• by Aaron Baar , December 22, 2015

Advertising and other traditional marketing methods do influence consumers’ electronics purchase decisions -- but other areas of content like consumer reviews and buying guides should not be neglected. 

After evaluating more than 3,000 purchases of mobile devices, tablets and wearables, Purch and comScore found several inefficiencies when it comes to ad delivery and the information that consumers find valuable when shopping for tech products. According to the report, more than half (52%) of relevant ad impressions for technology came after the consumer had already purchased a product.

“It points to a significant opportunity to retune and refine ad strategies of reaching the consumer,” Erin Kapczynski, vice president of marketing at Purch, tells Marketing Daily. 

Beyond advertising, consumers use media technology sites throughout their purchase process, putting trust in product reviews and testing from neutral parties. According to the research, buyers read 80% more reviews and buying guides than news on those sites. 

“The news pages were still important, but not as important as the reviews,” Kapczynski says. “Knowing that the reviews and buying guides are so relevant, [marketers] could target their campaigns around that.”

Once consumers get closer to the purchase, their behavior shifts toward retailer sites. On the day of purchase, the majority of consumer searches (67%) took place on these retail sites rather than through search engines according to the research.

“Consumers rely on the content they get on the site as they get closer to purchase,” Kapczynski says. “That’s a really engaged consumer with a high purchase intent.”