SurveyMonkey Audience is a service that delivers completed survey responses from panels of respondents who match targeting criteria chosen by the customer. It is not part of any SurveyMonkey plan. The Help Center states that Audience responses “are not included in SurveyMonkey plans”, describing Audience as a separate service for buying respondents,[6] and the pricing page footnote repeats that Audience responses are sold separately.[8] This article also covers SurveyMonkey LaunchPad, a set of per-study research solutions, and Benchmarks, a feature that licenses benchmark data to customers.
Editions
The Service-Specific Terms index lists separate documents for self-serve Audience and enterprise Audience, and a single Benchmarks document.[7]
- Self-serve Audience is bought on SurveyMonkey’s websites under the Audience Self-Serve Terms, which are “Additional Terms” to the Terms of Use.[1]
- Enterprise Audience is bought through the enterprise sales team under the Enterprise Audience Service-Specific Terms, which are incorporated into the Governing Services Agreement. The customer must have an active subscription to SurveyMonkey Enterprise to purchase and use Audience, and must renew Enterprise if it expires before the Audience purchase does.[2]
- LaunchPad is sold as ten expert-built solutions, paid for per study “with no subscription required”.[4] The Help Center adds that a LaunchPad access fee gives LaunchPad customers access to SurveyMonkey Audience.[3]
- Benchmarks may be purchased as a feature of a subscription or as a one-time purchase, and is a subscription unless bought through the market research solutions or unless the order document says otherwise.[5]
Metrics
Completed Survey Response
Audience is bought by the Completed Survey Response. The terms define it as the case where SurveyMonkey invites a Target Panelist to take the survey, the panelist qualifies past any screening questions, answers all required questions and reaches the end of the survey. A response from a panelist who is disqualified by a screening question is not a Completed Survey Response.[1] The Help Center explains the practical effect: the customer is charged for the number of complete responses ordered (occasionally more may be collected, which are provided), disqualified and incomplete responses are not charged separately, and the qualification rate chosen when disqualification logic is used affects the price per response.[3] See Completed Survey Response (Audience).
Credits
Credits are prepaid value used to pay for Audience responses. Under the self-serve terms, by purchasing Credits the customer is “prepaying for Audience responses”, Credits may be used only for those purposes, and they must be used within one year of purchase with no refund if unused. Credits are non-transferable except among members of the same SurveyMonkey Teams plan whose credits are in the same currency, and they are not stored value or money.[1] Under the enterprise terms Credits can also pay for LaunchPad, external panel and professional services; Credits bought with or after an Enterprise subscription co-terminate with that subscription, and Credits can be transferred between End User accounts covered by the Order Form.[2] See Audience Credits and the program Audience Credits balance.
Study
LaunchPad solutions are priced per study. The page compares the per-study cost of LaunchPad with traditional research agencies and lists a figure of “From $1,000” for LaunchPad.[4] The metric row is LaunchPad study.
Counting and floors
Price per response
The Help Center states that the total cost of an Audience order is the number of complete responses needed multiplied by the price per response. Price per response depends on survey length and on targeting options, whose cost varies with how common the criteria are among panelists, and on custom balancing and the qualification rate. Taxes are added at checkout. Express delivery adds USD 1 per response.[3]
Survey requirements
Surveys must comply with restrictions published on the Audience website and with the terms. For self-serve Audience the survey must average no more than 15 minutes, may not collect personal information or sensitive identifiers such as card numbers, passwords or social security numbers, may not relate to pornography or to alcohol, tobacco or recreational drugs when targeted below the legal age, and may not be used primarily to market to respondents or ask panelists to leave the survey.[1] SurveyMonkey may suspend or cancel a survey with a materially lower response rate than average or after respondent complaints, and a non-compliant survey is given a cure period of 30 days.[1] The enterprise terms permit collecting personal information only where panelists have expressly consented and the Governing Services Agreement expressly permits it.[2]
Approval and delivery
SurveyMonkey evaluates each purchase request and may decline it, for example where it believes there are insufficient panelists. Acceptance is not a guarantee that the requested number of responses will be delivered in the estimated timeframe, and the customer must pay before the survey is deployed.[1] Panelists may be sourced from several panels, selected at SurveyMonkey’s discretion; the Help Center names the Contribute and Rewards panels for United States purchases and a global panel managed by partners elsewhere.[1] [3]
Account and region conditions
A SurveyMonkey account is required because surveys are deployed on the SurveyMonkey platform.[1] Audience orders are one-time purchases made regardless of a plan and do not require an upgrade; a customer on the free Basic plan who buys Audience responses receives access to premium paid-plan features, but only for surveys launched with Audience. Audience is not available when the account’s data is stored in the European data centre, and accounts in certain billing countries cannot buy it.[3]
Virtualization and partitioning
Not applicable.
Cloud and BYOL
Not applicable. The only region-related condition is the European data centre exclusion noted above.[3]
Programs
Cancellation and refunds
Once paid, an Audience purchase is not refundable except in limited circumstances, and SurveyMonkey may cancel a purchase at any time without cause. On request, a Pro Rata Refund (prorated by the number of Completed Survey Responses already delivered) is issued if the customer has complied with the terms and SurveyMonkey cannot collect the desired number of responses within a reasonable timeframe, or if SurveyMonkey cancels without cause. No refund is available if the customer alters the survey without approval after review or deployment, or where the shortfall results from factors within the customer’s control such as an inaccurate incidence rate estimate, poor targeting or non-compliance with the Audience design guidelines.[1] The enterprise terms contain an equivalent pro rata refund clause.[2]
Treatment of Audience data
The self-serve terms state that Audience surveys are treated differently from other surveys: SurveyMonkey may use Audience responses and other survey data to give other purchasers additional targeting criteria, and may apply machine learning to assess response quality, but does not otherwise use the data for its own purposes except for Benchmarks and does not share actual responses with other purchasers.[1] The enterprise terms state that the customer owns its survey data and give a similar list of permitted uses.[2]
Benchmarks data licence
Benchmarks gives access to benchmarking data derived from survey data that SurveyMonkey users have contributed. Access for certain questions or templates requires a SurveyMonkey account on a plan that supports Benchmarks and a completed demographic profile. By purchasing Benchmarks, the customer agrees to contribute its own survey results to those questions or templates, and benchmarking is performed only on questions sourced from the Question Bank, other than Custom Benchmarks produced under a Governing Services Agreement.[5] Subject to payment, SurveyMonkey grants a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, worldwide right to use the Data for internal business purposes only. The licence permits reproducing the Data for internal backup, and does not permit resale, lending or assignment, disclosure to third parties other than contractors who need access (for whom the customer is liable), implying SurveyMonkey endorsement, or removing proprietary notices.[5] This is the only grant in the SurveyMonkey documents reviewed that is described as perpetual; the underlying service access is not. See Benchmarks data licence.
Out of scope
This article does not cover SurveyMonkey Contribute and Rewards, the programmes under which panelists participate, whose terms are written for panelists and not for buyers, nor the Audience design guidelines. It does not cover third-party panel provider terms or the price of any particular order.