How to Create a Target Audience Survey

A target audience represents a broader circle of people or companies who might be interested in your product or service. This specific group shares common demographic, geographic, or interest-based characteristics that make your offer relevant to them. Precise definition of this group allows you to target advertising more effectively and reduce marketing campaign costs. For better understanding, a so-called persona is created - a fictional profile of an ideal customer or user, created based on data and research, representing the target audience.

The target audience survey builds on this defined target group. Its main goal is to verify whether your assumptions about customers match reality. It's not enough to know who might be interested in your product - it's also important to understand what these people actually need, how they think, and how they make decisions. Now let's discuss how to prepare for this survey.

1) Define What You Want to Find Out

Before diving into the actual survey, it's important to clarify a few basic things. A survey isn't just about asking a few questions and waiting for answers. If it's to bring truly valuable results, it must have a clear direction and purpose. Start by answering the question of what you want to find out and why. The survey goal determines what questions you'll ask, who you'll ask them to, and how you'll evaluate the results. Without this step, you risk collecting a large amount of data that ultimately won't help you make any concrete decisions. Conversely, with a clearly defined goal, you can get the maximum from the survey and obtain information that will help move your product, marketing, and entire strategy forward.

A very common mistake is setting too general a goal. A so-called vague goal is often unclear, broad, and difficult to grasp (for example: "I want to better understand my customers"). Such a goal doesn't say what specifically you want to find out, what questions to ask, or how to use the results. Conversely, a specific goal is precisely formulated and tied to a specific situation.

For example:

• "I want to understand what their typical day looks like."

• "I want to know what hobbies they have."

• "I want to find out what other products they use."

• "I want to find out how old the people who buy my product are."

• "I want to know where my customers live."

• "I want to find out what occupation and income they have."

• "I want to understand what problems they're solving."

• "I want to know what their main motivation is."

• "I want to find out what frustrates them about current solutions."

• "I want to know where they spend time online (social media, websites, forums)."

• "I want to find out where they search for information before purchasing."

• "I want to understand how they decide on purchases (quickly/slowly, alone/with a partner)."

A simple rule applies here: "The more specific the goal, the better and higher quality the results."

2) Clarify Who You Actually Want to Reach

Most people make the mistake of targeting too broadly. "My service is for everyone" means it's for no one.

If you already have customers, even just a few dozen, you have something to start with. Look at recent orders, check Google Analytics for their age or location, and verify your findings on social media. You'll quickly see patterns and perhaps discover that most customers share similar characteristics. If you're just starting out, create a hypothesis. Determine who has the problem you're solving? Look at competitors, who they're selling to, and verify it with a small test of twenty to thirty people. The narrower your target group, the better. Start with one group, test with a survey, and adjust based on the results.

3) Determine the Survey Size

Large companies target hundreds or thousands of responses. In a smaller company, you don't need that many. 500 responses is a number you'll often hear from research agencies. It's a solid foundation for statistical accuracy and gives you confidence that the data matches reality. However, it's expensive and time-consuming. For a small company or individual, it's often unattainable and often unnecessary.

Reality looks a bit different. Even fifty responses will show you initial patterns. You'll find that most customers are around forty, live in big cities, and found you through Instagram. That's more than you know now, and you can work with it.

One hundred responses will give you a fairly accurate picture. You'll see differences between groups. For example, younger people buy differently than older ones, people from Prague have different needs than people from smaller cities. You can afford to divide data and look for connections.

Two hundred survey responses is more than enough for most small businesses. With this number, you have a solid foundation for deciding where to invest your marketing budget.

How does it work? The more responses you have, the more accurate the results. If a hundred people tell you they plan to buy again, and then only eighty-five actually return, you're not far from the truth. If you only ask ten people and eight return, it can differ significantly. More responses give you greater confidence that the data matches reality.

Don't be discouraged by large numbers. Simply start where it's achievable for you. Even thirty responses from the right people will tell you more than you have now. Better a smaller survey that you actually do than a large perfect survey you never launch.

4) Create Questions That Give You Usable Answers

A survey is only as good as the questions you ask. A poorly worded question will give you an answer you don't know what to do with. A good question will tell you exactly what you need to know.

When creating a questionnaire, combine different formats depending on what you need to find out. Use closed-ended questions (yes/no) for clear facts, Likert scales (e.g., rating from very poor to excellent) are suitable for measuring satisfaction, and multiple choice you'll likely use when determining specific preferences. Don't forget demographic questions (age, profession, residence) that will help you properly sort results and understand who exactly is behind the given answers.

Our Additional Tips

Be specific - Save open-ended questions and instead bet on rating scales. Data analysis will then be much faster and clearer for you. Keep free text answers only for specific cases, such as discovering deeper impressions of your brand.

Invest time in questionnaire design - A well-crafted survey with a consistent visual style builds trust and keeps respondents engaged throughout the completion process.

Avoid leading questions - "Do you agree that our product is the best on the market?" pushes people toward an answer. Ask: "How would you compare our product to competitors?"

Use scales instead of open questions - Scales (one to five, stars) are faster for respondents and simpler for evaluation. Use open questions only when you really need to hear in their own words why something works or doesn't work.

Less is often more - People have little time. They'll probably close a fifteen-minute survey after two minutes. Stick to a maximum of ten to fifteen questions. If it takes longer than five minutes, it's too much.

5) Send the Survey at the Right Time to the Right Places

The best time to send questionnaires is most often during work downtime. Think about when you yourself would have time to fill them out. Is it during an afternoon break or in the evening around nine on the couch? The worst time is usually Monday morning, Friday afternoon, and often on weekends.

The age of your target group matters a lot. Generation Z usually doesn't read emails, so you need to go to Instagram or TikTok. People in their thirties and forties open email every day for work, and fifty-somethings spend hours after work on Facebook. If you need to reach seniors over sixty-five, personal approach or a paper questionnaire is a better choice.

Have you spent time perfecting your survey and now it's time to share it with the world? Whether you want to embed the survey on your website homepage, share it in emails, or publish it using a QR code, SentiSnap will be happy to help.

6) Analyze Responses and Look for Patterns

Whether you have fifty, one hundred, two hundred responses or more, it's time to find out what the numbers are telling you. How old are most people, where do they live, where did they find you, and what you created the survey for. Only when you start looking for patterns will the data start making sense. Do people from Prague buy differently than from smaller cities? Do younger people solve different problems than older ones? Do men's and women's needs differ?

Modern tools like SentiSnap automatically visualize data, so results are displayed in clear graphs. At first glance, you can see, for example, that seventy percent of customers found you on Instagram, they're mostly twenty-five to thirty-five years old, and they're most interested in delivery speed. You can then respond to this in a targeted way.

7) Use Data for Decisions

And finally, the most important thing. The results will show the company where to invest its efforts. As you progressively add more data, you can use insights to shape your company strategy. If, for example, a company finds that its target audience shops mainly online, there's a great opportunity to devote more resources to app development and mobile environment. Insights from your target audience survey can help you efficiently allocate marketing resources and thus save time, money, and effort spent across all channels.

Discover Data About Your Target Audience Using SentiSnap

A target audience survey isn't rocket science. It's a way to stop guessing and gain important insights for your business.

In this article, we've gone through the entire process, from defining the goal, deciding who to ask, through setting a realistic number of responses, creating specific questions, proper timing and distribution, to analyzing data and using it for decisions.

Here are just a few ways SentiSnap will help you create a target audience survey while adhering to best practices for this type of survey.

AI question creation – This technology will help you create effective questions for targeting your audience if you're facing time pressure.

Automatic data analysis – Find out who your customers are, where to find them, and what motivates them. SentiSnap can analyze open-ended responses. See results through real-time graphs or discover trends and sentiment.

Easy sharing – email, QR code, social media, website embedding. Everything from one place.

Strong mobile experience – most respondents fill out surveys on mobile. SentiSnap is ready for it. Increase survey reach using professional and design questionnaires.

You can start for free. Create a survey, send it out, and find out who your customers are.