Multi-country studies

Conducting a multi-country survey presents unique challenges which include language translations, diverse cultures, and country-specific variables. Please see more details about general guidelines about managing a multi-country study here.

In cases where the same survey questions, response choices, and logic are applicable to all the participating countries and you are using an audience panel that can target the audience by country, you may consider creating one master study for all the countries using URL metadata. 

What is URL metadata?

URL metadata essentially allows additional information to be appended to the survey URL. The additional information can encompass various aspects, such as demographic data of your members, specific countries you wish to target in a multi-country research project, etc. 

For example, in the following survey URL https://demo.nexxt.in/p/2362?PSID=[ID]&COUNTRY=CA, anything after "?" are URL metadata, which are split by "&". "PSID=[ID]" is one type of URL metadata that's automatically added to the link by the system to record the IDs, while “COUNTRY=CA” can be another URL metadata added by users to indicate the country.

The use of URL metadata enables us to do a couple of things -

1. To reference extra information in the survey wording that is not part of the survey questions themselves

2. To manage the survey logic or flow based on information beyond what is not collected within the survey questions 

3. To target specific audiences and manage quota groups based on external information

4. To append extra data to the survey data for analysis purposes

5. To help manage complex studies such as multi-country research projects or monadic concept studies

If you want to learn more about the basics of URL metadata, please see more details here. In this article, we are going to show you how to set up a multi-country study using URL metadata. We will start with a typical example and then illustrate how to set it up using the example.

How to set up a multi-country study using URL metadata?

Example

Let's use a simple example - let's say we want to conduct a study in the US and Canada with the following details. 

• The study will be conducted in English for both countries.

• All the questions will be the same for the two countries except for the question about where they live. For this question, we will show the list of US states for the US participants, while showing the Canadian provinces for the Canadian participants.

• We aim to have n=1000 18+ y.o. general population with n=500 for each country.

• We want to have an equal split across 5 age groups in each country. The 5 age groups include 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, and 55+.

• We will be using a third party panel for sample collection.

Key Steps

Step 1: Create the questions shared between the two countries in English as per standard procedures .

Step 2:  Add a Virtual Question for Country using URL meta data. To do this, 

1. Create a Virtual Question named Country

2. Add a variable for Canada, along with the logic. More specifically, choose URL Metadata as the source question, specify COUNTRY as the URL key, and use the logic rule that COUNTRY Equal [text] CA

3. Similarly add another variable for US, along with the logic. More specifically, choose URL Metadata as the source question, specify COUNTRY as the URL key, and use the logic rule that COUNTRY Equal [text] US

Please see more details about how to create Virtual Questions here.

Step 3: Add country specific questions A3 Province CA and A6 State US with pre-conditions based on the Virtual Question Country created in Step 2. More specifically,

• Add a pre-condition to ask A3 Province CA only when Virtual Question Country INCLUDES the variable/option CANADA;

• Add a pre-condition to ask A6 State US only when Virtual Question Country INCLUDES the variable/option US;

Step 4: Add country specific Quota based on the questions Age and Country. To do this, 

1. Create a Virtual Question Age Screener with variables/options including  <18, 18-24 US, 18-24 CA, 25-34 US, 25-34 CA, 35-44 US, 35-44 CA, 45-54 US, 45-54 CA, 55+ US, 55+ CA. E.g. For the variable/option 18-24 US, we can set up the logic that A1 age INCLUDES 18-24 AND COUNTRY INCLUDES US. Similar for other variables/options.

2. Add Age Screener as a Custom Screener to the Audience Page, toggle ON Custom Quota and set up Screening Logic and Quota for each variable/option accordingly.

Please see more details about how to add Quota here.

Step 5: After you have launched the study, please remember to append the URL meta data in the survey link(s) you share with the panel to indicate the country for them to target.

E.g. If the survey link you get for the study is https://demo.nexxt.in/p/2362?src=DYNATA&PSID=[ID], then the link(s) for each country should be as follows where the changes are highlighted in yellow.

• https://demo.nexxt.in/p/2362?src=DYNATA&PSID=[ID]&COUNTRY=CA

• https://demo.nexxt.in/p/2362?src=DYNATA&PSID=[ID]&COUNTRY=US

As this multi-country survey is conducted in one master study, then you will have all the data and results on one dashboard. In the analysis stage, you will also be able to use the Virtual Question Country to create the filters and crosstabs on the dashboard to compare the results by country.