Spanish and Bilingual Message Testing Guide

A guide to testing messages with Spanish-speaking and bilingual audiences using Grow Progress.

Testing messages with Spanish-speaking and bilingual audiences helps you understand whether your messaging resonates with one of the fastest-growing segments of the American electorate and consumer base. This guide walks you through the options available on the Grow Progress platform, when to use each, and how to design effective research for these audiences.

Why Test in Spanish or Bilingually

Spanish-speaking and bilingual audiences are a meaningful share of voters, donors, and consumers. Messages that perform well with English-dominant audiences do not always translate, literally or culturally, to Spanish-speaking ones. Testing in Spanish gives you direct evidence of what works rather than relying on assumptions or translation alone.

Consider testing in Spanish or in both languages when:

• You are working in a geography with a significant Hispanic or Latino population and want results that reflect the full audience.
• Your campaign or program includes Spanish-language outreach (mail, digital, broadcast, SMS).
• You are testing creative that will run in Spanish-language media.
• You have winning messages from English-language testing and want to see whether they hold with Spanish-speaking audiences, or what adaptations are needed for them to land.

Your Options

Grow Progress offers two ways to incorporate Spanish into a Rapid Message Test, each suited to a different research goal.

1. Bilingual Rapid Message Test (self-serve)

• Availability: Standard and Classic Rapid Message Tests.
• Cost: No additional cost.
• Turnaround: No impact on turnaround.
• Best for: Teams with in-house expertise in adapting messages for both English and Spanish audiences who want to give bilingual respondents the choice of language.
• What you provide: English and Spanish text for all messages and questions in the test.
• What's included: All content in your tests appears in both languages, and respondents choose which language they want to take the test in.
• What you receive: Results are automatically broken out by Survey Language (English / Spanish) in the Analysis tab. Because Spanish responses typically make up 5 to 10% of total respondents, the Spanish cut will often include small sample warnings (see "How It Works" below).
• How to request: Select the Spanish Translations option in Step 3 of RMT setup

2. Spanish-Only Survey Programming (Grow Progress launched)

• Availability: Standard Rapid Message Tests only.
• Best for: Research where you need reliable conclusions about Spanish-dominant respondents specifically. While bilingual tests break out results by Survey Language, the Spanish subgroup is typically too small to support confident conclusions on its own. Spanish-Only programming gives you a Spanish-dominant sample large enough to interpret with confidence.
• What you provide: Both English and Spanish text for all messages and questions in the test. Respondents take the test in Spanish; the English text appears as the labels in your results dashboard.
• How to request: Reach out to your CSM or support@growprogress.ai.

Choosing the Right Approach

Best Practices

• Adapt, don't translate. A direct translation rarely produces the strongest message. Work with someone fluent in the cultural context of your audience, not just the language.
• Test the same underlying concept when comparing. If you want to know whether a message works equally well in English and Spanish, the underlying idea should be the same, even if the wording differs.
• For Spanish-dominant audience research, use Spanish-Only testing. A bilingual test gives respondents the choice of language but typically yields a small Spanish-language subgroup. To draw reliable conclusions about a Spanish-dominant audience, fielding a test in Spanish only is the more dependable approach.

How It Works

Bilingual tests. When you select the Spanish Translations option in the builder, every text entry in your test gets a paired Spanish field. You enter both versions before launching. Respondents pick their preferred language at the beginning of the survey, then take the rest of the test in that language.

What share of responses to expect in Spanish. In bilingual tests, an average of 5% to 10% of respondents complete the survey in Spanish. The exact share varies with the audience you target. Tests in geographies with larger Spanish-speaking populations will see a higher rate, and tests with broader national audiences will see a lower one. Keep this in mind when sizing your test if Spanish-language responses are important to your research.

A note on results. Bilingual test results are automatically broken out by Survey Language in the Analysis tab, so you can see how English-language and Spanish-language respondents answered separately. Because Spanish typically represents 5 to 10% of responses, the Spanish cut often triggers small sample warnings, especially when looking at demographic or political subgroups within Spanish-language respondents. For reliable conclusions about Spanish-dominant audiences specifically, Spanish-Only Survey Programming is the more dependable approach.

Worksheets and Resources

If you are running a Rapid Message Test in Spanish, contact a Grow Progress staff member or email support@growprogress.ai for a worksheet with space for translations. See also:

• How to Build & Launch a Rapid Message Test
• Rapid Message Test Development Guide
• Additional Options Available in a Standard Test
• Building Custom Audiences in your Rapid Message Test

Questions?

For help designing research with Spanish-speaking or bilingual audiences, contact your Customer Success Manager or email support@growprogress.ai.