The US Search Awards is regarded as the premier celebration of SEO, PPC, and content marketing in the United States. It celebrates and rewards the expertise, talent, and achievements of the search industry.
DAC is thrilled to announce that we have been nominated in the Best Integrated Campaign category for our work with TaxSlayer on the Maximising Your Return One KPI at a Time campaign. TaxSlayer offers electronic tax preparation technology for American consumers and tax professionals, allowing them to easily and efficiently file state and/or federal returns online.
To help highlight the remarkable work achieved by DAC’s SEM and Account Services teams, we interviewed Jared Hendrickson, VP/GM New York, and Kaitlin Smith, Account Director, to share more details about the campaign.
What made our work on TaxSlayer stand out from the competition?
Kaitlin: Two things that made us stand out in this category were innovativeness and agility. Compared to previous tax seasons, TaxSlayer was open to exploring new and uncharted territory in the search program. This willingness to make big shifts in the search strategy resulted in year-over-year improvements.
With tax season lasting just a few months, it was also important to understand what was working or not working and make shifts quickly. Thanks to a trusting partnership with TaxSlayer, we did a great job this season of consistently analysing performance and making decisions together to help drive results and see year-over-year gains.
Jared: With this type of business, we were able to draw a direct correlation between the paid media efforts and the results on the business. We were making real-time decisions based on dollars spent and revenue coming in, so it was a real case study of tangible business results and sales based on the media dollars we were allocating.
What use of integration of search into cross-channel marketing do you believe made the US Search Awards panel choose us to be on the 2018 shortlist?
Kaitlin: I don’t think there was anyone specific channel integration with search that stood out more than the others and resulted in us being chosen, but rather the fact that search was able to be integrated into so many of the different facets of TaxSlayer’s marketing campaign. From SEO and analytics to TV and digital video, search worked with many different channels to impact TaxSlayer’s overall customer journey and drive results.
One of the coolest things we’ve learned working with TaxSlayer is the differences in consumer behaviour based on seasonality. Everyone has to do their taxes, but there are so many differences between people who file at the beginning, middle, or end of the season, from length of conversion down to their search queries. It has been interesting to discover the different types of customers and how/when to adjust messaging to speak to each of them.
Jared: Integration between our team and client teams is integral to success. We worked closely with the marketing department, product team, and business intelligence groups to ensure that we have a very good understanding of what paid media was driving in various stages of the purchase cycle. Without full collaboration of their teams internally, that would not have been possible.
What are you most looking forward to with this client in the future?
Jared: Taking our learning from last tax season and applying it to the beginning of this tax season and learning more.
Why do you believe DAC should win this award?
Jared: Because of the impact the programs have had on the business and the known direct impact on building the clients’ business.
To learn more about how we can achieve award-worthy results for our clients, please get in touch with DAC!
