LeadsNow sees booked-call costs of $30–$400, depending on industry, offer, price and many other variables. For an Australian accounting firm the number that matters is the ceiling: a small-business client worth an assumed $3,500 a year for six years supports up to $588 per booked call, while an individual tax-return client supports $49.
- The formula: cost per booked call = cost per enquiry ÷ enquiry-to-booked-call rate. Cost per new client = cost per booked call ÷ (show rate × call-to-signed rate).
- The ceiling: the Fee-Life Ceiling. Annual fee × years retained × marketing share × show rate × call-to-signed rate is the most one booked call can cost.
- The assumptions: enquiry costs of $60, $120 and $200, a 40% booking rate, an 80% show rate, a 35% call-to-signed rate and a 10% marketing share. All are labelled assumptions for you to replace.
- The public data: no Australian dataset publishes cost per booked call for accountants. The nearest published figure is a US-dollar cost per lead.
- The calendar: the ATO tells first-time tax-agent clients to make contact before 31 October, which changes who books calls in September and October.
Worked calculation: what a booked call costs an accounting firm
A booked discovery call costs an Australian accounting firm $150 to $500 in this model, when enquiries cost $60 to $200 and 40% of them book.
The enquiry costs and rates below are assumptions, not measurements. They are there so you can see the shape and drop in your own figures from the CRM and the ad account. The last column is what the firm actually pays to sign one client.
| Cost per enquiry (assumption) | Cost per booked call (÷ 0.40) | Cost per new client (÷ 0.80 × 0.35) |
|---|---|---|
| $60 | $150 | $535.71 |
| $120 | $300 | $1,071.43 |
| $200 | $500 | $1,785.71 |
A cost per new client of $1,071.43 sounds high until it is set against a client who pays every year. That comparison is the next table. For what belongs in the spend line, see the method for calculating cost per booked call.
How it works
How an accounting firm sets its maximum cost per booked call
Find cost per booked call
Divide cost per enquiry by the share of enquiries that book a discovery call.
Value each client type
Multiply the annual fee by the years a client typically stays, for individuals, small businesses and advisory clients.
Apply the Fee-Life Ceiling
Multiply lifetime fees by your marketing share, show rate and signed rate. That is the most one booked call can cost.
Filter before 31 October
Tighten enquiry filters in tax season, when first-time individual clients enquire. Loosen them from November.
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The Fee-Life Ceiling: the most an accounting firm can pay per booked call
The Fee-Life Ceiling caps what an accounting firm can pay per booked call at annual fee × years retained × marketing share × show rate × signed rate.
No public source gives Australian accounting fees or retention by client type, so the three client profiles are illustrative assumptions with a 10% marketing share of lifetime fees. Recurring fees are what make accounting different from a one-off sale: the firm is buying years, not a job.
| Client type (illustrative) | Lifetime fees | Ceiling per booked call | Against $150 / $300 / $500 booked calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual tax return ($350 a year, 5 years) | $1,750 | $1,750 × 0.10 × 0.80 × 0.35 = $49 | Fails all three |
| Sole trader or small business compliance ($3,500 a year, 6 years) | $21,000 | $588 | Pays at $150 and $300; fails at $500 |
| Business with advisory or outsourced CFO work ($18,000 a year, 4 years) | $72,000 | $2,016 | Pays at all three |
The quotable version: paid acquisition rarely pays for an accounting firm’s individual tax-return clients, and it often pays for business clients. The lead-generation question for a firm is therefore which clients to book, not how many. Our page on lead generation for accounting firms in Australia covers why advisory work has to be sold while compliance work walks in.
Want this done for you? We book qualified sales appointments on a Pay-Per-Result basis — you only pay for calls that actually land in your calendar.
Is there a published benchmark for cost per booked call for accountants?
No published Australian dataset measures cost per booked call for accounting firms; the nearest public figure is a US-dollar search cost per lead for business services.
The LocaliQ/WordStream 2026 search advertising benchmarks report an average cost per lead of US$93.69 for the Business Services category, with a 4.85% conversion rate (updated 1 June 2026). It comes from LocaliQ and WordStream customers’ Google Ads and Microsoft Ads campaigns, in US dollars, for a broad category, and it is a cost per lead: it stops before anyone answers the enquiry or books a meeting. Treat it as a sense check on the middle row above, not as an Australian accounting benchmark. Our cost per booked meeting for Australian consultants covers a neighbouring professional-services market where engagements are one-off rather than annual.
Should an accounting firm filter enquiries before booking the call?
An accounting firm should filter enquiries before booking when individual returns fill the diary: filtering raises the cost per call but lowers the cost per business client.
Take the $120 enquiry. Unfiltered, 40% book at $300 a call; if half those calls are individual-return enquiries (an assumption), each booked business call costs $600, above the $588 small-business ceiling. Filtered by entity type and turnover on the form or the first text, only 30% book, at $400 a call, but every call is a business prospect, which sits under the ceiling. Fewer calls, better economics.
- Ask the entity type: individual, sole trader, company, trust or partnership.
- Ask the approximate annual turnover band.
- Ask whether they have an accountant now, and why they are looking.
- Ask what bookkeeping software they use; it signals both size and how much clean-up the first year needs.
The doing-it-yourself cost is a partner or senior accountant spending discovery calls on enquiries the form could have sorted. See how accounting firms get new clients in Australia for the channel-by-channel view.
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Why the cost per booked call changes before 31 October
An accounting firm’s booked-call mix changes before 31 October because the ATO tells first-time tax-agent clients to make contact by that date to join the agent’s lodgment program.
The ATO says most registered tax agents have a special lodgment program and can lodge after the usual 31 October deadline, but someone using a tax agent for the first time, or switching agent, “should contact them before 31 October”. That gives individuals a real reason to enquire in September and October. Those are the clients with the lowest ceiling in the table above, so the same ad spend can produce more calls that are worth less. We have not found public data on whether click prices rise in this window, so we do not claim they do. What the firm can control is the filter: tighten it in tax season, loosen it from November, when the enquiries that remain are more likely to be businesses changing accountant.
The cheapest booked call an accounting firm has is a past proposal
A prospect who received a proposal but never signed is the cheapest booked call an accounting firm can get, because the enquiry and the first meeting are already paid for.
Most firms keep these in a practice-management system or an inbox and never contact them again. A short, specific message (a change in their circumstances, a new financial year, an offer to review last year’s return) costs minutes, not $300. The database reactivation guide covers how to sequence it, and how to follow up leads who ghosted covers the wording.
What does a pay-per-result model cost an accounting firm?
A pay-per-result model charges an accounting firm for booked appointments or revenue generated, not leads, moving the booking and show-rate risk to the provider.
The Fee-Life Ceiling still applies: a per-appointment price is only cheap if it sits under the ceiling for the client type being booked, so agree up front which clients count. LeadsNow is paid on results: 5–25% of the revenue we generate for you (revenue share), or an equivalent pay-per-appointment fee, or a mix of both, set by lead volume, what is being sold and its price, the type of product and business, and which part (or all) of the sales funnel we run. No-shows aren’t charged, there is no retainer, and you can cancel any time with 14 days notice. The detail for firms is on our page for accountants.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good cost per booked call for an accounting firm?
A good cost per booked call is one under the Fee-Life Ceiling for the client you are booking. With the assumptions on this page that is about $588 for a small-business compliance client and about $49 for an individual tax-return client, so the same $300 call is good for one and poor for the other.
Is cost per lead the same as cost per booked call?
No. Cost per lead stops at the enquiry. Cost per booked call divides by the share of enquiries that book a meeting; at a 40% booking rate it is 2.5 times the cost per lead. The LocaliQ/WordStream 2026 benchmarks give a US$93.69 cost per lead for the Business Services category, which is not a booked-call figure.
When is the deadline for new tax-agent clients in Australia?
The ATO says that if you are using a tax agent for the first time, or changing agent, you should contact them before 31 October to be part of their lodgment program. Its page on lodging with a registered tax agent sets this out. This is general information, not tax advice.
How can an accounting firm lower its cost per new client?
Lift the show rate and the signed rate, not just the ad price. In the worked model, a $300 booked call costs $1,071.43 per new client at 80% shown and 35% signed; filtering for business clients and re-contacting past proposals both lower the cost of the clients that actually pay back.
Are referrals cheaper than paid booked calls for accountants?
Referrals carry no media cost, but they cannot be scheduled or scaled on demand. Paid booked calls are worth buying when they sit under the Fee-Life Ceiling for business clients, which in this model means under $588 a call.
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