🚫 The Misconception: “Profiling Will Reduce the Cost”

May 13, 2025

One common assumption many clients make is this:

“If you already have profiling data on your panelists, shouldn’t this reduce the cost of my study? After all, you already know who qualifies!”

It sounds logical—but here's the truth:

Incidence rate is the percentage of people from a larger population (or panel) who qualify for your study based on specific criteria.

💡 Think of it like this: You’re conducting a survey for a brand targeting new moms with children under 2 years old in the UAE. You send the survey to 1,000 panelists. Only 100 of them fit your criteria.

👉 Your Incidence Rate is 10%.

1. A lower IR means you’ll need to contact more people to hit your completes.
2. It directly impacts the cost per complete (CPC) and the time needed to close fieldwork.
3. Understanding IR early helps set client expectations and avoid feasibility issues later.

Profiling questions are the pre-collected attributes about each panelist. These can be demographic, behavioral, or even psychographic.

They’re collected during sign-up or panel onboarding—not in the survey itself.

Age, gender, location, Job title, household income, Car ownership, children in the household, Travel habits, media consumption, health conditions all these are kid of profiling question that are collected from each panelist

Profiling questions enables you to Target the right people faster while delivering a Better user experience by inviting only people likely to qualify, reducing survey fatigue and increasing efficiency.

❗ Profiling Improves Efficiency, Not Incidence Difficulty

While profiling helps the panel supplier reach the right people faster, it does not change the complexity of your study’s target audience. If your qualifying criteria are niche or highly specific—like:

1. Car owners who drive a 2021 or newer BMW X5
2. Moms with two kids under age 5 who use a specific baby formula
3. People diagnosed with a rare medical condition

…then the cost will reflect the rarity and effort needed to recruit those respondents—even if profiling helps identify them.

Think of Profiling as a Map, Not a Shortcut, a GPS that tells you where your target and Incidence Rate reflects how far and rare is your destination.

Even with the best GPS in the world, reaching a house on top of a remote mountain still takes time, gas, and effort.

In the same way, Profiling helps the supplier reduce waste (fewer wrong invites).But if your target group is rare, the cost of finding and completing interviews still applies.

Though it doesn’t lower your cost per complete directly, profiling is still a massive advantage:

✅ Faster fieldwork — Suppliers can immediately identify likely respondents.

✅ Higher data quality — Better respondent matches with fewer dropouts.

✅ Lower screen-out rates — Saves everyone time and frustration.

✅ Feasibility confidence — Suppliers can more accurately assess timelines and hit targets.

🧾 In conclusion: Focus on Value, Not Just Cost

When working with online panels, clients benefit most by understanding that profiling supports feasibility, but doesn’t override how difficult your target group is to find. If your audience is hard to find in the real world, they’re still hard to find online. Profiling helps us get there faster, but it doesn’t mean the journey is free.