# Running Your First Research

This guide walks you through generating your first set of synthetic research responses, from choosing an audience to viewing results.

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## Prerequisites

* An existing survey with at least one answerable slide (any type except copy, thank-you, reward, or action).
* Available synthetic submission quota on your plan. See [monthly limits](https://docs.zigpoll.com/synthetic-research/..#monthly-limits) for details.

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## Step 1: Open the Audience tab

Navigate to your survey in the Zigpoll dashboard and click the **Audience** tab. If this is your first time running synthetic research on this survey, you'll see the profile builder.

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## Step 2: Choose an audience template

Select a template from the **Template** dropdown to pre-fill your audience profiles. There are 9 templates available:

* US General Population
* Young Professionals
* Enterprise Decision Makers
* Millennials
* Gen Z
* Gen X
* Baby Boomers
* New Mothers
* Young Men

You can also select **Build from scratch** to start with a blank profile.

{% hint style="info" %}
Templates are starting points — you can edit any profile's name, percentage, or demographic attributes after applying a template.
{% endhint %}

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## Step 3: Configure audience profiles

Each profile represents a demographic segment of your virtual audience. For each profile, you can set:

* **Profile Name** — A label for this segment (e.g., "Young Adults 18-34").
* **Percentage** — What share of total completions this profile gets. All percentages must total 100%.
* **Demographic Attributes** — 10 optional fields (Age Range, Gender, Geography, Role/Occupation, Salary Range, Education, Relationship Status, Family Status, Interests, Hobbies) plus a free-form Custom Attributes field.

Click **Add Profile** to add more segments. When you adjust one profile's percentage, the others automatically redistribute to keep the total at 100%.

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## Step 4: Set research goals and context

Under the **Research Goals** section, you can optionally provide:

* **Research Goal** — Describe what you want to learn (e.g., "Understand customer satisfaction with our checkout flow"). This helps the AI generate more relevant and focused responses.
* **Business Description** — Describe your business or product. If you have a Shopify store or domain connected, this is auto-filled for you. You can edit it at any time.

Both fields are optional, but providing them significantly improves response quality.

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## Step 5: Configure output settings

Under **Output Settings**, configure:

* **Number of Completions** — How many virtual respondents should complete the survey. Enter a number from 1 to 1,000.
* **Response Language** — Choose from 94+ supported languages. Defaults to English.

Review the **Summary** section below to see a breakdown of completions per profile and the total number of slide submissions that will be used from your quota.

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## Step 6: Generate

Click **Generate Audience** to start the process. The AI will begin generating responses for each profile according to your configuration.

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## Step 7: Monitor progress

Once generation starts, you'll see a progress screen with:

* A **progress bar** showing completions out of the total, updated every 3 seconds.
* A **status badge** indicating the current state:

| Status     | Description                                                 |
| ---------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| Generating | Responses are actively being generated                      |
| Completed  | All completions finished successfully                       |
| Incomplete | Generation finished but some completions were not completed |
| Failed     | Generation encountered an error                             |
| Cancelled  | You manually cancelled the generation                       |

You can **cancel** generation at any time. Any completions that already finished will be kept.

{% hint style="info" %}
You'll receive an email notification when generation completes or if it fails.
{% endhint %}

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## Step 8: View results

Once generation finishes, you have three options:

* **View Data** — Opens the standard analytics dashboard where you can see charts, response breakdowns, and AI insights for your synthetic responses.
* **Reset Data** — Permanently deletes all responses, participants, and events for this survey so you can start fresh.
* **Duplicate** — Creates a copy of the survey (without responses) so you can run new research with different audience profiles.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Reset Data** is permanent and cannot be undone. All responses, participants, and events for the survey will be deleted.
{% endhint %}

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## Tips for better results

* **Be specific with profiles** — "Female, 28-34, urban, tech worker" produces more realistic responses than just "Mixed, 18-65."
* **Add business context** — Telling the AI about your industry and products helps it generate responses that feel authentic to your domain.
* **Start small** — Run 10-20 completions first to check quality before scaling up to hundreds.
* **Use research goals** — A clear goal like "understand purchase hesitation" produces more focused responses than leaving it blank.
* **Check your survey logic** — Synthetic respondents follow your branching logic and display rules. Make sure your flows work as intended before generating.

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## Next steps

{% content-ref url="audience-profiles-reference" %}
[audience-profiles-reference](https://docs.zigpoll.com/synthetic-research/audience-profiles-reference)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="../analytics-ai-and-reporting" %}
[analytics-ai-and-reporting](https://docs.zigpoll.com/analytics-ai-and-reporting)
{% endcontent-ref %}