How to Make a Quiz with Timer

Corinna Keefe
Corinna Keefe
The clock is ticking, the excitement is building, and time is running out! Everyone loves the challenge of a timed quiz. Here's how to make a Quiz with timer for a marketing promotion or competition. Plus 4 examples of fun promotions made with the Easypromos timed quiz app.

So you want to make a Timed Quiz – but you’re not sure where to start.

The first step is to figure out why you’re setting up a quiz. Is it to publicize an event or a product launch? Is it to educate your audience? Perhaps it’s just for entertainment value, or to link your brand to a popular holiday or trend.

In this article, we explain how to make a quiz with timer. We’ll also cover the three different types of quizzes, including pop quizzes, repeat rounds, and sudden death competitions. Finally, we’ll share four of the best quizzes made quiz Easypromos platform.


Different types of Quiz with Timer

When you start generating a Timed Quiz, you have three options. These are all different ways to organize and play the quiz.

  • Pop quiz. Answer some quick questions and find out your score at the end. This score may be based on your answers, or your answers plus speed.
  • Repeat round. Similar to a pop quiz, but more educational. If you get a question wrong, you’ll have to repeat the round until you’ve learned the correct answer.
  • Sudden death. No second chances here! As soon as you get a question wrong, you’re out of the game for good.
three types of timed quiz

These types of quiz are useful for different goals. For example, a pop quiz works well if you just want your audience to have fun. You can decide whether to give away prizes based on a perfect score, or perhaps offer different rewards for different grades.

Repeat round quizzes are perfect when you want to educate consumers about your brand. As people repeat questions to get the right answers, they’ll learn about your company or products – and increase the time spent on brand exposure.

The third type of quiz works well with competitive audiences. If you have a high value prize to give away, or you know your customers love a challenge, then sudden death is an exciting option. However, you might want to set up the quiz so that people can try again if they drop out.

How to make an online Quiz with timer

Choosing your questions and answers, setting up time limits, selecting your quiz type… It’s starting to sound complicated, right?

But it doesn’t have to be. With a no-code Timed Quiz maker, you can set up your quiz and be ready to play in just a few minutes. 

Here’s how it works: Start with a Timed Quiz app like this one from Easypromos. You can type the questions and answers directly into the quiz editor, or upload them from a spreadsheet if you’re very organised. You can pick time limits for each question, set the scores and choose the order that the questions appear in (including randomisation).

timed quiz editor

Then all you have to do is add your brand colors, image assets and perhaps pick out a few sound effects. Congratulations – you’re ready to play!

4 best examples of quizzes with timer

The best way to learn a new game is to see it in action. And the same applies to games and quizzes in marketing!

Option 1: educate consumers about your brand

This example comes from La Trobe University. They wanted to raise awareness about some of their outreach programs – as well as encouraging varsity spirit with some La Trobe merch.

They built a quiz to test students’ knowledge. They used a pop quiz model with a tight timer on the questions, so people were encouraged to answer quickly, but not immediately penalized for any wrong answers.

timed quiz from a university

Whenever someone did answer a question incorrectly, they would be shown the correct answer before moving on to the next question.

Once the results were in, La Trobe used a combination of quiz scores and timing to select a winner. To win the merch, you had to work fast and get as many questions as possible correct.

This is a fun way to raise awareness of specific programs, events, services or products without putting too much pressure on your users. And everyone loves free merch!

Option 2: team up with a sponsor

If you want to offer some really exciting rewards for a Timed Quiz promotion, you could team up with another brand or sponsor. We see this a lot: companies join together to offer a bundle of rewards that attracts a bigger audience.

In this example, a regional basketball team in Catalonia got together with Kave Home, a furniture and homewares brand. The sponsorship worked because the two brands have a similar audience: young adults with a strong interest in lifestyle purchases, from sports tickets to new home furnishings.

basketball sponsor timed quiz

The quiz supported both brands in different ways. It gave people more information about the basketball team, through the choice of questions such as “what is the team’s home stadium?”. And it encouraged sales at Kave Home, by offering a 100 euro voucher to the top-ranked quiz player. Once again, this quiz used a pop quiz model that rewarded accuracy and speed.

Option 3: quiz with timer giving away free products

So far, we’ve seen examples of quizzes which gave away merch or vouchers as rewards.

But you can also give away product samples and free gifts. This is a great way to follow up on an educational quiz: first you educate people about the product, then you let them test it for themselves.

That’s what skincare brand Foreo did with this pop quiz.

timed quiz skincare

Skincare is a booming area in the health and beauty industry. However, as it becomes more scientifically advanced, brands need to educate consumers so that they stay engaged with the latest breakthroughs. 

In this quiz, Foreo asked a mix of broad questions – such as “what age should you start a regular skincare routine” – and product-specific questions. Consumers could show off their existing skincare knowledge and find out more about the new products on the market.

timed quiz entry form

At the end of the quiz, they could see how their answers compared to the leaderboard of quiz players. And if they attained a certain score, then they were in line to receive some free product samples.

examples of timed quiz results


Option 4: increase brand recognition with a quiz with timer

Finally, let’s take a look at a quiz with a different goal. This example comes from Busy Beaver, an airport parking service in Australia.

Now obviously, if you’re planning to park at an airport, you’ve already got your driving license and you know how parking spaces work. There isn’t very much room here for an educational campaign!

But there is room to increase brand recognition and brand recall. So this quiz tests customers’ knowledge of Busy Beaver, with questions such as “what color is the logo on our parking spaces?”

example of timed quiz

This style of questions has two big advantages. First of all, it increases brand exposure and recognition by encouraging people to think consciously about the brand.

Secondly, the questions are fun and accessible to any age group. If you’re waiting in line at the airport with small children in tow, this could be a fun way to pass the time… and save money on parking charges.

Now that you’ve seen how easy it is to use our Timed Quiz app, it’s your turn to create your own! Do you have any questions? Contact us via chat, our customer support team is always ready to help!

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