Why and How to Create a Facebook Survey

In the past, businesses used mediums like newspaper ads, television, and radio to promote their products. However, advancements in digital technology have had a significant impact on marketing strategies. Brands now consider social media an essential channel for connecting with their audience.

Social media is a cost-effective way to get insight into your audiences’ interests. Facebook is leading the charge with its survey feature, providing access into the minds of its 1.79 billion users. 

A survey often sounds boring to many people. However, if brands know how to create engaging surveys, they can gain a tremendous advantage over the competition by hearing directly from their active audiences on Facebook.

Still unsure why a Facebook survey can be an excellent tool to accelerate growth and upgrade your marketing efforts? Don’t worry—this guide will convince you that using surveys on your Facebook Page is one of the best ways to attract customers and figure out how to get inside their heads.

Why Facebook surveys are underrated 

Facebook is a social media juggernaut. Even with the rise of TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media, Facebook still averages 1.79 billion daily active users. Here’s why you should run your surveys on Facebook:

Facebook is the biggest social media platform

With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook offers a huge pool of potential survey respondents. Even better, its surveys boast a high response rate. A Facebook Page enables you to reach new audiences faster than a website or email marketing. When your brand uses survey tools to create questionnaires on your Page, it attracts more fans. More survey participants mean more business.

You can hear unfiltered responses directly from customers

One of the advantages of using Facebook surveys is the invaluable insights they provide about the type of customers your products attract. 

Adding different types of questions to a Facebook survey allows you to acquire a variety of feedback directly from your customers. It’s especially beneficial for startups that are trying to identify their target market. These small businesses can analyze poll answers to identify a customer base that is most likely to buy its products, then create customer personas based on their characteristics and needs.

Collecting data is easy 

Both the poll option or survey link allow you to benefit from Facebook’s targeting capabilities. If you have a specific business audience or consumer base, Facebook surveys provide you with the data you need to reach them. 

Facebook users agree to share somewhat personal information about themselves, including location, age, job titles, interests, likes, and gender to sign up on the platform. This rich data provides digital marketers with an opportunity to send surveys to a very targeted audience. 

It also means that a Facebook survey form can help your brand customize an advertisement to attract new customers. You can use survey data to collect information about your audience and create a Custom Audience. With the Custom Audience, you can create ads specifically targeting survey respondents, who are now a warm audience familiar with your brand. 

How to create an engaging Facebook survey

Facebook has two options for creating a survey. You can create a poll directly on Facebook or use a third-party survey app. With the poll option, you can ask only one question, but the survey app has different options to customize your survey with multiple open-ended questions. Here’s how to create a Facebook survey from scratch:

Start with the Facebook search bar

To create a new survey, enter “survey” in the Facebook search bar and select the Survey option under the “All” tab. This will bring you to the Facebook page of the Survey app.

Select the Use App button on its Facebook page

When you reach the Survey app’s Facebook page, you’ll see a button with the CTA Use App. It will allow you to create a survey.

Give Survey the permissions it needs

Granting the Survey app access to your Facebook profile is an essential step to use it.

Customize the survey questions and answer options

Fill out your survey questions and potential answer choices. You can use the following question types:

• Multiple choice: Respondents choose one option from a list of options
• Checkboxes: Respondents select multiple options from a list of choices
• Drop-down list: Respondents select one item from a list
• Text box: Respondents type in their answer
• Scale of 1 to 5: Respondents rank something from one to five
• Ranking: Respondents rank options in order of their preference
• Image or PDF upload: Respondents upload images or PDFs
• Like button for your Page: Respondents can like your Page from the survey
• Paragraph: Respondents answer using a multi-line text field that offers more space than the Text box option

Preview your survey

Once you’ve filled in the relevant content in the survey questionnaire, preview it before publishing it on a business Facebook Page or your personal Page.

Post the survey on your profile or business Page

Publishing your survey and living it on Facebook is the last step. You can make your survey a unique post and include its URL so people know where to take the survey. You may also send an invitation to individual followers to fill it out. 

Best practices for Facebook surveys

Here are some more tips for creating better Facebook surveys.

Short surveys get more completions

Many people dislike filling out lengthy surveys. Keep the survey concise by using the right methodology of asking questions. While it’s too in-depth to discuss in one post, SurveyMonkey has a great post on how to structure your surveys.

Avoid sounding biased by using a neutral tone

Regardless of the audience you’re trying to target, you must ensure your survey maintains a neutral tone. For example, if you want to create a survey asking people how they feel about your competitors, refrain from being overly negative when asking survey questions about them.

If you want to do something different, create a chatbot survey and invite survey participants to join a conversational exchange of information.

Use a variety of question types

Many people find it easier to fill out Google forms and YouTube surveys because they support different types of survey responses. If you use a variety of question types (e.g. multiple choice, ranking, short answer, etc.), you can improve the response rates for your surveys.

Conclusion

All in all, Facebook surveys are a useful tool for learning more about your audiences and acquiring new contacts. You can even use Facebook ads to expose your survey to more people and capture even more responses. 

One other way to promote your surveys on Facebook is through Facebook Messenger. To learn how ManyChat can help promote your surveys via Facebook Messenger, click the button below to get started!