The marketing budget you may already have
Most flooring manufacturers run co-op or market development funds for authorised dealers. A meaningful share goes unused annually, largely because dealers do not know the marketing they already pay for might qualify.
- Read time
- 5 min
- Applies to
- Authorised dealers
- Varies by
- Brand and year
- Ask
- Your territory rep
Co-op marketing is an old idea: the manufacturer reimburses part of what you spend promoting their product, usually as a percentage of your purchases with them, often capped and often use-it-or-lose-it within the programme year.
It is common across flooring. It is also commonly forgotten, because claiming it means paperwork and most dealers are busy running a showroom.
Programmes differ by brand, by dealer tier and by year, and some change mid-year. Anyone who tells you flooring co-op is "typically X percent" without looking at your specific agreements is guessing. What we can do is help you find out what yours actually say.
What co-op programmes commonly cover
This varies enormously, but the categories that show up most often across manufacturer programmes are:
- Advertising that features the brand's products or logo
- Digital advertising, including paid search in many programmes
- Website content and landing pages featuring the brand
- Showroom displays, signage and sample boards
- Print, radio and direct mail
Where SEO and content sit is the grey area, and it is worth asking specifically. Content that features a brand's products — a page about their LVP collection, a comparison guide naming their lines — is far more likely to qualify than an unbranded technical audit. The content plan flags which tiers are most likely to be eligible.
What programmes usually require
- Pre-approval. Many require sign-off before you spend, not after. This is the single most common reason claims get rejected.
- Proof of performance. Screenshots, invoices, live URLs, run dates.
- Brand compliance. Correct logo usage, approved imagery, accurate product naming.
- Deadlines. Often quarterly or annual, and rarely extended.
How to find out what you have
- Email your territory rep for each brand and ask directly: do you run a co-op or MDF programme, what is my current accrual, what qualifies, and what is the claim deadline? Ask about your dealer locator listing in the same email — same person, same conversation.
- Check your dealer portal. Most brands publish programme terms and accrual balances there, and most dealers never log in.
- Read what "qualifying spend" means in each programme. That definition is where the money is won or lost.
- Ask before you commission anything. Pre-approval turns a rejected claim into a funded one.
How this fits the marketing plan
If a brand will part-fund content that features their products, that changes what you build first. It is one of the inputs we look at when sequencing SEO marketing — because a page that is 50% reimbursed and a page that is not are not equally expensive, even when they cost the same to produce.
Worst case, you spend an afternoon and learn your allowance. Best case, a share of next year's marketing comes back.
Want this done for your site?
The free audit applies all of this to your specific business — rankings, map pack, platform and the fix list. No call required, yours to keep. Funding strategy is part of our flooring SEO practice.