Survey incentives to reward and thank participants
By Kathryn Casna●5 min. read●Jun 3, 2025
Survey incentives reward participants for taking a survey (or, in some cases, considering taking one). The types of incentives and how you deploy them may vary, but the goal is usually the same: to convince more people to respond.
Offering survey incentives can come with additional costs and complications. But without them, you may not see the response rates you need to collect high-quality data, leading to wasted budgets and missed critical insights.
To help you choose the right survey incentives, we break down:
How incentives impact research surveys and data quality
Types of incentives, including survey incentive examples and ideas for reaching your goals
Possible legal implications
Some best practices and FAQs
How incentives impact research surveys
Do survey incentives really increase participation? The short answer is yes. People tend to see survey incentives as either compensation for their time or a gesture of goodwill that they should repay. Both boost responses.
The long answer is that survey incentives aren’t the only factor to consider. Survey length, clarity of the questions, reminders, and other survey experience components can affect your success. You may see more success among B2C audiences because consumers often make decisions for themselves, while B2B respondents need to consult others.
Survey incentives can drive results in three ways:
Increase response rates. A 2006 review of survey incentive research showed a response rate increase of 19%.
Increase retention. The same study showed that incentivized participants who begin a survey are 31% more likely to complete it compared to 26% for non-incentivized participants.
Eliminate non-response bias. Survey incentives tend to target groups that would otherwise not complete the survey, such as those with lower education and incomes.
The impact on your survey will depend on the amount and type of incentives you choose.
Types of survey incentives
When choosing incentives for survey participation, consider:
Budget. How much will each incentive cost? How much of your overall budget can you put toward incentives versus other survey costs?
Participant pool. What’s the ideal participant profile for your survey? Does your choice of incentive attract people in this demographic?
Data quality. Will your incentives encourage honest, thoughtful answers, or distract participants from the goal of the survey?
Budget is often the most limiting factor when it comes to survey incentives, and you’ll need to decide whether you’ll offer a monetary incentive or non-monetary incentive.
Monetary incentives
Monetary survey incentives are those that participants can easily spend. The higher the monetary value, the greater the effect on participation rates. With the right tools, you can easily implement them, attract a wide audience, and deliver lots of value to the survey taker.
Cash has the widest appeal and is easy to use as a preemptive incentive. You can use digital methods like ACH, Venmo, and PayPal to send monetary payouts at scale.
Gift cards are one of the most convenient, attractive types of survey incentives for both companies and participants. You can customize the amount and type (Starbucks, Amazon, your own brand, etc.), and digitally track and deliver gift cards with a bulk gift card or research incentive platform.
Prepaid cards, like Visa and Mastercard prepaid debit cards, are similar to gift cards, but participants can use them for just about anything. That makes them ideal for surveys with a wide range of participant preferences and geographic locations
Non-monetary incentives
Non-monetary incentives can be less expensive upfront, which makes them appealing for businesses that need to keep cost-per-response (CPR) down. However, they may not attract as wide an audience.
Sweepstakes give one or a few people a reward. They can be easier on your budget, but a 2023 study showed that sweepstakes with $100 and $500 prizes didn’t encourage more responses or reduce drop-off compared to a guaranteed $5 Amazon gift card.
Donations can attract more altruistic participants and help you avoid sticky legal situations that come with giving gifts in regulated industries like government, finance, and healthcare.
Exclusive or early-access content can be an effective offer for subscription businesses that want to survey their happiest customers, but you might not hear from unhappy or potential customers.
Coupons and discounts are a great option for existing customers. However, they offer little incentive for people who aren’t planning to buy more from you.
Point systems work well if you want to capture multiple survey responses from the same people. As they respond to surveys, they earn points they can spend on rewards of their choosing when they hit the minimum redemption amount. This approach can reduce overall incentive costs, but might have higher administration costs.
Survey incentive ideas
Now that you’ve explored the landscape of potential incentive offerings, you may be wondering: how do I choose the right one for my survey project? Here are some survey incentive ideas based on common research goals.
More targeted audiences
Different types of incentives attract different kinds of participants. Starbucks gift cards will attract more coffee drinkers than non-caffeinated people. Maybelline will attract women interested in makeup, but perhaps not many men. Know who your target respondents are and what motivates them so you don’t waste your budget on gathering irrelevant data from the wrong audience.
More detailed feedback
When you want qualitative data, one-word answers don’t cut it. How do you inspire more detail from people with busy lives? Consider tying the amount of your incentive to response quality. Tiered or performance-based incentives are challenging to set up and communicate to participants, but with the right formula, you can inspire more thoughtful answers.
Faster turnaround times
The most agile businesses have mastered the art of getting feedback quickly. If you’re looking for faster results, consider timeboxing incentives to create a sense of urgency. For example, you could offer larger incentives (or top-tier incentives) to the first 50 respondents.
Tight survey budgets
If you’re on a tight budget, shelling out gift cards or cash to every participant can get expensive fast. Consider micro-rewards ($5 or less) or a points system that allows participants to work up to larger rewards by taking more surveys.
Examples of survey incentives in action
Every survey is different. An academic study has very different goals from a customer feedback survey. A healthcare study may affect life-changing quality of care, while an employee survey could impact an entire company. There’s no single incentive strategy that works for every use case and audience, but here are some survey incentive examples from Tremendous customers that saw success.
Atlassian recruits thousands of user experience and market research participants globally each year with payouts of $100.
A top-20 research university sent over $1 million to more than 31,000 people in 43 countries with an average payout of $68.42.
Lyssna used incentives to gather thousands of insights directly from customers and prospects that have informed their most impactful product launches, brand decisions, and feature releases — all for less than $100K.
CCR recruits more than 8,000 research participants annually with an average payout of $66.17.
Impact of incentives on data quality
Survey incentives have complex effects on data. Many researchers fear that incentives attract people who just want a payout and don’t care about giving quality responses, encouraging half-hearted participation, less-engaged answers, and even flat-out lies. Additionally, people who wouldn’t otherwise respond might be less familiar with the survey topic and provide fewer or lower-quality answers.
You can mitigate many data quality issues with screener surveys, attention checks during the survey, and scrubbing low-quality responses before data analysis. Incentive fraud detection tools can also help flag suspicious participants and block payouts before they’re sent.
However, some research indicates that incentives can instead increase data quality, generating a sense of gratitude or obligation that encourages more genuine responses, even in the face of sensitive topics like smoking habits or motherhood. The greater the incentive, the more effort participants put into providing in-depth feedback.
The difference seems to lie in the timing. Gallup research shows that small prepaid incentives lower overall survey costs by significantly increasing response rates. In short, prepaid incentives more than pay for themselves. However, communication is key. Tell participants the incentive is a thank you for considering the survey, not as compensation for their time.
Legal implications of offering incentives
If you’re planning to implement incentives for survey participation, there’s one more hurdle to consider: how do we comply with tax and other legal requirements? If you have any doubts, you should consult a legal professional or your compliance team.
Here are some ways survey incentives can impact your company legally:
Taxes. You must report annual payouts of $600 or more to the IRS, and your business may need to withhold appropriate taxes.
Sweepstakes. Many state and federal laws regulate sweepstakes. Generally, a sweepstakes must be based on chance (not skill or a purchase) and have static, clearly communicated rules.
Communications. Some jurisdictions limit marketing and other communications. You may need to follow rules about how you contact potential participants and whether you need opt-in permission.
Data and confidentiality. If you collect personally identifying information as part of your survey or incentive payout process, you may be subject to data security and confidentiality laws. Consider whether HIPAA (for healthcare) or GDPR (in the European Union) regulations apply to your project.
Gifts in regulated industries. In some industries such as government, financial services, media, and pharmaceutical development, gifts can be viewed as kickbacks or a conflict of interest for people who. To avoid issues, treat your survey incentives as professional compensation instead of a discretionary thank-you gift, and stick to typical market amounts to reduce the risk that regulators will label your incentives as gifts.
Finding your survey incentive match
Survey incentives can boost response rates. But how much — and how they affect data quality — depends on the type of incentives and your goals. Carefully choose your incentives and how you present them to participants to avoid introducing bias or missing the insights you need. The good news is that there are so many incentive options. With a bit of strategy, you can find survey incentive ideas that match your goals.
