SurveyMonkey Audience Survey Writing Guide

How To Be A SurveyMonkey Audience Pro
at Writing Surveys
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 survey

Table of Contents
Survey Writing Guide
Ask yourself WHY --------------------------------------3
Stay relevant --------------------------------------------3
Stay focused --------------------------------------------3
Write the right question-------------------------------4
Speak their language ------------------------------------------4
Tell them when--------------------------------------------------4
Stay balanced---------------------------------------------------5
Keep it personal ------------------------------------------------5
Be direct ---------------------------------------------------------6
Write the right answers--------------------------------6
Use closed-ended questions----------------------------------6
Use your words -------------------------------------------------7
Avoid yes / no questions--------------------------------------8
Measuring pricing ----------------------------------------------8
Measuring “how much”----------------------------------------9
Provide a full set of answers ----------------------------------10
Watch your ranges---------------------------------------------11
Matrix / Grid questions----------------------------------------11
Speciﬁc Settings Guidelines
Require all questions-------------------------------------------12
Randomize answer choices when possible or relevant ---12
Skip logic --------------------------------------------------------12
Titles--------------------------------------------------------------12
Progress bars ---------------------------------------------------12
Audience Pro Preferences-----------------------------12
For Multiple Choice (Multiple answer) questions ----------12
When similarly worded questions are asked, highlighting the
keywords that make them different helps keep respondents
focused. There are a few easy ways to do this:------------12
Use sentence case for all answer choices-------------------12
Survey Formatting Guide -----------------------------13
Formatting Key -------------------------------------------------13
References-------------------------------------------------------13

3Questions or want to learn more? Visit us at audience.surveymonkey.com or call 800-310-6838 |
Ask yourself WHY
The first question you should ask yourself is why you are running a
survey to begin with. Asking yourself why you’re running a survey
will help you come up with one clear goal for your survey, like a
decision you need to make or an insight you’re trying to get. This
goal will guide you through the whole survey writing process and
will give you a place to refer back to if you get stuck.
Stay relevant
Once you have that big picture “why” of your survey, you’ll need
to break this main goal up into subtopics. Focus on key data
needs, not “nice to have” information. This keeps the survey
creation process simpler and makes data analysis easier. Make
sure your goal is very clear and your subtopics are measurable.
€ Tip from the Audience Pro: 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.
Example:
Goal: What does Netflix consumer usage look like?
Subtopic 1: How many people subscribe to Netflix?
Subtopic 2: How satisfied are subscribers with Netflix?
Subtopic 3: What are people using instead of Netflix?
Stay focused
Write out the questions to answer your goal and subtopics directly.
Working from your broad goal down to the evidence you need to
support it will make sure that the specific questions you ask relate
directly back to the reason you’re asking in the first place.
Example:
Question for Subtopic 1: Are you currently subscribed to Netflix?
Questions for Subtopic 2: Overall, how much do you enjoy the content
available on Netflix? How likely are you renew your Netflix subscription at the
end of your billing cycle?
Question for Subtopic 3: What other service(s) do you use to watch
streaming video?
€ Tip from the Audience Pro: Don’t know how to ask your questions? Use the
SurveyMonkey Question Library to find commonly used survey questions that are
simply worded and easy to analyze.

Write the right question
Speak their language
Be careful when throwing around terminology that may be familiar
to only you or your industry, or complex ideas that other people
may not understand. Remember, you need to make sure the
people who are taking your survey understand what you’re talking
about. If they don’t understand your question, they might answer
it incorrectly, randomly, or not at all! Try to write your survey in as
plain language as possible. If you have to leave in a complex or
obscure word, providing a definition or some examples of what
you’re talking about can be helpful.
d Avoid: Do you own a tablet PC?
2 Use: Do you own a tablet PC (e.g. iPad, Android tablet)?
Tell them when
Limiting the scope of a question to a specific time period ensures
that all of your survey takers are thinking about the same scope
of time when they’re answering your question. If you don’t do this,
then you have no way of knowing whether someone is thinking
about the past day, the past week, or the past year. Moreover,
specifying a specific time period will make recall of past behaviors
and projections of future behaviors more accurate.
For example:
Yesterday, did you…
In the past week, have you…
How many times in the past 30 days have you…
In the next 12 months, will you…
If you’re not sure what time period you’re most interested in, or
you want an overall picture, you can begin questions with words
such as “In general,” “Overall,” or “Typically”, to ensure that your
respondents are thinking about their average behaviors. A word
of caution, however, that this is difficult for respondents to think
about and the answers you get back may not be a true average of
their feelings.
d Avoid: How much do you usually spend on groceries?
2 Use: In the past 7 days, about how much have you spent on groceries?

Stay balanced
When writing a question, try not to bias the respondent’s answer
by leading them in a certain direction. If possible, try to incorporate
both sides of an opinion within the question. (For example, “Do
you like spinach, or not?”) This will make sure that respondents are
comfortable expressing their true opinions. When it’s not possible
to balance within a question, try to balance the survey overall. Ask
questions that are framed in both a positive and negative manner
so that the tone of the survey is balanced as a whole. If you don’t
balance within questions or within the survey, respondents are
likely to think that you have a particular bias and this will impact
how they answer the questions. (Some may try to tell you what
they think you want to hear and others may be reactive, trying to
tell you the opposite of what they think you want to hear.)
d Avoid: How much have you increased your usage of Netflix in the past
3 months?
2 Use: Has your usage of Netflix increased, decreased, or stayed the
same in the past 3 months?
Keep it personal
Have you ever heard the expression, “There’s no such thing as a
stupid question?” Well, you need to reassure survey respondents
that there’s no such thing as a stupid answer. Sometimes
respondents can feel a little intimidated by the idea of giving their
opinions on issues they don’t feel qualified to talk about. Make the
questions feel more approachable by keeping them personal. Use
cues like “do you think,” “do you feel,” “in your opinion” to signal to
respondents that you’re not looking for an absolute judgment here
and that there’s no “right answer”—all you want is their perspective
on things.
d Avoid: Is the price for a yearly Netflix subscription too high, too low, or
about right?
2 Use: Do you feel that the price for a yearly Netflix subscription is too
high, too low, or about right?

Be direct
The simplest question is usually the best. Don’t beat around the
bush—get straight to the point! Asking direct questions that are
written clearly and concisely will ensure that survey respondents
understand what you mean. This will help lower your dropout rate
and make sure that the data you get back is good data.
d Avoid: What was the state of the cleanliness of the room?
2 Use: How clean was the room?
3
Write the right answers
Use closed-ended questions
When writing a survey question, think about your main goal of the
question. If you want to know the main reason behind respondents’
actions, or their topmost opinion on something, allow only one
answer. Open text questions are helpful to get a thorough list of
keywords that people think of about certain topics. However, using
single-response, closed-ended questions will make your questions
easier to answer and your analysis process quicker and easier.
d Avoid: Why did you decide to cancel your Netflix subscription?
2 Use: What was the main reason you canceled your Netflix subscription?
Price was too high
Didn’t like the content
Don’t have time to watch Netflix content anymore
Other (please specify)
NOTE: We do offer open-ended questions and “select all that
apply” options for all of our questions. However, use these
question types with caution, as the data you get can be difficult
to analyze and interpret. Therefore, as a general rule of thumb, we
recommend against allowing multiple answers.

3
Use your words
People tend to think in words, not numbers—so you should ask
them to rate their opinions on scales that have words not numbers.
Rating scales (also known as Likert scales) should have 5 points if
they are unipolar or 7 points if they are bipolar. You should use a
unipolar scale as your default, and a bipolar scale ONLY if a clear
midpoint exists and the adjective at the top is a clear and direct
opposite of the adjective at the bottom.
For example…
Unipolar: the response can be thought of as having a five-point scale (1 to 5).
Extremely
Quite
Moderately
Slightly
Not at all
Bipolar: the response can be thought of as having a seven point scale
(-3 to +3). Use this with ratings that are exact opposites of each other
(e.g., short and tall, hot and cold).
Much more
Moderately more
Slightly more
Neither more nor less
Slightly less
Moderately less
Much less
d Avoid: Please rate 1 to 5 how much you enjoy the content available
on Netflix.
1 - Enjoy a lot
2
3
4
5 - Enjoy a little
2 Use: How enjoyable is the content available on Netflix?
Extremely enjoyable
Quite enjoyable
Moderately enjoyable
Slightly enjoyable
Not at all enjoyable

3
Avoid yes / no questions
Yes/no questions demand that your survey takers think in black
and white—but in the real world, most opinions are shades of gray.
Sure, a yes/no question can be valuable if you need a straight-
forward answer to filter responses by, or if you want to split your
respondents into different groups in order to disqualify certain
respondents. However, in most cases, offering survey takers a
range of options will make them feel more comfortable selecting
an answer choice that accurately reflects their opinion. It will also
make your analysis easier and more powerful to have a variety of
answers for respondents to choose from.
d Avoid: Will you be upgrading to the iPhone 5 in the next month?
Yes
No
2 Use: How likely are you to upgrade to the iPhone 5 in the next month?
Extremely likely
Quite likely
Moderately likely
Slightly likely
Not at all likely
Measuring pricing
Some of the most frequently asked questions for our Audience
customers are questions about the pricing of their product or
service. For these questions, follow the same rules we’ve talked
about above and focus on giving people a range of responses, and
think about whether you want more objective information (such as:
“How much would you be willing to pay for a video subscription?”)
or more subjective information such as: “Do you think our prices
are too high, too low, or about right?”). Take questions that only
give a respondent two options and turn them into a range that
allows people to give you a more nuanced answer.
d Avoid: What do you think of the current price for a Netflix subscription?
I like it
I don’t like it
2 Use: Do you think $100 for a yearly Netflix subscription is high, low, or
about right?
Extremely high
Quite high
Somewhat high
About right
Somewhat low
Quite low
Extremely low

3
Measuring “how much”
Want to know how much respondents spend their time, money,
or energy on something? Just ask. There are many different ways
to ask how frequent a certain behavior is. You can measure their
subjective perceptions (“How often do you go to the gym?”) or
their objective actions (“How many times a week do you go to
the gym?”). One may be more useful than the other depending on
your research goal so think about which one you choose. If you
choose to measure subjective perceptions, use a rating scale like
we mentioned above; if you choose to measure objective actions,
make sure you limit your response options to no more than 6. Also,
providing ranges for each answer option will help people with
fuzzy memories ﬁnd a response that feels right for them.
Example (subjective):
About how much of your marketing budget do you spend on online advertising?
All of my marketing budget
Most of my marketing budget
About half of my marketing budget
Some of my marketing budget
None of my marketing budget
Example (objective):
About how much of your marketing budget do you spend on online advertising?
0-20%
21-40%
41-60%
61-80%
81-100%

3
Provide a full set of answers
When providing answer options, make sure your list is exhaustive
and has all possible answer choices that a respondent could
choose. But, in the rare case that you think you might not have
allanswer choices down or cannot remember all applicable options,
providing an alternative for respondents who cannot find a suitable
answer choice is a good idea. An answer choice that can be helpful
in accomplishing inclusivity is:
d Avoid: In the past 30 days, what site have you used most to watch
streaming TV shows?
Netflix
Amazon Prime
Hulu Plus
2 Use: In the past 30 days, what site have you used most to watch
streaming TV shows?
Netflix
Amazon Prime
Hulu Plus
A lot of our customers add a “none of the above” option. We
recommend against including options such as “none of the above,”
“not applicable,” and “don’t know” as they provide an easy way out
for respondents not to answer the question regardless of whether
they have an answer. Instead, we recommend using skip logic! Skip
logic keeps respondents honest and engaged in your questions,
and ensures that your data quality stays high.
d Avoid: In the past 30 days, what site have you used most to watch
streaming TV shows?
Netflix
Amazon Prime
Hulu Plus
None of the above
2 Use 2
questions:
In the past 30 days, have you watched streaming TV shows?
Yes [if yes, display next question]
No [if no, skip next question]
In the past 30 days, what site have you used most to watch
streaming TV shows?
Netflix
Amazon Prime
Hulu Plus

3
Watch your ranges
When using ranges in a multiple-choice (single answer) question,
there are three main things to remember. First, make sure that
they don’t overlap. Overlapping ranges will confuse respondents,
decreasing data quality. Next, keep the range intervals the same
size. This will make your data analysis go more smoothly as you
can use the midpoint of the range to look at trends in your data. In
general, keeping intervals constant makes any statistical analyses
you run that much stronger. Finally, make sure your list of response
options spans the whole possible range of responses. Again, as we
talked about before, 5-7 response choices are ideal depending on
what is helpful for you.
d Avoid: Inatypicalday,howmuchtimedoyouspendwatchingcontentonNetflix?
1-2 hours
2-5 hours
5-10 hours
2 Use: Inatypicalday,howmuchtimedoyouspendwatchingcontentonNetflix?
Less than 2 hours
2-4 hours
5-7 hours
8-10 hours
More than 10 hours
Matrix / Grid questions
Organizing similar questions into a matrix is visually appealing and
easy. However, displaying questions in this manner actually hurts
your data quality in two ways. First, having questions in a matrix
allows respondents to get lazy and sloppy, clicking quickly down a
column of responses without actually engaging with the questions
you’re asking. The repetitive nature of a matrix question in a
survey gets respondents bored fast. This also increases dropout
rate, which is bad news for you. Additionally, not only do matrix
questions hurt your data quality because your respondents aren’t
engaged, it also hurts your data quality because you, as the survey
creator, are not as engaged. Matrix questions allow you not to
think critically enough about how you’re asking the questions. Most
questions shouldn’t have identical response options.
What do you do instead? We recommend breaking down your
matrix question into a separate question for each row with
customized responses. We charge you by the row for a matrix
question anyway, so it won’t cost you a penny more, and it will
keep your data quality and your response rate high!

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. Flip the order of scales. Whenever possible
randomize questions on a page and even pages in the survey.
Skip logic
Skip logic is a great way to customize your respondents’ survey
experience and make sure that they only see questions that are
relevant to them. Make it easy on yourself—label all pages involved
in skip logic paths to be sure you’re skipping your respondents to
the right places.
Titles
If including survey titles and page titles would bias responses they
should be hidden, however, if possible, try to include them. Titles
help to organize the narrative and ﬂow of your survey, and provide
a quick sense of order and orientation for your respondents.
Progress bars
We recommend against including progress bars as they are
distracting for respondents. You want to keep respondents
focused on the questions you’re asking, not how fast (or slow)
they’re going.
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: (Please select all that apply.)
When similarly worded questions are asked, highlighting
the keywords that make them different helps keep
respondents focused. There are a few easy ways to do this:
3 Underlining sticks out
3 So does bold
3 ALL CAPS work too
Use sentence case for all answer choices
3 Capitalize only ﬁrst letter of each option
3 This does not apply in the case of proper nouns

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. This is not necessarily to ensure Methodological
soundness, but will be helpful when you program your survey into your
SurveyMoneky account.
Formatting Key
3 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
o 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
3 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
3 Numbered items (e.g., 1. Lorem ipsum...) indicate questions
3 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
o for question language, use underline, since all questions are
bolded: <u>word or phrase</u>
o for answer language, use bold: <b>word or phrase</b>
3 All questions should be required unless otherwise noted
3 Hide asterisks for required questions
3 Hide all page titles
3 Hide all question numbering
References
3 How to add Other as an answer choice
3 How to require questions
3 How to hide page titles and question numbers
3 How to enable HTML in your account

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