What Are Waves?

Waves allow you to create a series of linked studies (or "waves") that target the same pool of participants. Each wave can have its own schedule, survey link, and compensation structure, and participants who completed prior waves are automatically invited to subsequent ones.

This feature eliminates the need to manually manage participant lists and set up follow-up studies, and simplifies the process of longitudinal research.

• Participant Consistency: Automatically invite participants from earlier waves to ensure data continuity.
• Scheduling Flexibility: Set specific dates and times for each wave’s launch.
• Customized Follow-Ups: Tailor compensation, survey links, and messages for each wave based on study needs.
• Effortless Management: Track participant progress across all waves in one place. 

How to Set Up Waves

1. Create the Study

• Log into your Connect account and click Create Project.
• Select Waves as the template.
• You will go through set up.

2. Setup your Waves

You will be prompted to go through the usual study set up and input required info for the initial study.

In the Cost section, you will be prompted to input the number of participants you'd like to get that complete ALL waves. 

After setting up the initial study:

• Click the Waves tab in the menu.
• Fill out the number of waves you will have, frequency of the waves launches, and other scheduling settings like when the first wave launches and eligibility criteria.
• Configure each wave.

• Click the Configure button next to the first wave. Wave 1 is the initial study that you likely set up in the beginning but can edit here as well. You will be prompted to set up the wave's basic info, project link, cost, completion method, and timeframe for scheduling.

• For any other waves, repeat the above step and configure all study settings. For waves other than the first wave, you are able to set the eligibility criteria which determines what participants you allow to take this wave. 

   

   

• After configuring all waves, we will determine the initial number of participants based on our recommended approach. This recommendation considers the timing between waves and the final N size you aim to achieve. This starting N size can be edited to something you prefer.   

3. Add Participant Targeting and/or Configure Completion Branches (optional)

You can select to target certain demographics. Please follow this article here which goes over how to do this. Completion Branches lets you redirect participants midway through your initial survey for demographic screening, failed attention check questions, or partial completes for leaving the survey early. To learn more about Completion Branches please see this article here. 

By default, Waves studies use prior wave participation to determine who qualifies for future waves. A participant must have completed an earlier wave in the series to be eligible for the next one.
With the new inclusion override setting, you can remove this restriction entirely. When enabled, participants do not need to have taken any previous wave to qualify for subsequent ones — you can include anyone who meets your current wave's criteria, regardless of their history with the study.

Within the configuration of each Wave we have the "Add Overrides" button to select. This allows a platform targeting section to pop up for you to include all of their IDs or the specific participant group again. This pop-up appears after you select the "Configure" button or the follow-ups (Waves after Wave 1).

4. Review and Save

• Review the setup details for the study and each wave.
• In the pricing section, you’ll find a detailed breakdown of costs for all waves combined as well as each individual wave.

5. Launch 

Find the study on your dashboard and hit "...", then "Launch Series". This will launch the entire Waves series based on scheduling and your timing settings. 

6. Track Progress

• Locate the waves study on your dashboard. You can view:
  • Scheduled waves in the series.

• Completion per wave.

• Detailed participant record.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can I link waves with different questionnaires?

Yes, when setting up each wave you can configure them to have different survey links. You will need to make sure you are collecting Connect IDs across each wave's survey in order to match up responses and track participant progress. 

What if I need to modify the setup after creating Waves?

You can edit the waves by clicking "..." and then "Edit Series". Navigate to the Waves section to update any specific waves. 

To pause the waves select "Pause Series". 

*Note: You can only make edits to Waves that have NOT been launched. 

How do I pilot a Waves study? 

Within each Waves configuration, under the Basic Information section you can input the number of participants you would like to pilot with.

Piloting is NOT required so if you would like to launch waves without a pilot, simply leave this field blank. 

What if I need to more participants to a completed Wave?

Once a wave is launched and the scheduled launch time has passed, it cannot be reopened or have additional participants added. If you wish to collect responses from more unique participants, you will need to create a new wave series.

How can I specify the Connect IDs to include in the future Waves? 

Waves only supports including all participants from previous Waves in a series. The current functionality does not support platform targeting — such as adding a participant group or pasting Connect IDs to select a subset of past participants for a follow-up Wave.

If you need to include only a subset of prior participants, please refer to our manual longitudinal study setup here, which supports platform targeting for participant selection.