Marketing Insights for Accountants

Practical marketing tips, SEO advice and growth strategies for accountants

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25 Accounting Social Media Posts (With Ready to Use Examples)

Coming up with accounting social media posts that actually get engagement is one of the hardest parts of marketing an accountancy firm. Social media is a powerful tool for accountants, with countless businesses out there who need help with their finances, but a blank content calendar is where most firms get stuck. If your accountancy...

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London Has Lost 1 in 7 of Its Accountancy Firms in Seven Years

If you want to see where the UK accountancy profession is shrinking fastest, look at the capital. Our analysis shows London lost 1,660 accountancy firms between 2019 and 2026. That’s a 14.6% drop. About one in seven of the capital’s firms, gone in seven years. To put that in context, the UK as a whole...

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So where did the firms go? The ONS data tells us what happened, not why. But the why is well documented, and it points overwhelmingly in one direction: the firms didn't fail. They were bought. Private equity has swept through UK accountancy at extraordinary speed. According to Accountancy Europe's 2025 review, the UK is the most active market on the continent, accounting for over 40% of all PE-backed accountancy deals in Europe. Crowe reports that as many as 20 of the UK's top 60 firms are now private equity backed, including names like Grant Thornton UK, Evelyn Partners, Azets, Cooper Parry and Xeinadin. And the ICAEW's 2025 mid-tier research found that roughly a quarter of mid-tier firms are PE-backed, with nearly half completing an acquisition in the past year alone. Every one of those acquisitions turns multiple firms into one. Xeinadin alone is a consolidation of 122 independent UK and Irish practices. That's 122 entries on the business register collapsing into a single group. Retirement is the other pressure. The average age of a UK accountant is 46 according to CCAB figures, and the pipeline behind them thinned badly: ICAEW, ACCA and CIMA enrolled 9,000 fewer students between 2017 and 2022. When a sole practitioner retires without a successor, that firm simply disappears from the register. An ageing profession with fewer new entrants means more of those quiet exits every year, and it's a big reason 93% of employers report skills shortages in the sector. What the data rules out is falling demand. The UK's total business population actually grew over the same period. Fewer firms are serving more businesses than ever. Why this matters if you run a firm Here's the part most commentary misses. A shrinking profession is bad news for the industry headline writers, but it's a genuine opportunity for the firms still standing. Every firm that closes or gets absorbed leaves clients looking for a new accountant. The average UK firm's local market has grown from 62 businesses per firm in 2019 to 68 in 2025. And that's before Making Tax Digital pushes millions of sole traders and landlords towards professional support from 2026 onwards. Fewer competitors. More potential clients. The firms that are visible when those clients start searching will take a disproportionate share. The question is whether your firm will be one of them.

UK Has Lost 3,115 Accountancy Firms Since 2019

Something is happening to the UK accountancy profession, and almost nobody is talking about it. In 2019, there were 43,720 accountancy firms in the UK. By 2026, there were 40,605. That’s 3,115 fewer firms. A 7.1% drop in seven years. About 1 in 14 firms, gone. And it isn’t a blip. Firm numbers fell or...

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UK Accountancy Firms Fall 7% as Biggest Opportunity in Decades Arrives

Two things are happening to the UK accountancy market at the same time, and they’re pulling in opposite directions. The first: the profession has shrunk. Our analysis of ONS data shows the UK has 3,115 fewer accountancy firms than in 2019. That’s a 7.1% drop, after six years of decline and flatlining and only a...

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Why Is My Google Business Profile Not Showing Up? (For Accountants)

You search for “accountant near me” or “accountants in [your town]” and expect to see your firm. After all, you’ve got a Google Business Profile, you’re verified, you’ve added your services… and yet, you’re nowhere to be found. For many accountants, this is one of the most frustrating digital marketing problems there is. Not least...

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