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Tax season insights for
digital marketers
Preparing for tax time returns
Tax services is a $9.3 billion industry, growing at an annual rate of 2.2%
57%23%
14%
6%
Standard tax preparation services
Basic tax preparation services
Full-service tax preparation services
Tax-related financial products
Taxpayers often turn to the IRS for assistance
400 million
10 million
5 million
100 million
Visits to IRS.gov.1
Letters and correspondence.2
Taxpayer visits to IRS walk-in sites.2
Telephone calls.2
Press Release: National Taxpayer Advocate Delivers Annual Report to
Congress; Focuses on Taxpayer Service and Taxpayer Bill of Rights
Each year, the IRS receives more than:
37%
8.8M
Zero
23 min.
Telephone calls to the IRS answered during the 2015 filing season.2
Number of calls the IRS switchboard hung up on when it got overloaded.2
Tax return preparation assistance available from the IRS.1
Average wait time on hold.2
Press Release: National Taxpayer Advocate Delivers Annual Report to Congress; Focuses on Taxpayer Service and Taxpayer Bill of Rights
National Taxpayer Advocate Reviews Filing Season and Identifies Priority Areas and Challenges in Mid-Year Report to Congress
IRS resources are strained to respondThe IRS workforce is down by nearly 12,000 employees since FY 2010.1
Will your campaigns help taxpayers get the assistance they seek?
SOURCE: IBISWorld Industry Report 54121d, Tax Preparation Services in the US,
Gavan Blau, April 2015.
Factors affecting this tax season
Less than 6% of Americans are unemployed1
138.2 millionindividual tax returns were filed in 2015, an increase of 1.0% over 2014.2
120.6 millionindividuals filed their taxes electronically in 2015, an increase of 2.4% over 2014.2
1. IBISWorld Business Environment Report, National unemployment rate, June 2015. 2. IRS, IRS Filing Season Statistics for week ending May 15, 2015.
TIPHave a local office? Use Location Targeting,
Location Extensions, and Call Extensions to
capture nearby taxpayers searching for help.
With low unemployment rates for the next few years, filing volumes will stay high.
Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), healthcare coverage is now a part of tax returns
Form 8962: premium tax credit 3.2 million
Form 8965: healthcare coverage exemptions 12 million
Individual shared responsibility payments 7.5 million
Health care check box 102 million
IRS, Letter from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to Congress, July 17, 2015.
1 in 5 taxpayers will do more than check a box.
The premium tax credit may come with a surprise
50% of taxpayers overestimated their 2014 income. At tax time, they paid back on average $800 of their advanced tax credit.
10% of taxpayers estimated just right. No adjustment needed at tax time.
40% of taxpayers underestimated. They received a higher tax credit at tax time, increasing their refund by $600 on average.
IRS, Letter from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to Congress, July 17, 2015.
Taxpayers need help estimating their annual income when they apply for an advanced tax credit through the federal and state exchanges.
The fee you pay if you don't have health coverage
The tax penalty will more than double for 2015
1% 2%
$95 $325
$47.50 $162.50
$285 $975
240%
Be prepared to help taxpayers calculate the individual shared responsibility payment.
Supreme Court’s Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Has Major Tax and Financial Planning Implications
Marriage equality is now the law of the land
With the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest decision, married same-sex couples can now file both joint federal and joint state returns.
Other tax benefits include:
•
•
•
Expect newly married couples to have questions about the new tax benefits available to them.
Since 2009, electronic filing has grown by 30%Meanwhile, the share of self-prepared e-filed tax returns has risen by 21%. Will your ads entice searchers to try your software or services?
6 in 10 e-filers use tax professionals or software They often search for brand terms. Make sure you’re bidding on your own brand terms to grab attention and keep competitors at bay.
E-filing and manual filing peak at different timesPlan your budget accordingly to keep it from running out before the tax deadline.
SOURCE: PC Magazine, The Best Tax Software for 2015, February 10, 2015.
Taxpayers are also getting help from mobile apps
Financial services digital ad spending will grow to more than $8.1 billion in 2016
Expect competition to increase with ad spending.
.
20152013 2014
More tax searches are resulting in a paid click
Bing Ads search performance trends
Tax-related searches align with e-filing trends and timeframesMake sure your budget is sufficient to cover the entire filing period, with peaks at the beginning and end.
In line with Bing Ads searches, people visit IRS.gov at the start and end of the tax season
The IRS doesn’t advertise—this presents a unique search advertising bidding opportunity, as 35% of the top 20tax search terms were IRS-related.
SOURCE: Microsoft internal data.
Brand terms and refund-related terms top the list of popular tax-related search termsPC/tablet searches are heavier on brand terms, while smartphone searches lean more towards tax refunds.
Competition and increased interest drive up clicks and bidsMake sure your bids are competitive during peak periods, but also take advantage of untapped opportunity while cost-per-click is lower.
The ACA tax impact receives greater attention early in the tax season
Popular queries on PC/tablet:
penalty (for) not having health insurancehealth care taxespenalty (for) no health insurancetax penalty (for) no health insuranceaffordable care act taxesobamacare tax penaltyobamacare penaltytax penalty (for) not having health insuranceobamacare taxesfine (for) not having health insurance
Prominent brands experience greater lift during search volume peaksTake advantage of high search volume to bid on branded terms and gain visibility for your own brand.
Brands enjoy high click-through rates throughout the tax seasonCost-per-click follows search volume trends while click-through rates remain steady.
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Mobile search performance trends
Tax-related searches on smartphones follow e-filing trends, with an eye towards refundsTax filers use their smartphones to look up tax refund status and timeframes.
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2014 2015
Refunds are top of mind among searchers on smartphones Terms related to refunds, brands, and the IRS top the list of smartphone searches.
Smartphone searchers are more likely to click on ads early on in the tax seasonFantastic opportunity for campaigns in early January when click-through rate is high and cost-per-click is at its lowest!
Some tips to consider for tax season
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Align budgets and bids to search trends. Plan for the two search peaks and keep your bids competitive throughout the tax season.
Test ad copy early in January before the first peak and run with the best performing ads.
Target mobile searchers at the beginning of the tax season with refund-related ad copy and appropriate keyword bids.
Align your search campaign timing to the service you’re offering.Brand name searches spike early and late in the season, and vary by tax professional services and self-serve software.
Effectively reach your tax audience with Bing Ads
SOURCE: comScore qSearch (custom), US, March 2015; industry categories based
on comScore classifications.
Bing Ads delivers value for tax
Our audience has a higher propensity to own personal finance/tax software
More likely to have bought personal finance/tax software online in the last 6 months.
More likely to own personal finance/tax software.
comScore Plan Metrix, US, March 2015, custom measure created using comScore indices and duplication. March data was used to reflect the month before tax filings are due.
Compared to Google, the Bing Ads audience is:
SOURCE: comScore Plan Metrix, US, March 2015, custom measure created using
comScore indices and duplication. March data was used to reflect the month before
tax filings are due.
8%
Connect with your target audience
The key is to more effectively reach the tax audience Bing Ads over indexes on household incomes $60,000–$74,999 and $75,000+ compared to the overall Internet population.
0%
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Under $15,000 $15,000 to
$24,999
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$74,999
$75,000 to
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$200,000 and
over
Distribution of U.S. household income
Est. 9% of
pop
36% of the population
Tax advertiser target market
2 in 5 tax website visits come from those 45 years and older and Bing Ads has a higher index than Google on individuals ranging from ages 45-64.1
Age distribution of
tax website visitors2
15%
23%
22%
18%
22%
Words that work
Top tax ad copy
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Here’s how to read a heat map
Ad Description
% o
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Call T
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eFile
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/Easy
Filin
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Calc
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Tax
Refu
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Tax
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Tax
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Taxe
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Ad
Title
% off
Accounting
Advice/Consultation
Brand
Call To Action
Debt
DKI
eFile
Fast/Easy
Filing
Forms
Free
Income Taxes
IRS
Official Site
Online
Price/Pricing
Relief
Returns
Tax Calculator
Tax Identification
Tax Preparation Services
Tax Refunds
Tax Software
Tax Type
Taxes (General)
In this example, a tax ad with “tax calculator” in the title and “tax refunds” in the description has high ad quality.
Great Good Insufficient dataPoor
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Tax Ad Copy Research Heat Map
Ad Description
% o
ff
Ad
vic
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Call T
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eFile
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Filin
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axe
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IRS
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Calc
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Tax
Typ
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Taxe
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Ad
Title
% off
Accounting
Advice/Consultation
Brand
Call To Action
Debt
DKI
eFile
Fast/Easy
Filing
Forms
Free
Income Taxes
IRS
Official Site
Online
Price/Pricing
Relief
Returns
Tax Calculator
Tax Identification
Tax Preparation Services
Tax Refunds
Tax Software
Tax Type
Taxes (General)
Great Good Insufficient dataPoor
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Top Tax Ad Copy Combinations
Top 5 Performing Ad Title/Description Combinations, All Devices
Tax Products &
Services
Official Site Official Site Tax Calculator Tax Calculator Tax Refunds
IRS % off Tax Refunds Tax Calculator Tax Calculator
DisplayURL DisplayURL DisplayURL DisplayURL DisplayURL
People conducting tax-related searches want reliable information from trusted sources –likely why including Official Site (e.g., “official”, “site” or “official site”) in the ad copy improves ad performance.
The best-performing ad copy combination was Official Site in the ad title, and IRS (“online irs”, “irs tax”, “irs form”, etc.) in the ad description. Further analysis found that this was true regardless of device, whether PC/Tablet or Mobile.
Ad performance is also boosted by using terms in the Tax Calculator group (e.g., “calculate tax”, “estimate”, “estimator”, “calculate”, “tax calculator”). This is aligned with our search trend performance analysis which found that “tax calculator” and other variations of the term were among the most popular search terms.
Sitelink Deep Link Analysis
Taxes (General)
Tax Type
Free
Income Taxes
Brand
Call To Action
% off
Returns
Tax Refunds
Tax Calculator
Tax Products & Services : Top Site Link variables
Ad Quality & Usage
Ad Quality Advertiser #
Should I bid on my brand terms?
To bid or not to bid?See what our Bing Ads research study reveals
Brand term bidding helps deliver more clicks
56%
No Brand AdBrand Ad
88%
+32% more clicks
More clicks? Let’s break that down.
56%
50%
18% overlap
32% incremental clicks
38%
Brand Ad
Organic
Brand Ad No Brand Ad
Wouldn’t I receive some of those clicks anyway if I didn’t bid on my brand terms?
Yes, however, 32% are incremental clicks gained as a result of brand term bidding.
SOURCE: Bing Ads research study, January - March 2014. Study looked at the financial services industry and captured 50 million impressions.
Note: Brand Ads are in Mainline Position 1. No brand ad in this case means organic only listing.
Bidding on your brand terms reduces opportunities for your competitors to capture your customers or their mindshare if they bid on your brand terms.
56%
88%
7% competitor’s
share of total clicks
24% competitor’s
share of total clicks
Brand Ad No Brand Ad
Brand term bidding means fewer clicks to competitors
To learn more about the value of bidding on your brand terms, check out the complete Bing Ads research study and white paper.
Companies that bought their brand terms reduced competitors’ share of clicks from 24% to 7%.
SOURCE: Bing Ads research study, January - March 2014. Study looked at the financial services industry and captured 50 million impressions.
Note: Brand Ads are in Mainline Position 1. No brand ad in this case means organic only listing.
Why advertise on Bing Ads?
Access searchers not reached on Google
51M
24M
12M
25M
16M
21M
Bing Ads is more cost effective than Google AdWords
Google Adwords vs. Bing Network – Average Cost per Click by Industry,
Sitelink extensions Location extensions
lift in click-through rates (CTR)
Call extensions
Drive even better performance with Ad Extensions
You spoke, we listened.
Learn how to import your campaigns
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slideshare.net/bingads
youtube.com/bingads
Getting started
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The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be
interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.
