FocusGroup.com / Sago Review

 

URL: FocusGroup.com

A solid survey site with a lot of work regularly available, and the possibility of invitations to more in-depth focus groups and product tests for much bigger money, but has some of the usual problems with lengthy screen-outs and survey partners misrepresenting how long their surveys will take

NATURE OF WORK AND PAYMENT

FocusGroup is a standard "market research" survey site for daily work, but with an added "panel" element that offers the much-more-infrequent shot at an in-depth interview or product test for a much nicer chunk of change. Logging in daily virtually guarantees there will be a lot of smaller-money surveys waiting for you (mostly ranging from about 50 cents to $5 USD in value), and you will be emailed about the more infrequent panel opportunities (which I've seen range from $30 to $360 USD). 

Payment is one of the downsides - the usual assortment of brand name gift cards or a "virtual Visa" only, no PayPal or similar direct cashout option as of this writing. The "points" system is very straightforward, with 1 point equaling 1 cent USD, or 100 per $1. You need a minimum of 1500 points, or $15 in value, to cash out.

SITE HISTORY / LEGITIMACY

FocusGroup/Sago is a fusion of two very long-running and reputable US-based market research companies: Focus Pointe and Schlesinger Research, which rebranded as Sago shortly before the two companies started merging in 2019 (something that seems to have been completed in 2023). 

Both were founded decades ago, both prior to the internet being available in households in fact, and are definitely established and regulated companies. Each has had their own websites in the past that you might have encountered, but they have since been rolled together under the Focusgroups.com brand (though Sago still puts their name on certain aspects of the operation, like the more lucrative panels). 

INTERNATIONAL ACCESS

Access to FocusGroup and Sago is restricted to a short list of countries: USA, UK, Canada, France, Germany and Spain.

However, the company operates a separate survey site called SayMore that is available to a wider range of countries.

STARTING OUT

I signed up with Sago years ago (in the pre-ID and pre-AI era), and was apparently "grandfathered in" to FocusGroups during the merger, so I don't  know if they require that you show or scan ID when signing up, though the current set of signup pages does mention something about it. I haven't earned enough to cash out yet, if/when I ever do I'll update if there's any sort of ID requirement or phone verification. As payment is all gift cards, you won't be doing PayPal verification or bank account linking or anything like that. 

Any signup hinks aside, you simply log in at the main URL and are greeted with a pretty well-designed interface centered on three tabs. The leftmost seems to be market research surveys administered by directly by Sago on behalf of a client, versus the rightmost tab which has similar surveys but that seem to hand you off directly to a third-party partner. I find the rightmost tab tends to pay the least and have the highest chance of a problem arising, but also tends to have shorter surveys and an almost constant supply of work available. In the center is the "online panels" tab, which I assume is only populated when you have a current invitation (which comes by email from Sago). 

One nice benefit is that it seems just about all of their surveys can be taken with a phone or tablet - sites that pay at this level often require that you use a computer. 

PROBLEMS WITH FOCUSGROUP / SAGO

I went through a few initial surveys and made a fairly quick $7, and was impressed with the site to start. Then the problems started.

One is the screen-out process. For the most part this was pretty quick, but it had the occasional one that ran obnoxiously long. There's little for pre-survey filtering information other than the general topic (ex: "automotive" or the helpful "other") and the estimated time of completion, so you really don't know if you're picking something suited to you, and you can expect to get screened out around half the time. 

More of a problem is the "handoff" when you're screened out of a survey. When you complete a survey successfully, it takes you right back to the dashboard with a summary of your points earned, no problems whatsoever. Not so much when you're screened out. Sometimes it railroads you right into another random survey that you didn't choose. Sometimes it asks if you want it to "look for another survey," and when you say no ... it railroads you into a random new survey anyway. 

Another problem with the lack of up-front disclosure is that some surveys spring video or audio recording requirements on you once you're in them. Another is that they get to the middle then suddenly want an obnoxious amount of writing about your in-depth opinions on some minor detail. There is no easy way to quit out of a survey other than keeping the dashboard URL at hand and then re-loading it when one gets too obnoxious (fortunately it seems to let you just freely abandon problem surveys and take another one immediately, though I could see this process being more aggravating on a mobile device). 

One final problem is wildly inaccurate underestimations of the time each survey can be expected to take. Two in a row for me of this type, both supposed to be about 7-9 minutes for just 60 or 70 cents and both still about 30% complete at the 10 minute mark, are what finally sent me packing. The first was one of the worst repetitive "bubble hells" I've ever seen and the second sprung a lengthy and tedious "AI conversation" after it had already taken up 10 minutes with repetitive questions. 

And while the companies both have good histories, a quick scan of internet forums turns up a concerning amount of comments from within the last year or so about slow pays (weeks to months) or even no pays, particularly for the higher-paying stuff. 

FINAL VERDICT - MAY WORK FOR YOU 

FocusGroup may be worth signing up for just for the in-depth Sago panels if nothing else. These are conveniently emailed to you from Sago (rather than the new survey notifications that come from FocusGroup) so you can see at a glance what's worth checking out. Just from skimming through my old emails I see a range of $30 to $360 USD offered for these, though I'm guessing the wholly online or telephone ones are closer to the $30 end and the $100+ end will probably ask you to turn up in person to one of their 16 offices in the US https://sago.com/en/locations/ (or 5 in Europe). 

For the everyday surveys ... it's very hit or miss, and the ones that work well seem to be greatly offset by the ones that waste your time. Standard OK-end survey site, in other words. I think this would work best as a "side thing" for downtime on a spare mobile device, since it seems nearly all the surveys are available on phone/tablet as well as a computer. It certainly seems to have lots of surveys available every day at least.