How much do you spend annually on advertising?

[AZ-Tax]

Under $500
Over $500 but less then $1000
Between $1000 but less then $1500

[zeros]

Don't Advertise

Never thought it was effective and you don't know what you're getting.

[ATSMAN]

Promotional pens and stuff around $100 to $150 per tax season.

[MAMalody]

I have a niche practice. I advertise around $200 worth in a denominational magazine.

[taxmandan]

We ramped up our advertising this year, spent ~$3,500 on a local market effort. Did a test run last year of the same effort and it brought in new clients with fees worth twice the cost. Hoping for the same ROI this year from a wider audience. Quit the yellowpages several years ago as useless (no one under 40 knows what they are).

[MDEA]

Advertising

Prior years spent very little this year spending about $4000. wil see if it is worth it at end of season.

[August @ ADG Financial]

Advertising Costs

Last year we spent about $1500. for the following: Monthly email newsletter. QR Code for our Business Card so people could check on their tax refunds and be driven to our website. (adgfinancial.com) and a mobile app. for our website. A redesign of our Business Cards, the QR code is on the back of the card. I think it was worth the cost. We do about 90K a year in Sales.

[Roberts]

Around $600 per year for a couple of ads. These particular ads routinely bring in 5-6 extra clients per year so they more than pay for themselves.
Spent about $1,800 extra one year on advertising which garnered ZERO clients. Generally, advertising is difficult for a small business.

I have a classified ad in a local paper - $35 per year for 12 monthly issues. First time I ran it I got a $500 per year client which I still have 8 years later. That $500 per year client, was 4 years behind on his taxes!!!!

[zeros]

Denominational Magazine?

I have a niche practice. I advertise around $200 worth in a denominational magazine.

What is a denominational magazine?

[taxmandan]

What is a denominational magazine?

A magazine for collectors of foreign currency. They study the various denominations of the nations like Zimbabwe, currency worth like a zillion Zimbabwe to one US dollar. 8^p

[Lion]

Zero. I do give a discount the following year for a client who refers a new, paying client to me. And, I bought some pens a year or two ago. Word of mouth keeps me busy all year long.

[Black Bart]

It's a little under $500, I guess,

if you can call it advertisin'. I'm throwin' in all the stuff that I (but probably not IRS) consider advertising. I don't do any direct paper/net/radio/TV ads.

Hmmm, let's see now. There's those ball point pens from the dollar store (not imprinted-but I figger they'll remember where they got 'em), the nail files ($2.95-box of 144) that wimmen love (you can stamp 'em yourself if you'll take the time), $25 each to Arkansas Sheriff's Boy's & Girl's Ranch and Arkansas State Troopers (you get bumper stickers which convert tickets to warnings) -- gosh, could that be considered disqualifyin' "goods or services"? (understand now, I don't draw any fine lines between advertising and donations). Then there's the Christmas cards and postage (the lion's share-about $300). I'm still sendin' "Merry Christmas" style cards instead of "Happy Holidays". Probably any day that #*!&$% Freedom From Religion outfit up in Wisconsin will demand I cease and desist (shoot, they even made some Tennessee town take the cross off their water tank last month 'cause it was offendin' transplanted Yankee heathens and some local apostates right and left). But I digress; where was I? Lemme think; okay, I put $20 in a counter jar for a pore soul whose house burned down (had a taxidermy office in his home, so it's business-related). Maybe most effective is the once-a-year purchase from the Pentecosters of their homemade peanut-brittle candy; it's awful hard on the teeth but I get quite a few bites later from grateful churchified patrons.

Oh, and I bought those $10 biz cards off that website listed on TV.

Regards , BB

[ATSMAN]

There is a prominent CPA firm in my town that sponsors a little league baseball team and pays for the uniforms, trips and picnic. I once asked the office manager of that firm (we were in a bowling league one year) and she said it cost them around $5000 per year for all that and they pickup free TV advertising because the community channel broadcasts those games. They more than makeup the expense in revenue.

If I had an ad budget of $5K I would do it.

[lenboush]

Advertising

This year i'll probably spend around $2000 to $3000.

Over my 40 years in the business, I have spend literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising while building my business. A lot of that was wasted money. There is a link on my web site that gives a bit of a review on my views on advertising for anyone who might be interested. You can find it here - http://heritagetax.com/marketing-ideas/

[August @ ADG Financial]

Advertising Costs

Len, thanks for all the great ideas.