Selective spot plating is generally used as a cost-effective method of plating. The ever-increasing prices of precious metals like gold, silver, and palladium warrants the use of selective plating. Selective plating brings down the overall plating cost as the number of precious metal deposits on the overall product is reduced. Reel to Reel selective spot plating is done by exposing the area that needs to be selectively plated on the reel in the assembly line and masking the rest of the region.

Reel to Reel selective plating is mostly used in precious metals plating in order to reduce the usage of precious metal in the overall plating. Selective plating is also ideal in the case of Tin plating as a migration of melted tin could cause electrical short circuits.