Your end-of-financial-year marketing checklist for 2026

With 30 June approaching, most business owners are thinking about tax, stocktakes and cash flow. But the end of the financial year is also the best time of year to take stock of your marketing — while you have twelve months of data in front of you and a new budget to plan.

Here’s the checklist we work through with our clients every June.

1. Review the year’s results against real business outcomes

Look past clicks and impressions. For each channel — Google Ads, Meta, SEO, email — ask:

• How many leads or sales did it generate?
• What did each lead or sale cost?
• How many of those leads actually became paying customers?

That last question is the one most businesses skip. A channel with cheap leads that never convert is more expensive than it looks.

2. Check your tracking is telling the truth

Every decision you make for next year depends on your data being right. Compare the conversions reported in Google Ads and GA4 with the enquiries and sales you actually received. If the numbers don’t line up, fix the tracking before you plan next year’s budget, not after.

3. Make the most of EOFY buying behaviour

June is a big month for many businesses, as customers and companies look to make purchases before 30 June. If you run EOFY offers:

• Schedule your ads, emails and social posts now rather than in the last week of the month.
• Make sure your landing pages mention the offer and its end date clearly.
• Consider temporary budget increases for your best-performing campaigns in the final fortnight.

4. Talk to your accountant about marketing spend

Advertising and marketing costs are generally business expenses, and the timing of spend can matter. Every business is different, so check with your accountant before bringing any spending forward for tax reasons.

5. Clean up your accounts

Twelve months of campaigns leave clutter behind: paused campaigns, outdated ads, old audiences and broken links. A tidy-up now makes next year’s reporting clearer and helps you spot what’s still running that shouldn’t be.

6. Refresh your creative and your website

Ads that have run all year are often fatigued — the same audience has seen them many times. Plan new creative for July. And check your website’s key pages on your phone: slow pages and fiddly forms quietly cost you enquiries from every channel.

7. Set your FY27 budget and goals

Use this year’s real cost-per-lead and conversion numbers to work backwards: how many customers do you want next year, and what will it cost to win them? Build in seasonal peaks, and keep some budget aside to test a new channel — whether that’s Meta Ads, email or SEO.

Want a second opinion?

If you’d like an independent review of the last twelve months — what worked, what didn’t and where your budget should go in FY27 — we offer a free marketing audit, with no obligation.