Choosing a platform on Positly
When you set up a run on Positly, you’ll be asked to select a platform. For most countries, only one platform is available. However, some countries allow a choice between two platforms. Whether or not you have to choose, read ahead to learn more about how these platforms work.
What are platforms?
Platforms are essentially where Positly’s participants are. Participants sign up to complete activities and take surveys on a wide range of websites and apps. When researchers publish an activity on Positly, Positly sends that activity to these platforms to distribute them on the services participants use. We work together to connect with participants around the world.
What are the differences between platforms?
Currently, Positly offers two platforms: Microtaskers and Panel Participants. For most activities, these function similarly, but there are some key differences.
Microtaskers
Positly’s Microtasker platform publishes activities to popular microtasking services. Microtasking refers to the act of completing small activities for pay.
On the Microtasker only, researchers are able to:
- Send messages, bonus payments, and follow-up activities directly to participants through Positly
- Set custom payment amounts
- Allow the same participant to join an activity multiple times
- Target or exclude participants who have completed other runs within the same project
- Add custom attributes (manually or dynamically) to specific participants to target or exclude them in future activities
- Publish extended-duration activities (on the Panel Participant platforms, limits are based on country but are usually between 30 to 60 minutes)
Our Microtasker platform is only available in a few countries, including the U.S.
Panel Participants
Positly’s Panel Participant platform publishes activities to a wide range of websites and apps around the world.
On this platform only, researchers are able to:
- Reach participants in over 130 countries
- Access a wide range of questions to customize their participant pool (filters are available on both platforms, but the range is much larger on the Panel Participants platform)
- Choose to target a sample that is nationally representative by age and gender using a census quota
- Add custom quotas to control what percent of participants have different demographic attributes
Important notes about the Panel Participant platform:
- On the Panel Participant platform, all participants have unique, anonymous IDs. This means that researchers are not able to send messages, bonus payments, or follow-up activities directly through Positly. However, the same participant will still be prevented from completing an activity multiple times.
- Pricing on this platform works in tiers based on duration. Researchers may notice that on the Panel Participant platform, a 20-minute study is priced the same as a 15-minute study. This is different from the Microtasker platform.
What’s the same across both platforms?
Most of Positly’s features are available on both platforms. These include:
- Demographic filters that can be used to limit participant pools
- Positly’s rigorous and varied quality checks and spam filters
- Positly’s automatic monitoring to predict and prevent issues
- Add screening questions and a Screen-Out Link to your activities
If you have any questions about our platforms, please don’t hesitate to reach us at hi@positly.com!
(Oh, and just in case you’re more of a visual learner, explore the checklist below).
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