If you're trying to get honest feedback from people who actually make business decisions—not just random consumers—you're in the right place. This guide is for marketers, founders, product folks, and anyone who needs to run targeted B2B market research, but doesn't have time to waste on surveys that go nowhere.
SurveyMonkey Audience promises quick access to business respondents, but how well does it work for B2B? Let’s break down the steps, flag the traps to watch for, and help you get real, useful answers.
1. Understand What SurveyMonkey Audience Can (and Can’t) Do
First, let’s get clear-eyed about what SurveyMonkey Audience is. It's a pay-per-response tool that lets you send surveys to people outside your own contacts. You pick your audience by demographic and professional criteria, they answer, you get data.
What it’s good for: - Fast feedback from a defined group (like “US IT managers at mid-size companies”) - Testing messaging, product ideas, or concepts before investing more - Getting beyond your own echo chamber
What it’s not good for: - Super-niche targeting (“CFOs at logistics startups in Ohio with 50-100 employees”)—the panel just isn’t that deep - Long, complicated surveys (people bail fast) - Building relationships with respondents (they’re anonymous, one-off)
Pro tip: If you need to talk to a very specific role or industry, Audience may struggle. Sometimes, you’ll get “business professionals” who are actually consultants, freelancers, or in adjacent roles. Always sanity-check your data.
2. Define Your Target Audience—For Real
This is where most B2B surveys go sideways. “Decision makers” means nothing. Pin down exactly who you want, but also reality-check if the panel can reach them.
Steps: - Write out your ideal respondent as specifically as possible: job role, industry, company size, country. - Check SurveyMonkey’s Audience targeting options. Can you select all those filters, or just some? - Prioritize your must-haves. If you can only pick three traits, which matter most?
Example: - Best you can get: “IT decision makers at US companies with 100–999 employees” - Not possible: “Directors of Data Security at SaaS companies with $10M–$50M ARR in Boston”
Reality check: If you can’t get close enough, consider other tools or supplementing with LinkedIn outreach.
3. Write a Survey That Won’t Make People Rage-quit
B2B folks are busy. If your survey is longer than 10 minutes or asks for confidential info, you’ll get junk data or rushed answers.
Tips for writing B2B-friendly surveys: - Keep it to 10 questions or less, and say how long it’ll take up front. - Make every question count—no filler. - Use plain language. Avoid jargon and internal terms. - Give clear answer choices, especially for technical questions. - Never ask for names, emails, or anything that breaks anonymity (the panel won’t allow it anyway).
Pro tip: Pilot your survey with a colleague first. If they roll their eyes, so will your respondents.
4. Set Up Your Audience Targeting
Inside SurveyMonkey Audience, you’ll pick your targeting options. The main filters for B2B are:
- Job Title/Function: e.g., IT, HR, Finance
- Industry: e.g., Healthcare, Manufacturing, Tech
- Company Size: e.g., 1–99, 100–999, 1000+
- Geography: Country, sometimes region or state
Reality check: The deeper you go (e.g., “Marketing VPs in biotech, 1000+ employees, in Germany”), the fewer people you’ll reach—and costs go up fast.
- Start broad, then narrow if you get too much noise.
- If you need multiple segments (like “IT” and “Finance”), you can set up multiple audiences or use screening questions.
Ignore: Age and gender filters are usually irrelevant for B2B, unless you have a very specific reason.
5. Use Screening Questions—But Don’t Get Cute
Screeners are your best defense against unqualified respondents. But if you make them too obvious, people just click what they think you want.
How to write a good screener: - Use neutral phrasing; don’t telegraph the “right” answer. - Give all plausible options, not just your target. - Place screeners right at the start.
Example: - Bad: “Are you responsible for purchasing software for your company?” (Obvious what you want) - Better: “Which of the following best describes your involvement in software purchasing?” (Options: final decision, recommend, no involvement, etc.)
SurveyMonkey lets you kick out anyone who doesn’t pick the right option, but be careful—if you get too picky, your survey may never fill.
6. Decide How Many Responses You Actually Need
More isn’t always better. For most B2B surveys, 100–200 decent responses is plenty. If you’re targeting a rare group, even 50 good ones can be useful.
Things to consider: - Each additional filter makes it harder (and more expensive) to get responses. - SurveyMonkey will give you a price per completed response—costs add up fast, especially for C-level roles.
Pro tip: Start with a small batch (say, 50) to check data quality. If it looks good, order more.
7. Launch, Monitor, and Sanity-Check
Once you launch, SurveyMonkey handles the grunt work of collecting responses. But don’t assume you’re done.
While your survey runs: - Check response quality. Are people giving thoughtful answers, or racing through? - Look for patterns—if everyone picks “Other” or gives nonsense in open text, something’s off. - Be ready to pause or tweak if you spot junk data.
What to ignore: Don’t get hung up on pretty dashboards or word clouds. Focus on the raw data and what it actually tells you.
8. Clean and Interpret Your Data Like a Skeptic
Not all responses are created equal. B2B panels sometimes include folks who aren’t as “senior” as they claim, or who speed through for the incentive.
Tips: - Filter out nonsense (e.g., “asdf” in open text). - Cross-check: Does their job title match their answers? - Look for inconsistent responses and weed them out. - Don’t over-interpret small differences—panels aren’t perfect.
If you see weird spikes or obviously fake answers, flag them to SurveyMonkey support. Sometimes they’ll refund bad responses.
9. Use the Results—But Don’t Treat Them as Gospel
SurveyMonkey Audience gives you directional feedback, not the absolute truth. Use it to: - Spot big red flags or surprising patterns - Test if your messaging lands (or flops) - Decide what to dig into next
But don’t: - Make million-dollar bets on one survey - Assume the panel is a perfect mirror of your actual buyers
Pro tip: Use Audience results to shape follow-up interviews or deeper research.
Quick FAQ
Q: Can I get C-level execs only?
A: Sort of. You can target by job level, but C-suite folks are rare on panels. Expect to get managers and directors too.
Q: Is the data reliable?
A: It’s decent for big-picture trends and early signals. For sensitive or high-stakes questions, supplement with your own outreach.
Q: How fast are responses?
A: For common targets, you can get 100 responses in a day or two. For niche roles, it may take a week or never fill at all.
Keep It Simple—And Iterate
Running B2B research through SurveyMonkey Audience isn’t magic, but it beats guessing or relying on your own bubble. Keep your audience realistic, your survey short, and your expectations in check. Start small, learn fast, and use what you find to keep improving. That’s about as close to a shortcut as you’ll get.