Marketing that follows the financial year
The Australian financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. That calendar shapes when clients think about their accounts, when they search for a new firm, and when they are most receptive to planning conversations. A marketing effort that ignores the calendar tends to spend budget in the wrong windows and go quiet exactly when demand is highest.
The pattern splits roughly into four phases: a pre-EOFY planning season from May through June, an active lodgment season from July through October, a quieter advisory window from November through April, and BAS quarters that punctuate the year for firms with business clients. Each phase calls for different activity and a different channel mix.
SEO for accountants and Google Ads for accountants both perform better when activity is weighted to these phases rather than spread evenly. The same budget, spent at the right time, generates more enquiries than the same budget spread uniformly across twelve months.
The accounting firm marketing calendar
- May to JunePre-EOFY planning seasonEOFY reviews, trust distributions, timing of income. Email to existing clients and advisory search terms perform well here.
- 1 JulyFinancial year opensLodgment season begins. Early-filing clients and new enquirers start searching in July.
- July to OctoberLodgment seasonThe highest-enquiry window for individual and business tax returns. Peak search activity for clients looking to switch firms.
- 31 OctoberSelf-lodger deadlineThe standard lodgment deadline for individuals who do not use a registered tax agent. Source: ato.gov.au.
- November to AprilAdvisory and planning monthsCompliance pressure eases. Content marketing and advisory positioning work well when clients have time to think ahead.
- Each quarterBAS quartersQuarterly BAS periods provide regular contact points with business clients throughout the year. Check ato.gov.au for current due dates.
The planning season: what to do before 30 June
From around May, business clients start thinking about the end of financial year. They are weighing whether to accelerate deductions, bring forward expenses, or make contributions before 30 June. This is a planning conversation, not a lodgment one, and it rewards firms that reach out proactively rather than waiting to be asked.
Email to your existing client base is effective in May and June. A short note about common EOFY planning considerations, directed at business clients or individuals with investment property, tends to generate replies and booked appointments. You are not giving advice in the email; you are reminding clients that a conversation is worth having before the year ends. Any email campaign must comply with the Spam Act 2003, including consent and an unsubscribe mechanism.
Search activity for EOFY planning terms picks up in May. Firms running Google Ads can add a budget increment in this window for terms around business tax planning, trust distributions and investment structuring. This is also the right time to update your Google Business Profile with a post referencing the EOFY period and linking to an enquiry page.
The EOFY planning window is short. A campaign that starts in late June is often too late for most planning decisions, which need time to implement before 30 June. Building a May start date into your annual marketing calendar means the activity lands when it can actually produce results.
July to October: the highest-enquiry window
The lodgment season opens on 1 July and runs through to 31 October, which is the standard deadline for individuals who do not use a registered tax agent. Registered tax agents have a special lodgment program that allows them to lodge returns for clients after 31 October; clients who want to benefit from that extended schedule should engage their agent before the October deadline. Check ato.gov.au for current program details, as these can change from year to year.
July and August tend to produce the most new client enquiries of any comparable window in the year. Someone who is dissatisfied with their current firm, or who has not used a professional accountant before, is most likely to act during this period when the task is fresh and the financial year has just turned. Visibility in Google search and the Maps pack during these months directly affects how many new enquiries a firm receives.
A firm running Google Ads should expect to allocate more of its annual budget to July, August and September than to any other comparable period. The cost per click for accountant search terms tends to be higher in this window because other firms are also bidding more aggressively. The higher cost is usually justified by the higher conversion rate: people searching in lodgment season are often ready to act, not just browsing.
Your Google Business Profile posts should be active and timely throughout lodgment season. A post in July confirming you are taking on new clients, with a clear link to an enquiry form, can convert visitors who found your profile through a local search. Keep the profile category accurate and ensure your phone number and address are correct; small errors in these fields can reduce your Maps pack visibility.
November to April: where advisory relationships are built
After October, compliance pressure eases for most individual clients. Business clients still have BAS quarters through the year, but the lodgment urgency is gone. Firms that treat November to April as quiet time miss a significant advisory opportunity.
The clients who generate the most value over time are typically the ones engaged at a planning level, not just a compliance level. Business advisory work, SMSF reviews, and structuring conversations tend to happen in the quieter months because both the firm and the client have time and mental space. Content marketing for accountants works well here: articles about trust structures, business succession, or property investment tax give your firm a reason to appear in a client's inbox or search results when they are genuinely thinking about those topics.
Firms focused on business advisory or virtual CFO services often find the November to April window their most productive for acquiring high-value new clients, because the advisory conversation is not competing with the urgency of compliance season.
BAS quarters punctuate the quieter months for firms with business clients. A brief, practical communication to clients in the lead-up to each BAS period can act as a legitimate touchpoint that keeps the firm visible. All emails require consent and a functional unsubscribe link under the Spam Act 2003.
Which marketing channel to weight when
5.1 Google Business Profile: active all year, critical in lodgment season
Your Google Business Profile should be maintained year-round, but it is most critical in July through October. New clients who find your firm through a Maps pack search during lodgment season are often ready to act. A profile with recent posts, accurate information and a strong review count tends to rank above a profile that is rarely updated. Responding to reviews promptly adds to the impression of an active, client-focused firm.
5.2 Google Ads: weight to the peak windows
If you run a fixed monthly budget on Google Ads, you are almost certainly overspending in slow months and underspending in busy ones. A budget weighted toward May and June, and then July through October, matches your spend to the periods when the chance of converting a click into a client is highest. In the quieter months, a reduced budget or a brand-only campaign is usually sufficient.
5.3 Email to existing clients: deadlines and planning windows
Email to existing clients is the most underused channel in accounting marketing. It reaches people who already trust you, generates repeat work, and produces referrals. The key touchpoints are the pre-EOFY window in May, the start of lodgment season in July, and the BAS period reminders for business clients. Keep messages practical and short. All email must comply with the Spam Act 2003: consent, accurate sender details and a working unsubscribe link.
5.4 Content marketing: the advisory months
Content built around planning questions, rule changes and advisory topics works best in the November to April window when clients have time to read and engage with it. A guide to a recent legislative change, an explanation of a common structuring decision, or an article answering the questions your clients ask most often gives your firm a reason to show up in search results between lodgment seasons. This kind of content also supports SEO for accountants by building the depth that search engines reward over time.
Do not market what you cannot service
The biggest constraint on tax-time marketing is often not budget. It is staff capacity. A firm that runs strong advertising in August but cannot take on new clients because the team is already stretched will waste the spend and risk damaging its reputation by turning people away or taking on work it cannot handle properly.
Before each lodgment season, map your team's available capacity against the expected existing client workload. The remaining capacity sets the ceiling for new client acquisition. Marketing should be aimed at filling that gap, not at generating a volume of enquiries that cannot be serviced well. A smaller number of well-handled new client relationships is worth more than a rush of enquiries that strains the team.
The same logic applies to marketing for tax accountants in smaller and sole-practitioner firms. A practice that fills its capacity early in the lodgment season should consider pausing paid campaigns rather than continuing to generate enquiries it cannot convert. Pausing Google Ads costs nothing; a poor client experience costs significantly more.
Capacity planning also shapes which channels to use. A firm with limited intake capacity may be better served by a targeted, referral-focused approach than by a broad reach campaign. Enquiries from the right client type, at the right service margin, are worth more than high volume from clients who are not a good fit. Marketing for accountants covers how to position for the clients you actually want rather than whoever happens to search.