The rule: sell what's due outside April
Tax season is one deadline. Clients have others all year, and each is a reason to search for an accountant:
| When | What's due | Who needs you |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 15, Jun 15, Sep 15, Jan 15 | US estimated tax payments (IRS) | Self-employed people, landlords, investors |
| Oct 15 | US individual returns on extension: "This gives you until October 15 to file without penalties." (IRS) | Everyone who extended in April |
| Six months after each corporation's year-end | Canadian corporate returns: "File your return within six months of the end of each tax year." (CRA) | Corporations with any year-end, so all twelve months |
| Every month | Bookkeeping, payroll, sales tax | Any small business |
Give each a service page and an ad group, and say the deadline on the page.
SEO for accounting firms: pages for hirers, not readers
Write for the person choosing an accountant: what you do, for whom, the price range, how to start. Google's ranking systems "are designed to prioritize helpful, reliable information that's created to benefit people, and not content that's created to manipulate search engine rankings" (Google Search Central).
Explainer articles bring readers, slowly. At an accounting firm we run marketing for, its first guides earned 340 clicks in their first 15 days and no bookings. Guides started producing bookings only at 2–6 weeks old: by November 11, 11 people had booked after landing on a guide, each on a different page. More pages didn't mean more bookings: its newest guides, more than half of all it had published, brought 1 booker.
Ranking position decided clicks: a 1.76% click rate at positions 1–5, 0.15% beyond 20. In those first two weeks, pages built on one named form or place ranked in the top 10, while a broad page sat at position 38 with 2 readers (observed, not tested).
Google Ads for accountants: buy hiring searches only
Across Google, Meta and ChatGPT ads the same firm spent about $6,100 from October 1 to November 4, 2026. Those ads brought about 13 booked calls and $0 in new-client revenue. Google alone took about $3,750: it booked 8 new prospects and none paid.
What it learned:
- 47–56% of early spend went to topic keywords that matched people looking things up.
- Only ad groups aimed at people hiring an accountant produced the serious leads; topic keywords never did.
- It was limited by ad rank, not budget: about 80% of eligible searches lost to rank, 0% to budget.
Check your search terms report weekly (see Google Ads wasted spend).
If your packages include getting a client a business number, Google treats that as a government service. Its policy lists the "Employer Identification Number (EIN) in the United States" under business identifiers, and "advertisers must be certified by Google" to run such ads (Google Advertising Policies). Google flagged every one of the firm's ads, even a harmless "free 10-minute call" line, that led to a page selling an EIN as part of a plan. An appeal failed. Once the page booked calls on itself and showed a quote card instead of plans, fresh copies of the same ads were approved: 14 within 21 minutes and all 26 within 45 minutes.
Post your prices
US practitioners may publish fixed fees for routine services, hourly rates, fee ranges and the fee for a first consultation (31 CFR 10.30(b)). You must then charge no more than the published rates for at least 30 days after you last publish them (10.30(b)(2)).
The first price heard matters. At the same firm, 7 leads heard a first price at or under $2,000: nobody said it was too high, and all 3 payers were among them. 10 leads heard a price above $3,000; none paid.
AI answers: the channel that paid
Every client who paid the firm in that period came from ChatGPT answers or a Reddit comment, at no ad cost. Of the leads ChatGPT sent, 9 of 9 reached "ready to start", against 2 of 8 from Google ads. Paid ChatGPT ads were different: three days in October, $428, 166 clicks, 0 bookings. To get named in AI answers, see how to get ChatGPT to recommend your business.
The advertising rules for tax practitioners
Circular 230 covers US practitioners before the IRS:
"A practitioner may not, with respect to any Internal Revenue Service matter, in any way use or participate in the use of any form of public communication or private solicitation containing a false, fraudulent, or coercive statement or claim; or a misleading or deceptive statement or claim." (31 CFR 10.30(a)(1))
Enrolled agents may not call themselves "certified" (10.30(a)(1)). Stop contacting anyone who says they don't want to be solicited, and keep a copy of each email or online ad, with who received it, for 36 months (10.30(c)).
In Canada, each provincial CPA body sets the rules. Ontario's bars advertising that is false, misleading or can't be substantiated, and solicitation that is "persistent, coercive or harassing" (CPA Ontario Code, Rules 217.1–217.2). Emails and texts to leads follow CASL consent rules.
Example
A two-partner CPA firm in May
It adds a page for October extension filers and an ad group for "accountant for late tax return". It emails April's extension clients in June and August.
A bookkeeping firm with USD 1,500 a month for ads
It pauses keywords like "what is accrual accounting" and keeps "bookkeeper for small business near me". It adds "from USD 300 a month" to the page.
A Canadian firm in July
It targets incorporated businesses with year-ends in winter, whose corporate returns fall due in summer, with a page listing its year-end package price.
Different for you?
- Your clients speak another language: a second-language website.
- What SEO should cost: SEO cost for a small business.
- An ad disapproved for its landing page: fixing the landing page.
- Getting named by ChatGPT and AI search: where ChatGPT finds local businesses.
- Service pages and guides that bring hirers, not just readers: SEO & GEO agent.