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How to Use Split By in Concept Lab

The Split by feature in Concept Lab lets you segment your concept results by respondent characteristics—built-in audience traits, Virtual Questions (VQs), and survey variables. It's an easy way to compare how different groups respond to each concept without running separate analyses.

In This Article

How It Works

Once your Concept Lab has been loaded with concepts and finished running the comparisons, you can segment your results using the Split by dropdown:

  1. Click the Split by dropdown above your concept attributes on the Stats page.
  2. Select the trait, VQ, or variable you'd like to split by. Concept Lab automatically reloads and displays each concept broken out by the selected segment.

To try a different split, select another option from the dropdown—there's no need to start over. To remove the split entirely, select none.

What You Can Split By

The Split by dropdown can include the following:

  • Audience traits—the demographic and profiling traits available for your survey's country. Geographic traits (such as state, region, or ZIP code) only appear if they've been added as crosstab traits for your survey. [CONFIRM: user-facing name of the setting where crosstab traits are added?] Open-ended traits aren't available.
  • Virtual Questions—Single Choice VQs only. See Using Virtual Questions with Split By below.
  • Survey variables, piping variables, and custom variables defined in your survey.

⚠️ Note: Every Split by option must have between 2 and 20 answer options. A trait, VQ, or variable with only one option—or with 21 or more—won't appear in the dropdown.

Using Virtual Questions with Split By

You can split your Concept Lab results by custom Virtual Questions—for example, a custom generational age range you've defined in your survey. To appear in the Split by dropdown, a VQ must be set to Single Choice and have 2–20 answer options.

How Overlap Affects Single Choice

aytm checks your VQ against the actual response data. If any respondents fall into more than one option, the VQ is automatically switched to Multiple Choice, and Single Choice is greyed out in the VQ editor with a note showing how much overlap was detected (for example, "overlap 4.2% detected").

Because the check uses real responses, a VQ whose options could overlap in theory—but don't in your collected data—stays Single Choice and will appear in Split by.

VQs That Will Appear in Split By

  • Single Choice VQs with 2–20 options where no respondent falls into more than one option—for example, a generational age range (Gen Z / Millennial / Gen X / Boomer).

VQs That Won't Appear in Split By

  • Multiple Choice VQs (even if the options don't overlap)
  • Matrix Single Choice VQs
  • Open Ended VQs
  • Single Choice VQs with only one option, or with 21 or more options

💡 Tip: VQs are listed in the dropdown by their reference code—VQ1, VQ2, and so on—not by their name. If you can't find your VQ by name, check its code in the VQ editor.

Reading Your Split Results

Once a split is applied, each concept's results are broken out into one column per segment. Column headers show the segment code followed by the option text—for example, A1: Definitely yes

To regroup the table, click the swap icon on the split headers. This toggles between two views:

  • Segments nested under concepts—compare how each group responded within a single concept.
  • Concepts nested under segments—compare how all concepts performed within a single group.
swap.png

Troubleshooting

Don't see the Split by dropdown at all?

Split by isn't available when viewing a Concept Lab in an Insights portal or in Report Xpert. Open the Concept Lab from your survey's Stats page instead.

Is the VQ set to Single Choice?

If your VQ is set to Multiple Choice, you can switch it to Single Choice once the overlap between its options is resolved.

  1. Open the VQ editor.
  2. Adjust the answer options so no respondent falls into more than one. When the overlap is gone, Single Choice is no longer greyed out.
  3. Click the Multiple Choice dropdown and select Single Choice.
  4. Click Update visualization.
  5. Refresh the Stats page.

Your VQ should now appear in the Split by dropdown.

Is Single Choice greyed out?

This means some respondents fall into more than one of your VQ's options, based on the collected data. The note next to the option shows how much overlap was detected. Edit the answer options to remove the overlap, and Single Choice will become available.

Does the VQ have between 2 and 20 options?

VQs with 21 or more answer options won't appear in Split by, even when set to Single Choice. Consider combining options into broader groups.

Has the VQ been fully generated?

Make sure the VQ has finished generating before attempting to use it in Concept Lab.

Did you refresh the page?

New VQs—and VQs you've just switched to Single Choice—may not appear in the dropdown right away. Refresh the Stats page to update the Split by menu.

Did your split disappear?

If the VQ or variable behind an active split is deleted, or stops qualifying (for example, it's switched to Multiple Choice or grows past 20 options), the split is removed and the comparison reloads the next time you open the Concept Lab. Fix the VQ or variable, then reselect it from the Split by dropdown.