[April 18, 2012]

For Tax Preparation Agencies, Inbound Consumer Calls Trend Higher in January than April

The most consumer call activity regarding tax preparation services happens during early January, not April, according to a Marchex Institute analysis of more than 40,000 calls to a sample of tax preparation service providers. This means tax preparers need to optimize their online advertising campaigns and get them running strong earlier in the year to fully benefit from the potential to close new sales.

This year's peak window for calls occurred during the week of January 9^th, with 25% of the phone calls occurring between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The average length of these phone calls was 6 minutes and 30 seconds.

"As we analyzed the data from our tax preparation clients, a surprising realization presented itself," said Rafael Jose, Vice President, Marchex Call Analytics (News - Alert). "Tax preparation inquiries spike dramatically in early January and reduce steadily until early April. This counter-intuitive behavior presents a fantastic revenue opportunity for advertisers that prepare and optimize their campaigns for early-bird tax filers."

Based on this Marchex Call Analytics data, advertisers in the tax preparation service industry should consider:

1. Optimizing next year's advertising campaigns accordingly for this earlier opportunity

2. Beyond preparing for a surge in calls/traffic during April, reallocate yearly budget and prepare for the same occurrences during January

3. Call advertisers can help convert January leads by tailoring the content of their Integrated Voice Response (IVR) systems to match the needs of early bird tax filers

About The Marchex Institute

The Marchex Institute is a team of senior analysts and scientists dedicated to improving the digital call advertising industry, and to publishing research and reports based on more than one billion minutes of anonymous call data.

About Marchex

Marchex, Inc. (Nasdaq:MCHX) is a leading mobile and online advertising company that drives consumers to connect with businesses over the phone and provides in-depth analysis of those connections.

Marchex supports customers through a unique platform with three primary components: (1) The Digital Call Marketplace, which connects tens of millions of consumer calls monthly to advertisers from a range of mobile and online sources on a Pay For Call basis; (2) Call Analytics, which powers all of Marchex's advertising solutions and allows partners to leverage data and insights that accurately measure the performance of mobile, online and offline call advertising; and (3) Local Leads, a white-labeled, full service digital advertising solution for small business resellers that drives quality phone calls and other leads to their small business advertisers.

Marchex is based in Seattle. To learn more, please visit www.marchex.com/products.

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