Audience research
Part of Five permission records for UGC marketplaces audience research in England
UGC marketplaces survey tools: four routes compared
Choosing UGC marketplaces survey tools? Compare four routes — manual, self-hosted, contracted and managed — on cost, control and the evidence to collect.
Choosing UGC marketplaces survey tools means picking one of four routes: manual, self-hosted, contracted platform or managed agency. UGC marketplaces and creator services that survey brands or creators can compare the four here on cost, control and the evidence to collect, then run the participant-journey tests before a live study.
What to take away
- Compare four named UGC survey routesMicrosoft Forms or Google Forms manual, LimeSurvey Community Edition or REDCap self-hosted, SmartSurvey or Qualtrics contracted, and Savanta or Ipsos managed.
- Hold the question set, definitions, invitation text, eligibility rule and reporting plan constant across routes.
- Test the participant journey with fictional records before any live collection begins.
- Record the controller and processor analysis for the real study. Note the purpose, lawful basis, access, retention and deletion.
- Choose only after the same synthetic pack has completed each viable route.
Hold the instrument constant
The instrument is a questionnaire for English brand units that can evidence a recent short-form creator commission. The question set, definitions, invitation text, eligibility rule and accessible alternatives stay the same. So do the data fields and reporting plan. Otherwise, a response difference could come from the method rather than the tool.
The Government Analysis Function's questionnaire design guidance covers respondent understanding, ethical design and testing. Its separate survey accessibility guidance says accessibility concerns respondent materials and questionnaire use, while noting that its scope excludes sampling and processing. Neither record certifies a commercial product.
Compare four delivery routes
What the buyer controls
- Manual with Microsoft Forms or Google Forms
- Invitation register, accessible form or interview sheet, responses and deletion log
- Self-hosted with LimeSurvey Community Edition or REDCap
- Configured questionnaire and storage inside approved systems
- Contracted platform with SmartSurvey, Qualtrics or Alchemer
- Exact service and edition supplied under contract
- Managed agency with Savanta, Ipsos or Dynata
- Defined recruitment, fieldwork, analysis and hand-off service
Evidence to obtain
- Manual with Microsoft Forms or Google Forms
- Version history, access list, backup and disposal proof
- Self-hosted with LimeSurvey Community Edition or REDCap
- Design test, source code or configuration, logs, security review and export
- Contracted platform with SmartSurvey, Qualtrics or Alchemer
- Roles, hosting, subprocessors, transfers, access, retention, deletion, export, incident and support records
- Managed agency with Savanta, Ipsos or Dynata
- Legal entity, researcher competence, scripts, supplier chain, raw-data custody, conflicts and closure evidence
Main limitation
- Manual with Microsoft Forms or Google Forms
- More operational work and a higher risk of inconsistent handling
- Self-hosted with LimeSurvey Community Edition or REDCap
- The buyer owns maintenance, fixes and continuity
- Contracted platform with SmartSurvey, Qualtrics or Alchemer
- Public documentation may not describe the purchased configuration
- Managed agency with Savanta, Ipsos or Dynata
- The buyer may have less direct visibility of collection and processing
Microsoft Forms comes with Microsoft 365 Business Basic, typically around £5 per user per month on an annual plan. Google Forms is free with a personal Google account. Google Workspace Business Starter is typically around £5 per user per month.
LimeSurvey Community Edition is free to self-host. LimeSurvey Cloud typically starts around €25 per month. REDCap is free to REDCap Consortium members or can be hosted by an institution.
SmartSurvey paid plans typically start around £20 per month. Qualtrics is a custom quote, often from around £1,500 per year for small teams. Alchemer standard plans typically start around $50 per month, with enterprise pricing by quote.
Managed agency projects with Savanta, Ipsos or Dynata typically range from around £3,000 to £15,000, depending on sample size and incidence.
The manual route is the no-new-purchase baseline. It is not automatically safer. Compare every route on the same evidence, including staff time and error correction, and leave unknown fields blank.
Test the participant journey
The test pack runs the same instrument and participant journey through each of the four named routes. Before live collection, run fictional buyer records through eligibility, consent, question routing, partial completion and duplicate response. Then check withdrawal, correction, export and deletion.
Participant journey test sequence
- Run fictional buyer records
- Check eligibility and consent
- Test routing and partial completion
- Check duplicate responses
- Verify withdrawal and correction
- Verify export and deletion
Use an unbranded asset if a question needs a stimulus. Do not upload a creator profile, real campaign or customer list just to test the form.
Invite each participant to specify the format or adjustment that makes the questionnaire usable for them. Check keyboard operation, focus order, labels and error messages. Also check zoom, screen-reader use and any non-digital alternative with suitable users. A platform accessibility statement is an input to review, not evidence that the configured questionnaire works.
Establish the data and security boundary
Record the controller and processor analysis for the real study. Note the purpose, lawful basis, fields, access and recipients. Also note retention, correction and deletion. The ICO's controller-processor contract guidance explains the required subject matter around processing contracts; a contract does not prove operational performance.
The NCSC's cloud-provider selection guidance links the confidence required to the harm caused by disclosure, corruption or unavailability. It distinguishes supplier assertions from stronger assurance. Apply that review to the exact route, supplier chain and information collected.
Decide only after the tests
Choose only after the same synthetic pack has completed each viable route. A route remains HOLD if consent cannot be linked to a response, an accessible path fails, deletion misses an export, supplier roles are unclear, or the buyer cannot recover usable records.
When a route stays on HOLD
Did the route pass every synthetic test?
Route may proceed to approval
Route stays on HOLD
Named privacy, PECR, safeguarding and accessibility reviewers must approve their own gates. Security, procurement and research-methods reviewers must also approve theirs.
Before you act
- Hold the instrument constant across all routes.
- Run fictional buyer records through the full journey.
- Check keyboard operation, focus order, labels and error messages.
- Record controller and processor analysis for the real study.
- Apply cloud-provider selection guidance to the exact route.
- Decide only after the synthetic pack completes each route.
Common questions
Which four named routes does this test cover?
Microsoft Forms or Google Forms for manual buyer-run; LimeSurvey Community Edition or REDCap for self-hosted; SmartSurvey, Qualtrics or Alchemer for contracted platforms; Savanta, Ipsos or Dynata for managed agencies.
What must stay unchanged across the four named delivery routes?
The question set, definitions, invitation text, eligibility rule and accessible alternatives must remain unchanged. So must the data fields and reporting plan. Otherwise a response difference could come from the method rather than the tool, so the comparison would not be valid.
What does the manual buyer-run route require?
The buyer controls the invitation register, accessible form or interview sheet, responses and deletion log. Evidence to obtain includes version history, access list, backup and disposal proof. Its main limitation is more operational work and a higher risk of inconsistent handling.
When should a route be marked HOLD?
A route remains HOLD if consent cannot be linked to a response, an accessible path fails, deletion misses an export, supplier roles are unclear, or the buyer cannot recover usable records. Named reviewers must approve their own gates before the route proceeds.
