H1 2026 in Review: What Worked in Financial Adviser Marketing (And What Didn't)

Average cost per click for financial services keywords rose 8-12% in H1 2026 compared to the same period last year. Pension-related terms saw the steepest increases, with "pension transfer advice" now consistently above £45 per click in competitive regions. Equity release and mortgage keywords held steadier.

But here is the thing: cost per client has not risen proportionally for firms running optimised campaigns. The reason is that landing page conversion rates have improved across our client base -- the median is now 5.8% versus 4.2% a year ago. Better pages absorb higher click costs. Firms still sending paid traffic to their homepage are feeling the squeeze hardest because their conversion rates have not moved.

The biggest shift we have seen is in Performance Max campaigns. Google is pushing advertisers toward PMax heavily, and the results are mixed for financial services. Broad automated targeting works for consumer products but struggles with the nuance of regulated advice. We have had better results keeping Search campaigns manual and using PMax only for remarketing audiences where the targeting is already warm.

Microsoft Ads continues to punch above its weight for advisers. Lower competition, older demographic skew, and cheaper clicks make it a strong complement to Google -- not a replacement, but a reliable 15-20% of paid enquiry volume at 30-40% lower cost per lead.

The biggest positive surprise of H1 2026 has been LinkedIn advertising for adviser firms targeting specific professional segments. We have run campaigns for pension consolidation targeting company directors, equity release targeting retired professionals, and exit planning targeting business owners approaching sale -- and the lead quality has been materially better than Google in each case.

Cost per lead on LinkedIn remains higher (£220-£400 versus £150-£350 on Google), but lead-to-client conversion is running at 28-35% versus 18-24% on Google. When you calculate cost per actual client, LinkedIn is now competitive or cheaper for niche propositions.

The format that works best: single-image Sponsored Content with a lead magnet offer (guide, checklist, calculator access) rather than a direct consultation pitch. LinkedIn prospects are not in buying mode -- they are in professional browsing mode. Offering something useful before asking for a meeting respects that context and converts at 2-3x the rate of direct pitches.

The firms where LinkedIn does not work: generalist advisers without a defined niche. If you cannot describe your ideal client by job title or industry, LinkedIn targeting cannot help you.

This is the trend we have been watching most closely. Across our adviser clients with strong organic visibility, total organic sessions are down 8-14% year-on-year. But organic enquiries are flat or slightly up. The explanation: AI Overviews are answering basic educational queries directly, so fewer people click through for "what is a pension transfer" or "how does equity release work." But the people who do click through are further along in their research and more likely to convert.

The practical implication is that educational blog content is generating less traffic but the traffic it generates is more valuable. Conversion rates on organic blog visits have risen from 0.8% to 1.3% across our client base -- not because the pages changed, but because the visitors arriving are more qualified.

Commercial pages -- service pages, location pages, landing pages -- have been less affected by AI Overviews. Someone searching "pension adviser Manchester" still wants to evaluate specific firms. AI cannot do that evaluation for them. These high-intent queries remain the organic SEO priority.

The adviser firms best positioned for AI search are the ones being cited inside AI Overviews rather than competing with them. We have seen citation rates increase for content that includes specific data points, named author credentials, and clear E-E-A-T signals. Generic content without attribution is getting filtered out.

Email remains the most cost-effective channel per enquiry for every adviser firm we work with, yet it receives the least attention. The firms running structured nurture sequences -- welcome series, segment-based content, behavioural triggers -- convert downloaded-guide leads into consultations at 12-18% over 90 days. Firms without nurture sequences convert the same leads at 3-5%.

The biggest H1 development in email has been the impact of Apple Mail Privacy Protection on open rate metrics. Open rates are now essentially unreliable as a performance metric. Click rate and reply rate are the metrics that matter. Firms still optimising subject lines based on open rates are optimising for a metric that does not reflect human behaviour.

We have also seen strong results from event-triggered sequences -- specifically fix-expiry reminders for mortgage clients and tax year-end prompts for pension clients. These time-sensitive sequences convert at 25-40% because the trigger matches a real decision moment.

The firms growing fastest in H1 2026 share a common budget pattern. They spend 45-50% on paid media (Google plus LinkedIn), 20-25% on SEO and content, 10-15% on website conversion optimisation, 10% on email and nurture infrastructure, and 5-10% on tools and tracking.

The shift from last year: more allocation to LinkedIn (up from near zero for most firms), more to conversion optimisation (landing pages and forms), and slightly less to broad SEO content production. The reasoning is sound -- improving conversion rates on existing traffic is cheaper than buying more traffic.

Firms spending less than £2,000 per month total on marketing are struggling to generate meaningful data. At that level you can run one channel adequately but cannot test, compare, or optimise. The practical minimum for a multi-channel approach that generates learnings is £3,000-£5,000 monthly. Below that, focus everything on one channel and do it properly rather than spreading too thin.

Based on H1 data, here is what we are adjusting across our adviser client base for the second half of 2026:

Increasing LinkedIn budget allocation for firms with defined niches. The data now supports it -- lead quality justifies the higher per-lead cost.

Shifting organic content strategy toward commercial and location pages and away from educational blog content. AI search is handling educational queries. We want to own the commercial queries where the conversion intent is highest.

Investing more in post-submission experiences. Speed-to-contact, automated booking confirmations, and structured first-call scripts are producing measurable improvements in lead-to-client conversion. The cheapest way to get more clients is not more leads -- it is converting more of the leads you already generate.

Testing video content on LinkedIn and landing pages. Short adviser introduction videos (60-90 seconds) are showing early conversion improvements on landing pages -- prospects who watch the video book consultations at higher rates. We are expanding this test across more clients in H2.

If your marketing has been running on autopilot for the first half of the year, now is the time to review what the data actually says and adjust. The firms that review and adapt mid-year consistently outperform those that set a plan in January and run it unchanged.