How much does education market research cost?
"How much does market research cost?" and "How much does a market research agency charge?" are two of the questions prospective customers ask. The short answer is: it all depends on the scope of your project. In the education sector, as every client is different and various factors affect the project price, there is no fixed pricing. In this post, I'll explain how market research agencies charge for work. I'll also reveal our transparent pricing model for costing education market research.
What does a market research agency charge?
What a market research agency costs depends on their size. Larger market research agencies may offer "off-the-shelf" pricing but these mean you'll often end up paying for things you don't actually need. For example, your project fee may include an account manager who's not actually involved in the research itself. The agency may also assign you a market researcher who charges a day rate. The problem here is productivity and project scope—if the operation is inefficient or there are delays, you'll end up paying more for their time.
Smaller boutique firms tend to give you bespoke project prices based on your individual needs. You'll typically have an initial chat with the person who'll end up both managing the project and conducting the research. They'll then design a custom quotation with itemised costings for each part of the project. This is how we work at Insightful Research. Our FAQs about working with an education market research company may come in handy if you’re commissioning research for the first time.
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What does education market research cost?
There are many factors that influence what education market research costs, from research design to incentives and software. At Insightful Research, we're transparent about price, and what you are being charged for. Before you choose to work with us, you'll receive a detailed quote with itemised pricing for different components of the project. These are the typical categories you will see on any project quote for a qualitative research project.
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Project management
This typically includes the time required for all the admin and client management you can expect from a market research project. It covers things like regular update meetings and communications (replying to emails etc.). It also includes creating and updating project plans, as well as managing other stakeholders and suppliers. A short and straightforward project might not need more than a few hours PM time. More complex projects, like those with lots of suppliers and participants, naturally require more PM time.
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Research design
Research design is where we figure out exactly how to get the answers you need from your research. This is the first part of the "thinking" behind the research. It covers the time required to design a methodology, think about and design a sample. It also includes writing all the research instruments such as interview guides or question-writing for surveys. Research design costs are higher for more complex projects as more time is needed. For example, if you need different questions for different audience segments it'll take longer to create multiple versions of discussion guides. Our page on education market research methods has more information about different methodology we use.​​
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Recruitment
Recruitment is finding—and convincing—participants to take part. This is where things can get tricky. We've found it's best to charge recruitment costs per-participant. But the amount depends greatly on how easy those people are to find and encourage them to take part in market research. The more difficult they are to find and encourage to take part, the more the recruitment will cost. In the context of education market research, you can expect to pay more for Head Teachers or SLT than you might for a standard classroom teacher. That's because there is a smaller pool of them to start with, and their availability can be more limited.
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Incentives
Incentives are payments offered to research participants to compensate them for their time and expertise—and entice them to take part. Incentive costs depend on how easy it is to get people to take part. If it's difficult, or if you're working with senior participants, the more you can expect to pay. There are also certain markets, such as the USA, where expectations are significantly higher. We always charge an incentive processing fee as a % of the total incentive bill. This covers our time to administer the incentives, any bank charges we may incur and any currency fluctuations if we're working with international participants.
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Moderator costs
In education market research, a moderator typically conducts interviews, focus groups, or online discussions to gather insights and data. You'll generally pay for their time and, as always, the more complex the project, the higher the moderation costs. That's because interviewing 30 students will cost more than moderating one focus group session. They may also need to spend a set amount of time per day keeping participants engaged on online communities.
Experience level is another thing that can affect moderator costs, too. Senior moderators charge higher fees for their expertise as this can have a big impact on the quality of the insights gathered—they’re skilled at getting the best out of participants. At Insightful Research, we often moderate the sessions ourselves as our 12-year experience guarantees you high-quality moderation without the need for costly outsourcing.
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Analysis and report writing
This is the second crucial "thinking" part where we add substantial value to your project. The analysis phase involves spotting patterns, understanding underlying meanings, and transforming participant responses into actionable insights. The time needed varies depending on your project scope. More participants or complex objectives require additional analysis time to ensure we deliver meaningful, practical recommendations that drive your decision-making. After analysing, we'll then create an easy-to-read report with statistics, analysis and recommended actions.
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Translation
If we are conducting research with speakers of other languages, we'll need to pay for translation and/or interpreting services. Even if participants can speak English, you'll usually gain better insights from interviews and focus groups by conducting these in their native language. When needed, we work with professional translators who understand education terminology and context. Translation may be needed both for research materials before fieldwork and participant responses afterward. We had to engage EFL learners in their native language when gathering insights for tech company to decide the next steps for a language learning app.
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Other Costs
There are additional costs you might need to factor in with your education market research project, such as:
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Specialist software. At times, we may need to use specific software for running online surveys and communities.
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Transcripts. We transcribe all interviews and focus groups. Occasionally we may require more advanced software to record sessions with multiple participants.
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Travel expenses. If participants - or the researchers - have to travel from their main place of work or study, we would need to reimburse them for this.
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Venue hire. For face-to-face research, we may need to source and hire appropriate venues which can add to the costs compared to online research.
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Work with Insightful Research
We’re transparent with our costs and you’ll receive a detailed quote with prices broken down into the categories discussed in this post. Of course, to be able to do that we’ll need to know a little bit more about your project. Contact us for a friendly chat and we’ll gladly send you a detailed quotation with transparent costings. Insightful Research is a boutique market research agency with 12+ years specialising in the education sector.
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How can we help?
If you would like to ask our advice, book a
no-obligation 30 minute consultation with us to discuss your research requirements or to simply have a chat and find out more about what we do.
Alternatively, use the briefing form to start discussing a new project, give Jill Elston a call on +44 (0)7703 462179 or email us jill@insightfulresearch.co.uk