Branded Surveys Review: Here’s How Much I Earned in 3 Hours

Advertiser Disclosure

Our readers always come first

The content on DollarSprout includes links to our advertising partners. When you read our content and click on one of our partners’ links, and then decide to complete an offer — whether it’s downloading an app, opening an account, or some other action — we may earn a commission from that advertiser, at no extra cost to you.

Our ultimate goal is to educate and inform, not lure you into signing up for certain offers. Compensation from our partners may impact what products we cover and where they appear on the site, but does not have any impact on the objectivity of our reviews or advice.

Branded Surveys offers member-users a way to get paid to share their opinion on products or services. Here's what to know about the popular survey site.

Our mission at DollarSprout is to help readers improve their financial lives, and we regularly partner with companies that share that same vision. If a purchase or signup is made through one of our Partners’ links, we may receive compensation for the referral. Learn more here.

I’ve tested a lot of survey sites.

Some of them I’ve loved, while others have proven too tedious, low-paying, and not worth the time.

I’ve learned that the best survey sites have a few things in common. They’re simple and easy to use, transparent about earnings, and have lots of survey opportunities.

Branded Surveys checks many of those boxes. Plus, they offer a bonus structure, so the more surveys you complete, the more bonus points you can earn.

In this Branded Surveys review, I share the platform’s pros and cons, tips for earning the most, and other helpful insights I’ve gained from using the platform for the past four years.

Key Takeaways

  • Earnings and Points System: Branded Surveys pays users for taking surveys, with most paying between $0.50 and $5.00​​​​.
  • Earnings and Time Frame: Earn $1 for signing up and completing your first survey, and earn an additional $10 to $25 per month by completing a few surveys each day and maintaining a good quality score.
  • Cashout Options: At 500 points users can cash out via PayPal, Branded Pay (direct deposit for U.S. users), or choose from a variety of gift cards. Cash or gift cards arrive within 1 to 3 business days​​​.
  • Market Position: Branded Surveys is well-regarded in the survey-taking community. It has over 50,000 five-star ratings and just 9% of verified users rate the site at 2.0 stars or lower. It’s considered one of the better survey sites due to its ease of use, security, and comparatively higher payouts​​​​.

Pros

 Simple, easy-to-use interface.

 Platform solely focused on survey taking.

 Increased earning rate (Branded Elite).

 Earnings often exceed similar sites.

 Better cashout options than competitors.

 Low minimum cashout threshold.

Cons

 Low hourly rate side hustle.

 Limited survey opportunities at times.

 Suverys are only earning method.

 Users cite cashout issues/ account bans.

Verdict: 4.0 out of 5 stars

  • App Design: 4.0 out of 5 stars
  • Cost: 5.0 out of 5 stars
  • Ease of Use: 4.0 out of 5 stars
  • Rewards: 3.0 out of 5 stars

What Is Branded Surveys?

branded surveys app store listing photo

Formerly MintVine, Branded Surveys is a market research firm that partners with Fortune 500 companies to pay consumers real money for their opinions on new-to-market (or recently revised) products and services. These companies use the feedback for things like marketing, product improvements, and inspiration for entirely new products.

As a Branded Surveys member, you’ll earn points for taking surveys and can redeem those points for cash, gift cards, or a donation to one of your favorite charities.

$1 Sign-Up Bonus
DollarSprout Rating

Branded Surveys pays users for their opinions. Users earn money by taking paid surveys that are redeemable for cash, gift cards, or as a charitable donation. The minimum cash-out threshold is 500 points, or $5. The site offers a 50-point sign-up bonus for creating an account and another 50 points for completing your first profile survey.

How Branded Surveys Works

Like other survey sites, Branded Surveys is simple to use. All you need to do is register for a free account, answer a few demographic questions, and start taking surveys.

There’s no application to complete and no waiting period to find out if you’re accepted into their program.

You get 50 points for creating your account and another 50 after taking your first survey, equal to a total $1 sign-up bonus.

my branded surveys dashboard

Branded Surveys uses their Survey Matching Engine to match you with qualifying surveys.

This helps streamline the process by eliminating the need to search through dozens of options to find one you’re qualified for. Instead, you’re automatically sent surveys that match your profile.

Since I didn’t want to spend any time sifting through opportunities I might not even qualify for, the fact that they do the initial work was a selling point for me.

🔍 Reviewer’s Note: I was pleasantly surprised by how many survey options Branded Surveys had for me.

Your account only shows you three surveys at a time in your “Survey Spotlight”. Each time you take a new survey or update your profile, it refreshes your survey offers.

I’ve run into an issue on several other sites where I take a few surveys and start gaining traction. Then I stop getting new survey offers and never reach enough points to cash out. But with Branded Surveys, I always have surveys available.

Take Surveys

After setting up your account, you can log in to your account dashboard to see the surveys you qualify for. These are listed under “Survey Spotlight.”

You’ll also see the estimated time it’ll take to complete them and how many points you’ll earn, both of which can help you determine if it’s worth it to take the survey.

Keep in mind that the time listed is an estimate. I found that some surveys took significantly less time to complete than what was listed. For example, I earned 39 points for a survey listed at 10 minutes, but it only took me about 2 minutes to complete.

Branded Survey take survey

You’ll find anywhere from one to three survey options as well as “Extra Earning Opportunities” like completing partner surveys, profile questionnaires, and taking the daily poll.

In addition to surveys available through your dashboard, you can also have notifications sent to your email address. You’ll need to respond to all requests rather quickly; surveys can fill up or expire within minutes. However, if you’re able to take these surveys during your downtime, you can earn extra points and move through the tiers within a few weeks.

The only issue with these surveys is they often take quite a while to complete. The offers I received averaged around 20 to 30 minutes. That’s kind of a long time, especially if I wanted to take a few in a day. Since it was more time than I wanted to spend, I tended to not take as many as I could.

🔍 Reviewer’s Note: My survey-taking experience was generally positive. Branded Surveys seems to do a good job of matching you with qualified surveys.

I only had a handful of instances where I started a survey that I didn’t qualify for. Sometimes I still earned 1 to 3 points, but other times I was just redirected back to my dashboard with nothing to show for it. In my experience, that’s to be expected from any survey site.

The lowest-paying survey I took was 5 points (for the daily poll and a short questionnaire), and the highest-paying one I completed was 250 points. Most of the ones I qualified for seemed to fall in the 20 to 50-point range.

Branded Surveys Completed Surveys List

Some of the surveys I actually enjoyed taking. I got one about the type of food I feed my dog (a topic I’m pretty passionate about). For this one, I actually got up from my couch to grab my dog’s canned food from the refrigerator so I could tell them all about the healthy, organic treats I buy for my picky puppy.

Another survey I took was about digital content creation. Very fitting, and something I also have lots of opinions on.

One thing I noticed was that there are “trick” questions in almost every survey to make sure you’re paying attention. If you don’t answer these correctly, or if you’re not consistent with your demographic questions (household income, age, etc.), then you’ll get disqualified and your account may even be flagged for fraud.

It sounds counterintuitive, but you can make more money by going slower. The higher the quality of your responses, the more high-paying surveys you’ll qualify for.

A cursory skim of the Leaderboard consistently shows the top earners netting 2,000 or more points per day — a cash equivalent of over $20. Notably, these are the top earners on that platform, but the Leaderboard provides transparency and context as to how much Branded Surveys pays.

Related: 18 Best Places to Find Micro Jobs Online

Branded Elite Program

Branded Elite is Branded Surveys’ bonus program. There are three tiers: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

Branded Elite tiers

You can go to Branded Elite on the navigation menu in your account to see your status and how many points you need to move to the next tier.

The higher your Branded Elite status, the more bonus points you can earn for reaching milestones of 12, 20, or 30 surveys in 7 days.

For example, Bronze members earn a 5% bonus for taking 12 surveys in 7 days. If you’re in the Gold tier, that bonus jumps to 15 for the same number of completed surveys.

The bonuses are added to your account at the end of each week in addition to what you earn from taking surveys.

🔍 Reviewer’s Note: The tiered bonus structure was a smart move on Branded Surveys’ part. It gamifies the experience and motivates you to complete more surveys (or at least it did me).

I thought it would take forever to move from tier to tier, but after 2.5 hours of taking surveys, I’ve nearly reached Silver status.

Branded Surveys Silver edited

Only your “earned” points are counted toward your Branded Elite status. So any points you get for signing up or completing profile surveys don’t qualify.

Related: 15 Legit Paid Focus Groups You Can Sign Up for Today

Email Notification Settings

One strength of using Branded Surveys is the ability to control how many survey options you receive via email per day. Rather than finding your inbox bombarded (or empty) with offers, you can set how many emails you receive and at what time of day you receive them.

Branded Surveys email schedule

If you know that you’re on your laptop from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., you can set your preferences to only send surveys at that time, and you can opt for up to 10 survey notifications per hour.

On the other hand, you can choose to receive zero options while you’re asleep, meaning you won’t have an inbox full of Branded Surveys emails to review when you first log in the next morning.

If it gets to be too much or you want to quit, you can choose to unsubscribe from emails at any point. If you choose this option, you’ll only receive surveys when you open your Branded Surveys dashboard.

🔍 Reviewer’s Note: When I first signed up for Branded Surveys, the account default was to receive 22 emails per day. That’s way too many emails for my already overloaded inbox.

When I found the “advanced email schedule feature” (screenshot above), I was relieved to know that it wasn’t an all-or-nothing choice. I still wanted to get emails about new surveys, just not an obnoxious amount.

I chose to receive one email per hour from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., and Branded Surveys has been good about honoring that.

My only qualm with the tiered program is that you have to continue earning a minimum number of points to keep your badge. Once you upgrade, you’ll keep that badge for the month you qualify and the following month. After that, you have to keep earning the minimum, or else you fall back down the tiers.

Cashing Out

branded surveys payout options currently available to me

Once you’ve accumulated 500 points, worth $5, you’re eligible to cash out your winnings. You can elect for a cash payment via PayPal or Branded

Pay (their proprietary payout option that allows U.S. users to receive payments directly to their bank account). You can also exchange your points for gift cards to places like Amazon, Apple, and Buffalo Wild Wings or donate to charity.

You’ll typically receive your cash or gift card within one to three business days.

🔍 Reviewer’s Nake: It took me about 2.5 hours of taking surveys to earn enough points to cash out.

Right now I’m at 741 points ($7.41) in less than a day of creating my account, but I haven’t cashed out yet. (I’m waiting to hit Silver status, which I’m 4 points away from, so I can earn more bonus points for survey streaks!)

my branded surveys point balance

Keep in mind that this also includes 50 points for signing up and other easy points for completing the profile surveys.

Still, this is on par with (even a little better) than other survey sites I’ve tested. You’re not going to make a lot of money quickly, but you can reasonably earn $10 to $25 or more a month if you complete a few surveys each day and keep a good quality score (i.e. stay consistent with your responses and don’t mess up the “trick” questions).

Additional Ways to Earn

In addition to earning points by taking surveys, there are other ways you make money with Branded Surveys.

Refer Friends

When you create a Branded Surveys account, you’ll receive a unique referral link you can send to family, friends, or social media followers. If they sign up and achieve Silver status, you’ll earn an extra 50 points for each person who registers with your link.

There’s no limit to how many bonus points you can earn through referrals, and it’s not that hard to achieve Silver Status within a few days of joining. It all depends on how many surveys you qualify for, how many points they’re worth, and how often you take them.

Daily Poll

Each day, Branded Surveys will add a daily poll to your dashboard (found under “Extra Earning Opportunities”). Taking this poll is fast (it’s usually one question), and nets you an easy five extra points.

daily poll on Branded Surveys

Leaderboard Bonuses

Branded Surveys offers a friendly competition among users, encouraging them to take as many surveys as possible to make it to the top of the leaderboard.

branded surveys daily leaderboard

By staying atop the leaderboard, you can earn up to 1,000 bonus points, plus a chance for entry into drawings for additional points.

Survey Streak

Branded Surveys rewards users with bonus points as they complete streaks. For example, if you complete 12 surveys in seven days, you’ll earn a 5% bonus on points you earn. If you complete 30 surveys in seven days, that percentage increases to 15%.

The bonus points percentage increases based on your Elite Branded status. The higher up you are, the more bonus points you’ll earn.

Promo Codes

Branded Surveys will occasionally send users promotional codes, typically through special contests, emails, or promotions. You can use these codes to add additional points to your account. These don’t seem to happen too often so make sure you cash in on it when you can.

Branded Surveys Alternatives

If you’re new to getting paid to take surveys, or you want more survey options, here are a few more of the best places to take paid online surveys.

InboxDollars

InboxDollars is a survey-taking site. In addition to surveys, it also allows users to redeem cash-back offers and watch ads or play games to earn extra cash.

You get a $5 bonus just for signing up. Once you earn $30, you can cash out your earnings for a check, e-gift card, or prepaid Visa gift card.

Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie pays users for taking surveys, testing products, and joining online and in-person focus groups. Like Branded Surveys, Survey Junkie pays in points.

Once you accumulate 1,000 points, you can cash out through PayPal, redeem them for e-gift cards, or transfer the cash equivalent ($10) directly to your bank account.

 

branded surveys logo

 

 

inboxdollars logo

Review

 

survey junkie logo

Review

US, CA & UK US only US, CA & AU 
Surveys only Multiple ways to earn Surveys only
 Bonus program  No bonus program  No bonus program
Email notification control  No email customization No email customization
$5 cashout minimum $15 cashout minimum $5 cashout minimum

$1 signup bonus

$5 signup bonus

No signup bonus

FAQs

Is Branded Surveys Legit?

Branded Surveys has a 4.1-star rating on Trustpilot (86,000+ reviews ) with an overwhelming number of “Excellent” reviews from users. Positive reviews reference the number of survey options, the variety of surveys, and the easy cash-out process.[1]

Common complaints include surveys filling up too quickly, getting kicked out of surveys halfway through, not receiving the proper amount of points, and problems with prompt payments.

But complaints aside, several of our team members have used and tested it and even received payouts for taking surveys. So you can rest assured that Branded Surveys is a legitimate company.

How much does Branded Surveys pay?

How much Branded Surveys pays is dependent on how active you are as a user, the number of surveys you complete each month, and your Branded Elite status. The average user can expect $10 to $25 per month in accrued earnings, with daily survey takers earning more than $40 per month across survey earnings, Bonus Points, and Branded Leaderboard giveaways.

Top survey takers earn over 2,000 points per day — the cash equivalent of $20 — according to the Branded Surveys Leaderboard.

Are there any current Branded Surveys promo codes?

There are no current publicly available Branded Surveys promo codes. Branded Surveys will occasionally email member users with time-sensitive Promo codes that can be redeemed for points added to a user’s balance.

We will update this answer if a promo code becomes available.

What should I do if I think I've been banned?

If you’re unable to access the Branded Surveys platform and/or you’ve received the “You can’t take surveys with us this time” message, there’s a good chance your account has been banned. Reddit users report contacting support and getting their accounts re-enabled after addressing Attention or Speed check issues.

Be thorough, polite, and persistent about potential ommissions and/or accidental oversights as it may increase the likelihood your account is restored.

Final Thoughts: Is Branded Surveys Worth It?

Branded Surveys is a legitimate way to earn extra money if you like spending time online taking surveys. It’s easy to use, there are lots of ways to earn points, and the payout process is relatively simple.

It’s a nice complement to other online gigs like getting paid to watch ads or videos or participating in focus groups.

Keep in mind that pay can be low for the amount of time you spend taking surveys, and sometimes the surveys can take a long time to complete. Given that, it’s a smart choice to combine taking surveys with another side hustle to maximize your online earnings.

However, when it comes to paid survey sites, Branded Surveys has my vote.

Related: 50+ Legit Ways to Make Money Online

Author
Megan Robinson

Hi! I'm Megan. I'm a personal finance enthusiast on a mission to help millennial men and women understand and make more money. Along with writing and editing content, I work one-on-one with individuals as a financial and behavioral money coach.

12 comments
Stephen Harrison
Stephen Harrison

Can you have multiple accounts? I would not be able to do that (it would be boring), but my friend said he has ten accounts.

Having multiple accounts likely falls under their “…participate in any illegal, fraudulent, or unethical activities…” clause that is found in their TOS. If their systems detect multiple entry points, it’s possible his account(s) will be closed without notice/the funds within them confiscated.

Charlene Finkelstein
Charlene Finkelstein

I don’t recommend Branded Surveys to anyone. I signed up with them and completed over $50 worth of surveys but never got paid. I first requested Walmart certificates. When I went to Walmart to use them, they would not work. The store will not accept them. Then when I tried to switch to PayPal to get paid in cash, that doesn’t work either. These people are a scam. You will never get paid.

Shevandy
Shevandy

I thought I was the only one who thought Branded Surveys was cheap in paying out. I feel I take more surveys and waste time giving opinions than I do earning points.

Adam
Adam

Never had any issues after 2 years on the platform and using Walmart, Amazon, and many other retailers’ gift cards. Same for PayPal or bank transfers, everything works fine for me. I’m not sure how you’ve set up your account or if this is even a real review but obviously they are not a scam company. Yes, like most survey sites you won’t earn a full-time salary taking surveys but you can definitely make a dent in your monthly grocery bill or put money towards your holiday gift budget which is what I’m using it for.

Charles
Charles

I used Branded Surveys for a couple of days and the amount of wasted time is amazing. I took two surveys that were supposed to be 4 minutes in length. While answering the questions I noticed that I had been through 10 questions and was still at 79% on the completion scale. So 4 mins turned into 20. Another problem was giving information such as political affiliation, age, gender, and amount of TV watched in a day. No problem with those questions but after I answered those a message came up that said the survey was closed. Way too shady for me…

Those sorts of questions are actually quite typical for most survey sites — the demographic questions are so they understand more about who you are as a consumer, that way they can match you with relevant surveys that benefit both you and the company they’re working with.

Nathaniel Emerson
Nathaniel Emerson

In your blog post, I never actually saw how much you made in 3 hours. I worked off and on for 6 hours yesterday and brought in $5. I’m just starting out here, but that is a really really low payout! Is that just because I’m a beginner? Because if it doesn’t get a lot better than that, I’ll think it’s an amazing waste of time and effort…no better than Swagbucks. I’d love to hear what you think.

Rocky Mack
Rocky Mack

Branded Surveys is one of the more frustrating survey sites I’ve joined. They have a low-paying point system and it’s hard to withdraw. I just deleted my account with money owed to me. Don’t join them, there are much better paying legit services out there.

Phil Nardini
Phil Nardini

Branded Surveys sucks. I was kicked out of the surveys after one day with no good reason after having requested customer service support multiple times. Not worth the $5 Whole Foods gift card. Put your energy in other surveys that actually pay you for your time.

Alyssa A Greaver
Alyssa A Greaver

Total waste, as soon as I started getting closer to a payout I “wasn’t what the survey was looking for.” And instead of getting up to 100 points, I’d be awarded 1, maybe 2 if I’m lucky. Some of these surveys took forever too, 1 or 2 points for almost 10 minutes of my time. Horrible company, don’t waste your time.

Pamela Connell
Pamela Connell

Branded Surveys works well for me. I have cashed out almost $300 via Paypal. It takes a while though and a lot of patience; don’t recommend it if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands.

Leave your comment

You May Also Like