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 other platforms scrapping it out for the privilege of helping us file our taxes correctly.
All of those brands spend big money on advertising in a bid to increase their market share. So we used Adbeat’s competitive intelligence tools to analyze the display ad strategies of three of the biggest players:
- Intuit TurboTax
- H&R Block
- TaxAct
Read on to learn about the platforms, messages, and ad formats they’re using to win our hearts, minds, and wallets.
Intuit TurboTax
Ad spend and networks
In the past six months, Intuit has dropped an estimated $19 million on US display ads, spending about half that amount on programmatic ads and roughly two-fifths on video:
Publishers
TurboTax’s top five publishers list reads like a who’s who of popular, consumer-facing online media:
Its top YouTube channels are all music acts, including the distinctly family-friendly Bolofofos — which is likely being targeted so TurboTax can reach parents watching videos with their kids.
Most of its other publisher placements are dominated by sports content (think soccer, MMA, and the Green Bay Packers), finance, and current affairs.
It’s all pretty generic.
Which makes sense: TurboTax is trying to reach all taxpayers rather than chasing a single, distinct customer demographic.
Creatives
Standard
TurboTax’s standard ads are loaded with social proof.
Like this one, which promises a full service guarantee and 100 percent guaranteed accuracy…
…and this one, which highlights the number of people who started using the platform in the previous year:
It’s all designed to reassure taxpayers that TurboTax is a reliable, trustworthy platform.
Native
By contrast, TurboTax’s native ads are strongly geared toward price-related messaging — specifically, how 37 percent of Americans can file their taxes for free using the platform:
They also experiment with some more eye-catching creatives and editorial titles. For instance, this example feels like the sort of how-to guide you’d see from a financial publisher like CNBC or NerdWallet:
Video
TurboTax keeps its video ads short and sweet, with most of its top spenders running for 6 – 12 seconds.
These ads are presumably targeting a more affluent audience than its native ads, because there’s barely any mention of filing for free. Instead, they’re mostly about promoting the quality of TurboTax’s service, with five of its top 10 video ads by spend carrying the tagline: “100 percent accurate taxes guaranteed.”
Landing pages
TurboTax’s two top landing pages by spend are English and Spanish language variants of the regular TurboTax homepage:
However, TurboTax does have some dedicated landing pages that drive conversions by getting rid of distractions like the top navigation menu. Like its standard ads, these pages are crammed full of trust factors. For instance, this one highlights the extensive experience of its tax experts…
…and the overwhelmingly positive nature of its customer reviews:
That’s a key point, with 98 percent of consumers saying reviews are an essential resource when making purchase decisions.
H&R Block
Ad spend and networks
H&R Block has actually outspent TurboTax on display ads over the last six months, dropping an estimated $22.9 million — perhaps because it’s trying to close the gap on the market leader.
It also has a totally different platform strategy to TurboTax, spending the lion’s share of its display ad budget on video:
Publishers
Given that most of H&R Block’s display ad spend goes on video ads, you won’t be shocked to learn that YouTube is comfortably its biggest publisher:
Just like TurboTax, its five biggest channels by spend are all global pop stars. Seems tax platforms are making a major contribution to Becky G’s retirement fund.
H&R Block also targets a similar mix of content to TurboTax on sites like USA Today and Yahoo — we’re talking sports, finance, news, and puzzles. All general interest stuff that reflects the broad audience for tax tools.
However, there’s some interesting stuff here if we dig a little deeper.
For instance, we can see H&R Block is using Ticketmaster to reach local audiences in places like Dallas, Salt Lake City, and Washington:
And it’s also spending a bunch of money on entertainment and pop culture site UPROXX, which predominantly appeals to men aged 18 – 34. Perhaps a sign that H&R Block is chasing a slightly younger audience than TurboTax?
Creatives
Standard
Consistency of creatives is clearly a big deal to H&R Block: all of its top standard ads by spend feature the same font, logo, and green color scheme. But its messaging is a little more varied.
As you’d expect, several ads focus on price — both in terms of saving money on filing your taxes…
…and understanding how much it’ll cost to file your taxes before you start:
But H&R Block also uses standard ads to build trust by highlighting the number of people using the platform:
Native
H&R Block spends very little on native ads, many of which recycle the same creatives used in the brand’s standard ads:
Many of its text-and-image ads promote Block Advisors, a separate platform offering tax advice to small businesses. These ads are often geared toward gig economy workers:
Video
Like TurboTax, H&R Block clearly favors brevity when it comes to video, with all of its top 10 video ads by spend clocking in at 6 – 16 seconds.
Most of these ads encourage consumers to switch to H&R Block, either from a CPA or a different tax platform. Some even mention its biggest competitor, TurboTax, by name:
Again, this makes sense given H&R Block’s comparatively small market share.
Landing pages
H&R Block’s biggest landing pages by spend aren’t really landing pages at all. They’re just regular pages on the brand’s website, including its:
We did manage to unearth some dedicated landing pages, though.
This one, which attracted an estimated $295,000+ in spend, is designed to showcase the range of tax filing options available from H&R Block:
Much like the brand’s video ads, this landing page makes a big deal about switching to H&R Block:
It also showcases a bunch of trust factors to make it clear that switching to H&R Block is a risk-free move:
TaxAct
Ad spend and networks
TaxAct is by far the smallest brand in our tax tool comparison. But it clearly doesn’t lack spending power, shelling out an estimated $41.6 million on display ads in the last six months — almost as much as TurboTax and H&R Block combined. Of that spend, the overwhelming majority went toward video ads:
Publishers
No surprise to see YouTube topping TaxAct’s list of top spenders:
Like TurboTax and H&R Block, all TaxAct’s top YouTube channels are music artists. But there’s no Becky G here — it’s all aimed at children (and, by extension, the parents forced to sit through all those videos with them).
Away from YouTube, we can see TaxAct is paying for placements on the eBay homepage (plus a bunch of seemingly random product listings, from weekly appointment planners to copper stranded building wire). Plus there’s the usual combination of news, sports, and finance-themed content on AOL and Yahoo.
Interestingly, it also spent an estimated $39,800 for placements on Pannchoa, a website that translates Korean news, music, drama, and lifestyle content into English. So it’s presumably either targeting K-Pop stans or Korean-Americans who don’t speak the language.
Creatives
Standard
TaxAct’s standard ads push three main messages.
One focuses on the cost savings of using its platform…
…another is all about accuracy…
…and the third messaging “theme” focus on ease of use:
As you may have noticed, some of these ads are specifically targeting eBay merchants:
They’re clearly a key audience for TaxAct, which explains why the brand is spending so much on eBay ad placements.
Native
This will be quick…
In our six-month review period, TaxAct ran a grand total of three native ads, all of which are recycled versions of its standard ads:
Those ads saw a minimal spend, so native ads clearly aren’t a big part of TaxAct’s strategy.
Video
Video, on the other hand, definitely is a key element of the brand’s display ad strategy.
Despite its monster spending, TaxAct only has a small video ad portfolio, promoting just 10 different video ads so far in 2024. All run for 6 – 15 seconds and feature the same slogan: “Let’s get them over with.”
We’re big fans of this messaging. It doesn’t list a bunch of dull features or try to make filing taxes seem exciting; it’s all about helping customers file their taxes as quickly as possible so they can get on with their lives.
Landing pages
Sorry, landing page fans: TaxAct prefers to send ad clickers straight to its homepage.
However, after a little digging, we managed to find a dedicated landing page targeting eBay sellers:
Like all the other landing pages we’ve analyzed in this article, it’s loaded with pricing information and review scores:
But there’s some interesting stuff further down the page. TaxAct has built a whole content hub for this campaign, all geared toward providing tax advice for eBay merchants:
This helps to establish TaxAct as a trusted source of information for eBay sellers.
Conclusion
People use tax tools for one specific task. And when they’ve finished, they don’t want to think about those tools for another year.
This places major constraints on advertisers — you’re never going to make people buy into the “TurboTax lifestyle”.
Despite this, the three brands we’ve analyzed take pretty varied approaches to display advertising. TurboTax has a mass-market focus; H&R Block positions itself as a reliable alternative; and TaxAct hammers home a single core message around speed and convenience.
It’s almost enough to make tax seem interesting!
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