Qualifying questions allow you to control who proceeds through your survey. Only respondents who select your chosen qualifying answers will continue and contribute to your final sample.
Qualifying questions are typically used to screen respondents based on behaviours, attitudes, or attributes that are not available through demographic targeting.
How qualifying questions work
When a respondent answers a qualifying question:
respondents who qualify in continue to the rest of the survey
respondents who qualify out exit the survey immediately
You only pay for responses from respondents who qualify in and complete the survey.
Because respondents who qualify out exit straight away, qualifying questions must appear at the start of the survey. They can come after an opening text card, but not later in the survey flow.
Setting up qualifying questions
To set up a qualifying question:
Add a question and select the appropriate question type.
Enter your question text and answer options.
Select Qualify respondents in the bottom right of the question card to open the qualifying panel.
Use the Allow qualifying toggle next to each answer option you want to use to qualify respondents in.
You can turn qualifying on or off for each answer option at any time.
Adding answer quotas to qualifying questions
You can apply answer quotas to qualifying questions to control the minimum proportion of respondents who qualify in with specific answers.
This is useful when you want to ensure representation from multiple groups within a single survey, rather than splitting the research across several surveys.
To add an answer quota:
Select Qualify respondents on a single-choice or multiple-choice question.
Enable Allow qualifying for the relevant answers.
Select Activate to enable quotas.
Enter the minimum percentage for each qualifying answer.
Quotas set a minimum share of respondents who should qualify in with that answer. Quotas do not need to add up to 100 percent.
Managing quotas on live surveys
Once a survey is live, you may need to adjust or remove qualifying quotas to improve fill speed or respond to changes in sample availability. You can do this without stopping the survey. For more detail, see Managing quotas on live surveys.
How many qualifying questions to use
To ensure enough respondents qualify in and your survey reaches the desired sample size, we recommend using no more than three qualifying questions.
You can use up to five qualifying questions if needed, but using too many increases the risk of slow fill times or incomplete samples.
Need help?
Compass can help suggest qualifying questions if you explain who you would like to target, and can add these questions to your survey draft.
If you would like additional support reviewing your qualifying setup or understanding the impact on sample size, your Customer Research Manager or the in-platform chat team can help.