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Manage segments and quotas

Use these steps to manage segments and quotas in your study.

This article applies to: uz logo tiny.png UserZoom

✅ Plan Availability: All Plans
👥 User roles: Owner, Admins, and Researchers
For more information, see our article on how to find your plan and user role.

 

On this page:

 

 

About segments and quotas

  • Create segments to find the right group or groups of participants to take your study.
  • The quota of a study is the sum of the quotas of its segments.
  • All studies need one or more segments configured.
  • There are two types of segments: 
    • IntelliZoom: Recruitment is done using our panel.
    • Recruit your own users: Recruitment is done by you.
      • For segments using an Invitation Link, you send participants the link.
      • For segments with a Site Intercept or a Feedback tab, add the code to pages of your website where you want the Site Intercept or Feedback tab to appear.
  • You can filter your results by segment.

Studies with Source your own participants and Intellizoom segments

✅ Plan Availability:

Can have Source your own and Intellizoom segments in one study Cannot combine Source your own and Intellizoom segments in one study 
  • Essentials
  • Professional
  • International
  • Premium
  • Experience
  • Team
  • Corporate

 

 

Segment statuses

There are three possible segment statuses:

Active:

  • Active segments collect results when the study is live.
  • If the segment is active, but your study is not, results are not collected.

Inactive:

  • Inactive segments do not collect results even if the study is live.
  • If the study is live, but the segment is inactive, results are not collected.

Quotafull:

  • When responses are collected as defined for a segment, it automatically moves to Quotafull and stops collecting responses.
  • Increasing the quota of a Quotafull segment automatically sets the segment status to active.

 

 

Recruitment criteria

  • The status of a segment shows if more participants are needed based on the defined criteria.
  • Only criteria that you select will be available in the results. For example, if you choose a country, but do not select gender or any other specific criteria, only the country information shows in the results.
  • Once a study has launched, the recruiting criteria can’t be changed. If the criteria needs to be changed, create a new segment to reach the new target audience.
  • Recruitment criteria available is based on the type of participant you're looking for:
    • Professionals (B2B)
      • Country
      • Narrow down by (Options based on country chosen)
      • State/Region
      • Age
      • Gender
      • Ethnicity (US and UK only)*
      • Hispanic origin (US only)*
      • Household Income
      • Mobile phone carrier
      • Employment status
      • Industry - Coming soon!
      • Job title
      • Company size
      • Company department
        *Unmoderated studies only
    • Consumers (B2C)
      • Country
      • Narrow down by (Options based on country chosen)
      • State/Region
      • Age
      • Gender
      • Ethnicity (US and UK only)*
      • Hispanic origin (US only)*
      • Household Income
      • Household investable assets
      • Savings/Investment accounts (US and UK only) - Coming soon!
        *Unmoderated studies only

Not sure which participants are right for your study? Click the Recruitment Assistance button recruitment_assistance_button.jpg to ask our Participant Recruitment Team to give you a hand with that. Tell us your needs and you will hear from us soon!

Note: This feature is only available for Enterprise plans.

 

 

 

Choose the right sample size

  • Not sure about what sample size you need? Click the information icon next to the Number of Participants for our recommendations.
  • For studies using IntelliZoom to recruit participants, the maximum sample size per study can vary depending on the study type and/or your account settings.
  • To find the number for your study, check the Max participants value above your first segment.
  • For more information, check out the How many participants do I need? video in the UserZoom Learning Center.

Find usability issues

  • The more people you put through your study the more usability issues you will find. If your objective is to identify big, obvious, glaring issues a sample size of 5 is enough to identify 85% of the problems that have a 30% or higher chance of occurring with at least one participant.
  • Keep in mind these are simply the most common issues – this won’t uncover all of them and just because they’re more common doesn’t necessarily mean they are the worst offenders

find_usability_issues_chart.jpg

 

Compare design options

  • When it comes to comparing design options, how many people you’ll need depends on the amount of difference you are trying to detect between the options.
  • The smaller the difference (green apple versus red apple) means a larger sample size is needed to determine the winner. The larger the difference (apple versus pineapple) means a smaller sample size is needed.

compare_design_options_chart.jpg

 

 

Add a new segment

  1. Go to the Recruitment section of your study.
  2. In the side menu, click Participants.
  3. Depending on how you are planning to recruit participants for the study select:
    • Let us find participants for you section to add an IntelliZoom segment.
    • Recruit your own users section to add a segment where you will recruit participants yourself.
  4. Configure your segments using the steps below.

 

 

 

Configure an IntelliZoom segment

Professionals (B2B)

  1. Go to the Recruitment section of your study.
  2. In the side menu, click Participants.
  3. In the Let us find participants for you box, click Add Segment add_segment_button.jpg.
  4. Choose Professionals as the audience.
  5. Enter the Segment Name.
  6. Choose the number of participants to recruit for the segment.
  7. Configure your Recruitment criteria.
  8. Select Save.

 

Consumers (B2C)

  1. Go to the Recruitment section of your study.
  2. In the side menu, click Participants.
  3. In the Let us find participants for you box, click Add Segment add_segment_button.jpg.
  4. Choose Consumers as the audience.
  5. Enter the Segment Name.
  6. Choose the number of participants to recruit for the segment.
  7. Configure your Recruitment criteria.
  8. Click Save.

 

 

Configure a Recruit your own users segment

  1. Go to the Recruitment section of your study.
  2. In the side menu, click Participants.
  3. Under Recruit your own users, click Add Segment add_segment_button.jpg.
  4. Configure these for each segment:
    • Name
    • Number of participants to recruit
      • By default, segments are created with a 25 sample size.
      • The maximum number of participants is 99999
        • This is not recommended.
        • Split participants across multiple studies to make results easier to measure.
      • For more completes, select Unlimited.
    • Recruiting Method (How participants get invited to the study):
  5. Click Save.

 

 

Copy an existing segment

  1. Go to the Recruitment section of your study.
  2. In the side menu, click Participants.
  3. Hover over the segment you want to copy.
  4. Click the Copy icon.

 

 

Delete a segment

  1. Go to the Recruitment section of your study.
  2. In the side menu, click Participants.
  3. Hover over the segment that you want to delete.
  4. Click the Trash can icon.

 

 

Activate or deactivate a segment

When a segment is inactive, participants in that segment are unable to take the study.

  1. Go to the Recruitment section of your study.
  2. In the side menu, click Participants.
  3. Click the Active/Inactive toggle next to the name of each segment.

 

 

Quotafull message when the quota is not full

Participants see the Quotafull message when they try to enter the study but the total number of participants in the segment was reached or the study/segment is offline.

  • Scenario: You want to get 10 responses, so you send out 100 invitation links at the same time. 
  • Participant experience:
    • Only the first 10-15 participants to click the link can access the study.
    • The rest receive the quotafull message.
    • If some active participants don't finish the study (screenout, inactivity, etc.), the system lets in more participants.
  • Why this happens:
    • The segment has reached its quota.
    • The study is offline and/or the segment is inactive.
    • The segment currently has enough active participants for the system to expect the study to reach its quota without more participants.

Pro Tips

  • When recruiting with IntelliZoom and a segment goes over quota, the system automatically refunds your credits.
    • This is commonly caused by participants actively taking your study while the quota is met.
    •  Credits are refunded as this is no fault of yours and the system allows for this scenario.
  • For Recruit Your Own segments, we recommended sending invitations in waves. This prevents too many participants from trying to access the study at the same time.

 

 

FAQs

Why did my segment go over the quota?

This happens by design. For studies to reach their quota faster, the system lets in slightly more participants than the quota taking into consideration that it's unlikely that every single participant starting a study will complete it. There are times when these additional participants do finish the study, causing the segment to go over quota. Extended quotas are guided by these considerations:

  • Help studies reach their quotas faster.
  • Avoid a poor experience to kick out participants who are partially through a study.

 

 

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