The short answer
An accountancy practice should spend no more on marketing than its new clients can repay from first-year margin, multiplied by the number of new clients its team can onboard. Subtract the onboarding time that UK anti-money laundering checks and professional enquiry require, then multiply by spare capacity. The percentage of fee income is the result, not the starting point.
Key takeaways
- Every percentage on the first page of results is published by a firm selling marketing to accountants.
- The most quoted figure cites a $799 report from a US marketing firm, and the 7 to 8 per cent rule is not in the US government guide it is credited to.
- The per-client ceiling is first-year contribution less the partner and manager time it takes to onboard that client.
- The practice cannot usefully buy more new clients than the team has hours to serve.
- Demand bought for January usually arrives when nobody can take it on.
The managing partner of a 22-person practice in Leeds receives two marketing proposals in the same week. One says accountancy firms should spend 5 to 6 per cent of fee income. The other says 8 to 10 per cent, because firms that spend more grow faster. On £1.6 million of fee income, that is the difference between £80,000 and £160,000 a year.
Neither proposal asks how many new clients the team could take on next year, or what one of them contributes once the work is done. Those two numbers are already in the practice's billing and timesheets. Between them they set the most the practice can sensibly spend, and on the figures below the answer is £32,000, well under either proposal.
Where do the published percentages come from?
Every percentage on the first page of results for this question is published by a firm that sells marketing to accountants, and none cites a UK dataset you can open. We traced each one to its source on 25 September 2026.
| Figure | Published by | What sits behind it |
|---|---|---|
| 5 to 6% for UK accounting firms, 8 to 10% for high growth | Whitehat SEO, a UK marketing agency | Cites a Hinge Research Institute report sold for $799 by a US marketing firm. The figures are not on its public page. |
| 7 to 8% of gross revenue | Credited to the SBA, a US federal agency | Repeated across US marketing sites. The SBA's current marketing guide gives no percentage. |
| 1% to 10%, by growth ambition | Advisory Lab, which sells marketing to accountants | Described as planning examples. No dataset cited. |
| 3 to 10% of annual sales | We are PF, which sells marketing to accountants | Based on the publisher's own client experience. No dataset cited. |
A percentage of revenue also answers the wrong question. It tells a practice what other firms spend, not what a new client is worth to this one, and it rises with fee income whether or not the team has room for more work.
How do you work out the ceiling instead?
The ceiling is two numbers multiplied: the most the practice will pay to win one client, and the number of new clients the team can serve. The figures below are illustrative. Replace each one with the practice's own.
Per new client
Average annual fee from the new client type
From the practice's own billing
£3,000
Contribution after delivery staff time, at 40%
The practice's own margin on that work
£1,200
Less onboarding: five hours at £80 internal cost
Identity checks, professional enquiry, engagement letter and set-up
−£400
Most the practice pays to win one client
Repaid inside the first year
£800
Clients the team can take
Spare delivery hours over the next twelve months
From the practice's own timesheets
1,200
Hours a new client of this type takes in year one
Including the first set of accounts
30
New clients the team can take
Spare hours divided by hours per client
40
£800 × 40 new clients
£32,000 a year
2.0% of £1.6 million fee income, as an output rather than a target
Repaying the acquisition cost inside the first year is a prudent rule, not the only one. A practice confident that clients stay for several years can pay more, and working out how many years a client has to stay is how to test that confidence. What the ceiling will not allow is a budget that grows while the capacity line stays at zero.
What limits how many new clients a practice can take?
Delivery hours set the limit, and onboarding takes hours before any fee is earned. Under regulations 27 and 30 of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, a practice must carry out customer due diligence and verify identity before the business relationship begins, with narrow exceptions. That work is not billed and it scales with every client the marketing wins.
A client switching from another accountant also needs a professional enquiry. The ICAEW's helpsheet for the incoming accountant allows a reasonable period for the existing accountant to reply, possibly 14 to 30 days, before a final written notice of at least two weeks. A campaign that fills the pipeline in December can leave clients waiting into February.
Timing matters for the same reason. HMRC's online self-assessment deadline is 31 January, so capacity is lowest in the month many prospects start looking. Spread the ceiling across the months the team can onboard, not evenly across twelve.
Before you agree a budget
Send us the ceiling and the service lines.
Tell us what the practice can spend and which work it wants more of. We will introduce one vetted specialist who will plan to that number.
Get a recommendationWhat does the ceiling have to pay for?
Everything spent to win the client comes out of the same £32,000, including the agency's fee. Proposals that quote advertising spend separately from the management fee make every channel look cheaper than it is.
A website rebuild sits inside the ceiling in the year it happens. What an accountancy practice website should cost prices the first year across five lines, and partner time spent reviewing service pages is part of it. If that build takes most of a year's ceiling, the traffic to fill it has to wait for the following year, and the partners should know that before they approve both.
What should a proposal show before the partners agree a figure?
A proposal worth approving states the number of new clients it expects, not only the number of enquiries. An enquiry that never becomes a client still costs a partner the first call. Before signing, ask for four things:
- the expected new clients by service line, with the assumption behind each
- the full monthly cost, fee and advertising spend together
- the source of any benchmark it quotes, openable without paying
- what the supplier will report each month, and against which figure
A proposal that justifies its fee by a percentage of your turnover has told you what it wants to charge, not what the work is worth.
When should a practice not raise its marketing spend?
If the capacity line is zero, extra marketing buys enquiries the practice will turn away. Recruit or free up delivery hours first. A practice that is full should spend on the work it wants more of and stop marketing the work it wants less of, which can cost nothing.
Hold spend, too, while the website cannot convert what it receives. A site with one services page and no page for each service line wastes paid traffic, and fixing it is cheaper than buying more visits. And if the partners have not agreed which clients the practice wants, no budget figure will survive the first quarter.
Frequently asked questions
What partners ask about marketing budgets.
What percentage of fee income should an accountancy practice spend on marketing?
No published percentage has a UK dataset behind it. Work out the most the practice can pay to win one new client, multiply it by the new clients the team can take on, and divide by fee income. The percentage is the result of that sum.
Where does the 7 to 8 per cent marketing budget figure come from?
It is usually credited to the SBA, a US federal agency, and aimed at American firms. The SBA's current marketing guide gives no percentage. It asks for a costed breakdown of the marketing plan instead.
Should onboarding time count as a marketing cost?
Yes, when setting a ceiling. A UK practice must verify a new client's identity under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 before the relationship starts, and a switching client needs a professional enquiry. That time is spent only because the client was won.
Should a practice spend more on marketing in January?
Usually not on new client acquisition. January is the busiest month for self-assessment work, and a switching client may wait weeks for a reply to the professional enquiry, so demand bought then often arrives when nobody can onboard it.
Does the marketing budget include the agency fee?
It should. The ceiling covers everything spent to win the client: the agency fee, any advertising spend, website work and partner time on content. Budgets that leave the agency fee out make every channel look cheaper than it is.
Sources and useful reading
- The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, regulations 27 and 30, read 25 September 2026.
- icaew.com, change of professional appointment, incoming accountant, read 25 September 2026.
- gov.uk, Self Assessment tax return deadlines, read 25 September 2026.
- sba.gov, marketing and sales business guide, read 25 September 2026.
- Hinge Research Institute, 2025 High Growth Study, accounting and financial services edition, product page read 25 September 2026.
- Whitehat SEO, accountant marketing costs, read 25 September 2026.
- Advisory Lab, accounting firm marketing budget, read 25 September 2026.
- We are PF, how much a firm should spend on marketing, read 25 September 2026.
This article is commercial decision support, not financial or regulatory advice. The worked figures are illustrative and should be replaced with the practice's own.