Effectiveness of incentives and follow-up on increasing survey response rates and participation in field studies

Table 6 Survey sampling cost effectiveness

Sampling protocol			Surveys sent to receive 1 response (n)^a	Surveys sent to recruit 1 participant (n)^a,d	Costs ($)
Follow-up waves (n)	Survey length	Survey incentive	Surveys sent to receive 1 response (n)^a	Surveys sent to recruit 1 participant (n)^a,d	Initial wave	Follow-up wave 1	Follow-up wave 2	Follow-up wave 3	Total per mailed individual	Per response received^a	Total to receive 1 response^b	Recruit 1 participant^b,d
3	Short	$2	4.61	50.7	3.01	0.70	1.01	1.01	5.74	26.44	28.89	317.51
3	Medium	$2	4.88	53.6	3.09	0.70	1.09	1.09	5.96	29.09	31.84	349.88
0	Long	$2	12.20	134.1	3.09	–	–	–	3.09	37.65	39.54	434.48
3	Long	$2	6.13	67.4	3.09	0.70	1.09	1.09	5.96	36.59	39.99	439.50
2	Long	$2	8.33	91.5	3.09	0.70	1.09	–	4.88	40.64	44.01	483.66
0	Long	Gift card	32.26	354.5	1.09	–	–	–	1.09	40.83^c	46.81^c	503.38

Data ordered from most to least cost effective method to receive a single completed survey
^aAssumes 100% delivery rate
^bAssumes 87.6% delivery rate and, if applicable, $0.248 recouped from non-deliverable initial survey waves
^cIncludes a mean gift card cost of $5.67
^dAssumes 9.1% participation rate from completed surveys across all survey mailing rounds, independent of mailing protocol. Does not include cost for actual participation in the field study ($150 or $200)

ISSN: 1471-2288