Quotas in FC Surveys help you control how many participants meet specific criteria and complete a survey. Whether you're running an external survey, a recruitment screener, or a community activity, quotas let you limit or track respondents by key characteristics.

This article covers what quotas are, the types of quotas, when and how to use them, behavior during data collection, use cases by survey type, and frequently asked questions.

What Are Quotas?

Quotas let you set response limits based on:

• Total survey completes (Overall Quota).

• Answers to specific survey questions or user data (Group/Profile Quota or In-Survey Quota).

You can use quotas to:

• Control how many responses you collect overall.

• Limit participation based on respondent attributes.

• Monitor sample balance during fielding.

Types of Quotas

Overall Quota — Tracks total completes for the entire survey.

You can:

• Stop collecting responses once the limit is hit, or

• Continue collecting responses and tracking overage.

Use Overall Quota when you want to cap the total number of completes for budget, timing, or sample control reasons.

Group/Profile Quota — Limits responses based on a single condition using existing user data (for example, profiling points, demographics, recruitment source, or group membership).

Common examples include:

• Age band or other profiling points

• Gender

• Group membership (for example, a specific panel, community, or segment)

• Recruitment source, if it is stored as a user attribute

Example:

“Limit to 100 completes from members in Group A and 100 completes from members in Group B.”

You can:

• Terminate participants once the Quota is met, or

• Continue collecting and simply monitor the count.

Use Group/Profile Quota when you want to shape the sample using known, pre‑existing attributes in the participant's profile or group membership, rather than their answers in this survey.

In-Survey Quota — Limits responses based on a single condition using answers to questions in this survey.

Common examples include:

• Quotas on brand awareness or consideration

• Quotas on purchase or usage behavior

• Quotas on qualification questions in screeners

Example:

“Limit to 100 respondents who select ‘None of the above’ on Q2.”

You can:

• Terminate participants once the Quota is met, or

• Continue collecting responses and just monitor the count.

Use In-Survey Quota when you want to control completes based on how respondents answer specific survey questions, such as screener criteria or key behavioral/attitudinal questions.

Note: Group/Profile Quota and In-Survey Quota both behave like a "simple" quota: they use a single condition to define who is counted. Overall Quota sets the total cap, while Profile/Group and In-Survey Quotas refine which completes you accept within that total.

How Quotas Work

Quotas in FC Surveys allow you to track and/or limit completes based on:

• Total completes for the survey (Overall Quota)

• Who the participant is, using profile or group data (Group/Profile Quota)

• How the participant answers a question in the survey (In-Survey Quota)

You can use these quota types alone or in combination.

When quotas are checked

• Overall Quota is evaluated at the point of completion.

• Group/Profile Quota is evaluated using stored user data (profiling points, demographics, group membership, recruitment source, etc.).

• In-Survey Quota is evaluated based on participants' answers to specific survey questions.

A quota count is incremented only when a respondent completes the survey and meets the Quota's condition.

What happens when a quota is met

For any quota type, when the limit is reached, you can choose to:

• Stop collecting responses that meet that Quota's condition (for example, terminate with a message), or

• Continue collecting responses and simply monitor the overage for reporting.

If multiple quotas apply to the same respondent (for example, an Overall Quota and a Group/Profile Quota), FC Surveys will:

1. Evaluate whether the respondent meets the condition for any Group/Profile Quota or In-Survey Quota.

2. Check whether those quotas are already at or above their limit.

3. Check whether the Overall Quota is at or above its limit.

If any applicable quota has reached its limit and is configured to stop respondents, the respondent will not be allowed to complete the survey.

Editing quotas during fieldwork

You can adjust Overall Quota, Group/Profile Quota, or In-Survey Quota while fieldwork is in progress. When you update:

• The logic (for example, which question or profile field a quota uses) affects how future completions are evaluated.

• The limits (for example, from 100 to 150) adjust how much additional traffic can be accepted.

Existing completes are not reclassified retroactively; changes apply going forward.

Use Cases by Survey Type

You can apply Overall Quota, Group/Profile Quota, and In-Survey Quota differently depending on the survey type.

External Survey

Use quotas to control completes from external respondents, typically based on answers within the survey.

• Overall Quota

  • Set the total target number of completes from your external sample provider.

• Group/Profile Quota

  • Use this if external respondents are mapped to user attributes (for example, a field that stores provider panel, country, or another profiling point at the user level).

• In-Survey Quota

  • Primary method to control sample composition based on in‑survey answers:

    • Qualification questions

    • Brand awareness or usage

    • Demographic questions that were asked within the survey

Common external survey use cases:

• Limit completes to a specific number while monitoring key answer distributions

• Ensure a minimum number of respondents with specific attitudes or behaviors based on survey answers

Screener Survey

Use quotas to manage who qualifies for downstream activities or panels.

• Overall Quota

  • Limit total qualified completes for the screener (for example, 150 people who make it through all criteria).

• Group/Profile Quota

  • Apply quotas based on existing data if you already know certain attributes about screener participants (for example, a pre‑tagged recruitment source or group).

• In-Survey Quota

  • Use screener questions to control how many people qualify for each segment.

  • Examples:

    • Limit to 50 people who answer "Yes" to "Purchased in the last 3 months."

    • Limit to 100 people who select a specific brand as their primary choice.

Common screener use cases:

• Limit entrants by recruitment source (if stored as user data, use Group/Profile Quota; if captured by a question, use In-Survey Quota).

• Control how many participants qualify for follow‑up research based on their answers.

Community Survey

Use quotas to control the number of completes from specific member groups or profile attributes, and to balance behavior or attitudes measured in the survey.

• Overall Quota

  • Set a global cap on total completes from your community (for example, 400 completes).

• Group/Profile Quota

  • Use profiling points (Age, Gender, Region, Tenure) and group membership to shape your sample.

  • Example:

    • 100 completes from Group A

    • 100 completes from Group B

    • 200 completes from the rest of the community

• In-Survey Quota

  • Use survey responses to control behavioral or attitudinal segments.

  • Example:

    • 75 "Brand A users" and 75 "Brand B users" based on an in‑survey usage question.

Common community survey use cases:

• Balance demographics using profiling points (Group/Profile Quota).

• Cap segment completes using in‑survey behavior or attitudes (In-Survey Quota).

• Apply quotas on P2 or appended data via profiling points (Group/Profile Quota).

Note: Profiling points are available only to community members. In screener or external surveys, use "Survey question" instead.

Quick Mapping: Criteria → Quota Type

Use this mapping when you're deciding which quota type to configure in the Quotas panel:

• If you want to control total completes for the survey → use Overall Quota

• If your condition is based on stored user information (profiling point, Age, Gender, Region, Group, known recruitment source, or any other profile field) → use Group/Profile Quota

• If your condition is based on an answer to a question in this survey (screener logic, behavior, attitudes, or demographics asked in‑survey) → use In-Survey Quota

Tip: Think of it this way—use Overall Quota to cap your total completes, Group/Profile Quota for who the respondent is, and In-Survey Quota for what they say in this survey.

FAQs and Best Practices

Can I edit quotas mid-field?

Yes, but with limitations:

• You can safely change the limit (e.g., increase from 1000 to 1500).

• If you need to change the logic, create a new quota to avoid issues with retroactive counting.

When does a quota increment?

Only when a respondent meets the condition and completes the survey.

Why would I continue collecting responses after reaching a quota?

• You want to monitor data rather than restrict it.

• You're fielding before data cleaning, so you might remove low-quality completes.

• You want to track over‑quota respondents for visibility.

How do disqualification messages work?

• There's a default fallback message in FC Surveys.

• For recruitment and community surveys, disqualification messages can be customized per activity.

• For external surveys, the default message is used unless overridden by the link setup.

Can I filter by Quota in reports?

Not directly. But you can recreate the same logic using filters in Insights Lab.

Do quotas work with AI-designed surveys?

Not yet. AI quota programming is in development and will be supported in future updates.