in analysis.

Controlling responses and access

For own audience surveys, you can:

set a maximum number of responses per audience
control whether multiple responses are allowed per device
close or extend the survey at any time

You can limit responses per device in the review page. Limiting to one device can be useful in ensuring all your respondents are unique. Enabling multiple responses per device can be useful if you are collecting responses at an event or conference.

Surveys remain open for up to one year unless closed earlier or if the survey reaches the maximum number of respondents. You can always increase your sample in the manage page.

Respondent consent and branding

Respondents are shown a privacy notice before entering the survey and must confirm they are happy to proceed. The notice explains that responses are not anonymous and may be linked to an identifier.

You can also add your company logo to own audience surveys so it appears at the top of each survey page.

Purchasing Own Audience surveys

Credits for your survey are deducted only when responses are received from respondents. You can always check credits spent on own audience surveys by navigating to Credits > Transactions in your dashboard.

Analsying results

You can create segments, crosstabs and charts using any of the custom demographics in your uploaded data.

You can also manage and edit this data by clicking on Manage > Manage own audience data

FAQ

Can I use demographic targeting with my own audience?

No. Demographic targeting is only available when sending surveys to Attest panels. For own audience surveys, segmentation and analysis are based on the data you upload and link using respondent IDs.

What kind of data can I upload for my own audience?

You can upload non-personal, pseudonymised fields such as customer tier, region, product usage, cohort, or internal categories. You must not upload personal identifiable information such as names, email addresses, or phone numbers.

What happens if a respondent ID is missing or incorrect?

If the respondent ID is missing from the survey URL or does not match the uploaded data, responses will still be collected but cannot be linked back to your uploaded fields.

Can I combine my own audience with Attest panels in the same survey?

Yes. You can create a hybrid survey by adding both own audience and Attest panel audiences.

How many responses can I collect from my own audience?

You can set a maximum number of responses per own audience. The survey will automatically close for that audience once the limit is reached, and you can increase the limit later if needed.

Can multiple respondents use the same device?

Yes. You can choose whether to allow one response per device or multiple responses per device on the Review page of your survey. Allowing multiple responses is useful for in-person research or events.