20 market research survey templates and essential question examples

Making big business decisions like launching a new product, updating a legacy service, or modifying your brand presence involves significant investment and substantial risk. To navigate these high-stakes moves, data is essential—yet a surprising gap exists in how organizations gather it. Despite the risks involved, only 23% of survey users currently leverage market research to guide their strategy.

This lack of data-driven insight directly impacts the workforce. More than half of workers (54%) say they are unsure how to get the data they need to do their jobs effectively. This information gap often leads to project delays, missed opportunities, and uninformed decisions that can stall growth.

Market research survey templates are designed to bridge this gap, providing teams with a fast, reliable way to test ideas and understand their target audience. By using a template, you can jumpstart your research with vetted questions and proven methodologies, allowing you to field a study with confidence. 

Whether you are tackling pricing strategy or brand tracking, these templates provide the necessary framework to help you make data-informed decisions that drive better business outcomes.

Below is a list of our expert-certified survey templates broken down by 3 of our top use cases: concept testing, brand research, and customer profiling. Keep in mind that you can always customize the questions to better fit your needs.

Concept testing templates help you compare ideas, messages, visuals, packaging, and pricing before you launch. Each one focuses on a specific decision and includes questions that surface reactions, expectations, and perceived value.

Is your product ready to go live? Before you make it available to the public, see how your target market feels about it with this 10-question Product Testing Survey Template. The feedback will help you identify the right improvements to make on time.

Take the guesswork out of your advertising efforts. This 8-question Ad Testing Survey Template will help you understand how your target audience perceives your ad before you take it public.

Finding the right name for your company or product can be challenging. Hear what consumers have to say as you consider different options with this Name Testing Survey Template.

Before you take a logo to market, you’ll want to see how it resonates with your target audience. Use this Logo Testing Survey Template to test every option.

Know how consumers will react to your messaging in advance. The questions in our Messaging/Claims Testing Survey Template can help you evaluate and verify your claims’ value propositions.

Finding the right packaging for your products is more complicated than you might think. You’ll want to consider its visual appeal, uniqueness, and quality. Use this Package Testing Survey Template to evaluate your products’ packaging.

Find out if consumers in your target market are price sensitive with this 6-question Price Testing Survey Template. You’ll also learn whether or not they’re satisfied with the value of products in your category.

Brand research templates show how people recognize, understand, and choose between brands. They help teams see which brands stand out, how perceptions change over time, and where there’s room to strengthen awareness, preference, or loyalty.

Find out about your brand’s level of awareness with this 10-question Brand Awareness Survey Template. You’ll learn how people discover your brand as well as perceive it.

See how consumers evaluate your brand compared to others in your market. Our Brand Conversion Survey Template will also help you learn what drives people toward a particular brand.

How does your brand make people feel? And how do people distinguish your brand from competitors? Get some answers using our Brand Personality Survey Template.

Design, quality, and price are key purchasing drivers for consumers. Find out which of these factors are more important for your target market with our Brand Performance Survey Template.

Customer profiling templates help teams understand who their typical customers are and how demographics or firmographics relate to behaviors. Many of these questions use standardized frames recommended by the U.S. Census Bureau for demographic categories, which makes it easier to compare results across studies.

Use this quick, 5-question Customer Analysis Survey Template to learn more about your customers, including the types of consumers they target, the competitive nature of their market, and their level of repeat business.

Understanding who your customers are requires a holistic approach. You’ll need to consider their age, gender, and level of education, among other things. This 10-question Customer Demographics Survey Template will help you learn more about your customers.

Are your respondents employed? And if they are, what’s their current occupation? This Employment Survey Template helps you connect the dots between your target market's professional lives and the attitudes or behaviors you're measuring, giving you a clearer picture of how employment status shapes their decisions.

Get to know the types of companies your respondents work at, as well as their specific roles in them, using this 10-question Firmographics Survey Template.

Get to know your client’s target market using this 10-question Target Market Analysis Survey Template. It includes questions about the types of customers they’re targeting, the level of market competition, and the likelihood of repeat business.

Pinpoint the characteristics of your target market using this Target Market Demographics Survey Template. You’ll find out about their age, gender, and where they live, among other things.

Learn how consumers find out about a business in your category and go about making a purchasing decision with this 9-question Shopper Insights Survey Template.

Learn about consumers’ awareness, consideration, and purchasing stages with this comprehensive 17-question Consumer Behavior Survey Template.

Find out your target market’s awareness of different brands, which they prefer, and what ultimately influences their purchasing decisions with this Path to Purchase Survey Template.

Asking the right survey questions is crucial for collecting meaningful and reliable data.

Think of it this way, you wouldn’t ask a customer about their in-store experience if your goal is to improve the user interface of your website.

Don’t get caught in this survey trap. Use these survey question examples to bolster your market survey template.

Market research surveys offer a scalable way to explore ideas, understand customer behavior, and compare segments across markets. They can be fielded online, by phone, by mail, or in person, with each mode affecting speed, cost, and the typical survey length.

Online surveys

Phone surveys

Mail surveys

In-person surveys

Market surveys complement interviews and focus groups by turning individual stories into patterns that are easier to quantify and analyze. Interviews and focus groups add depth and context; surveys help confirm whether those patterns hold true across a broader group. 

If you’re getting ready to do some market research, you might feel overwhelmed about putting together a survey. The quality of the data you glean from market research depends on the quality of the questions you ask your audience, so survey design is crucial.

No need to worry; we’re here to help.

In the next few sections, we’ll introduce you to a range of different market research templates, and we’ll discuss how each can be used to achieve certain goals and gather specific information.

You have a great idea for a product or a unique feature to an existing service, but is the world ready for it?

Before you start doodling concept sketches on napkins, conduct a marketing research survey to discover the designs and features your audience will love. Ask your participants questions such as, “If you are not likely to use our new product, why not?” or, “What would make you more likely to use our new service?”

Our Product Testing Survey Template can help you get started.

Collect age, gender, income, and other demographic data to align your product and marketing strategies with the right audience.

When you understand your target market, you’re in a great position to better understand their needs, and you’ll be able to make better business decisions. There are a variety of different demographic questions you can ask.

To help you brainstorm, check out the questions from our U.S. Demographics Survey Template.

Your brand is constantly evolving. Track how consumers perceive your brand and benchmark against competitors to identify growth opportunities. You can also measure your brand against competitors to see where you stand in the market.

We’ve got several survey templates you can use, including ones on brand loyalty and brand awareness.

Keeping your pulse on your target market helps you understand and prioritize your organization’s needs.

Are attitudes shifting? Do behaviors seem to be changing? Understanding shifting customer attitudes and behaviors so you can adapt and retain your audience.

Get industry-specific trends and consumer expectations to stay ahead of the competition. Get answers to questions like, “When choosing skin care products, which of the following factors matter to you?” or, “Are you a first-time home buyer, or have you purchased a home before?” and you’ll have data you can put to work immediately to fine-tune your service and product offerings.

Using a market research survey template is a great starting point when designing your market research questionnaire, but there’s more to consider if you want truly valuable insights. Keep the following tips in mind to ensure your results are genuinely useful.

While customer feedback is vital for understanding the user experience, it doesn't always reflect the entire market. To get a truly accurate picture, you should include both customers and non-customers; this ensures your results represent the broader category rather than just those already loyal to your brand.

Always keep incidence rates and representativeness in mind during your study. If you need to reach specific niche groups or a balanced national sample, consider using a panel service like SurveyMonkey Audience to find respondents who match your exact criteria.

While multiple-choice questions are excellent for spotting trends, adding a few open-ended questions allows you to capture the "why" behind the numbers. These qualitative insights reveal the nuances of the respondent's experience, uncovering specific examples, unique motivations, and unexpected pain points that pre-defined options might miss.

By giving participants the space to share feedback in their own words, you transform a standard data set into a rich narrative that can spark new ideas and provide a much deeper understanding of your target audience.

Effective market research surveys go beyond general inquiries by soliciting targeted feedback on your specific industry, products, and services.

By asking respondents to weigh your offerings against competing products and alternative services, you can identify exactly where your brand stands in the current landscape. These insights allow you to pinpoint specific areas for improvement, such as feature sets or pricing models, that may not be apparent through internal reviews alone.

Ultimately, this data-driven approach helps you address market gaps and refine your value proposition to better meet the evolving needs of your audience.

To maximize response quality, ensure your market research survey uses clear, straightforward language that any participant can easily understand.

Avoiding industry jargon or overly technical terms prevents confusion and ensures that respondents don't abandon the survey out of frustration.

By stripping away complex phrasing, you create a more accessible experience that allows the respondent's true opinions to shine through without the filter of complicated terminology.

Prioritizing accessibility in your market research survey template ensures that every member of your target audience, including those using assistive technologies, can provide their feedback without barriers.

Market research is the process of gathering and analyzing information about a market so teams can understand customers, competitors, and emerging trends.

This activity helps businesses understand consumer motivations, purchasing habits, and behaviors to inform overall business strategy and decision-making.

Market research surveys give teams a scalable way to collect this feedback in a quantifiable format, enabling them to compare results across segments and over time.

Market research helps teams answer core questions about their customers and markets. These benefits reflect some of the most common reasons teams run market research studies:

Market research provides you with the foundation for understanding your industry, market, consumers, and competitors. Accordingly, the goals that you can achieve through market research are numerous. For example, you can use market research to:

Understanding your target market is fundamental to achieving these business goals. A comprehensive target market analysis can help you identify your ideal customers, understand their needs, and align your products or services accordingly. 

Learn more about how to conduct an effective target market analysis to ensure your business decisions are backed by solid market insights.

Market research works best when teams can move quickly from questions to evidence. SurveyMonkey templates help you do that. Each template provides a research-backed structure you can adapt to your audience, your category, and the decisions you need to make. Whether you’re testing early product ideas, refining pricing, or tracking brand performance, you start with a framework built for comparability and clarity.

As you explore new markets and analyze different segments, use these templates to keep your methods consistent and your insights easier to interpret. When you’re ready to field your study, SurveyMonkey supports reliable data collection so you can focus on understanding what the market is telling you and what to do next.

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