Uploading External Variables

If you have a dataset that contains information about your respondents, for example, their demographic profile, and want to use it for segmentation or to include or exclude certain respondents from analysis, you can easily upload the dataset into Conjointly after response collection.

You must ensure each respondent has a unique variable to be used for matching, such as ID or email address, in order to correctly match the data to each participant. When linking experiments, this is often performed through passing a GET variable when respondents are redirected between surveys.

You are able to upload external variables as either a .csv or .txt file, where each row represents one participant and each column represents one variable to be uploaded. The image below shows an example of external variables, where respondents will be matched using the ID number column as their unique identifier.

To upload external variables to your experiment:

• Open the Insights tab in your survey report.
• Click the Review participants button.
• Click the Upload external data button located at the bottom-left of the screen to prompt the external variable upload wizard.

In the wizard:

1. Drag and drop either a .csv or .txt file containing your external variables.

2. Select the matching variables for both datasets. These values must be identical across both datasets.

3. Wait for the variables to upload. For large datasets, allow a few minutes for the upload to complete.

• You will be able to see the number of matches found and the new variables will be uploaded in the participants list when you reload the page.

Use in segmentation

Once external variables are uploaded, they can be accessed in multiple places. For example, you are able to use the uploaded data points for segmentation of your report within the online dashboard. These segments can then be used with the online simulator.

View in the list of participants

The variables are available within the participants list for your report:

View in Excel output

The external variables are also included within the Excel output of your report, under the Respondents tab:

Include or exclude respondents from the analysis

You can include or exclude respondents from analysis using a special external variable, CONJOINTLY_ACTION (case-sensitive). The field needs to be one of the following values:

• INCLUDE_IN_ANALYSIS
• EXCLUDE_FROM_ANALYSIS
• MARK_AS_LOW_QUALITY (which also excludes from analysis)
• MARK_AS_HIGH_QUALITY (which also includes into analysis)
• RESET_QUALITY (which resets the quality status, but does not do anything about inclusion or exclusion in analysis)

An example is shown below:

Please note that the inclusion or exclusion in analysis will only be applied to participants who are eligible for such actions. For ineligible participants, such as those with early termination or unpaid status, no changes will occur for them.

You are also able to view detailed respondent data and exclude or include completed respondents on the Participants page.