A series of studies conducted by Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® has revealed the significant impact of AM/FM radio campaigns on tax preparation brand effectiveness. Much thanks to Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer at Cumulus Media | Westwood One, for the shoutout of the multi-touch attribution work done by LeadsRx, along with other research, that helped inform the report.

The studies, which measured the impact of multiple tax preparation services’ AM/FM radio campaigns in 2023, found that AM/FM radio is an ideal medium for the tax preparation category, driving site traffic, brand awareness, and visitation to tax preparation offices.

Key Findings

AM/FM radio listeners are more likely to be users of online and onsite tax preparation services. According to an April 2023 MARU/Matchbox study of 1,033 respondents, heavy AM/FM radio listeners over-indexed in tax preparation services versus heavy TV viewers both for online tax preparation (116 for heavy AM/FM radio listeners versus 92 for heavy TV viewers) and in-person tax preparation (144 for AM/FM radio and 63 for TV).

AM/FM radio is an ideal medium for the tax preparation category. Heavy AM/FM radio listeners are +39% more likely to pay $301+ to have their taxes prepared and show greater familiarity, interest, consideration, and usage of tax category brands.

AM/FM radio ads drive site traffic for tax preparation brands. LeadsRx, a leading attribution firm, utilized a multi-touch approach for a comprehensive examination of each advertising medium’s impact on a brand’s search and site traffic. Online behavior was matched to minute-level AM/FM radio ad occasions and to digital channels using the LeadsRx Universal Tracking Pixel.

In the LeadsRx attribution study of a tax preparation service’s multi-wave campaign, AM/FM radio generated between a +43% to +47% increase in website traffic. Web interactions peaked in January and February, declining into March until the tax deadline.

LeadsRx measured web interactions with tax preparation service web interactions peaking on Mondays and decreasing throughout the week. Monday’s average web sessions peaked at 48,285, steadily dropping – but still remaining strong – by Friday, where average web sessions hit 43,063.

In this YouTube video, Bouvard breaks down the studies and provides additional insights into what the research reveals about the effectiveness of AM/FM radio advertising by tax preparation services.

Additional Findings

Branding early and often in tax preparation service ads drives more site traffic. LeadsRx found the top three creative executions that drove site traffic for a tax preparation service had the marketer’s brand name within the first five seconds of the ad.

Ads that performed best in driving site traffic had many mentions of the brand. According to Nielsen, the more times a brand is mentioned in creative, the higher the lift in familiarity, affinity, likelihood to seek information, and brand recall.

News/Talk and Sports programming attributed web sessions outperformed their share of AM/FM radio campaign impressions

While web sessions peaked early in the campaign, Motionworks found location visitation surged in March and April.

The research by LeadsRx and other firms clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of AM/FM radio in driving brand awareness, website traffic, and visitation to tax preparation offices. Tax preparation services should consider AM/FM radio as a key component of their marketing mix.

To learn more about LeadsRx and how it works, schedule a brief demo today.