> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.sprig.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Delivering Surveys using Sprig Panels

Recruit new respondents using Sprig's built-in panel solution. Build a Survey, specify the characteristics of the audience you need to reach, understand costs immediately, launch and collect high-quality responses quickly.

## **Overview**

Sprig Panels let you recruit verified, screened participants from a curated research panel and deliver your survey directly to them. This is useful when you want to:

* Reach people outside your existing user base
* Test concepts or ideas with a fresh audience
* Understand brand perception from non-customers
* Avoid over-surveying your own users

<Note>
  **Note:** Sprig Panels is available to **Enterprise teams** on **Surveys (link surveys) only**. If your team doesn't have Panels enabled, reach out to your dedicated Customer Success team or [<u>sales@sprig.com</u>](mailto:sales@sprig.com) for more information on how to enable it.
</Note>

### **Accessing Panels**

Panels require credits, which are purchased annually through your Sprig Sales or Customer Success contact. Once you’ve purchased credits you’ll be able to access the Panels functionality inside Surveys. If you need more credits during the year you can always purchase more. 

# **Creating a Panel**

Panels are created within a Survey (i.e. link survey, previously known as a Long-Form survey). You can add a panel to a new or existing survey.

#### **To create a panel:**

1. Navigate to a new or existing Survey and click **Edit**.
2. Go to the **Audience** tab.
3. Toggle **Sprig Panel** on. Note: Sprig Panel and Email distribution cannot both be active on the same survey at this time.
4. A **Panels** tab will appear in the survey builder. Click **Next** at the bottom of the Audience tab to proceed to this tab.
5. Click **Create New Panel** and fill in the required fields.
6. Save as a draft and return later, or continue to configure recruitment criteria.

Draft panels launch automatically when you launch the survey. 

<Note>
  **Note:** Surveys with a panel must include a **Consent / Legal** question. Sprig enforces this requirement to ensure proper participant consent is in place before collecting responses.
</Note>

## **Required Panel Information**

When creating a panel, you'll provide:

* **Panel Name (Public):** visible to participants, so make it clear and descriptive.
* **Panel Description (Public)**: shown to participants before they decide to take part. This description can be up to 5,000 characters.
* **Number of participants**: the total number of completed responses you need.
* **Survey length**: your estimated completion time in minutes. This helps participants decide if they want to participate and is used in cost calculations for incentives.
* **Credits per completed survey**: Sprig calculates this for you based on your number of participants and survey length. 

Note: You can run **multiple panels on a single survey** to, for example, target different audience segments.

## **Defining Recruitment Criteria**

After filling in the basic panel info, you can define who you want to recruit by adding criteria. There are over 300 available filters, and many categories including:

* Location
* Gender
* Age
* Employment Status
* Industry
* Job Title
* Company Size
* Household Income
* Education

As you make selections and save, Sprig shows you a live count of how many participants match your criteria and updates the estimated total cost.

### **Adding Quotas and Screener Questions**

If you need more precise targeting than the filters provide, you can add screener questions directly in the survey by using Sprig’s built-in quota criteria. Screener questions act as in-survey filters, and participants who don't qualify are "screened out" and not shown the full survey.

When using screeners:

* Always set your panel recruitment criteria first. Criteria determine who sees the study; screeners further qualify within that pool.
* Set **Screen-out slots** to define how many screened-out participants you'll allow. This field CAN be updated as needed, even after the panel and survey are launched.
* Make sure your quotas don't conflict with the panel filter criteria you've already set.
* Screened-out participants receive a nominal payment, but will not receive the full incentive.

# **Launching a Panel**

1. Save your panel configuration.
2. Preview and test the survey as you normally would.
3. Launch the survey. Any draft panels launch automatically at the same time.

**After launch:**

* You can increase the number of participants or screen-out slots while the panel is running.
* You can add new panels to a live survey at any time.
* You can pause and resume a panel. Panels also pause automatically if the survey is paused.
* You can cancel a panel at any time if you no longer need it to continue.
* **No other edits can be made to a panel after launch.** Plan your criteria and configuration carefully before going live.

<Note>
  **Note: Insufficient credits:** If your team doesn't have enough credits to launch a panel, the survey will still launch but the panel will not. A warning will appear in the UI with a prompt to contact Sales.
</Note>

## **How Participants Experience the Survey**

Once launched, your study becomes available to participants who match your recruitment criteria. Participants see the panel name, description, estimated length, and compensation before deciding to take part.

When a participant chooses to take the survey, it opens in a new tab. After completing it, they're automatically redirected back and their completion is recorded in Sprig, no manual code entry required.

Sprig tracks participant IDs to ensure no one is invited to the same study more than once, even across multiple panels on the same survey.

# **Reviewing Responses**

Responses appear in your survey dashboard as they come in, just like any other survey type.

### **Response Statuses**

| Status                 | What is means                                                                                                         |
| ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Paid                   | A completed panel response; the participant has been paid                                                             |
| Payment Pending        | Panel response received; payment has not been processed yet (payment is automatically sent 48 hours after submission) |
| Excluded from Analysis | User defined setting; response is kept in the system but excluded from the Data tab and response counts               |
| Rejected               | User defined setting; response excluded from analysis and participant is NOT paid                                     |

### **Approving, Rejecting, and Excluding Responses**

Within **48 hours** of a response coming in, you can:

* **Approve** a response: simply by doing nothing. 
* **Reject** a response: if the participant demonstrably did not complete the survey in good faith. Rejection prevents payment to the participant, and the participant is notified. You can undo a rejection if done accidentally.
* Note: rejection is a serious action. Only use it when a respondent has clearly violated the terms of participation. There is a limit to how many responses you can reject per panel.
* **Exclude a response from analysis:** If you want to remove a response from your analysis without rejecting it, use Exclude from Analysis instead. The response is preserved, and the participant will be paid, but the response won't appear in your Data tab or response counts.

<Note>
  **Note:** Panel responses cannot be deleted.
</Note>

## **Tracking Panel Progress**

Monitor panel performance from the **Response** tab of your survey. In the top section you’ll progress against your target number of participants and the number of participants screened-out if the survey includes quotas.

### **Panel States**

| State       | Description                                        |
| ----------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| Draft       | Panel configured but survey not yet launched       |
| In-Progress | Panel is live and actively recruiting participants |
| Paused      | Panel is temporarily stopped                       |
| Completed   | Target number of participants reached              |
| Error       | Something went wrong, contact Sprig Support.       |

## **Monitoring Credit Usage**

Your team's overall panel credit balance and usage can be found in **Settings > Team > Usage**. The panel section shows:

* Total credits purchased for the year
* Credits used to date
* Estimated credits reserved for open (in-progress) panels

The estimated credit usage for each panel is automatically calculated during Panel build, and deducted from your available balance upon launch so you always have an accurate picture of your remaining credits.

To reclaim credits from a panel you no longer need, complete the panel.