Marketing for Accountants in Australia: What to Do First

People hand an accountant or bookkeeper their tax file number, their bank records and their deadlines, so most check before they call. Much of what they check is public: the TPB Register, the Google profile and the website. That decides where to start.

This is the order I would do it in for a small accounting or bookkeeping practice in Australia. It starts with the free records clients look at, then the website, then reviews, referrals and email, and leaves paid search until you can see what each enquiry costs. The rules in it come from the Tax Practitioners Board, APES 110, the ACCC, the ACMA, ASIC and Google, and each one links to the body that sets it.

I build websites and run local SEO for small businesses, so the website steps are work I sell. Where a step is my own advice rather than a rule, it says so. This is general information about marketing a practice, not legal advice: check the current requirements with the TPB, your professional body or your own adviser.

Marketing for accountants, in order

Nine steps, grouped by when they matter. The first five cost nothing or a one-off build, and they stay with the practice when the spending stops. Paid search comes last.

Before anyone calls: the Register and your Google profile

1. Check your entry on the TPB Register

The TPB Register is the first public record of a tax or BAS practice, and the TPB tells consumers to check it. Section 60-135 of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 requires the Board to keep it and to make it “available for inspection on the internet”. The TPB’s Public Register page explains why clients look: “Generally, only registered tax and BAS agents can charge or receive a fee or other reward for providing tax agent, BAS or tax (financial) advice services.”

The TPB’s Register help page says what a client sees on an entry, including the business name, the registration type and number, contact details, status, conditions and sanctions. Three parts of it are yours to manage:

• Contact details. You choose which appear by logging in to My Profile. The Tax Agent Services Regulations 2022 require at least one to be published at any time.
• Your address on the map. The Register’s second search finds registered practitioners up to 75 km from an address, and a practitioner’s location shows on its map only if they chose to publish their physical address.
• Professional associations. The Register lists recognised association memberships if you provided them, and the TPB encourages clients to check them with the association.

My advice: make the business name, phone number and email on the Register match the website and the Google profile exactly, so a client who checks all three sees one practice.

2. Set up a Google Business Profile for where clients meet you

A Business Profile costs nothing. Google’s Business Profile page says “creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Google is free”. How you set it up depends on where clients meet you, and Google’s Business Profile guidelines are specific about the address:

• An office clients visit can show its address. It must be your real location, and the guidelines say an office in a co-working space qualifies only if it has clear signage, receives customers during opening hours and is staffed by your own people at those times.
• A virtual office does not qualify. Google says a rented address you don’t operate from “isn’t eligible for a Business Profile”.
• A practice that works from home or visits clients is a service-area business. Google says it should hide its address, and that the service area should not reach further than about two hours’ drive from where it is based.

The name on the profile should be the practice’s real-world name, “as used consistently on your shopfront, website, stationery”. The guidelines give marketing taglines as an example of what a name must not include. For categories, Google says to use “as few categories as possible” and not to use them “solely as keywords”.

One profile or several. Google’s rules for individual practitioners give “Doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners and insurance or real estate agents” as examples. For an accounting practice, treat this as the closest rule. A practitioner should have their own profile only if they work in a public-facing role and “can be contacted directly at the verified location during stated hours”. Where several practitioners work at one location, the firm has its own profile as well. A solo practitioner in a branded firm shares one profile, named “[brand/company]: [practitioner name]”. And Google says “A practitioner shouldn’t have multiple Business Profiles to cover all of their specialisations.”

Google’s local ranking help page says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and how well known a business is, which takes in how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has. It also says: “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” The verification steps are in Google Business Profile verification, and the rest of the setup is in the Google Business Profile guide.

What a prospective client reads: services, fees and registration

3. Give each kind of client its own page

A sole trader with a quarterly BAS and a family trust with a property portfolio want different answers. One page that lists every service answers neither well. This is my advice, not a rule: give each kind of client you take on its own page, with what you do for them, what they need to bring and how the work is charged.

Two rules limit what those pages can offer.

The registration decides the services. Under section 50-10 of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009, only a registered tax agent may advertise tax agent services that are not BAS services, and the TPB’s guide for consumers lists preparing and lodging tax returns as work for tax agents. A practice registered only as a BAS agent leaves tax returns off the site. A registration can also carry conditions, which the TPB’s guidance says “limit the scope of services”, and which show on the Register.

SMSF advice needs licence cover. ASIC’s limited financial services page says the accountants’ exemption was repealed on 1 July 2016, so “all accountants must now be covered by an AFS licence to give advice about acquiring or disposing of an interest in an SMSF”. When ASIC reviewed accountants in 2018, it found “significant levels of inaccurate and out of date information on websites and in promotional material”, including websites that “did not state AFS licence details, or that an accountant was an authorised representative or had a referral arrangement in place.” An SMSF page belongs on the site only if the practice does that work, and it should say who gives any advice and under which licence.

If clients visit an office, my advice is a page for each office with its address, parking and hours, matching the Google profile. A page for every suburb with only the name changed gives a client nothing new to read.

4. Say how you charge

Fees are one of the first things a prospective client wants to understand. The TPB’s guide for consumers recommends that clients discuss “how much the work will cost, or general information about the practitioner’s fee structure”, along with the work to be done and when. A fees page answers that before the first call.

This is my advice. Say which way you charge: a fixed fee for a defined job, an hourly rate, or a quote after a first meeting. Say what a fixed fee includes and what costs extra, and whether a first meeting is charged. If you publish a starting price, publish the one you charge. Whatever the page says should match the engagement letter, because the client will read both.

5. Show your registration and the client information

A registered tax or BAS agent has two things to show. If you use the TPB’s registered symbol, clause 3.3 of its terms says: “You must only use the symbol if it is accompanied by your registration number.” And section 45 of the Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024 requires you to tell current and prospective clients about the TPB Register and how to search it, how to complain, and any conditions on your registration. The Determination gives a public website as one way to do that, and the TPB recommends a direct link to your own Register entry.

The rules for the number, the symbol’s size and placement, and the section 45 information are in tax agent registration number: what to show on your website.

Professional body logos have their own rules. CA ANZ allows a firm to describe itself as “Chartered Accountants” and use the CA logo only where it meets the Chartered Firm requirements. CPA Australia’s public practice help page says branding as a CPA practice is optional, and approved by its Public Practice Operations team. And CA ANZ’s marketing page tells its Australian public practice members to put the professional standards scheme’s limited liability disclaimer on website pages.

After the work: reviews, referrals and email

6. Ask for reviews within the rules

Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business’s local ranking, and reviews are what a new client reads. Asking is allowed. Google’s tips for getting reviews suggest asking customers to “visit a Google link or scan a QR code”. What Google’s review policy prohibits is offering incentives “such as payment, discounts, free of cost goods and/or services”, and asking in a way that discourages negative reviews “or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers”.

The ACCC’s page on online reviews sets out the law behind it:

• Fake reviews. It is against the law for a business to create fake or misleading reviews, or to arrange for others to.
• Staff and family. Reviews by family, employees or people paid by the business mislead if the connection isn’t stated.
• Incentives. Any incentive must apply whether the review is positive or negative, and be clearly disclosed.
• Removing reviews. Removing a genuine negative review may mislead.
• Star ratings on your site. Show the total number of reviews a star rating is based on.

Replies are where an accountant has to be most careful. Google’s tips say: “Never share the reviewer’s private info.” For a registered tax or BAS agent there is a stricter rule. Section 30-10(6) of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 says: “Unless you have a legal duty to do so, you must not disclose any information relating to a client’s affairs to a third party without your client’s permission.” A public reply that confirms what work you did, mentions a lodgement, a refund or a tax debt, or answers a complaint with the client’s details does exactly that. My advice is a short reply that thanks the reviewer and invites them to call the office, with nothing about their affairs.

Testimonials on your own site. Two rules shape them, one from the Australian Consumer Law and one from APES 110, the code of ethics for members of CA ANZ, CPA Australia and the IPA. Section 29(1)(e) of the Australian Consumer Law prohibits a false or misleading representation “that purports to be a testimonial”, and section 29(2) says a testimonial “is taken to be misleading unless evidence is adduced to the contrary”. So keep each client’s written permission and their own words, unedited. And APES 110 R115.2 says a member must not make “Exaggerated claims for the services offered by, or the qualifications or experience of, the Member”.

If a review looks fake rather than unhappy, how to get a fake Google review removed covers Google’s process.

7. Tell clients about referral arrangements

Referral partners for an accounting practice can include mortgage brokers, financial planners, lawyers and other accountants or bookkeepers. Work that comes through a partner arrives with someone’s recommendation already attached. The rules are about what the client is told.

Under APES 110. Paragraph 330.5 A1 says a member in public practice who pays or receives a referral fee, or receives a commission, creates a self-interest threat. AUST R330.5.1 then requires a member who receives a referral fee or commission on an engagement in Australia to “inform the client in writing” of the arrangement, the identity of the other party and “the method of calculation of the referral fee, commission or other benefit”. AUST R330.5.2 rules out commissions in connection with an assurance engagement altogether. The full text is in the compiled APES 110.

Under the TPB’s guidance. The TPB’s guidance on managing conflicts of interest gives the example of a BAS agent who refers a client to a tax firm because she receives a commission from it. That is a conflict, and she manages it by telling the client she will be paid if he engages the firm. In a second example, a tax agent who earns a commission on tax audit insurance also discloses how much he will receive. The TPB recommends getting the client’s consent in writing, after disclosing any commissions.

And the client’s details. Passing a client’s details to a partner is disclosing their affairs to a third party, so section 30-10(6) applies. My advice: ask the client first, and send the introduction with them copied in.

If your referral partners include mortgage brokers or law firms, the professional services page covers websites for those fields too.

8. Send a newsletter only to people who agreed

A short email when a lodgement date is near or a rule changes keeps a practice in front of its clients between appointments. The Spam Act decides who can receive it. The ACMA’s page on avoiding spam sets out what each marketing email needs:

The ACMA describes express consent as “best practice”. Consent can sometimes be inferred, usually where there is “a provable, ongoing relationship” and the email is directly related to it, but the ACMA says inferred consent “is not as reliable”. You cannot send an email asking for consent, because that is itself a marketing message. My advice: a tick box on the engagement letter and the website’s contact form that says what the newsletter is, and a record of each one.

Only then: paid search

9. Count enquiries, then pay for search ads

Before paying for anything, count where enquiries come from for a few months: calls and emails, website forms, and the answer to “how did you find us?” from each new client. Search Console, which Google describes as a free service, shows the searches that reached the website.

Google Ads is the paid option on Google. You set the budget, and Google’s help page on average daily budgets puts the monthly limit for most campaigns at 30.4 times the average daily budget. Its own example is A$10 a day for A$304 a month. With enquiries counted, a campaign can be judged on what each new client costs against the fees that client is likely to bring. Ads do not change where the profile appears in the free local results: Google’s ranking page says there’s no way to pay for that.

What it costs, step by step

What to skip

Where Kovus fits

I build websites for small businesses and run local SEO, so steps 3, 4 and 5 are the work I sell, and the profile in step 2 is part of the monthly plan. A standard build costs A$500 to A$1,000, quoted in writing, and the client owns the website, content, domain and source code. What goes into an accounting site, page by page, is on the page about websites for accountants and bookkeepers. The monthly work after launch starts at A$197 a month, month to month with no minimum term, and every plan is on the pricing page. Google decides rankings, and they are not guaranteed.

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