Trends and Insights

Building a Better Accounting Marketing Budget

For more than a decade, the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) has partnered with Hinge to research, analyze and provide the valuable insights accounting marketers and executive leadership teams need to develop high-performing marketing programs.

The 2023-24 Marketing Budget Benchmarking Study provides an all-new analysis of how firms organize their marketing and business development teams, how marketing teams support talent recruiting and retention initiatives and how accounting firms use technology to propel their marketing programs. Perhaps the most valuable portion of the study — an analysis of what the fastest growing firms do differently than their slower growing peers — will allow marketers to model their strategy, tools and techniques on those used by the most successful firms in the industry.

Leveraging Insights

In the past, marketers had limited access to data — perhaps a copy of last year’s budget or a general idea of the firm’s overall marketing spend. But today’s marketers are tasked with more — and more complex — responsibilities than ever. The AAM Marketing Budget Benchmarking Study equips marketers and decision makers with a comprehensive overview of the accounting marketing landscape, including the data, analysis, benchmarks and insights they need to implement a clearly defined strategy aligned with their business objectives.

The study not only provides greater visibility and clarity at a tactical level, but it also serves as a strategic resource to effect change. At one level, it can help marketers allocate resources more efficiently, prioritize activities, track and evaluate performance and measure ROI. At another level, it provides the insights to create an environment of accountability, establish financial controls, facilitate discussions with other departments, simplify decision-making processes and provide the clear communication and transparency that stakeholders, executive leadership and boards need. In short, marketers can create a more powerful, data-driven and defensible marketing budget.

Fastest Growing Firms

The average firm in this year’s study had 489 employees and about $95 million in revenue. These are substantial firms. The entire sample represents more than $6 billion in revenue with 49,000 full-time professionals and 2,400 marketing and business development (BD) employees.

The sample was segmented into high-growth firms (fastest growing 25%) and low-growth firms (slowest growing 25%). The 50% in the middle were designated average-growth firms. The high-growth firms grow more than five times faster than their low-growth peers.

Keys to Budgeting for Growth

Uncertainty and unpredictability have rocked many industries, including accounting. Add to that a growing talent shortage and many firms find themselves taking a hard look at their business models and the services they offer. High-growth firms have a distinct advantage over their slower growing competitors in three key areas: talent, technology and marketing techniques.

Talent

By several measures high-growth firms invest more in their marketing and BD talent. First, they have a higher ratio of marketing and BD professionals to total employees than the slow-growth group. They also make greater use of outside talent, such as consultants and marketing agencies. In fact, 100% of high-growth firms in the study plan to increase spending on talent.

Employees at high-growth firms are also more satisfied with their firm’s culture than are employees at slower growing firms. Well over half of employees (54.5%) at high-growth firms are very satisfied, while only about 3 of 10 employees (30.8%) in low-growth firms feel the same way.

The full report explores the specific culture-building techniques the highgrowth firms are using to build and reinforce their culture as well as how they communicate their culture to support recruiting.

Technology

Technology is playing an increasing role in marketing. In fact, high-growth firms have a much greater level of digital maturity than their low-growth peers. One way this is expressed is in their greater use of software to support the marketing and BD functions. Put another way, high-growth firms not only invest in talent, they also give their professionals more sophisticated tools to work with. This is a real impact multiplier.

Marketing Techniques

Today’s changing marketplace requires accounting marketers to rethink where they allocate their marketing dollars.

In the full report, Hinge created a detailed breakdown of marketing techniques that are used most often, how firms allocate their budgets and where the high-growth firms plan to increase spending. The categories of marketing techniques most often included in marketing budgets are:

• People & resources

• Traditional marketing

• Digital & content marketing

• Advertising

• Conferences & exhibits

For example, public relations — both traditional and digital — are favored by high-growth firms. But they invest less in traditional PR and more in the digital varieties.

More than 90% of high-growth firms already invest in search engine optimization (SEO) and they are planning to increase their SEO spending even further. Interestingly, digital PR is an important tool for accelerating SEO results. Clearly, there is a lot to learn from the marketing technique selections that high-growth firms make.

Report Overview

The full report is organized into seven sections.

1. Overall Firm Profiles

Including top line revenue, revenue per office, revenue per equity partner, revenue per employee, average annual growth rate, size and composition of the marketing function, salary averages, how marketing teams are organized and reporting relationships.

2. Growth Profiles

High-growth, average-growth and low-growth firms are compared in terms of financial performance, marketing departments and service offerings.

3. Budget Allocation/Control

Allocation of the budget among the five primary marketing technique categories, with a breakdown in each category comparing high-growth and low-growth firms, as well as the number of industry practice areas supported.

4. Marketing Spend & Strategies

A detailed breakdown of marketing technique usage, current spending and future spending priorities across all firms. Also includes the breakdown between high-growth and lowgrowth firms, revealing how the high-growth firms of today plan to adjust their budgets in the future.

5. Spending by Firm Size

For benchmarking purposes, firms are categorized into four sizes, providing a breakdown of metrics such as revenue per office, revenue per equity partner, revenue per employee, annual growth rate and services offered. The ratio of marketing employees to full-time equivalents and budget percentages by firm size are also examined.

6. Company Culture

How firms are investing in recruiting and retention efforts,the involvement of marketing in the hiring process, methods used for strengthening company culture and satisfaction levels across the different growth profiles.

7. Digital Maturity

Implementation profiles and success levels related to software that support marketing and business development functions. Also examines how firms might accelerate the adoption of technology to contribute to firm growth.

A Final Thought

More is being demanded from accounting marketers than ever before, making the planning and budgeting process increasingly challenging. From attracting top talent to integrating the latest technologies, today’s marketers are wrestling with problems, old and new, in their quest to help their firms become more visible and grow.

With the AAM Marketing Budget Benchmarking Study at their side, marketers can reduce risk, engage their audience more rapidly, and bring new clarity and perspective to the marketing planning process.

Get a copy of the free Executive Summary and purchase the full report from the AAM website.

Guest columnist: Will Casserly, account director at Hinge. Contact Will at wcasserly@hingemarketing.com