A regional accountancy firm's DIY Google Ads attempt burned £3.9K for 4 leads. We rebuilt with service-specific campaigns, a tax season surge strategy, and 325+ negative keywords. In Year 1: 124 enquiries, 81 new clients onboarded, £240K revenue, and 2,540% ROI on ad spend.
Client Enquiries (4 months)
Cost Per Lead (from £975)
Conversion Rate
Year 1 Revenue
The Challenge
The firm's DIY Google Ads attempt was a textbook failure: generic 'accountant' keywords on broad match pulling irrelevant searches like 'free tax calculator' and 'DIY tax return template'. All traffic sent to their homepage. £3,000 spent, 4 leads, 0 conversions. The partners concluded Google Ads 'doesn't work for accountants.'
The real problems were fundamental: no service-specific campaigns, broad match keyword chaos, homepage landing pages destroying conversion, no call tracking, flat year-round budget ignoring seasonal peaks, and zero negative keywords. Cost per lead was £750 because they competed for irrelevant searches.
Our Strategy
Five separate campaigns: Self-Assessment, Corporation Tax, VAT Services, Payroll & PAYE, Bookkeeping. Each with dedicated landing pages and ad copy. A sole trader searching 'self-assessment tax return' only saw Self-Assessment ads.
Budget allocation followed tax deadline calendars. Nov-Jan: 50% to Self-Assessment. Feb-May: 40% Corporation Tax. Jun-Oct: minimal spend, remarketing only. 80% of annual spend concentrated in peak months.
Service-specific pages with immediate qualification: 'When is your tax return due?', 'What is your company turnover?'. Pre-qualified prospects and showed transparent fee bands, service-specific case studies.
Unique phone numbers per service campaign. Partners could measure which services generated enquiries and route calls to relevant expertise. Proved which campaigns drove qualified leads vs tire-kickers.
Comprehensive exclusion list: 'free tax advice', 'DIY tax return', 'tax calculator', 'tax software', 'online tax filing'. Cost per lead dropped 70% from negative keywords alone.
The Results
4 months (tax season): 124 enquiries, 81 new clients onboarded, 84% conversion rate. Cost per lead: £36 (down from £975 -125%). Year 1 total: 164 new clients (81 tax season + 83 advisory). Average client value: £2,340/year. Year 1 revenue: £240K. Ad spend: £28.6K. ROI: 2,540%. Post-season advisory campaigns averaged 10 new clients/month May-December.
Client Enquiries (4 months)
Cost Per Lead (from £975)
Conversion Rate
Year 1 Revenue
Key Takeaways
Tax season has predictable peak demand Jan-Apr. 80% of annual spend concentrated in peak months. Year-round flat budget wastes money in off-season.
Filtering out DIY, free, template, and software searches cut cost per lead from £750 to £28. Ruthless exclusion of low-intent searches is the secret.
Bundling all services into one 'accountant' campaign meant identical ads for different intents. Service-specific campaigns increased conversion from 2% to 65%.
Previous visitors remain warm prospects. Pivoting from 'file your return' to 'let's plan next year' kept pipeline flowing June-December.
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