Here are 4 ways you can source your own participants for your studies. You'll get the participants you need if you try:

Please note, the number of participants is capped at 20,000. If you reach 20,000 participants, your study will be automatically closed.

Our experience running card sorts and tree tests has taught us that banner ads on the website you’re testing are very effective at attracting relevant study participants. If you can, put an ad on your homepage and other frequently visited pages. The ad has to be really prominent, while still following principles of usability. We don't recommend pop ups, but having an animated drop down call box from the top implemented across the whole site is very effective.

Websites with high traffic volume can attract large numbers of respondents quickly in this manner. Sites with lower traffic volume may attract sufficient numbers over a longer period of time.

Newsletters and email mailing lists can be very effective too. Some companies have panels of customers who have agreed to participate in future research and you can recruit from these lists. You may also have your own in-house panel from which you can recruit.

It's best to send invites out in small batches so that you can stop when you have enough and reserve the rest for the next round when you've learned something and want to iterate your study and run it again.

Using your social media channels is great for finding people with similar interests online. If you know where your target audience is, then go there. Are they on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or a specialist forum or blog?

Tweet about your study and send a link to your followers. Include a retweet request at the end of your message, so that when your followers, and your followers-followers, respond to your Tweet your original message is included in their Tweet, helping you reach a wider audience.

Monitor hashtags on Twitter to see if there is an audience or topic relevant to your study. Tweet about your study using these relevant hashtags. Check your competitors' hashtags too.

Aside from simply posting your invitation on your Facebook and LinkedIn pages, you could search for groups that are representative of your audience and invite them to participate. You could also consider buying an ad on Facebook, and writing a compelling invitation that will encourage people to participate.

A participant screener is a separate tool (often a snippet of Javascript code) that you put on your website to intercept visitors for surveying. Tools like Ethnio intercept visitors to your website, screen them based on survey criteria, and send point suitable candidates at your Optimal Workshop study. This is both effective and easy to set up.

We integrate with Ethnio, which you can find out more about here. There are other screening tools you can use as well.

If you’re working to a tight deadline, looking for participants who meet specific criteria or just having a hard time finding people for your study, we can help. We have a participant recruitment service that will help you find participants quickly and easily. Read more about recruiting with Optimal Workshop.