In this article
Panel Management customers are able to create a Registration Survey directly in Forsta Surveys. Data captured by this survey will automatically become “datapoints” in Panel Management.
1: What is a Registration Survey?
A Registration Survey is an online survey that can be used to qualify and register potential panelists. The Registration Survey can also collect additional data for each panelist.
2: Creating a Registration Survey
To create a Registration Survey, you must first generate a special link within Panel Management. To generate your link, enter both your Forsta Surveys instance and company ID within the "Registration Survey" tab of your Panel Properties editor in Panel Management. Please contact SurveySupport@forsta.com or your account manager if you cannot locate this tab within your Panel Management account.
Note: Only one Registration Survey is allowed per panel, so if you have multiple panels, you will need to repeat this process for each panel individually.
Once you create your link in Panel Management, you can click on that link to open a blank Registration Survey within the Forsta Surveys New Project window. To finalize creation of your Registration Survey, you will want give it a name, set the Primary Language, and then click “Build”:
Note: Languages stored for panelists within Panel Management will be sent to Forsta Surveys as part of the survey URL. If a panelist's language is not supported within Forsta Surveys, the default survey language will be used instead. For more information on setting languages for registration surveys in Forsta Surveys, see Compatible Languages for Forsta Surveys & Panel Management Surveys.
3: Building Out a Registration Survey
3.1: Required Question & Sample Sources
Upon creation, your Registration Survey will appear in the Survey Editor. All necessary information will be included automatically for a Registration Survey to function. This includes two participant source elements (one for new panelists and one for existing panelists returning) and the first survey question called “register”:
3.2: Additional Questions & Datapoints
To add datapoints to your Registration Survey, you would just add questions through the Survey Elements Manager, as you normally would for any Forsta Surveys survey. You can also add structural elements, such as the terminate element, and apply logic to screen out participants you would not like to qualify for your panel. You may also setup quotas.
If you have never built a survey within Forsta Surveys before, see Getting Started with Forsta Surveys for more information on how to use the Survey Editor.
Any questions you add to a Registration Survey within the Elements Manager will be created as datapoints within Panel Management once the survey is launched. Deleting / removing a question does not remove its associated datapoint from Panel Management. Datapoint removal can will need to be done manually via the Datapoint Manager within Panel Management once a question has been created.
If you would like to add a survey question without also creating a Panel Management datapoint, you can add kinesis:nokdp="1" to the question via the XML Editor.
3.2.1: Incentives
It is also possible to provide participants with an incentive for referring a friend to a panel. New registration surveys will automatically include this functionality, but existing surveys can be updated as well.
To update an existing survey with incentive functionality, add the "New Panelists" (list 0) sample source and include the optional variable
"referrer_hash".
3.3: Limitations
While there are many options available for building out a Registration Survey, there are also some limitations on question types that can be added due to datapoint functionality within Panel Management.
The following question types cannot be used within Registration Surveys:
2-Dimensional or 3-Dimensional question types (e.g. grid questions)
Multiple input open-ends questions (e.g. more than one text box)
Row/column modifiers (e.g., “Open End”, “noanswer”)
Loops
Autofill
Dynamic questions with any of the above data structures
Multi-Media questions
Note: Dynamic Questions that fit the acceptable data structures are allowed within Registration Surveys.
Additionally, question labels for Registration Surveys cannot contain underscore characters, as these are reserved within Panel Management to denote choice options.
If you try to add any incompatible elements while building out your Registration Survey, you will come across a error message within the Survey Editor and will not be able to launch your survey until the error is corrected or removed:
4: Launching a Registration Survey
You can launch your Registration Survey using the same process that you would for a normal Forsta Surveys survey. If you have never launched a Forsta Surveys survey before, see Launching a Survey for a guided walkthrough.
Once your Registration Survey is live, you will see your new datapoints and their associated questions appear in the Panel Management Datapoint Manager under your panel:
Note: The datapoints that you create within your Registration Survey will not appear within your Panel Management panel until your survey is set live.
5: Participant Experience Considerations
Both new and existing panelists can enter a Registration Survey. Their experiences will be quite different depending on what type of user they are. For this article, we will only be discussing new panelists. For information regarding existing panelists, see Creating a Registration Update Survey Using Forsta Surveys.
5.1: Survey URLs
Once a new sample source is added, a new survey URL for it will automatically be created within the Project Summary page to be used for fielding.
For more information on locating your survey link(s), see Survey Summary.
5.2: New Panelists
New panelists must enter a Registration Survey through the “New Panelist” sample source URL. Other URL variables may be appended for data collection.
Note: URL variables will not pass to Panel Management. These will be stored in Forsta Surveys only.
Respondents will answer questions as they normally would in any survey.
Upon completing the Registration Survey (and determined qualified panelists), participants will receive an automated email to confirm their opt-in to your panel, and be saved as a new panelist within your Panel Management.
6: FAQs
Q: If I wanted to add additional contact information fields for my panelists, would I add that to the “register” question?
A: No, the “register” question will only store the “email” and “password” per panelist within Panel Management and must not be changed/altered. To track additional panelist details, you will need to create a new question with row options for each piece of information.
Note: The “email” and “password” fields will only be stored within Panel Management once the panelist clicks “Continue”; these fields will also not be available within any Forsta Surveys reports.
Q: Do I need to add page breaks around the “register” question?
A: No, the “register” question can be positioned anywhere within the Registration Survey, and does not require page break bumpers; it can be added onto the same page with other questions without losing any functionality.
Q: What if I already have a Registration Survey in place for my panel?
A: You will not be able to add a new Registration Survey to your panel if you already have one for it. For information about transferring an existing Kinesis Registration Survey to Forsta Surveys, see Pulling Panel Management Datapoints into a Forsta Surveys Survey.
Q: Can I add new datapoints to an existing Forsta Surveys Registration Survey?
A: Yes. You can add new questions to your Forsta Surveys survey any time the survey is re-launched and/or live changes are merged, and these will automatically be added to Panel Management as datapoints. For more information on editing a live survey within Forsta Surveys, see Editing a Live Survey.
Q: Can I remove datapoints from an existing Forsta Surveys Registration Survey?
A: While you can remove questions from your Forsta Surveys survey at any time, the datapoints will still exist within Panel Management once they are created; to remove the datapoints, you will need to manually delete them using the Datapoint Manager within Panel Management.
Note: Deleting datapoints within Panel Management is not recommended within previously run surveys, as you will lose all collected data for that datapoint.
Q: Can I hide questions from participants from within my Registration Survey?
A: Yes. If you would like to hide a question from panelists within the Registration Survey, but keep the Panel Management datapoint for it, you would just add skip logic to that question using the Elements Manager. This is particularly useful for creating a profiling survey, where certain demographics may change over time.
Note: You can also hide questions using the “where” question attribute within the survey XML. Click Question Attributes for more information on using where.
Q: Can I update my panelists’ data within the Registration Survey?
A: Yes. See Creating a Registration Update Survey Using Forsta Surveys.
Q: Can I change the survey theme for my Registration Survey?
A: Yes, you can change the survey theme and add any styles you wish; there are no limitations on survey style elements.
Q: What happens if a participant attempts to register twice?
A: If a participant already has a panel account within Panel Management and they try to re-register their email address, they will receive an immediate error message stating “Registration failed: Duplicate email”.
Q: What happens if a participant leaves the survey after completing just the “register” question?
A: If a participant leaves the survey after completing only the “register” question, they will be tagged as an “unconfirmed” panelist within Panel Management and still receive an opt-in follow up email. For more information on managing Panel Management panelists, see the Panelist Manager.
Q: What happens if there is an error submitting data or a Panel Management server cannot be reached when creating a Registration Survey?
A: Any issues with connectivity should be displayed within the project warnings report prior to launching your Registration Survey.