Screener questions are used when conducting market research as a way of filtering out participants who do not fall within your desired target audience. Having a screening section at the very start of your survey ensures that participants are a good fit for your study as reflected in their responses.

For B2B market research, screener questions are often based on firmographics such as job function, company size, company revenue, and decision-making authority within an organization. As you start thinking about your target audience and the screener questions you'd like to ask for your next project, here are some best practices to keep in mind.

Starting your survey with screener questions ensures that participants who do not meet the requirements are screened out early, rather than completing the entire survey only to be disqualified at the end. This optimizes the experience for survey-takers and saves time.

It's also important to consider the order of your screener questions. Begin with a broad question, such as asking participants about their industry, and then follow up with more specific questions. This approach ensures a smooth and efficient screening process for survey-takers.

While including multiple screener questions is a good idea, we recommend having at most 5 in your survey. Prioritize asking the most relevant screener questions in order to best define your target audience. Having more than that runs the risk of disqualifying potential candidates who may be a great fit for your study. A long screener section can increase the LOI, lead to survey fatigue, and result in a high number of survey dropouts.

Another source of survey fatigue is the open-ended question. We recommend limiting the number of open-ended questions in your screener portion as it typically results in a high survey drop-off. This also requires the researcher to manually review open-ended responses in order to determine whether the participant is a good fit.

Since participants have a 50% chance of selecting the correct answer to a binary yes/no question, we recommend including questions with more than two answer options in order to increase the degree of confidence in your screener data.

When a list isn't comprehensive, we recommend always including an 'other' or 'none of the above' answer choice. This prevents participants from selecting an answer at random in order to proceed with the survey when a question isn't necessarily irrelevant to them.

Ask screener questions that are specific and relevant to your target audience. Screener questions that are too general can allow participants that may not meet all of the criteria to pass the screener portion.

Also, when crafting screener questions it is best to avoid using any vague or ambiguous terminology, such as acronyms specific to your company, as this can cause confusion and affect how survey-takers might respond.

Ask screener questions that are not intended to influence participants and how they respond as this can potentially lead to agreement bias and impact the overall validity of your data. Using neutral language is a great way of avoiding potential respondent bias.

This type of trick question asks participants to respond to two different topics within a single question. While the intention may be to reduce the number of questions and shorten the survey, it can skew your data and impact your sample quality.

For example, the question "How often do you collect and analyze data for your job?" asks participants to address both collecting and analyzing data in one question.

Since participants can only select a single response, they cannot fully address both topics. We recommend breaking down double-barreled questions into two separate ones to ensure clarity and accuracy.

In summary, screener questions are essential for market research as they ensure that participants are a good fit for your study. To optimize the survey-taker experience, it is important to place screener questions at the beginning of the survey, keep the section short and sweet, use open-ended questions sparingly, avoid binary questions, and be specific with clear language. Additionally, refraining from leading questions and double-barrel questions is crucial to maintaining the validity of your data. By following these best practices, you can ensure that your screener questions accurately identify your desired target audience for effective market research.