Branded Surveys is a legit paid survey site with a clean user interface and a low minimum withdrawal amount of $5. During our test period for this review, we attempted 48 surveys, completing eight and earning a total of $5.06.
If you’re thinking that sounds like a high disqualification rate, you’re right: we were kicked out of an astonishing 81% of the surveys we attempted after answering the initial screening questions. As a result of all that unpaid time, we ended up earning just $2.20 per hour.
Despite that high disqualification rate, there are some things to like about the platform if you’re interested in making money with paid online research — namely, its never-ending supply of surveys and simple, no-hassle cash-out process.
This Branded Surveys review outlines the pros and cons, covers the key facts you need to know, and details our test results and earnings.
You can also jump directly to our final verdict on Branded Surveys.
- The site has one of the cleanest user interfaces we’ve tested.
- Plenty of surveys are available.
- Offers a wide variety of cash-out options.
- Bonus rewards are available for reaching weekly and monthly milestones.
- Apple and Google Play apps were released in 2023 for easier access on smartphones.
- The disqualification rate is high, which can be frustrating and leads to low pay-per-hour.
- Surveys can’t be sorted by time or payout, and only three survey options are visible at any given time.
- Using this site grants Branded Research permission to share your personally identifiable data with third parties.
Branded Surveys Basics
Branded Surveys is a survey aggregator. It does not conduct its own market research, but instead connects you with surveys from dozens of other market research companies. You’re paid in points that can be redeemed for gift cards, cash or charitable donations; each point is worth 1 cent, so you have to earn 500 points to meet the minimum withdrawal amount of $5.
Five Key Facts About Branded Surveys
- Despite offering seemingly targeted surveys (each survey provides a reason why you were matched with it), I was disqualified from the majority of surveys offered to me.
- The surveys I attempted were worth between 5 cents and $4. Of the eight surveys I successfully completed (not including polls or profile-related surveys), the average payout was 46 cents.
- Some of the surveys I attempted were actually links to third-party sites that asked for personally identifiable information or requested that I sign up for a different survey site altogether.
- The platform utilizes cookies and explicitly states that Branded may share your personally identifiable information without your consent.
- Per the Branded Surveys Terms of Service, minors aged 16 and 17 are allowed to participate with parental approval.
What It’s Like Using Branded Surveys
Branded Surveys has an intuitive and easy-to-navigate site. From the main page (called “My Dashboard”) users can access three different surveys at any given time.
Unfortunately, there is no ability to search or filter available surveys in order to select those that offer the most points or take the least amount of time to complete. That feature is common among paid survey sites, and its omission here makes it harder to optimize your time on the platform.
I attempted 48 surveys and only one timed out. Granted, 81% of those attempts resulted in disqualification, but I’ll take a quick disqualification over sitting and watching a spinner for five minutes on a glitchy page any day.
All of the surveys I qualified for were multiple-choice questionnaires, making them easy to complete. Another tester for The Ways To Wealth was given a wider variety of survey types, including short answers, dragging and dropping items to indicate preferences, rating a list of items on a 1-10 scale, and even completing virtual shopping tasks in a 3D grocery store.
Because the surveys are provided by third parties, the format and difficulty can vary.
Branded Surveys: Our Earnings
I spent 2 hours and 18 minutes over the span of several days testing Branded Surveys. My total earnings were $5.06, amounting to a pretty dismal wage of $2.20 per hour. I paid my son $5 to clean my shower that same weekend and it only took him 45 minutes; I was bested by a 9-year-old.
Of that $5.06, only $3.68 was earned through surveys; the rest was given to me for registering (50 cents), completing profile updates (60 cents), and answering short daily polls (15 cents).
As you only earn the registration bonuses once, and there are likely to be few (if any) additional profile bonuses, my earnings-per-hour would likely decrease further with continued use (unless I put in enough effort to participate in the site’s bonus programs).
A couple of bright points were:
- I was thrown a few pennies here and there for disqualification. In all, this only cost Branded Surveys 13 cents — but it was surprisingly effective at keeping me engaged. Constant disqualifications and “survey full” notices get a bit tedious, so the occasional win (though small they were) kept me coming back for more.
- Every successful survey paid the advertised value, and only one of the surveys I attempted took longer than the advertised time to complete.
Here’s a more detailed overview of my experience:
- Total number of surveys attempted: 42
- Total number of surveys completed: 8
- Disqualification rate: 81%
- Total earnings: $5.06
- Successful surveys: $3.68
- Unsuccessful surveys: $0.13
- Daily polls: $0.15
- Profile updates: $0.60
- Registration bonus: $0.50
- Earnings per hour: $2.20.
Editor’s Note: Click here to see a log (in spreadsheet format) of every survey we attempted on Branded Surveys. We recorded the advertised time to complete, the actual time to complete, the advertised value, the actual points earned and the overall result.
Branded Surveys Bonus Programs
Branded Surveys offers a few different ways to earn extra points.
Premium Surveys
In the “Extra Earning Opportunities” section, there is a “Premium Surveys” option. I could not find a noticeable difference in expected time, point value or success rate when comparing these surveys to the “normal” surveys. The premium surveys may be featured, but I didn’t see any noticeable benefit in focusing my efforts on them.
Branded Elite Program
Branded Elite is the Branded Surveys tiered reward program. Taking surveys throughout the month allows you to move through the available levels. Once you complete two surveys you receive a Bronze rank; 10 surveys turns you Silver; and 25 surveys gets you to Gold.
Great, but what does that actually mean? Well, once you earn your ranking, you gain an opportunity to earn bonus points. The number of extra points you earn depends upon your ranking, as well as the number of surveys that are successfully completed each week.
Here is the Branded Elite chart showing you that I earned a Bronze badge once I successfully completed my second survey.
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to take 12 successful surveys in a single week so I never received my 5% weekly bonus.
Depending on your success rate, the Branded Elite program could provide you the ability to earn up to an extra 30% (assuming you successfully complete 25 or more surveys in a month and then have a week where you successfully complete 30 surveys).
When achieved, these bonuses are added to your “My Points” page on Sundays at 6 p.m. EST for the activity from the previous week.
Leaderboard
If you’re looking for a way to earn even more bonus points, Branded Surveys offers a Leaderboard. If you’re a top point-earner and make it to the top 50 of the day or week, or the top 20 of the month, you will pick up bonus points (50, 200 or 300, respectively).
How many points does it take for you to wind up on the leaderboard? On the day I wrote this article, the top point earner had accumulated over 2,100 points and the person in 50th place had earned a little over 1,000 points.
To score a place on the monthly top 50 list, you would need to average between 980 and 1,430 points per day. I earned at a rate of 220 points per hour during my test, which means I would need to spend 4.5 to 6.5 hours of surveys per day to have a chance at earning the $3 monthly bonus.
Random Winner
For every survey you complete, you receive an entry into a daily, weekly or monthly drawing (separate from the Leaderboard bonuses). Each day, a randomly-selected active user is given 50 bonus points; each week a randomly selected member is awarded 500 bonus points; and each month there is a random 1,000 bonus point winner.
Branded Surveys Referral Program
If you have friends who want to participate, share your user-specific link (found on your dashboard) with them. If your friend makes it to Silver status (see the level overview in the Branded Elite section above), you will earn a 50-point bonus.
Getting Paid
Once you earn 500 points, you’re eligible for payment. Each point is worth 1 cent, so the cash-out level is effectively a $5 minimum. Once you hit this threshold, you will see a “YOU QUALIFY FOR A PAYOUT” note at the top of your dashboard.
To cash out, click on the note at the top of the dashboard or “My Points” on the left navigation menu and then click the “CHOOSE PAYOUT OPTION” button.
Scroll down to see a number of payment options including:
- Cash payout via PayPal or a direct deposit to your bank account (note that bank transfers are called “Branded Pay”).
- Donations (e.g., RED, America SCORES, American Cancer Society, City Year, Clean Water Fund, Code.org, and several others).
- Gift Card (e.g., Amazon, Gap, DoorDash, Apple, Reward Link Preferred, Spotify and many others)
In order to cash out via gift card you must first verify your email address, phone number and address, as shown in the “Pre-Withdrawal Checklist.”
Once you’ve verified your information and selected a payout option, you can move forward with redeeming points.
I chose to receive my $5.06 via Amazon gift card. Upon submitting my cash-out request, Branded Surveys indicated an expected turnaround time of two days. I received an email notification with redemption details in less than 24 hours.
Branded Surveys Alternatives
There are a number of other paid survey and market research sites that are worth considering.
- Survey Junkie is our top survey site recommendation. It has a relatively low disqualification rate, a large inventory of survey opportunities, and during our testing we earned $3.75 per hour (nearly twice as much as with Branded). Learn more in our Survey Junkie review.
- Rakuten Insight is an online survey platform from the operators of the popular Rakuten cash-back app. The site features ultra-short surveys (usually taking about 30 seconds to 1 minute to complete), and we earned a solid $9.62 per hour in our testing. The big drawback with this site is that it has a fairly low number of survey opportunities, limiting your overall earning potential. Learn more in our Rakuten Insight review.
- User Interviews is the best-paying market research platform we’ve ever tested, paying us $55 per hour on average for taking part in online focus groups and feedback sessions. These studies have to be scheduled in advance and they take 30-60 minutes to complete, so the downside is that it requires more planning and commitment than traditional survey sites. Learn more in our User Interviews review.
Branded Surveys FAQ
Branded Surveys is a legit online survey platform. The site is owned and operated by Branded Research, which is based in San Diego. Multiple contributors to The Ways To Wealth tested the site and earned enough money to cash-out, redeeming their points for gift cards without any problems (like needing to contact customer service).
No. Branded Surveys does not have an app for iPhone or Android — survey takers are required to use a web browser. While you can access the site through a mobile browser, be aware that surveys are hosted on third-party sites and may not be optimized for mobile device screens.
Yes. I received a “registration bonus” of 50 cents when I signed up, with no promo code needed.
There’s nothing in Branded Surveys’ Terms of Service to indicate that points expire after a set time, nor is there an inactivity clause that kicks in if you fail to log in for a certain period. However, Branded Surveys does reserve the right to end any part of the program for any of its users at any time.
Branded Pay is what the company calls its bank transfer option. It is not a stand-alone product or service — it’s simply the option to choose when you want a “real money” payout sent to your bank.
The Terms of Service acknowledges that not all Branded Surveys users are located in the United States and indicates that users are responsible for understanding and following the laws of the country where they reside. That said, Branded Surveys users do need to add an address to their file in order to cash-out, and the form fields we were shown were set to accept only United States addresses.
Branded Surveys: Our Final Verdict
The Branded Surveys platform is easy to use and largely glitch-free. The surveys I completed paid fairly well for their relatively short duration. The cash-out process was easy and there were seemingly endless gift card options.
However, I can’t overlook the extremely high number of disqualifications. 81% of the surveys I attempted (not including daily polls or profile updates) were unsuccessful for one reason or another. This high disqualification rate drove down my pay-per-hour to just $2.20.
As with all survey sites, how much you can earn on the platform depends on a combination of your demographics and the market research needs of the site and its partners. Some people may earn more on one site than another, and vice versa.
With that in mind, our view is that Branded Surveys lands in the middle of the pack, offering a pay rate that’s below the best available options but better than many others. Given its ease of use and easy cash-out process, it may be worth checking out if you’ve tried other platforms and are still looking for one that works for you.
Branded Surveys is a scam. I would argue you should have stayed long enough to receive a payout. I got within several points of a payout, having taken almost every survey offered that I qualified for. I skipped one that wanted to track my computer for a year. Then all of a sudden I was blocked from taking any more surveys. I contacted support and I was sent an email saying my answers weren’t “thoughtful.” Total BS. I answered truthfully, deliberately and thoughtfully on every survey I participated in. This was an excuse to cut me off after a week of surveys before they had to pay out. I want to know how often that happens. I suspect it’s very common indeed.
I feel that the system takes the information you provide, only to disqualify you during the last few questions, awarding merely one or two points. This has happened to me repeatedly. In my most recent survey, I was asked to provide 40 minutes of detailed feedback on a department store, only to be disqualified towards the end with just 1 point awarded. It’s simply not worth the hassle.
I successfully cashed out once, but then they blocked me from participating in any further surveys. So, I created another account, but when I attempted to cash out again, my request was rejected and I was blocked.
I’ve been taking Branded Surveys for several weeks and have cashed out once and will again soon.
I generally enjoy taking them. Yes, they can be frustrating, but I’m retired, so I can handle the frustration.
Here is my report from today: I successfully completed 4 surveys. There were 23 surveys that were ‘FULL’. I didn’t qualify for 15 surveys. Also, 4 surveys malfunctioned in one way or another—they simply froze or bumped me out near the end.
One suddenly switched to a foreign language that I do not know! I cashed out with $15.50 and have now built up about $9. I’m certainly not going to get rich doing the surveys, but I do enjoy them.
I was getting rejected so often that I asked support if it was due to my VPN, and they confirmed it was. Now, I turn it off while taking the surveys, and it seems to have helped. They ought to include that in the instructions!
Appreciate the in-depth summary, Dixie. Very interesting point about the VPN!
I have no shred of doubt in my mind that Branded Surveys is a complete scam. I was disqualified in 9 out of 12 attempts to complete a survey. The last one I completed offered “points” for an estimated survey time of 18 to 20 minutes. With thoughtful answers and responses, it took me an hour and a half to complete, then I was “shorted” on the 54 points.
Thank you for sharing your experience, and I’m really sorry to hear about the issues you’ve encountered with Branded Surveys.
It seems like the challenges you faced with the high disqualification rate are not uncommon, as we’ve noted similar issues in our own review.
If you’re open to it, I’d love to hear if you’ve found any survey sites valuable for your demographic. Any others you recommend?