SurveyMonkey has launched its Audience product into the Australian market, a market research tool that taps a pool of consumers.

SurveyMonkey has previously made available its online tools for creating surveys for use with existing respondent lists, but this week the US company has launched its Audience product in Australia, which gives access to a pool of respondents. The company says this gives Australian marketers the opportunity to conduct traditional market research through its platforms.

Australia is the first region outside the United States to have access to the full range of SurveyMonkey products, including Audience.

Possible uses include brand awareness, concept testing, product feedback and competitor research. Targeting criteria include gender, age, location, household income, children’s age, technology, industry and education.

The company says that Australian businesses’ insatiable demand for data intelligence prompted the launch into this market.

While not giving exact numbers of consumers recruited, the company says several thousand Australian respondents have signed up to SurveyMonkey Audience since the company opened its Asia Pacific headquarters in Sydney in May.

SurveyMonkey Audience general manager and vice president Brent Chudoba says its fast acquisition and high engagement is growing the Australian pool of respondents. In a unique recruitment model, SurveyMonkey donates 50 cents to a charity of the respondent’s choice for every survey completed. Respondents also go into a draw to win $100.

“By the end of next year we’ll have the largest and highest quality pool of respondents in Australia, just as we do in the US. We think SurveyMonkey Audience will significantly impact the market, allowing researchers to get accurate, useful insight into what Australians think and what they want,” Chudoba says.

“Companies can already use SurveyMonkey to poll their own customer databases. But Audience lets them go a critical step beyond and reach consumers they haven’t yet made contact with. You know your customers like your products and what they want, but what do other Australians think? What do global consumers think? SurveyMonkey Audience will deliver valuable insights to help grow market share,” Chudoba says.

Other SurveyMonkey products newly available in Australian include:

• SurveyMonkey Enterprise: offers advanced analytics and greater control of data comparison to help turn data into decisions,
• Survey Monkey mobile app: on which users can create surveys and monitor results, and
• SurveyMonkey Feedback SDK: collects qualitative feedback during users’ experiences with apps, allowing developers to quickly and simply enhance their products to address customer concerns.