A sensible accounting firm marketing budget for a firm that wants to grow is roughly 2% of revenue, not counting staff pay, based on what the fastest-growing firms in the profession report spending. That’s a starting range, not a rule. This guide is for owners of small and mid-size accounting, CPA and bookkeeping firms who want to set a marketing budget they can defend, check it against the clients they actually need, and decide how to split it.
Request your free Google Ads audit or call 365-366-2524.
By Jack Ogus, Founder & CEO of Ogus Marketing Group. Jack is a Google Ads Partner who has managed more than $10M in Google Ads spend and more than $1M in Facebook ad spend, much of it for accounting firms and law firms.
What accounting firms actually spend on marketing
The most useful benchmark comes from the profession itself. The 2025-26 Marketing Budget Benchmark Study by the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) and Hinge Research Institute surveyed 87 firms with more than $16 billion in combined annual revenue. High-growth firms, defined as the top 25% by three-year compound annual growth rate, allocated 2.1% of revenue to marketing, excluding compensation. Other firms in the study spent 1% (The Accountant, June 3, 2025).
The same report says the high-growth firms put 29.6% of their marketing budgets into conferences and in-person events, and had one marketing employee for every 49 staff, versus 1 to 57 at slower-growing firms.
For comparison, Gartner’s 2025 CMO Spend Survey found marketing budgets across large companies averaged 7.7% of revenue, with paid media at 30.6% of the budget, or 2.4% of revenue. But “the vast majority” of those respondents reported annual revenue over $1 billion (Gartner, May 12, 2025). A likely reason accounting firms spend a much smaller share is that so much of their growth comes through relationships and referrals.
Three cautions before you copy a percentage
- The AAM firms are big. $16 billion across 87 firms is an average of more than $180 million each, far larger than a typical local practice. A small firm has fixed costs (a website, a CRM, a basic ad budget) that don’t shrink in proportion, so it may need a higher percentage to do the same things.
- “Excluding compensation” matters. The 2.1% figure leaves out marketing staff salaries. If you pay a marketing coordinator, or if partners spend real hours on business development, your true cost is higher.
- The link isn’t proven to be cause and effect. High-growth firms spend more on marketing, but growing firms may also simply have more to spend. Treat 2% as a reasonable target for a firm that wants growth, not a guarantee of it.
What belongs in the budget
Put every outside cost of winning new clients in one place so you can see the total:
| Category | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Paid advertising | Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram ads | The part you can scale up and down fastest |
| Agency or freelancer fees | Ad management, design, copywriting | Keep separate from ad spend so you can compare both |
| Website and landing pages | Hosting, updates, new service pages | One clear page per service you advertise |
| Tools | CRM, call tracking, email platform, review requests | Small monthly costs that add up |
| Events and relationships | Conferences, sponsorships, referral-partner lunches, client events | Where high-growth AAM firms put nearly 30% |
| Content and email | Newsletters, guides, tax-deadline reminders | Keeps existing clients buying more services |
Track partner and staff time separately. It isn’t in the 2.1% benchmark, but it is a real cost.
Two ways to set the number, and why you need both
Top-down: a percentage of revenue. Multiply last year’s revenue by 1% (to hold steady) or about 2% (to grow). It tells you what you can afford.
Bottom-up: from the clients you want. Work out how many new clients you need beyond referrals, how many leads that takes, and what a lead costs. We walk through that method step by step in how to market an accounting firm. It tells you what the goal requires.
If the bottom-up number is much bigger than the top-down number, either the goal is too ambitious for one year or you need to improve conversion before spending more. If it’s much smaller, you may be under-investing in the channel that works.
Worked example: a $1.2 million firm
Here’s how the two methods might meet for a hypothetical six-person CPA firm. All firm figures are assumptions for illustration.
Top-down. Revenue: $1,200,000.
- At 1% (the “other firms” level): $12,000 a year
- At 2.1% (the high-growth level): $25,200 a year, or $2,100 a month
Bottom-up. The firm wants 20 new business clients this year beyond referrals, each worth about $5,000 a year in fees.
- Assume 1 in 5 qualified leads becomes a client: 20 ÷ 0.20 = 100 qualified leads
- Assume 140perqualifiedleadfromGoogleAds.That′saboveLocaliQ′s2026averagesfortheclosestcategories, BusinessServices(93.69 per lead) and Finance & Insurance ($74.44) (LocaliQ, 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks), because benchmark leads include ones that won’t fit your firm.
- Ad spend needed: 100 × 140 = * *14,000 a year**
Putting it together. A $25,200 budget at the high-growth level could split like this:
| Line | Annual | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads spend | $14,000 | 56% |
| Ad management (assumed fee) | $6,000 | 24% |
| Website and landing page updates | $2,000 | 8% |
| Tools (CRM, call tracking, reviews) | $1,700 | 7% |
| Referral-partner and client events | $1,500 | 6% |
| Total | $25,200 | 100% (shares rounded) |
The payoff check: 20 clients × 5, 000 = * *100,000 in new annual fees** for $25,200 in marketing, and most of those clients will pay again next year. Your shares will differ. A firm with a strong referral network might put more into events. A firm with few referrals might put more into ads.
Note that $14,000 a year is about $1,170 a month in ad spend, a little above the $1,000 USD monthly minimum we recommend for our CPA Launch program. Below about that level, results swing too much month to month to judge.
Spend it unevenly across the year
Demand for accounting services isn’t flat, so the budget shouldn’t be either. Individual tax work concentrates in a few months, while bookkeeping, payroll and advisory run all year. Budget monthly, not as twelve equal slices:
- Put more ad spend into January to April for tax clients, and into the post-season months for catch-up bookkeeping and planning work.
- Keep a smaller baseline running in quiet months so the account keeps its history.
- Hold some budget back for capacity: when you’re full in late March, pull spend from tax prep rather than buying calls you can’t take.
Our tax season advertising calendar gives month-by-month percentages for pacing ad spend, and our guide to Google Ads for bookkeepers covers year-round bookkeeping campaigns.
When to change the budget
- Raise it when cost per client is well below what a client is worth and you have capacity. Increase in steps of 20% to 30% a month so you can see whether cost per client holds.
- Hold it for the first 90 days of any new channel, until you have enough leads to judge.
- Cut or move it when a channel can’t show cost per client after 90 days, or when the team is full.
Related reading from Ogus Marketing Group
- Marketing for accountants and Google Ads for accountants
- Bookkeeper marketing and tax preparer marketing
- Case studies
Frequently asked questions
How much should a CPA firm spend on marketing?
As a starting point, about 1% of revenue to maintain your position and about 2% to grow, excluding staff pay. In the 2025-26 AAM and Hinge study, high-growth accounting firms spent 2.1% of revenue on marketing and other firms 1%. Check that figure against a bottom-up calculation from the number of new clients you need.
What percentage of revenue do accounting firms spend on marketing?
The AAM and Hinge 2025-26 benchmark study found 2.1% for high-growth firms and 1% for others, excluding compensation. The study’s 87 firms had more than $16 billion in combined revenue, so smaller firms may need a higher percentage to cover fixed costs like a website and tools.
What should an accounting firm marketing budget include?
Paid advertising, agency or freelancer fees, website and landing page work, tools such as a CRM and call tracking, events and referral-partner activity, and content or email. Track partner and staff business-development time separately, since benchmarks usually exclude compensation.
How much of the marketing budget should go to Google Ads?
It depends on how much of your growth needs to come from outside referrals. In our worked example, a growth-focused firm put about 56% of a $25,200 budget into Google Ads spend. We’d suggest at least $1,000 a month in ad spend if you use Google Ads at all, so results are reliable enough to judge.
When should an accounting firm increase its marketing budget?
When you can show cost per new client well below what a client is worth, and you have capacity for more work. Raise spend in steps and watch whether cost per client holds. If you can’t yet measure cost per client, fix tracking before spending more.
Get a free Google Ads audit for your accounting firm
If you’re deciding how much to put into Google Ads, we’ll review your current account for free, or help you build a budget from your own numbers if you haven’t started. You’ll see which searches are worth paying for and what a new client is really costing you.
Call 365-366-2524 or fill in the form below to request your free Google Ads audit.
Ogus Marketing Group is a Google Partner agency based in Hamilton, Ontario, running Google Ads and Facebook Ads for accounting firms and law firms across the US and Canada.