Published by Accountants Daily, powered by MOMENTUM MEDIA
Written by Jotham Lian on 01 February 2019
Accountants are facing a costly battle to market their business online as new research shows the average cost to bid for an ad in the top ten.
Digital marketing agency SEO Shark’s research of 21 business categories has found that ‘top of page’ bids – the average cost of an ad to appear at the top of Google – cost accounting firm $27.70 on average, placing it within the top ten of all industries.
In comparison, IT services are the most costly business to market at $107.60 for an average top of page bid and the retail industry the cheapest at $1.90 per bid.
The accounting and advisory industry also fared poorly in terms of average monthly search volumes, coming in sixth-lowest with 36,520 searches.
The most searched keyword in the industry was unsurprisingly “accountant” with a monthly average of 14,800 searches.
“With more consumers relying on search engines to find what they need, the online landscape now makes up the majority of marketing and sales budgets for many businesses. The cost of an ad is an indicator of how challenging it will be to market that product or service,” said SEO Shark managing director Lucas Bikowski.
“Many businesses are investing in creating a website that ticks all the SEO boxes, including keyword strategy to make sure their site appears at the top of a user’s search page.
“High search volumes don’t guarantee a lower top of page bid. At the end of the day, it’s all to do with return on investment on any particular keyword.”
Speaking to Accountants Daily, Mayflower Consulting managing director Sarah Penn said accounting firms should consider the results ahead of investing in an online strategy.
“You have to get pretty fancy on the targeting front and have a fantastic message with serious cut-through to make SEO a worthwhile strategy,” said Ms Penn.
“Referrals are always going to be the best source of new business.”
