What motivates people to participate in the study, other then incentives:
Therefore it is possible to conduct studies without incentives, relying only on other motives. However, incentives have a set of undeniable advantages:
| With incentives | Without incentives |
|---|---|
| ✅ Recruitment becomes easier (increase conversion) and faster (increase speed) | |
| ✅ Helps you recruit participant who would be unreachable otherwise (e.g. churned users) | |
| ✅ Reduces the number of no-shows, refusals to answer the questions or continue the interview (e.g. sessions longer than 30min) | |
| ✅ It’s fair: we pay for time that participant spent on us, it shows our respect to participant’s time | |
| ❌ Can attract professional participants or cheaters (folks that don’t meet the requirements and want to participate just for the money) | ✅ Participants definitely do this not to get money (no cheaters) 🙂 |
| ❌ Recruitment takes more time | |
| ❌ Higher no-shows rate | |
| ❌ Can’t reach some groups (e.g. churned users) |
|
Setting an appropriate incentive increases the likelihood of a great recruit. It shows that you respect participants’ time and that you value their expertise.
Monetary incentives, including gift cards, are the most popular form of incentive, but incentives can also take the form of charitable donations, account credits, or swag.
Basic rules for incentives:
UserInterviews has a great and elaborated article on that topic:
🔗 Additional links