The Twenty Most Commonly Incurred Advertising Expenses for Small Businesses

As a small business owner you may be overwhelmed by the advertising expenses you incur to keep your business going. However, if you let a bookkeeping and accounting services provider monitor all your advertising and other expenses and incomes, you’ll probably have more time to focus on your core competencies and improve your business. Here’s a concise list of twenty most commonly incurred advertising expenses you should be aware of as a small business owner:

1. Fees incurred for engaging a graphic designer for creating your logos, e business cards, postcards, electronic banners, billboards, e brochures, online ads and other such materials that are required to promote your business.
2. The same such promotional materials that need to be printed as hard copies, including business cards, postcards, flyers, brochures and various coupons.
3. Signs that need to be put up on storefronts.
4. Mobile publicity material to be displayed on vehicles.
5. Advertisements on yellow pages, other business directories.
6. Advertisements over the FM radio and podcasts.
7. Advertisements on magazines both digital magazines and the regular hard copy magazines.
8. Commercials on TV
9. Setting up a website and maintaining it, including search engine optimization.
10. Online advertisements, including paid ads on Google, like PPC (pay-per-click).
11. Promotions on the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
12. Promotional T-shirts with logos printed, as well as printed mugs, pens, and other stationery etc.
13. Gas balloon promotions that cover the neighborhood areas.
14. Party promotions, including refreshment and decoration expenses.
15. Attractive Packaging and designing for various products.
16. Sponsoring sporting activities including soccer matches, car rallies etc.
17. Charitable donations to the local schools and NGOs.
18. Participating in promotional parades to distribute handouts, frisbees etc.
19. Sample promotions that are normally given away free to create product awareness.
20. Advertisements highlighting the services rendered by charitable organizations.

Not all of the above advertising expenses may be deductible. In case you classify some of the expenses as deductible, remember that they can never be used for personal gain. That is why it is important to outsource handling of accounts to a professional bookkeeping and accounting services provider who will tell you how you can save on deductions and other taxes. Most of the common advertisement expenses are accepted as standard deductions by the IRS; however it is always good to allow a professional company like Infognana to handle such delicate accounting matters lest the IRS is after you for unpaid taxes.