How Palfrey Murphy Accountants Increased Monthly Leads by 64% in Just 3 Months

Palfrey Murphy Accountants had a solid reputation in their local market. Their existing clients were loyal, their work was excellent, and word-of-mouth had served them reasonably well for years. But like many professional services firms, they had reached a ceiling. Referrals were inconsistent, their website was generating little organic traffic, and their Google Ads spend was producing a poor return. They needed a structured, measurable approach to lead generation — and they needed results quickly.

That is when they engaged Results Mastery.

The Starting Point: Diagnosing the Real Problem

Before making any changes, we conducted a full marketing audit across four areas: paid search, organic search, referral systems, and email marketing. What we found was typical of many professional services firms.

Their Google Ads campaigns were running on broad match keywords with no negative keyword lists, meaning they were paying for irrelevant clicks from people searching for jobs, software, and overseas accounting services. Their landing page had no clear call to action and loaded slowly on mobile. Their SEO was almost non-existent — no structured content strategy, no local SEO optimisation, and no Google Business Profile. Their referral process was entirely informal, relying on clients to mention them when the topic arose. And their email list, while healthy in size, had not been contacted in over four months.

The good news was that all of these were fixable, and quickly.

The Four-Part Strategy

1. Google Ads Optimisation

We rebuilt their Google Ads campaigns from scratch. The key changes were straightforward but significant. We moved from broad match to phrase and exact match keywords, focusing tightly on high-intent searches such as "accountant for small business [town]", "self-assessment tax return help", and "VAT returns accountant near me". We added an extensive negative keyword list to eliminate wasted spend. We rewrote the ad copy to lead with a specific outcome — "Pay Less Tax. Grow Your Business." — and we created a dedicated landing page with a single, clear call to action: book a free consultation.

Within the first month, cost per click dropped by 31% and the conversion rate on the landing page increased from 1.8% to 4.6%.

2. Local SEO and Content Marketing

We optimised their Google Business Profile, ensuring all NAP (Name, Address, Phone) information was consistent, adding service descriptions, uploading photos, and setting up a process for requesting client reviews. We also identified six high-value search terms their ideal clients were using and created structured, well-written content pages targeting each one.

Within ten weeks, Palfrey Murphy appeared in the Google Local Pack for three of their primary target keywords — a significant shift that drove a measurable increase in inbound enquiries from local businesses.

3. A Structured Referral Programme

The most underused asset in any professional services firm is the goodwill of existing clients. We designed a simple, systematic referral programme: a personal email from the director to the top 40 clients, explaining that the firm was growing and asking directly whether they knew anyone who might benefit from a conversation. The email was warm, specific, and easy to act on. It included a short paragraph they could forward directly.

Of the 40 emails sent, 14 clients responded positively, and six resulted in qualified introductions within the first month. This alone accounted for a significant portion of the overall lead increase.

4. Email Marketing Reactivation

We created a three-email reactivation sequence for their dormant list. The first email acknowledged the gap in communication and offered genuine value — a short guide on the most common tax mistakes small business owners make. The second followed up with a case study. The third made a direct offer of a free 30-minute financial health check.

The sequence achieved a 41% open rate and generated 11 booked consultations from a list that had previously been entirely inactive.

The Results After 3 Months

The combined effect of these four strategies was a 64% increase in monthly qualified leads compared to the three months prior to the engagement. More importantly, the quality of those leads improved significantly. Because the messaging was now tightly aligned with the problems their ideal clients were experiencing, the conversion rate from initial enquiry to paid client also increased.

Metric	Before	After	Change
Monthly qualified leads	17	28	+64%
Google Ads cost per lead	£47	£29	-38%
Landing page conversion rate	1.8%	4.6%	+156%
Email open rate	—	41%	New campaign
Referral introductions	1–2/month	6/month	+200%

What Made the Difference

The results at Palfrey Murphy were not the product of any single tactic. They came from applying a coherent, joined-up strategy across all the channels where their ideal clients were already looking for help. Each element reinforced the others: the SEO content built authority, the Google Ads captured immediate intent, the referral programme leveraged existing trust, and the email campaign reactivated a warm audience that was already predisposed to engage.

This is the Results Mastery approach. Not one magic tactic, but a disciplined system applied consistently across the right channels.

Could Your Business Achieve Similar Results?

If you are a professional services firm — an accountant, solicitor, financial adviser, or consultant — and you are not generating a consistent, predictable flow of qualified leads, the chances are that one or more of these four areas is underperforming.

The Results Mastery Profit Potential Calculator can show you, in under five minutes, exactly where the hidden growth opportunity lies in your business. Use it now at results-mastery.com/calculator, then book a free strategy call with Steve Mills to discuss what is possible.

Steve Mills has worked with over 10,000 businesses across 31 years and achieved an average 45% increase in sales within the first 12 months.