aytm supplies respondents from over 50 countries and 25 languages. If you plan to field the same survey in multiple countries, you'll need a separate survey for each country. If you plan to field a survey in multiple languages within one country, learn more in Building a Multilingual Panel Survey.

Start by programming your master survey and creating any necessary language clones. Once your survey structure is in place, you can use various on- and off-platform methods to program translations (e.g. translating with a CSV).

Program a Master Survey

Creating an English master version allows us, upon request, to merge your data from other countries into the English version post-fielding. Having an English version also serves as a backup or reference point.

1. Program a master copy of your survey in English, including all question and answer options for all countries (e.g. if certain questions have an additional answer option that only applies to German-speakers, include it here).
2. Preview the survey and proofread to ensure it's ready to be translated.
3. In the Internal Survey Title field, give your survey a standard naming convention like Date | Master English Version | Survey Title (e.g. 2022-12-01 | Master English Version | Ad Concept Test).

Using ISO Country Code Logic for Multi-Country Surveys

When designing surveys for multiple countries where answer sets differ by country (e.g. local retailers or brands) or certain questions aren't relevant to all countries — but you still want to merge the data later — it's important to retain the full answer sets and all questions in every version, keeping them in the same order.

Use ISO country code logic to control which questions or answer options are shown in each country version, using bracket logic like [show if country = "XX" or country = "XX"].

💡 Tip: Country codes automatically populate once you begin typing the bracket logic and define the country variable using [country =.

1. Include the full list of answer options in each country version (e.g. all brands or retailers across markets).
2. Apply country-specific logic to each answer or question using the two-letter ISO country code. For example, apply [show if country = "DE" or country = "ES" or country = "IT" or country = "FR"] to the relevant answers — this will show those answer choices only to respondents in Germany, Spain, Italy, and France.
3. Ensure consistency across all versions to simplify data merging and analysis.

⚠️ Note: All logic should be implemented exclusively within the Survey Editor page. Do not add any logic to the Language columns in the Translation Table or CSV file. The platform will automatically add logic to the Researcher Language column of the Translation Table and into a dedicated Logic column of the CSV.

Make Clones for Each Version of Your Survey

Once the master version has been created, create clones for each additional language.

1. In the Drafts section of your Dashboard, locate the Master English Version and click the settings wheel that appears on hover.
2. Select Clone and click the dropdown to confirm which folder you'd like the draft to appear in.
3. Under Survey Languages, deselect any language you don't want in the cloned survey. This removes both the translation text and its corresponding column(s), with the exception of the researcher language, which is required.
4. Click Clone to create the clone and stay on the Dashboard, or click Clone & Edit to be redirected to the Target Market page.
5. Click the pencil icon to the right of the survey title to rename the cloned survey. aytm recommends renaming with the country name and language (e.g. Spanish/Mexico Version) for easy searchability.

⚠️ Note: aytm recommends cloning a survey only after the master version has been launched or reviewed by aytm. This helps prevent duplicating surveys that may contain unresolved errors.

Select Survey Country and Language for Clones

1. On the Target Market page of your cloned (and re-titled) survey, click the Country dropdown to select the fielding country.
2. Click the Language dropdown to select the fielding language (if multiple languages are available for that country).
3. If selecting a language other than English, click Show me in English to view demographic traits on the Target Market page in English. Respondents will still see trait questions in the selected language.

⚠️ Note: Some countries offer more than one language — learn more about fielding in multiple languages within one country using Multilingual Panel Surveys. If you don't see your desired language, reach out to our support team or your account manager.

View the countries and languages we currently support.

Translations

Now that the core structure of your survey is in place, you're ready to begin translating into additional languages. There are several flexible methods available depending on your workflow and resources.

Choosing Your Translation Workflow

• Skipper Translate: If you have Skipper enabled, you can use it to automatically generate translations directly within the platform. You can then review and refine translations in the language table. Users have the flexibility to let Skipper fully translate the survey, or use Skipper for the initial translation and collaborate with a human translator to review and enhance the final output.
• Working on the Platform: If collaborating with a translator — with or without using Skipper Translate first — you have two ways to share survey content:
  1. On-Platform Collaboration: Invite the translator to access the platform and make edits directly in the Translation table.
  2. Offline Collaboration: Export your survey content and send it to the translator for offline editing via .CSV file. If sending a CSV, advise the translator to only edit column D (the non-English column), never edit logic, and refer to this example CSV.

Translating on Platform

By cloning the Master English version and changing the country/language, you retain the original survey structure while creating an independent survey for each additional language to share with a translator. They can translate the survey directly in the platform but will not be able to change the survey structure.

1. From the Survey Editor, click the Share button to the right of the Quick Preview link.
2. Click Generate next to the Correctors/translators link.
3. Click Copy (or highlight the text and use your keyboard's copy command).
4. Paste this link in a message to your translation team on your preferred communication platform (email, Slack, Teams, etc.).

Once the translation link has been sent, your translator can begin translating within the translation table.

⚠️ Note: If you need translation services, contact your account manager for a quote.

Translating with a .CSV File

When a study is to be fielded in a language other than English and the person or supplier completing the translation is not an aytm user, we recommend using the CSV export feature.

Exporting a CSV from the Translation Table

1. Click the Languages icon in the Survey Editor to open the Translation Table.
2. Select Download CSV.
3. Share the exported English Master CSV file with your translation team. Advise your translator to add translations to column D only — they do not need to include any [bracket logic], just the text translations.

⚠️ Note: Ensure the translator does not delete any rows or columns, and only adds translations to column D.

Uploading a .CSV File

Once the translation is complete and saved to your device:

1. Click the Translation Table icon at the top right of the Survey Editor.
2. Click Upload CSV.
3. Select the correct file from your hard drive — your survey will populate within a few minutes.

Important Notes for CSV Translations

1. Any text in the Reference or Logic columns should remain unaltered. If translated, it will disrupt the survey upload process.
2. Leave the English column completely untouched.
3. Only translate the question text in the non-English column(s) (e.g. Spanish).

Requesting and Working with Merged Surveys

If your surveys have the same structure (same number and order of questions, same number of answer options — as when you cloned the Master English Version), after all surveys have completed fielding, reach out to your account manager with the survey IDs to request a merge.

Once your merged study is complete, you may want to enable Verbatim Skipper Translation to simplify analysis of open-ended responses. This feature automatically translates verbatims into your designated Research Language, making it easier to review and compare responses across programmed survey languages.

The merged survey Results page provides the ability to filter by country (look for source_survey_id in the Filters menu) and/or set up a Virtual Question (VQ) by country.

Want to learn more about translating surveys? Check out our course in Lighthouse Academy!