What is Accounting Marketing?

Accounting marketing is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on strategic marketing investments through accounting accuracy and efficiency.

The firms that spend the most on marketing don’t always necessarily dominate their industries. Instead, firms that carefully invest their marketing resources will experience better results. This is vital for small to medium sized businesses because it allows them to compete with national chains and competitors.

Accounting vs. Marketing

Accounting will always be a part of every business activity and the branch of marketing is no exception. Accounting marketers can track the movement of sales, analyze marketing activities and carefully allocate funds. They continually evaluate and report on the financial statuses of online and traditional marketing campaigns. Accounting marketers use financial data to provide valuable feedback to both marketing and accounting managers.

Featured Programs

As a result, business leaders can save money and better direct funds into appropriate marketing activities. Marketing managers usually secure and define their budgets. They specify the break-even, gross revenue and market share goals with sales managers. Together, these business leaders will create financing strategies and marketing cycle milestones. Their ultimate goals are to enhance customer lifetime values and gauge the customers’ long-term economic worth.

Accounting Metrics

Accounting marketers will clearly know the financial metrics that will be used to evaluate marketing activities. Customer satisfaction surveys are the priority because their feedback measures the marketing strategy’s efficacy and the quality of associated products or services. This valuable metric will objectively identify to marketing managers which allocated resources should be spent on which marketing campaign.

Another common accounting metrics used is ROI evaluations, or return on marketing investment assessments. These are used to quantify the return of the firm’s expenses and marketing activities. These reports will compare the earnings and expenditures that occur during the progression of the marketing campaign. When it comes to the cost of acquisitions, accounting marketers will adopt an all-encompassing approach to analyze expenses related to media costs, agency fees and employee incentives.

How to Become an Accounting Marketer?

While there are very degrees designed specifically for accounting marketers, students can major in accounting and minor in marketing, or vice versa. Students may also select an interdisciplinary degree that allows them to individualize their degree. An individual program of study in accounting and marketing will provide students with equal emphasizes on the knowledge and competency areas needed to succeed in their future jobs. These dual degree programs will provide students with plenty of business classes, such as financial management and legal environments.

The former will examine the finance functions of rims, such as capital budgeting and long-term financing, while the latter will introduce critical legal concepts, such as contracts, federal laws and product liabilities. Process management will focus on reaching and maintaining business excellence through tactical planning and quality-driven day-to-day operations. Strategic management will expound on how to establish objectives and execute controls on an enterprise-wide level.

As part of these degree programs, accounting marketing students will learn about consumer behaviors, marketing research, advertising communications and the psychology of decision making. To learn more about this new field, visit the Association for Accounting Marketing’s website here.