Google Consumer Surveys: A Fast, Accurate and Inexpensive New Tool for Our Clients

Adam Smartschan

Partner & Chief Strategy Officer

Shortly after the 2012 election concluded, a blog on the New York Times website called “FiveThirtyEight” rated all of the polls that made predictions about the outcome of the presidential race. To the surprise of many, a newcomer called Google Consumer Surveys finished second for accuracy, out of a field of the top 24 national polling companies. What’s more, four of the top 10 places overall were taken by internet-only polls.

This was a seismic shakeup in the world of polling, because online polling of all types has been belittled by mainstream polling gurus for years.

What makes this even more interesting is that the same technology Google used to create this result is available to our clients. We are able to use the fast, affordable, and accurate Google Consumer Surveys service to conduct custom market research.

This online survey may be used to quickly gauge consumer response on a wide range of topics, from preferred package design, to pricing, to logo preference – virtually any topic of importance to your business.

Here’s how it works: Formulate your survey, and define your audience (we’ll help). You can select by age range, and by affinities, such as coffee drinking, or pet ownership. You may freely use images embedded within the survey, to help respondents select a logo option, for example. People come across your questions when they try to access premium articles or video online. Part of Google’s secret is asking just one question at a time, so consumers are more likely to respond. Publishers are paid as their visitors answer, and Google provides nicely aggregated and analyzed data.

Results appear as they come in. Results are provided in raw data form, but also in charts and graphs. Google uses other data to infer respondent age, gender, location, and more. You may “play” with all of the data from the survey in a real-time, web-based results panel interface with graphs and more.

Contact us to learn more about how we can use Google Consumer Surveys to help meet and exceed your business survey objectives.

Adam Smartschan

Adam Smartschan heads Altitude's strategic marketing and branding efforts. An award-winning writer and editor by trade in a former life, he now specializes in data analytics, search engine optimization, digital advertising strategy, conversion rate optimization and technical integrations. He holds numerous industry certifications and is a frequent speaker on topics around B2B marketing strategy and SEO.