Sentiment Analysis Services Benchmarking in 2023

Sentiment analysis, also known as opinion mining, is a technology that enables businesses to gain insights into the opinions, emotions, and attitudes of their customers and other stakeholders. Machine learning algorithms use large amounts of data to learn patterns and make predictions when analyzing sentiments. 

However, accurately classifying sentiment in a text, audio, image, or video can be difficult due to complex and subtle nuances in language that may not be captured by automated approaches alone. This is where human-labeled data can come in handy.

While many sentiment analysis tools are available, an emerging trend is the use of sentiment analysis services, which offer the advantages of crowdsourced human-labeled data and domain-specific expertise. This article includes the essential features of sentiment analysis services and a benchmarking study that compares the characteristics of various service providers to help businesses choose the best option for their needs.

What are sentiment analysis services?

A sentiment analysis service is a type of Natural Language Processing (NLP) method that provides crowdsourced human-labeled data to assess the sentiment or emotional tone portrayed in a text, audio, image, or video. Services that perform sentiment analysis classify content as positive, negative, or neutral using human annotators rather than relying only on machine learning algorithms.

Why is human-labeled data crucial in training machine learning algorithms?

Data must be labeled accurately to help machines “understand.” Human annotators can label the data based on the emotional tone of the content, such as detecting sarcasm or irony in them. Manual labeling to train the data is cost-effective, more accurate, and more flexible than automated labeling.

8 essential factors in choosing the best sentiment analysis service

When evaluating sentiment analysis services, there are a few key features to consider that can help narrow down the options and make a more informed decision:

1- Quality assurance

The development and deployment of sentiment analysis services include quality assurance as a crucial step since it makes sure the service satisfies the needs and expectations of its customers and offers practical insights into their sentiments and behavior. A good service provider will have quality assurance practices in place like using the majority vote of the annotators which can be used to guarantee quality.

2- Customized service

In sentiment analysis services, customized service refers to a service’s ability to be tailored to the specific needs and requirements of a user or application. Customization options may include adding or removing sentiment categories, training the service on a particular domain or language, or adjusting the sensitivity of the sentiment analysis based on the context of the text. While selecting a service, watch out for the level of customization offered.

3- Audio sentiment analysis

The ability of businesses to analyze and interpret sentiment from spoken languages, such as phone calls or recorded meetings, makes audio analysis an essential part of sentiment analysis services. For companies that rely extensively on phone-based customer assistance or telemarketing, audio analysis can offer insightful information about customers’ feelings, thoughts, and attitudes.

For more on audio sentiment analysis, check out our article.

4- Image sentiment analysis

Image sentiment analysis allows businesses to analyze and interpret sentiment from visual content like photos. It can be handy for companies that rely heavily on social media or online advertising. 

Businesses can better understand customer sentiment and behavior and make more educated decisions about product development, marketing, and customer engagement by integrating image analysis into their sentiment analysis services.

5- Video sentiment analysis

Using video analysis, businesses can assess sentiment from video content such as ads, product evaluations, or client testimonials. Companies that produce a lot of video material or rely heavily on video marketing can benefit greatly from video analysis.

6- Multilingual analysis

For enterprises and organizations that operate in international or multilingual environments, sentiment analysis services that support multilingual analysis can offer insights into customer sentiment and behavior across various markets and regions.

Here is our article on multilingual sentiment analysis challenges and methods for those interested.

7- Price

The prices of sentiment analysis services vary greatly depending on the features and capabilities provided, the volume of data analyzed, and the level of customization required. Cost may be a critical factor in the decision to use a sentiment analysis service for small businesses and organizations with limited budgets, and lower-cost options may be preferred over more expensive alternatives.

On the other hand, larger corporations and organizations might place a higher value on accuracy, customization, and scalability than on price, and they might be prepared to pay more for a sentiment analysis solution that caters to their particular requirements.

8- Customer support

Getting efficient and high-quality customer support from the service providers is essential to get the best out of what companies pay for. 

Businesses can search for the availability of customer service representatives (i.e., whether through 24/7 support or e-mail between working hours), as getting updates through the process would be easier and faster. In addition, organizations can benefit from and be guided by customer service professionals’ expertise in a particular field, in this case, sentiment analysis.

Vendor selection criteria for sentiment analysis services benchmarking

To narrow down our study, we have determined some metrics and included companies that fit these criteria. We have included vendors that have:

• 10+ reviews on platforms such as G2, Capterra, TrustRadius
• 10+ employees

As all vendors offer customized service and multilingual analysis, we did not include these metrics in our research. You can find our benchmarking study in the table below. Note that the data is based on vendor claims.

Vendors	Quality assurance	Audio analysis	Image analysis	Video analysis	Price	Customer support
Clickworker	Through majority decision	Available	Available	Available	Client determined payout + 40% service fee	24/7 phone support
Appen	Through majority decision	Available	Available	Available	Contact the customer service	6 am to 5 pm PST
Brandwatch	Through majority decision	Not available	Not available	Not available	Contact the customer service	24/7 support through in-app chat

Transparency statement:

AIMultiple serves numerous emerging tech companies, including Clickworker.

For those interested, here is our data-driven list of sentiment analysis services.

For more in-depth knowledge on sentiment analysis, download our whitepaper:

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