Using the Audience Quotas applet (r9)

The Audience Quotas applet is where users can manage quotas that involve a combination of targets, percentages, and variance. Although audience quotas are imagined to work best with quotas used in representative sampling, any quota could potentially be managed here. Quotas that appear here must be programmed with the audience sheet tag and reference an audience sheet.

The Audience Quotas applet can be found within the Field > Quotas group in the left navigation menu.

Quotas vs. Audience Quotas 

The Quotas applet is intended for controlling quotas with a fixed target number, e.g., 100, for each quota group option. The software will only consider this number when deciding if a quota has been met. However, quotas in the Audience Quotas applet are controlled by a calculated maximum quota. Here, the user inputs a total target number, and the software automatically assigns percentages to each quota group option, distributing the total target N accordingly across the quota groups. The software will consider both the quota's target and the permitted variance when determining if a quota has been met or not.

Overview

Each quota is represented by a table, and each row represents a different quota bucket (group). Individual quota buckets change colors depending on the progress being made against their targets. Cells that are editable are highlighted in light blue.

Search filters 

The Audience Quotas applet includes filters for viewing and searching. Users may keyword search for specific quotas via the Quick search field, or use the dropdown menus to search for quotas by audience type or quota name.

The Quick search field allows users to search for quotas based on their names or descriptions; the quota bucket text is not searchable. To clear the search filter, erase the entered text or click on the 'X' icon.

The Audience dropdown displays the available audience groups for the survey. It's directly linked to how audience quotas are programmed and categorized with the audience type tag. If no audience types are assigned, this dropdown menu won't appear in the toolbar.

The Fields dropdown displays the available quotas and lists them by their ID (name). The quotas are displayed in the order they are programmed.

Users may select one or more options from a dropdown menu, and also combine these with the Quick search field if needed.

Bucket colors

All buckets start off without coloring. When certain percentage milestones are reached, they change colors. Percents are rounded to the nearest 0.01%. The colors and their corresponding percentage ranges are shown below.

Setting quota caps

Audience quotas are designed differently than the quotas hosted in the main Quotas applet. These quotas are allowed to surpass the N displayed for a quota target if there is a value greater than 0% entered in the Variance column. The quota will be considered "full" when the number displayed in the Calculated Quotas column is reached.

Moreover, the total target N and variance set in the Audience quotas row applies to all quotas displayed on the screen. While the variance can be adjusted for each quota option, the target N cannot.

N

To set or alter the N (total target), click into the first cell in the N column. Next, enter your new maximum target. The software will look up the audience sheet associated with each quota using the audience sheet tag in the survey. Then, it will automatically fill in the percentages assigned to each quota bucket, distributing the total target N accordingly across the quota groups.

You can enter numbers with the keyboard or use your mouse/trackpad's scrolling action to increase or decrease the number. Click outside the cell to save the new maximum. The quota bucket's row may change color to reflect its percent completion towards the cap.

Variance

Variance is an important part of representative sampling methodologies — the lower the variance, the more precise the data should be. Variance also helps researchers be more efficient and optimize their sampling strategy.

The Variance column defaults to 0%, with no percentages shown in the column. To set or alter the permitted variance for a quota, click into the first cell in the Variance column. Then, enter your new variance, and the cells for all quota buckets will be filled with the same value.

You can also manually adjust an individual cell if needed without affecting the other quota groups. A quota group's N and permitted variance will give you the calculated quota target.

Viewing the history log

To view an action log for the quotas, click the History button on the right side of the action toolbar.

All quota modifications are displayed in reverse chronological order, with the following information displayed.

If there are more changes than what can appear on screen, page numbers will appear at the bottom right of the screen. You can click the page numbers to navigate forwards and backwards. All columns can be adjusted in width, and the Change Date & Time, Quota Field, Quota Group, and User columns can be sorted by clicking on the column's header. Click Browse Audience Quotas to return to the main view at any time.