This calendar is for US accounting firms and tax preparers who want their tax season advertising to fill the calendar with paying clients without wasting budget before or after the rush. It covers what to do each month from now until the 2027 filing season ends, what to bid on, and how to spread one season’s budget across the months that matter.
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.
The 2027 dates that drive demand
These are the IRS dates for 2026 returns filed in 2027, from the draft 2027 tax calendar (IRS Publication 509 (2027), early-release draft). It’s a draft, so confirm against the final version before you print anything.
| Date (2027) | What’s due |
|---|---|
| Jan 15 | Fourth-quarter 2026 estimated tax payment (individuals) |
| Feb 1 | Employers give employees their 2026 Forms W-2 |
| Mar 15 | Partnership (Form 1065) and S corporation (Form 1120-S) returns |
| Apr 15 | Individual returns (Form 1040) and tax payments |
| Sep 15 | Extended partnership and S corporation returns |
| Oct 15 | Extended individual returns |
The IRS hasn’t announced when it will start accepting returns in 2027. For reference, the 2026 season opened on January 26 (IRS announcement).
When people actually file
The IRS’s weekly filing statistics show how the work spreads out. In 2026, tax professionals had e-filed about 23.1 million returns by February 27 (IRS), 45.9 million by March 27 (IRS), and 75.3 million by May 8 (IRS).
Of the returns professionals had e-filed by May 8, roughly 31% were in by February 27, about 61% by March 27, and the other 39% came in after that. (Extended returns filed later in the year aren’t in these figures.) Two things follow:
- Clients choose a preparer before the return is filed, often weeks before. The hiring decisions behind those February filings are made in January and early February, so your ads need to be live then.
- Demand doesn’t collapse after February. About 39% of those professional e-files came after March 27, so keep a meaningful budget through April 15.
The month-by-month calendar
October to November: audit and build
- Review last season: which search terms produced booked clients, which only produced calls, and which days and hours your phone went unanswered.
- Build or fix tracking. Every call from an ad and every form should be recorded as a conversion, and someone should mark each lead as booked or not.
- Build landing pages for each service: individual returns, self-employed returns, small business returns, back taxes.
- Start a negative keyword list: “free,” “software,” “online,” “TurboTax,” “H&R Block,” “jobs,” “salary,” “course,” “VITA” (unless you are a VITA site).
- Optional: a small campaign for year-end tax planning aimed at business owners.
December: soft launch
Turn campaigns on at a low budget in the second half of the month. You’re not trying to win December; you’re making sure calls ring through, forms arrive, and tracking records them before the money gets serious.
January: ramp up
This is when to advertise tax services in earnest. W-2s arrive by February 1 and many people choose a preparer as soon as their forms come in. Raise budgets in the first or second week of January. Ad copy should push booking: “Book your 2026 return appointment” and “Now scheduling for tax season.”
February: peak for individual returns
Refund-driven filers move fast. Check the “lost impression share (budget)” column every week. If your campaigns run out of budget by midday, you’re missing afternoon and evening searchers. Either add budget or cut the weakest keywords.
March: business returns and planning ahead
March 15 is the deadline for partnerships and S corporations. Searches like “S corp tax return accountant” and “file business tax extension” rise. Add an ad group for business returns and extensions if you take that work. This is also the month to decide how many more individual clients you can realistically take.
April 1 to 15: last-minute and extensions
Late filers want it handled now, not in two weeks. Run ads such as “Still haven’t filed? We can help before April 15” and “Need an extension?” If you use Target CPA or Target ROAS bidding, Google’s seasonality adjustments are designed for short events of 1 to 7 days (Google Ads Help, About seasonality adjustments), which fits the final week. If your team is full, cut spend rather than letting paid calls go to voicemail.
April 16 to June: extensions, back taxes, and keeping clients
Shift to extension clients, unfiled returns, IRS notices, and bookkeeping. These searches are smaller, but in the accounts we manage they’re often worth more per client than a simple individual return.
July to September: off-season
Keep a small campaign running on bookkeeping, payroll and catch-up work, plus a campaign for your firm’s name. Before September 15, run a short push for extended business returns.
October: extension deadline, then repeat
October 15 brings the last wave of extended individual returns. When it passes, start the next season’s audit.
Canadian firms: the cycle is similar but runs later. For 2025 returns, the CRA deadline for most individuals was April 30, 2026 and June 15 for most self-employed people (CRA). Check the CRA page for the 2027 dates and shift the calendar by about two weeks.
Worked example: pacing a $10,000 tax season budget
Here’s how a hypothetical firm might spread a $10,000 Google Ads budget from mid-December to April 15. The split is our planning assumption, weighted toward January and February because that’s when the hiring decisions behind the early filing surge are made, while keeping a real budget for the late wave.
| Period | Share | Spend | Days | Daily budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 17 to 31 | 5% | $500 | 15 | about $33 |
| January | 25% | $2,500 | 31 | about $81 |
| February | 30% | $3,000 | 28 | about $107 |
| March | 25% | $2,500 | 31 | about $81 |
| April 1 to 15 | 15% | $1,500 | 15 | $100 |
| Total | 100% | $10,000 |
Google can spend up to twice your average daily budget on a busy day, but over a month it won’t charge more than your average daily budget × 30.4 (Google Ads Help, About overdelivery). So expect spend to vary by day, and check the monthly total, not each day.
What it might produce. We assume about $75 per lead for this example, close to LocaliQ’s 2026 Finance & Insurance average of $74.44 (LocaliQ, 2026 Search Advertising Benchmarks), since LocaliQ doesn’t publish an accounting category. Your city could be cheaper or more expensive.
- Leads: $10,000 ÷ $75 = about 133 leads
- If 35% of leads book (assumption): about 46 new clients
- At an assumed average fee of $450: about 20, 700 * * infirst − yearfees, orabout * *217 in ad spend per new client
Clients who come back next year cost nothing more in advertising, so the real return builds over several seasons.
If the numbers don’t work: the usual fix is to point more of the budget at higher-value services (business returns, back taxes, bookkeeping), not to cut the season short.
For working out the season total in the first place, see our guide on how accounting firms get clients online, which has a budget-from-goals example.
Google Ads for tax preparers: what to change as the season moves
- Keywords: in January and February, lean on “tax preparer near me,” “tax accountant [city],” and “self-employed tax help.” In March and April, add “file extension,” “late tax return help,” and business return terms. After April 15, emphasize back taxes and bookkeeping.
- Ad copy: update it at least monthly. A “book now for tax season” ad looks stale on April 10.
- Ad schedule: match your phone coverage. If the office closes at 6 p.m., lower bids after hours or route calls to an answering service during peak.
- Capacity: set a weekly cap on new returns you can take. When you hit it, pause the individual-return campaign and keep the higher-value ones on.
For how this fits into the rest of your marketing, read how to market an accounting firm.
Related reading from Ogus Marketing Group
- Tax preparer marketing: how we run campaigns for tax practices
- Google Ads for accountants: keywords, budgets and tracking
- Marketing for accountants
- Case studies
Frequently asked questions
When should accounting firms start tax season advertising?
Have campaigns tested in December and at full budget in January. W-2s are due to employees by February 1, 2027, and many people pick a preparer as soon as their forms arrive. Firms that start in March compete for the people who haven’t chosen yet.
When should I stop advertising tax services?
Not on April 15. In 2026, about 39% of the returns tax professionals e-filed by May 8 came in after March 27, and extension clients, back-tax cases and bookkeeping continue through October 15. Reduce the budget after the deadline and shift it to those services rather than turning ads off.
How much should a tax preparer spend on Google Ads?
Work backward from the clients you want: clients ÷ booking rate × cost per lead. In our example, a $10,000 season budget at an assumed $75 per lead and 35% booking rate yields about 46 new clients. Replace those assumptions with your own numbers after the first month.
What’s the best way to pace a tax season Google Ads budget?
Weight it toward January and February, keep about a quarter of it for March, and hold some for April 1 to 15. In our example that’s 25%, 30%, 25% and 15%, with 5% for a December test. Check the monthly total rather than daily spend, since Google can spend up to twice the daily budget on busy days.
Should I keep Google Ads running in the off-season?
Yes, at a lower level. A small campaign for bookkeeping, payroll and back-tax work, plus a campaign for your firm’s name, keeps leads coming and keeps your account’s data current for next season.
Get a free Google Ads audit before tax season
We’ll review your account or your plan for free: which searches wasted money last season, whether calls are tracked, and how to pace your budget for 2027.
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.