There is no reliable single marketing budget for UK accountancy firms. A local bookkeeping practice, a contractor specialist and an ecommerce accounting firm can have very different client values, search demand and growth targets.
Build the budget from client economics
- Which services do you want to grow?
- What is the expected annual client value?
- How many new clients can the team onboard?
- What percentage of qualified enquiries become clients?
- Which channels currently produce the best-fit work?
Budget by bottleneck
If visibility is weak, invest in SEO or paid search. If traffic exists but enquiries are weak, prioritise positioning, service pages and conversion. If enquiries arrive but few become clients, fix qualification and follow-up before buying more traffic.
Model Google Ads rather than guessing
Clicks = media budget ÷ CPC
Enquiries = clicks × conversion rate
Clients = enquiries × enquiry-to-client rate
Use account data where possible instead of broad market averages. See our Google Ads budget guide for accountants.
What should the budget cover?
- SEO and service-page work
- Google Ads media and management
- Website and landing-page improvements
- Content that supports commercial search intent
- CRM, call tracking and follow-up
- Review and reputation processes
Measure cost per new client
Traffic and raw leads are secondary. Track qualified enquiries, client wins, acquisition cost and the value of clients by source. A channel with a higher cost per lead can still be better if the clients are more valuable or stay longer.
For the wider strategy, see digital marketing for accountants.
