If you own a small or mid-size accounting or CPA firm and want more of the right clients, this is the plan we would follow. Referrals will probably stay your biggest source of new business, so make them easier to give and easier to confirm online. Then use paid search, mainly Google Ads, to add clients you can’t get from referrals, in the services you choose, when you have capacity for them.
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.
Start with an honest look at where clients come from
Most advice about marketing for accountants skips an awkward fact: few business clients say an ad is how they found their accountant. In TaxDome’s 2025 survey of 353 US businesses, 58% said a referral was the main way they found their current accountant. Online search (Google, Yelp and similar) came second at 17%, social media at 10%, and “responded to an advertisement” at 3% (TaxDome, 2025 Niche Business Accounting Report).
We run ads for a living, so here is how we read that:
- Referrals are the base. If your referral flow is weak, fix that first. It costs time, not ad spend.
- Search is the second door, and you control it. You can’t make someone refer you this week. You can show up this week when a business owner in your city searches “bookkeeper for contractors” or “small business tax accountant.”
- A referral still gets checked online. Someone told “call Sarah’s firm” will look you up first.
So a sound plan has three layers: get more referrals, make them convert, then buy the demand referrals don’t cover.
Layer 1: Make referrals a system, not an accident
A few accounting firm marketing ideas that cost little and work:
- Ask at the right moment. The best time is right after you’ve delivered something the client is happy with: a filed return with a refund, a cleaned-up set of books, an IRS notice resolved. Make the ask specific: “Do you know another contractor who’s behind on bookkeeping?” works better than “Send anyone our way.”
- Build two or three professional referral partners. Bankers, financial planners, estate lawyers and business brokers all meet people who need an accountant. Meet them once a quarter and refer work back to them.
- Tell clients everything you do. Plenty of tax-only clients don’t know you also do bookkeeping, payroll or entity setup. A short quarterly email about one service is cheap new revenue.
- Pick a niche you can name. “We do accounting for dental practices” is easier to pass along than “we do accounting,” and narrower searches are easier to target with ads.
Layer 2: Make sure a referral survives the online check
Once someone hears your name, they search for it. Two things decide whether they call.
Reviews. In BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey, 97% of consumers said they read reviews for local businesses, 74% look for reviews written in the last three months, and 68% will only use a business with four or more stars (BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026). Old, sparse reviews look risky next to steady recent ones. Ask for a review, with a direct link, in the message that delivers the finished return or monthly reports.
Your Google Business Profile. Google says local results are based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking” (Google Business Profile Help, How Google determines local ranking). Use the right category, list each service you sell, show tax-season hours, and use a phone number someone actually answers.
You don’t need an elaborate website to run this plan. You need one clear page per service you want to sell, with a phone number at the top and a short form. That page is also where your ads will send people.
Layer 3: Use Google Ads to add clients on demand
Referrals are slow and you can’t steer them. Google Ads is the part of accounting firm marketing you can turn up, turn down, and point at a specific service.
Bid on the services you want more of, not “accountant.” Searches like “accountant” or “CPA” are broad and attract everyone from students to job seekers. Better themes:
- Business work: “small business accountant [city],” “bookkeeping services for [industry],” “S corp tax return accountant,” “catch-up bookkeeping”
- Problem-driven: “unfiled tax returns help,” “IRS letter accountant,” “payroll tax problem”
- Seasonal individual work: “tax preparer near me,” “self-employed tax accountant”
Block the searches that waste money. Add negative keywords like “free,” “software,” “salary,” “jobs,” “course,” “exam” and “TurboTax” from the start, and read the search terms report weekly for the first two months.
Match the page to the search, and track calls. A “bookkeeping for restaurants” search should land on a restaurant bookkeeping page, not your homepage. Many accounting prospects phone rather than fill out a form, so count calls as leads.
Judge it by booked clients, not clicks. Have whoever answers the phone mark each lead as booked, not a fit, or spam. Otherwise you know what a lead costs, not what a client costs.
For cost benchmarks: LocaliQ’s 2026 data doesn’t have an accounting category, but the closest ones, Finance & Insurance and Business Services, average $3.39 and $5.87 per click, with average costs per lead of $74.44 and $93.69 (LocaliQ, 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks). Treat those as a rough starting point. Your city, your services and your competitors decide your real numbers.
Facebook and Instagram ads play a smaller role, mainly retargeting visitors who didn’t call. We compare the channels in how accounting firms get clients online.
Worked example: a one-year plan for a three-person firm
Here is how the numbers might look for a hypothetical three-person firm that wants to grow recurring business work. Every input below is an assumption for illustration. Replace each one with your own numbers.
The goal: add 30 new small-business clients this year on monthly bookkeeping plus an annual return, worth about $4,000 a year each.
Step 1: What referrals already deliver. Last year the firm got 12 new business clients from referrals. With a deliberate ask and two referral partners, assume that rises to 15. That leaves 15 clients to win through paid search.
Step 2: Leads needed. Assume 1 in 5 qualified business leads becomes a client (20%). 15 ÷ 0.20 = 75 qualified leads for the year.
Step 3: Cost per lead. Assume $150 per qualified lead, deliberately above the LocaliQ averages, because benchmark cost per lead counts every tracked call and form, not just the ones that fit your firm.
Step 4: Ad budget. 75 × 150 = * *11,250 a year**, or about $940 a month. In practice we’d round that to about $1,000 a month, which is also the minimum monthly ad spend we recommend for CPA Launch, our lead-generation program for accounting firms.
Step 5: The return check. 15 clients × 4, 000 = * *60,000 in new annual recurring fees** for $11,250 in ad spend (plus management fees). Ad cost per client: 11, 250 ÷ 15 = * *750**, which this firm would earn back in under three months of fees from that client. Clients who stay several years make the math much better.
If the $150 assumption is wrong, you’ll know within about 90 days of counting real qualified leads and booked clients. Then adjust.
How to grow a CPA firm without outgrowing your capacity
Marketing that works can create a new problem: more work than your team can handle in March.
- Advertise what you can deliver. If April is full, shift spend toward bookkeeping and advisory work that fills the slower months.
- Answer the phone. A paid lead that reaches voicemail in busy season is handed to the next firm on the page.
- Pause ads, not relationships. Google Ads can be paused the day you’re full. Referrals and reviews can’t be switched back on that quickly, so keep those running all year.
For tax-season timing in detail, see our tax season advertising calendar for accounting firms.
Related reading from Ogus Marketing Group
- Marketing for accountants: how we run paid campaigns for accounting firms
- Google Ads for accountants: keywords, budgets and tracking
- Bookkeeper marketing and tax preparer marketing
- Case studies
- Contact us to talk through your plan
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to market an accounting firm?
Start with referrals and reviews: in TaxDome’s 2025 survey, 58% of businesses said a referral was how they found their current accountant. Then add Google Ads for the specific services you want to grow, since paid search is the channel you can scale up or down on demand.
How much should an accounting firm spend on marketing?
Work backward from the clients you want. Take the number of new clients you need beyond referrals, divide by your lead-to-client rate, and multiply by a realistic cost per lead. In our worked example, 15 extra business clients at a 20% close rate and $150 per qualified lead comes to about $11,250 a year in ad spend.
Do Google Ads work for accountants?
Yes, for specific, high-intent searches such as “small business accountant [city]” or “catch-up bookkeeping,” sent to a matching landing page with call tracking. Broad terms like “accountant” waste money on job seekers and students unless you exclude those searches.
How do I get more referrals for my accounting firm?
Ask at the moment the client is happiest, make the ask specific to the kind of client you want, and build relationships with two or three professionals, such as bankers or financial planners, who regularly meet business owners. A clear niche also makes you easier to recommend.
How long does it take for accounting firm marketing to work?
Google Ads can produce calls in the first week, but allow about 90 days to measure cost per qualified lead and cost per client reliably. Referral and review programs take several months to build but keep working with little ongoing cost.
Get a free Google Ads audit for your accounting firm
If you already run Google Ads, we’ll review your account for free and show you which searches are wasting money, whether calls are tracked, and what a new client is really costing you. If you haven’t started, we’ll help you build a budget from your own numbers.
Call 365-366-2524 or 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.