Preparing for tax time returns Tax season insights for digital marketers презентация

2015 products and services segmentation

SOURCE: IBISWorld Industry Report 54121d, Tax Preparation Services in the US, Gavan Blau, April 2015.

SOURCE:
1Data analysis on IRS Weekly Filing Season Statistics, 2013, 2014, and May 15, 2015; 2IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service, Press Release: National Taxpayer Advocate Delivers Annual Report to Congress; Focuses on Taxpayer Service and Taxpayer Bill of Rights, January 14, 2015.

SOURCE:
1IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service, Press Release: National Taxpayer Advocate Delivers Annual Report to Congress; Focuses on Taxpayer Service and Taxpayer Bill of Rights, January 14, 2015.; 2IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service, National Taxpayer Advocate Reviews Filing Season and Identifies Priority Areas and Challenges in Mid-Year Report to Congress, July 15, 2015.

Factors affecting this tax season

Tip
Have 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.

2014 tax returns processed by 6/25/15

Form 8962: premium tax credit
For taxpayers claiming a tax credit (aka “subsidy”) in the federal and state exchanges.

3.2 million
$3,400 average credit per return

Form 8965: healthcare coverage exemptions
For taxpayers claiming exemptions from the health insurance requirements.

12 million

Individual shared responsibility payments
For taxpayers who do not comply with the health insurance requirements (aka the “tax penalty”).

7.5 million
$200 average penalty per return

Health care check box
For taxpayers who have health insurance coverage.

102 million

1 in 5 taxpayers will do more than check a box.

SOURCE: IRS, Letter from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to Congress, July 17, 2015.

SOURCE: IRS, Letter from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to Congress, July 17, 2015.

The tax penalty will more than double for 2015

Be prepared to help taxpayers calculate the individual shared responsibility payment.

Tax year 2014

Tax year 2015

1%

2%

$95

$325

$47.50

$162.50

$285

$975

Percentage of their yearly household income (above the tax filing threshold, about $10,150 for an individual).

Penalty per adult for the year.

Plus, penalty per child under 18.

Maximum household penalty.

Uninsured households will pay the higher of two amounts:1

240%

OR

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:
Making unlimited gifts between spouses without gift taxes.
Inheriting a spouse’s property without paying estate taxes.
Allowing a surviving spouse to rollover their spouse’s IRA.

Expect newly married couples to have questions about the new tax benefits available to them.

SOURCE: Data analysis on IRS Weekly Filing Season Statistics, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and May 15, 2015.

Volume of e-filed tax returns (2009–2015)

2015 breakdown of e-filing between tax professionals and individuals

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 times

Plan your budget accordingly to keep it from running out before the tax deadline.

E-filing experiences two peaks—at the beginning and end of the tax deadline.

Manual filing experienced only one peak at the end of the tax deadline.

Tip
Use App Extensions to highlight your mobile offerings for tax assistance, calculators, return filing, and refund status.

Financial services digital ad spending will grow to more than $8.1 billion in 2016

Expect competition to increase with ad spending.

U.S. financial services industry digital ad spending (2015–2019)

More tax searches are resulting in a paid click

Tax search trends: paid versus organic

Tip
Set up automated rules to help you adjust your keyword bids and campaign budgets automatically during search peaks.

Tax-related searches align with e-filing trends and timeframes

Tax-related search volume for the filing season rose 25% from 2014 to 2015!
Search volume starts increasing from the beginning of January, before the filing period begins. Start early and use this time to optimize your campaigns before the peak hits in late January/ early February.
The 2015 tax season began slightly earlier than the 2014 season, and the corresponding search volume reflects that. Stay informed about the filing season dates to prepare for both peaks.

Search volume for top tax-related searches (Jan 1–Apr 30: all devices)

SOURCE: Microsoft internal data.

Visit to IRS.gov during tax season (2014–2015)

SOURCE: Data analysis on IRS Weekly Filing Season Statistics, 2014 and 2015.

SOURCE: Microsoft internal data.

PC/tablet searches are heavier on brand terms, while smartphone searches lean more towards tax refunds.

Popular queries on PC/tablet

Popular queries on smartphones

CTR and CPC for top tax-related searches
(Jan 1–Apr 30, 2015: all devices)

Click-through rate and cost-per-click also followed e-filing trends, with both competition and search volume driving rates higher during peak periods. You’ll need to make sure that your budget and bid strategy can take on the competition!
Start your campaigns early and take advantage of the relatively lower cost-per-click and high click-through rates in early January.

SOURCE: Microsoft internal data.

Popular queries on PC/tablet:

penalty (for) not having health insurance
health care taxes
penalty (for) no health insurance
tax penalty (for) no health insurance
affordable care act taxes
obamacare tax penalty
obamacare penalty
tax penalty (for) not having health insurance
obamacare taxes
fine (for) not having health insurance

Search volume for popular searches on tax and ACA (Jan 1–Apr 30, 2015: PC/tablet)

Prominent brands experience greater lift during search volume peaks

Search volume for tax preparation brands followed the same trends as overall tax-related searches.
However, TurboTax-related searches experienced higher lift in volume than those of other brands, likely from greater brand recognition.
This is a potential opportunity to bid on competing or complementary brands and use your ad copy to gain visibility with a larger audience.

Search volume for top tax brand-related searches (Jan 1–Apr 30: all devices)

SOURCE: Microsoft internal data

Click-through rates are consistently high regardless of search volume, indicating that ads are aligned with what searchers are looking for.
Cost-per-click fluctuates more with search volume, and fierce competition among brands may be a significant driver behind increases.
This is a chance to bring visibility to your brand at a lower cost-per-click during less competitive periods.

Click-through rate and cost-per-click for top tax brand-related searches (Jan 1–Apr 30, 2015: all devices)

SOURCE: Microsoft internal data

Tax filers use their smartphones to look up tax refund status and timeframes.

Smartphone search trends were similar to those on PC/Tablet, but with slightly different top search terms.
The term “where(‘s) my refund” was one of the most popular search terms and experienced the biggest lift during peak search periods.
The 2015 tax season opened earlier than the 2014 season, and the corresponding search volume reflects that. Stay informed about the filing season dates to prepare for both peaks.

Search volume for top tax-related searches (Jan 1–Apr 30: smartphones)

SOURCE: Microsoft internal data.

Top tax-related searches (Jan 1–Apr 30, 2015: smartphones)

SOURCE: Microsoft internal data.

Fantastic opportunity for campaigns in early January when click-through rate is high and cost-per-click is at its lowest!

CTR and CPC for top tax-related searches
(Jan 1–Apr 30, 2015: smartphones)

Click-through rates for smartphones remain fairly high throughout the season, but are the highest in the first half of the tax season.
Cost-per-click starts off low but quickly spikes by the end of January.
Reach your audience at great value early on in the season with high click-through rates and low cost-per-click.

SOURCE: Microsoft internal data.

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.

tax searchers not reached on Google.

total tax searchers powered by Bing.

total tax searches powered by Bing.

of all tax paid clicks.

Bing Ads delivers value for tax

4.9M or 48%

5.2M

12M

53%

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.

Compared to Google, the Bing Ads audience is 8%
more likely to have bought personal finance/tax software offline in the last 6 months.

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.

Est. 9% of pop.

36% of the population

Tax advertiser target market

Age distribution of tax website visitors2

SOURCE: 1comScore 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.
2Hitwise, Demo Report, January 2015.

In this example, a tax ad with “tax calculator” in the title and “tax refunds” in the description has high ad quality.

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.

Opportunity:
Tax Calculator was a top performer when featured in Sitelink Extension ads and is a relatively untapped opportunity.

Returns (e.g., “tax return”, “returns free”) and Income Taxes (e.g., “income”) also perform well, but were underutilized by advertisers.

Take the opportunity to stand out from the crowd and boost your sitelink clicks by including terms from these high performing categories in your Sitelink Extension ads!

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.

2

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.

Automotive

Business & Finance

Education

Telecom

Travel

Retail

51M

24M

12M

25M

16M

21M

Tele-communications

Travel

$1.57

$0.93

$4.30

$2.69

$2.61

$1.65

$2.16

$1.60

$1.30

$0.50

$5.82

$1.76

$0.77

$0.39

$1.35

$0.73

$0.91

$0.55

SOURCE: AdGooroo, Google Adwords vs. Yahoo Bing Network – Average Cost per Click by Industry, Q1 2014.

Drive more in-store conversions with store locator, click-to-call, merchant ratings, and click-to-direction.

Connect customers quickly to your business with click-to-call.

Drive even better performance with Ad Extensions

20%

10%

13%

SOURCE: Microsoft internal data.

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