The battle of Tax Day: Analyzing TurboTax, H&R Block and TaxAct’s display ad strategies

Tax Day wouldn’t rank too highly on most people’s lists of favorite dates. But for the tax software industry, it’s like Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and Black Friday all rolled into one. Per CivicScience, 39 percent of Americans in 2024 prepared (or planned to prepare) their taxes using tax software, with 23 percent using a free tool and 16 percent choosing a paid platform. Intuit TurboTax is comfortably the most popular tax tool, but there are a bunch of...

Phil Norris

Finance - 6 min read

Inside VISA’s $11.4M ad spend: How one of the largest finance MNCs in the world is disrupting the e-payments market..

Founded in 1958, Visa is an American multinational finance company that facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, gift cards, and debit cards. With operations across six continents, Visa processed 100 billion transactions during 2014 with a total volume of $6.8 trillion, according to a 2015 Nilsen report.  Let’s take a closer look at their advertising strategy: 2006: ‘Life Takes VISA’ After 20 years, VISA replaced their well-known tagline—”It’s everywhere you want to...

Surbhi Dhawan

Finance - 7 min read

There’s new money in town: How PayPal is using their $20.4M ad spend to attract and convert more customers.

Launched in 1998 as Continuity by Ken Howery, Luke Nosek, Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, Paypal is an online payments system that works as an electronic alternative to conventional transaction methods like money orders and checks. Over the years, the company has operated worldwide as a payment processor for commercial users including online vendors and auction platforms, who benefit from one-click transactions, and seller protection in exchange for a nominal fee. After PayPal’s IPO was listed at...

Surbhi Dhawan

Finance - 9 min read

How TaxAct and H&R Block leverage the tax season to optimize their advertising strategy.

Tax preparation and filing can pose quite the challenge, and having a software that helps you accurately determine and manage your tax liabilities can be a game-changer. According to Exponential, more and more people in the U.S. prefer online tax filing or using a tax filing software, instead of relying on retail and walk-in tax services. The 2018 NSBA Tax Survey found that one in three businesses spend more than 40 hours and $10,000 every year doing their taxes....

Surbhi Dhawan

Finance - 6 min read

The Business of Display Part 8: Credit Card Affiliate Offers

If you want to look at America’s addictions, look at some of the biggest spenders on Display. We’re addicted to celebrity gossip. We’re addicted to sports and political news. We’re addicted to weight loss and beauty. And most of all: We’re addicted to credit. We received pre-approved credit card offers the day we turned 18. There are stories of dead dogs receiving credit cards and toddlers receiving cards with limits higher than those of their parents. Soon we discovered...

Bradley Nickel

Finance - 7 min read