It's that time of year again.
Yes, it's the holidays – and that's all good – but it's also time people start thinking about taxes.
Tax season can be daunting for some, but amidst the gloom, there's a silver lining for others; tax season presents an opportunity for advertisers in the tax-assistance and preparation fields. As many of you already know, tax season is increasingly becoming a digital season. According to the IRS, Some 131.1 million tax returns were submitted electronically in 2012.
Given that 4 out of 5 returns are filed online, chances are your customers are also going online to find information and help with their tax questions and concerns. Like all things digital, that's a trend that's accelerating. But it's amplified this year because the 2014 tax season brings with it new complexities and challenges for taxpayers that range from provisions in the Affordable Care Act to changes to fixed tax brackets.
What this means for the savvy advertiser is a chance to reach people during that crucial moment when they're actively looking for tax information and evaluating their options.
Based on recent data, we think the Bing search audience is particularly appealing to tax-related advertisers. comScore reveals that when compared to Google, our audience over-indexes in searchers with household incomes of $30,000-$100,000 – a demographic that comprises nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population and the majority of the population that pays taxes1. Moreover, people aged 25-44, a group that research has shown does a lot of searching in the tax category, are strongly represented in the Yahoo Bing Network audience. 1, 2
The holidays tend to go by quickly, so don't wait to get your tax campaigns in tip-top shape. Although we can't help you complete your personal taxes, we've done our best to provide you some valuable materials to realize gains from your PPC advertising campaigns during this year's tax season. You can check out a synopsis of these tips on our Vertical Insights page.
If you'd like to review it later, be sure to download the below deck from SlideShare.
Questions? Comments? Leave them below or ping me on Twitter.
Tracy Northcutt
Senior Product Marketing Manager
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1 Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center Microsimulation Model (version 0412-7), US Census Bureau, distribution of personal income, 2010
2 comScore, 2012 & 2013 comScore Media Metrix, US, Sept 2013. Indexing compared to overall Internet population.