Interview smarter: use our screener survey template to choose the right participants

User interviews can be goldmines for product insight—but only if you're speaking to the right participants. A great conversation with the wrong person can lead you in the wrong direction. That’s where a screener survey comes in. It helps you qualify participants upfront, so you’re not wasting time—or resources—on interviews that won’t move the needle.

Contentsquare’s free screener survey template gives you a structured and repeatable way to identify the right users for your research. It helps you filter by behavior, needs, and demographics—so you’re not just guessing who fits. 

Whether you're testing a prototype, exploring new features, or digging into pain points, this template ensures you're speaking to the users who matter most. And when you get your participant list right, every interview becomes sharper, more focused, and ultimately more useful.

When should you use a screener survey?

A screener survey is useful whenever you want to conduct user research using methods like interviews or usability testing. Since the survey asks questions about a person’s demographics and psychographics, you can find precisely the participants you need.  

Screening surveys help you:

• Find users who match your target audience

• Gather demographic information stress-free

• Exclude participants who don’t fit your goals

• Lay the groundwork for more focused conversations

What’s in a screener survey template?

Our screener survey template is pre-populated with questions that help you learn about a person, like age, income level, experience with your product, and impression of your brand. The template is fully customizable, though, so you can easily add or delete questions.

💡Pro tip: Contentsquare’s Surveys tool lets you fully customize your surveys to make them your own. You can:

• Tweak each question in the template or add your own

• Change the color scheme (more colors available on our growth plan)

• Pick between full-screen, pop-up, or external link surveys

Choose the perfect type of survey that best fits your needs with Contentsquare’s Surveys tool

How to use what you learn in a screener survey

The results from your participant screening survey have immediate and long-range benefits. If you need participants for a test soon, you can use survey responses to find users to contact. If someone isn’t a fit now, you can use answers to create a bank of interested participants for future research. 

💡Pro tip: use screener surveys before leveraging Contentsquare’s Interviews and User Tests tools to pinpoint the right audience for your research. This ensures you gather precise insights from users who truly match your target criteria.

Contentsquare’s Interviews and User Tests tools in action

Set up the screener survey in seconds

Getting started with Contentsquare’s screener survey is fast and easy. 

1. Navigate to Surveys in Contentsquare from the left-hand menu

2. Click ‘New Survey’ in the upper-right corner

3. Choose to start from scratch or use one of 40+ templates—like the screener template—then customize it as needed

Once set up, your survey is ready to send to customers and start gathering valuable insights.

📌 Reminder: ensure the Contentsquare tag is installed on your site. This tracking code will allow you to host the survey live on your site rather than via an external URL. This might be useful if you want to show the screener survey to users on a certain page. It’ll also mean you’ll be able to access all of Contentsquare’s existing features.

Don’t worry, installing the tag won’t slow down your website. And it doesn’t cost you anything (our free plans are free forever). To set up your full Contentsquare account and install the tag, follow these steps, or simply use the Contentsquare and Google Tag Manager integration.

An example of a Contentsquare screener survey

FAQs about the screener template