This page is for owners of CPA firms, tax practices and bookkeeping firms in the US and Canada who want more new clients than referrals alone bring in. Ogus Marketing Group runs Google Ads and Facebook Ads for accounting firms, timed to the tax calendar and measured by the number of clients you sign, not clicks. If you want a predictable flow of tax, bookkeeping and business clients at a cost per client you can live with, this is how we do it.
What we do, and what we don’t
Ogus is a Google Ads Partner agency based in Hamilton, Ontario. We run three things for accounting firms:
- Google Search Ads, which put your firm in front of people searching for “tax accountant near me”, “small business bookkeeper” or “S corp tax return help” right now.
- Local Services Ads, where Google offers them for tax services in your area (more on that below).
- Facebook and Instagram Ads, used for retargeting and for reaching defined groups such as contractors, real estate investors or new business owners.
We do not sell SEO. Plenty of accounting firm marketing agencies bundle SEO, websites and social posting into one retainer. We focus on paid advertising because it is where we have managed the most money (more than $10M in Google Ads and more than $1M in Facebook ads) and because it is the channel you can switch on, measure and scale within a single tax season.
The marketing problem accounting firms actually have
Most accounting firms don’t have a “brand awareness” problem. They have four practical ones.
1. Referrals are good but they don’t scale on demand. A referral network fills a practice slowly and unevenly. When a partner retires, a large client is acquired, or you hire a new staff accountant who needs a book of work, you can’t ask your referral sources to send three more business clients by March.
2. Demand is compressed into a few weeks. In the US, the IRS opened the 2026 filing season on January 26 and individual returns were due April 15 (IRS). In Canada most individual returns were due April 30, 2026, or June 15 for most self-employed people (CRA). Anyone who needs a return filed has to pick someone before those dates, so hiring decisions bunch up into a few weeks. A campaign that starts in March has already missed the people who chose in February.
3. The demand is there, but it is split. Through April 17, 2026, the IRS received 72.8 million e-filed returns from tax professionals and 64.8 million that people prepared themselves (IRS filing season statistics). That second group searches for many of the same words your clients do, so a lot of tax searches come from people who want free software, a form or a quick answer, not a firm. Untargeted ads pay for those clicks.
4. Generic agencies don’t understand the work. An agency that runs ads for roofers and dentists will treat a one-off individual return and a bookkeeping client paying thousands a year as the same “lead”. They won’t know that an S corporation owner searching in February has a March deadline, or that many firms stop taking new individual returns in early April and need the ads to stop with them. That’s the gap a marketing agency for accountants should fill.
Where your next clients are looking
Search comes first. In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,227 US consumers, 52% started their most recent search for a local business on Google Search and 71% used Google Search at some point; 75% used more than one channel and 73% searched on a phone (BrightLocal, Consumer Search Behavior 2026).
For an accounting firm, that means three things. Your ads need to appear for the specific service someone types. The page they land on needs a phone number that works on a phone. And when they check your reviews and Google Business Profile before calling, what they see should back up the ad. We manage the first two. We’ll tell you plainly if the third is costing you calls, and what to fix, though we don’t sell that work.
How we run digital marketing for accountants
Google Search Ads: the core channel
Google Ads is where most of your budget should go, because it reaches people at the moment they decide to hire someone. We build campaigns by service line rather than one catch-all campaign: individual tax preparation, business tax returns, bookkeeping and payroll, tax planning and advisory, and IRS or CRA problems such as back taxes and unfiled returns. Each gets its own keywords, ads, budget and landing page, so you can push bookkeeping all year and turn individual tax prep up and down with the season.
The full detail (campaign structure, our negative keyword lists, bidding through tax season and call tracking setup) is on our Google Ads for accountants page.
Local Services Ads for tax services
Google’s Local Services Ads list “Tax services” and “Financial planning services” among the eligible categories (Google Local Services Ads Help). They carry a Google Verified badge and charge per lead rather than per click (Google). In the US, Google’s screening for tax specialists includes license checks for each tax specialist in the firm and professional liability insurance where local law requires it (Google screening requirements).
Availability depends on your city, and Google’s verification page lists tax-specialist requirements for the US only, so we confirm eligibility for your address before we plan around it. Where it is available, we run it alongside search ads, not instead of them.
Facebook and Instagram Ads: support, not the starting point
Nobody opens Facebook looking for an accountant. Facebook Ads work for accounting firms in three narrower ways:
- Retargeting people who visited your tax or bookkeeping page and left without calling.
- Deadline reminders to a local audience before the March and April deadlines, or before year-end planning in the fall.
- Niche audiences where you can describe the client: construction company owners, real estate investors, medical practices, e-commerce sellers, or people who recently started a business.
We usually add Facebook once search is producing leads and tracking is reliable, so you can see whether it adds clients or just adds cost.
Leads you can actually bill
Every campaign we run for an accounting firm is set up to answer one question: which ads produced clients who paid? That means:
- Call tracking. In our accounts, a large share of accounting leads phone rather than fill in a form. We track calls from ads and from your website so phone leads are counted.
- Lead grading. Qualification is built into the ads and forms: the ad copy says who you serve, and the form asks what service the person needs and whether it’s for a business. Wrong-fit enquiries (people who want a free filing, a job, or software support) become new negative keywords.
- Capacity controls. When your team is full for individual returns in late March, we pull that budget back or move it to extensions and bookkeeping, instead of buying calls you can’t answer.
Marketing by type of firm
Different practices sell different things, so the campaigns look different.
- CPA firms with business and advisory clients. Focus on business tax returns, bookkeeping, payroll and tax planning, where one client is worth thousands a year. Individual returns are a smaller, seasonal campaign. See Google Ads for accountants.
- Bookkeeping firms. Year-round demand, recurring fees and less seasonality. Campaigns target small business owners by industry and software. See bookkeeper marketing.
- Tax preparers and EAs. Heavily seasonal, with high volume from January to April and a second push for extensions and back-tax work. See tax preparer marketing.
- Canadian accounting firms. Same approach, with campaigns built around the April 30 and June 15 personal deadlines and T2 corporate returns. Jack Ogus also runs CPA Launch (cpalaunch.ca), a lead-generation program for accounting firms.
Budget: what accounting firm marketing costs
Google Ads for accountants costs less per click than for lawyers. LocaliQ’s 2026 benchmarks don’t break out accounting, but the closest categories average $3.39 per click and $74.44 per lead (Finance & Insurance) and $5.87 per click and $93.69 per lead (Business Services), compared with $9.87 per click and $131.63 per lead for Attorneys & Legal Services (LocaliQ, 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks). Your actual costs depend on your city, the services you advertise and how well the campaign is run.
We recommend at least $1,000 USD a month in ad spend. Below that, a campaign covering more than one service gets too few clicks to learn from.
Worked example: a firm adding business clients
The numbers below are assumptions for illustration. Replace them with your own fees and close rate.
| Input | Assumption |
|---|---|
| Goal | 4 new small business clients a month (bookkeeping plus business return) |
| Average first-year fees per business client | $3,000 |
| Share of leads that become clients | 25% (1 in 4) |
| Cost per lead | $94 (LocaliQ’s Business Services average, rounded) |
The math:
- Leads needed: 4 ÷ 0.25 = 16 leads a month
- Ad spend: 16 × $94 = about $1,500 a month
- Daily budget: $1,500 ÷ 30.4 = about $49 a day (Google can spend up to twice your daily budget on a busy day but won’t charge more than 30.4 times it in a month; Google Ads Help)
- Ad cost per new client: 1, 500 ÷ 4 = * *375**, against an assumed $3,000 in first-year fees
Most business clients stay for years, so the second and third years of fees cost nothing in advertising. If your close rate is lower or your fees are smaller, the fix is usually to advertise higher-value services, not to cut the budget below the point where the campaign can learn.
Proof
Our accounting firm results are on our case studies page.
The case study with the longest track record is from a law firm, and it shows how we measure success. Over 10 months of Google Ads, Brown Law received 141 leads, including 86 phone calls, at an $8.13 average cost per click, a 10.32% conversion rate and $81.39 per lead, with more than 20% of leads becoming clients (Brown Law case study). Legal clicks cost more than accounting clicks; the point is the method: tracked calls, a known cost per lead, and a known lead-to-client rate. That is the reporting you get from us.
What happens in your first 90 days
Month 1: audit, tracking and launch. We review your current ads (or your plan if you’ve never run them), your fees by service and your capacity by month. We set up call and form tracking, pick which service lines to advertise first, check Local Services Ads eligibility, and launch the first search campaigns once tracking is tested.
Month 2: clean up and grade leads. We review search terms at least weekly, add negatives, adjust bids by service, and tighten the qualifying questions in ads and forms. You’ll know your real cost per lead by service line.
Month 3: decide where to grow. We move budget toward the services producing paying clients, add retargeting on Facebook if search is working, and set the budget calendar for the next tax deadline.
If you start in the fall, month 3 lands just before January, which is the timing you want.
Why accounting firms choose Ogus
- One specialist on your account. Jack Ogus, founder and CEO, is a Google Ads Partner and Meta associate who has managed more than $10M in Google Ads and more than $1M in Facebook ads.
- We know the calendar. Campaigns are planned around filing seasons, extension deadlines and year-end planning.
- Paid ads only. No bundled extras you didn’t ask for.
- US and Canada. We’re based in Hamilton, Ontario, and serve accounting firms in both countries remotely.
For more on the channels before you talk to anyone, read how accounting firms get clients online.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best marketing for accountants?
For most firms, Google Search Ads aimed at specific services (“small business tax accountant”, “bookkeeping services near me”), backed by a Google Business Profile with recent reviews. Search reaches people when they are ready to hire. Facebook Ads and referrals work best as support for search, not as the main source of new clients.
How much should an accounting firm spend on marketing?
Work backward from the clients you want. New clients ÷ your lead-to-client rate = leads needed; leads needed × cost per lead = ad spend. For example, 4 business clients a month at a 25% close rate and about $94 per lead is roughly $1,500 a month. We recommend at least $1,000 USD a month in ad spend.
Do you work with solo practitioners and small firms?
Yes. Small firms are often the best fit for paid ads because each new business client makes a visible difference. What matters more than size is whether you have capacity for new clients and someone to answer the phone when leads call.
Do you offer SEO?
No. Ogus runs Google Ads, Local Services Ads and Facebook Ads. We will tell you if your landing page or Google Business Profile is costing you leads, and we set up or brief the landing page each campaign points to, but we don’t sell SEO.
Should an accounting firm start with Google Ads or Facebook Ads?
Google Ads. People search Google when they need an accountant now; on Facebook you are interrupting people who weren’t looking. Add Facebook once search is producing tracked leads, starting with retargeting people who visited your service pages.
How soon will we see new clients?
Search ads can produce calls in the first week after launch. Expect month 1 to be about setup and learning, month 2 to show a reliable cost per lead, and month 3 to show which services turn into paying clients. Timing matters: a campaign launched in the fall is tuned before the January rush.
Do you work with firms in Canada?
Yes. We’re based in Hamilton, Ontario, and run campaigns for accounting firms in both Canada and the US, planned around the CRA deadlines (April 30, and June 15 for most self-employed people) or the IRS deadlines as appropriate.
Get a free Google Ads audit
If you already run ads, we’ll review your account and show you where the budget is going: which searches are wasting money, whether calls are tracked, and what you’re paying per new client. If you’ve never advertised, we’ll build a first-season plan with a realistic budget for your market.
Call 365-366-2524 or request your free Google Ads audit.