One of the most persistent objections to community-based marketing is the assumption that engineering forums are populated primarily by hobbyists, students, and junior engineers — people who aren’t making purchasing decisions. It’s a convenient assumption that justifies continuing to ignore communities in favor of traditional channels.
The 2025 Engineering Insights Report demolishes it with data.
Over 90% of electronics engineers in the survey are directly involved in design or purchasing decisions.
This isn’t a community of passive observers. 26% make the final purchasing decision. Another 36% strongly influence the decision. And 28% create the initial BOM that drives procurement. When these engineers participate in community discussions about a product, they’re not casually browsing — they’re forming the opinions that drive purchase orders.
For control engineers, the purchasing influence is equally significant. Systems integrators (36.4%) are typically specifying entire automation systems for end users. End users (32.1%) make direct purchasing decisions. OEM/machine manufacturers (24.6%) specify components designed into products sold at scale. Every segment represents real spending authority.
The experience profile is equally compelling. Nearly 29% of electronics engineers have 31+ years of experience, and over 55% have 15+ years. These are principal engineers, technical leads, and engineering managers — the people whose opinions carry outsized weight within their organizations.
When a 25-year veteran recommends a component in an Electronics-Lab thread, it’s not a casual suggestion. It’s an authoritative recommendation that influences purchasing decisions across the community.
This experience distribution also explains why communities are so effective as information sources. They concentrate decades of collective experience into a single, searchable platform. A junior engineer asking a question in PLCtalk isn’t just getting one answer — they’re potentially getting input from engineers with 100+ combined years of industry experience.
The community spans the industries that matter most for component manufacturers. Control engineers are concentrated in Energy and Infrastructure (20.5%) and Industrial Automation (15.4%). Electronics engineers are primarily in Electronics Manufacturing (21.3%), Consumer Electronics (10.6%), and Automotive (10.2%) — with Military/Aerospace representing a notable 9.6%.
Geographically, 39% are in North America and 25% in Europe, with meaningful representation from Middle East/Africa (10%), Asia-Pacific (11%), and India (9%). This isn’t a niche community — it’s a globally distributed network of the exact professionals that B2B electronics companies need to reach.
What makes communities commercially powerful isn’t just the size of the audience — it’s the authority structure within them. Engineering communities have organic reputation systems. Members who consistently provide accurate, helpful answers earn credibility over time. Senior engineers with decades of experience become trusted voices whose recommendations carry disproportionate influence.
When one of these respected voices endorses a product or manufacturer in a community discussion, it functions as a professional recommendation. Other engineers trust it because the recommender has a track record of expertise, no financial incentive, and a professional reputation at stake. This is fundamentally different from — and far more powerful than — any form of paid advertising.
SparkWire’s communities — 410,000+ members across PLCtalk and Electronics-Lab — represent what may be the single largest addressable pool of qualified, experienced, purchasing-authorized engineering professionals in the control and electronics space. The collective engineering experience represented in these forums likely exceeds five million person-years.
This isn’t an audience you reach through keyword bidding. It’s an audience you earn by showing up with genuine expertise in the conversations that matter.
Want the full data? Download the complete report: "Where Engineers Really Make Decisions: The Engineer’s Information Journey"
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