Solar Industry Australia: Digital Market Research

We recently undertook digital market research into the solar industry in Australia to provide insights to help inform strategic online marketing decisions. 

Our analysis and recommendations cover:

1. SEO Market Analysis + Recommendations
2. Paid (SEM) Analysis + Recommendations

Solar Industry Australia Market Analysis: SEO

We have undertaken a light analysis of the market to evaluate the competition and opportunities for organic search.

Consumer Interest

Data from Google indicates there has been a steady growth in interest in solar panels over the past year.

While there was a significant dip in March, the interest has resumed to the highest levels of interest (index: 100 in Google Trends).

5 Year Trend for Solar Panels

90 Day Trend for Solar Panels

The Northern Territory has the highest level of interest in solar panels (and related topics) in Australia, followed by Western Australia and South Australia.

While New South Wales doesn’t feature in this list, it is worth noting that ‘solar panels sydney’ is one of the highest growth search queries at +60%.

The highest growth search query is ‘risen solar panels’ which is up 180% due to paid advertising by Arisen Solar (the query is misspelt).

Competitive Landscape

We have explored the solar industry in Australia to understand the landscape and identify a competitive peer group. The market is fairly complex, however, we can identify the top 3 companies competing for solar panel system customers.

Competition:

• EnergyMatters.com.au
• SolarQuotes.com.au
• SolarChoice.net.au

Each of the competitors is generating a significant volume of web traffic from organic search, indicating there is a significant opportunity for smaller players to increase their performance.

Market Insights

For the purpose of analysis, we reviewed SolarQuotes.com.au against the market to provide context.

Total Traffic Trend

SolarQuotes.com.au is achieving around 387k monthly domain traffic (total). This is under the market expectation of 8.6M monthly users, however, this data does include national energy companies which skews the data.

Traffic Generation Strategy

The solar (and energy) market is skewed towards direct traffic (dark traffic without attributed source), followed closely by organic search. Paid represents a small volume of traffic, which is most likely highly targeted conversion activity.

Domain Growth

As expected, market growth is largely from organic search, and SolarQuotes.com.au growth is largely from social. Lead generation companies are amongst the largest advertisers on Facebook, so we expect to see SolarQuotes.com.au continue this strategy.

Market Audience

The market audience has a male skew and is largely in the 25 to 64 age brackets. This information can be used for your content generation and base advertising targeting. For example, a sandbox campaign test targeting male homeowners, aged 35 to 54 with an income above XYZ.

Organic Traffic

In terms of organic traffic, SolarQuotes.com.au is leading the pack with significantly more traffic than all competitors at 107.7k visits per month from organic (AU).

EnergyMatters.com.au and SolarChoice.net.au are lower with 69.7k and 45.7k monthly organic visits per month respectively.

Domain Metrics

There is a clear investment in organic search from all competitors.

The authority scores of all three are above 50, indicating a considered approach to search engine optimisation. The volume of keywords and backlinking by all three sites indicate a sustained SEO approach. 

Only one of the sites is using paid adverts which indicates an opportunity to gain visibility in the short term. As a strategy, using a combination of search ads, social ads and remarketing would drive instant demand and leads.

A long term SEO focus is required to boost authority signals in order to compete.

Keyword Volume

In general, while there is a significant overlap between all three competitors, there are many unique keywords. This represents a number of opportunities for growth:

1. Target a selection of high volume keywords
2. Target a selection of high intent keywords
3. Target a selection of unique keywords

Undertaking a detailed keyword research and strategy process is required prior to web development or online marketing activity.

Links

EnergyMatters.com.au has the most referring domains at 4,182 and SolarQuotes has 3,138. This indicates to Google that these sites have more authority.

To compete with these and other sites, competitors will need to increase organic and high-quality links by:

• Undertaking analysis of competitor links
• Identifying high-value opportunities
• Undertaking a sustained link building campaign
• Avoiding paid links (quick but high risk)

Local SEO

We recommend Google My Business optimisation as part of a local SEO approach. Including:

• Correct address and contact details
• Correct open times
• Latest news/promotions
• Reviews process
• Photos (team and product)
• 360 photos (for showrooms)

Solar Industry Australia Market Analysis: Paid

We have undertaken a light analysis of the paid advertising market for the solar industry in Australia to evaluate the competition and opportunities across display, search ads and social ads.

Search Ads

SolarQuotes.com.au is an active search advertiser, spending approximately $24k per annum on this channel (likely underestimated) and increasing.

They are targeting 281 keywords. The ad structure, ad copies and target keywords indicate a higher level of experience than others.

Keywords are stacked towards head search terms with geographic modifiers. 

There are a number of other active advertisers in this market including YourSolarQuotes, Sunterra and Sunboost. Competing would be low complexity.

Display Ads

SolarQuotes.com.au is an active display advertiser. The message strategy calls on consumers lack of knowledge or fears. Essentially, they aim to inform and educate.

• The truth about…
• Avoid these 7 traps
• Regret-free solar

In line with best practice, each campaign has a dedicated landing page.Display Performance

Top Ad 1

This ad (7 solar mistakes) is a favourite ad, suggesting it is a high-performance advert.

• Active for 341 days
• 967 ads pointing to a landing page
• Landing page seen 5,814 times

Top Ad 2

Another top-performing display advert is “should you buy a battery in 2019”.

• Active for 245 days
• 384 ads pointing to this landing page
• Landing page seen 1,021 times

SolarQuotes.com.au will be using these ads as part of a through-funnel strategy which uses other channels, such as Facebook and Instagram to convert the users.

Display Targeting

Audience

SolarQuotes.com.au is mostly targeting males (76%) with a spread of ages, mostly above 25. Audience interests are skewed toward media and entertainment.

Publishers

Publishers are primarily business and industrial, science, news and computer electronics. Top publishers include (most ads):

• NasaSpaceFlight.com
• AppleInsider.com
• Google Sites

Devices

Desktop accounts for approximately 36% of targeting.

Social Ads

As expected SolarQuotes.com.au is actively advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Networks. This is a common tactic for lead generation.

There are currently 7 active adsets and 24 ad variations live.

The adverts use a number of formats, including video. Calls to action are consistently ‘learn more’ with a value-based message, e.g. “the high cost for cheap solar”.

Solar Industry Australia

The solar industry in Australia is currently thriving. We hope these insights and tips will help you compete with bigger players online with SEO and Paid opportunities.

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