How effective are advertisements aimed at installers?

The question is whether electrical installers, arguably a major target audience of these advertisements, actually answer that call? To what extent do they take the next step to find out more, thereby starting a possible path to contact and ultimately a purchase?

To answer these questions, we asked installers about their orientation behaviour and the role of advertisement during the interviews for the Q1 2021 report of USP Marketing Consultancy’s European Electrical Installation Monitor, which focused on media orientation of electrical installers in seven European countries.

The impact of advertisements differs very much per country

We asked installers whether they invest time in learning more about the latest trends and product developments at all, and whether seeing or hearing advertisement triggers them to further investigate a new product. As it turns out, for both statements, there are vast differences between countries.

In Germany, only 41% of electrical installers report to invest in learning about trends and developments. Moreover, only 27% claim to be triggered by advertisement, which means it is harder for manufacturers to solely rely on advertisement to truly reach German electrical installers.

On the other side of the spectrum are the Netherlands, where two thirds of the installers invest time in learning more about the latest trends and product developments, and a whopping 72% claims that advertisements trigger them to further investigated products, making the Netherlands a very lucrative playing field when relying on advertisements.

Country is not everything

Before you run off to invest in advertisements in the Netherlands or cancel your advertisements in Germany, please note that installers are not homogeneous in their behaviour, and vast differences exist between different types of installers within countries. That means the success of your advertisements depends on characteristics of your target group other than nationality as well.

One of such characteristics is age, for example. It stands to reason that older installers often hold higher positions or have more influence within installation companies. In that line of thought, the oldest of installers hold more sway over purchase decisions, making them a more lucrative target group for advertisement aimed at them specifically, right?

Well, no, or at least it depends on the channel. The oldest age group of European installers, aged 60 or older, has the highest share of installers that claim to invest time in learning about product trends and developments (62%). However, that same age group is least likely to be triggered by advertisement to find out more about new products, as only 45% of the 60+year-olds state to do so.

Know the preference of your key target group

Every year, manufacturers spend considerable funds to advertise their new products, but how to know whether those funds are optimally invested? The above shows that the effectiveness of advertisement depends on knowing the characteristics of your target groups and their preferences regarding advertisement and media orientation.

For detailed information about the media orientation preferences of electrical installers in seven European countries, we refer you to the Q1 2021 report of USP Marketing Consultancy’s European Electrical Installation Monitor.