Stephanie’s Global Test Market Review

Stephanie is a twenty-something year old female who has been taking surveys since 2008. She is currently a college student in the San Francisco bay area. In her spare time, she enjoys drawing, painting, and working on her digital photography. She’s also a huge tech-geek and loves playing video games when she gets the free time. Stephanie is always on the lookout for high-paying surveys and those ever-elusive Invoke focus groups.

Global Test Market is a global market research panel that was founded in 1999. They are powered by GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.), which is one of the world’s leading providers of market research serving more than 1400 clients in more than 60 countries. Members can take part in their online surveys to earn MarketPoints, which can then eventually be redeemed for cash.

I’ve been a member of Global Test Market for several years. They are one of my top-earning survey panels and have been for quite some time. I get about 20-30 survey invitations from them a week and qualify for the majority of them. I find their surveys easy to complete and rarely have technical issues. They also sometimes offer product tests, which I really enjoy. I cash out with them once every two months (sometimes once a month if I get a lot of high-paying surveys). Payment is not the fastest, but they are consistent and I’ve never had any issues with receiving their checks.

Getting Started

To join Global Test Market, simply go to the Global Test Market registration page. Fill out all the necessary demographic information and submit it. You are now a member of the panel and should be getting survey invitations soon.

As with any survey panel, make sure you fill out all your profile surveys before taking their regular surveys. Remember to keep those profiles updated so that you’re certain the company will be sending surveys that you qualify for based on your demographics and other information. I update mine at least twice a year. Profile surveys can always be updated by logging into your Global Test Market account and clicking “Update” next to the profile surveys in the Profile Surveys section toward the top of the page. A date is listed beside each survey to help you remember when you last updated it.

Taking Surveys

Survey invitations are sent via email, usually at least a few times a week. The number of survey invitations you get each week will of course vary depending on your demographic information. I usually get around 3-5 survey invitations a day from them.

To take a survey, simply click on the “Start Survey” link in the blue box in the email to take you to the survey in your Internet browser. Emailed survey invitations from Global Test Market include important information like the survey number, the amount you will be rewarded upon completion of the survey, and sometimes the topic of the survey. Your account number and MarketPoints balance is also listed in the upper right hand corner for easy reference.

You can also access surveys by logging into your Global Test Market account and clicking on the survey links listed on your main page under “Current Global Test Market online surveys.” Unfortunately, only the survey number and date it was posted are listed. There is nothing written next to each survey about the reward for completion. Because of this, I strongly recommend just accessing the surveys via emailed invitations. At least you will know how much the survey is worth and won’t be left guessing if it’s just a sweepstakes-only reward. I really wish they would list the reward amount next to each survey on the website, but for whatever reason, they only list it in the email invitations.

You can also take surveys via their Facebook app on Facebook. This is basically the same as taking them on the website, though, so I rarely take them there. There is also a mobile app, but I haven’t had much success with it because I don’t get many surveys on there.

Some surveys only award sweepstakes entries. I rarely participate in those ones, unless they’re very short or lead to a cash-earning opportunity or product test (which, in my experience, has been very rare). They always list the reward offered on their email invitations, so make sure of the reward before you take a survey.

Survey topics are diverse and include entertainment, consumer products, finance, grocery shopping, food and drink products, restaurants, automobiles, and current events. Some will lead you to a product test, as well, but there are usually not many of these. Focus group invitations are very rare, in my experience. I don’t see them nearly as often as I do on other survey panels like Opinion Outpost or Toluna.

Some of their surveys can also be very long (depending on how many MarketPoints the survey is worth), so it is up to you to decide how much time you are willing to spend on one survey. For the most part, though, most of their surveys are fairly short, unless it’s a survey on reviewing a television show or a bunch of commercials.

After completing a survey, you will then be taken to a page where you are thanked for your participation. You are awarded whatever points were promised in the survey invitation for completing the survey at that moment. Therefore, you don’t have to wait forever for points to be credited to your account like some other survey panels out there. If there is another survey available for you to take, you can click on the button that says “Absolutely! Start Another Survey” and begin another survey. The reward for the survey is specified so you know how much the survey will be worth.

Rewards

Your MarketPoints balance is always viewable in the upper-right corner of the home page when you log into your Global Test Market account. It is also viewable in survey invitations emails. Once you reach 1,000 MarketPoints, you can redeem your points for rewards. To redeem your points, simply click on the “Rewards” tab at the top of the Global Test Market page. Then click the orange “Redeem” button. You can then specify the amount you wish to cash out for ($50 or above).

Global Test Market only offers checks for payment, which usually take 4-6 weeks to process. I usually get mine in about a month from the time I redeem my points. I’ve never had any issues with not receiving payment.

If you need to review your survey or rewards history, simply go to the “Rewards” tab at the top of the home page. Click on the “View Recent MarketPoints Activity” link to view your survey history and credited reward points. Also, you can click on “View Redemption History” to view what dates you’ve cashed out on.

Customer Support

The customer service at Global Test Market is generally pretty good. I’ve only had to email them a couple of times over the years I’ve been a member of their panel. If you have a technical problem with a survey, they usually reward you the points you lost for the survey you couldn’t finish. I did have an issue recently where I couldn’t log into my account for several days and they were a bit slow to respond. They did fix the issue, however.

If you need to contact their customer support, simply log into your account and click “Contact Us” at the top of the page to reach them by email.

Conclusion

I highly recommend signing up with Global Test Market if you are new to taking surveys (or even if you’re a survey veteran) since they are one of the top market research companies out there. My experience with them has been consistently good through all my years taking surveys. I get more survey invitations from them that are worthwhile and that I qualify for than any other survey panel. I also really like that you don’t have to wait for a long time for points to get credited. Cashing out can be a bit slow as you have to wait for a check to come in the mail, but I’ve never had any issues with redemption. Try them out and see how well they work for you.