When 7 in 10 people are unwilling or hesitant to trust those outside their familiar circles, what does it take to successfully market a financial advice practice?
That's the question many financial advisors are struggling to answer in 2026. Trust in financial services is among the lowest of any sector, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, which might be why Australia's financial sector is spending $756 million a year on advertising, up a staggering 20% from 2024.
With more money being spent chasing less and less people in an industry that many are already sceptical of, advisors who manage to grow their businesses won't do it by outspending the competition, they'll do it by building trust in new ways.
This is a practical guide on exactly how to do so.
The Advisor Shortage Changes Everything
Australia's financial advisor workforce peaked at 26,500 in 2019 but has since declined to around 15,079, a drop of more than 40%. With fewer advisors, each practice is now serving more clients, which means the ones who are able to market themselves effectively stand to capture a disproportionate share of demand.
But this shortage of advisors creates a paradox; with practices busier than ever, there’s less time for marketing. Those who build systems instead of relying on ad-hoc efforts are the ones pulling ahead.
Social Proof Is Your Most Powerful Marketing Asset
While trust in financial institutions is low, trust in individuals has grown, and trust backed by other people's experiences is the highest of all.
This is why social proof has become the single most important element in marketing, especially as firms with five or more reviews see increases in conversions of as high as 270%.
The impact is seen best in paid campaigns. On platforms like Meta, where everything else looks the same, trust is what shines through.
The ads which perform best for service businesses aren't those with the biggest budget; they're the ones that feature real client language, positive outcomes and solid social proof.
How to Actually Use Your Reviews
The majority of financial practices get reviews and then simply display their Google rating, with no thought for much else.
The best thing to do with them is to analyse reviews for the language clients actually use. What problems do they have? What made a difference to them? What words do they use to explain why they chose you?
The language you see should go directly into your ad copy and landing page headlines. Instead of your words about your services, use what customers say about their experience with you.
If a client writes: "I finally feel like someone explained superannuation in a way that made sense," that should be a headline! It's far more credible than anything you could write about yourself, and will attract potential clients.
The Advisor-as-Brand Shift
A particularly striking discovery from the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer is that 44% of people trust financial influencers to know what they should do with their money. Even more striking is that 57% said that if a financial influencer they trusted endorsed a company they didn’t trust, they would consider changing their mind about that company.
The advisor is the trust signal, not the firm they work for.
This has a range of practical implications for how you should structure your marketing. Your face, name and perspective should be put front and centre instead of the firm's logo and something uninspiring like a random stock photo.
Choosing Your Channels: A Budget-Realistic Framework
Not every financial practice is working with the same budget, so the right channel depends largely on what you can invest and how quickly you need to see results.
Google Ads: High Intent, High Cost
Google Ads has a unique profile when it comes to financial services. Click-through rates are among the highest of any industry, but conversion rates are some of the lowest.
People are definitely interested, as proven by the amount of clicks, but they're not converting at the level you’d expect. And in competitive Australian finance categories like superannuation, financial planning and wealth management, those clicks don't come cheap.
This gap is caused by a trust problem, not a targeting problem.
Google Ads works well for practices with big backing and the infrastructure required to convert expensive clicks, such as dedicated landing pages, fast response times and a robust follow-up system.
If you're spending $5,000+ per month on advertising and have a solid conversion setup, Google Ads can definitely deliver high-intent prospects. If your budget is below that, you'll struggle to get enough data to optimise.
Meta and TikTok: Creative-Driven, Lower Entry Point
For practices working on smaller budgets, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok offer a good alternative.
Meta's Andromeda algorithm finds the right people based on what your ads say and show.
A mix of content formats is key here. Some great ideas include static images with client testimonials, short-form videos of you explaining a concept, or a carousel walking prospective clients through a common misconception. The algorithm will test each piece of content against different audiences and scale what works.
Creative diversity is the difference maker here. Meta's Creative Similarity metric penalises repetitive ads with higher costs, so you need to take a genuinely different approach instead of small variations of the same thing.
Content around salary transparency, budgeting breakdowns, normalising debt conversations and "what your financial advisor actually does" is what works because it’s authentic, not polished.
Funnel-Staged Ads
No matter which platform you're advertising on, the ads that convert best don't try to do everything in one step; they work in sequence.
Top-of-funnel: educational content that builds awareness, such as a video explaining a concept or a blog post shared as an ad. No hard selling.
Middle-of-funnel: retarget people who engaged with the first ad by showing social proof, client stories and specific outcomes.
Bottom-of-funnel: a direct call to action for people with whom you've already built familiarity by encouraging them to book a call, attend a webinar, download a guide, etc.
Platforms will serve these in the right order automatically if you structure them correctly. You won't need a massive budget for this, just the right content at each stage of the funnel.
Building a Website That Converts
Your website doesn't need to look like it cost a million dollars to make, but it should definitely appear professional and feel human.
The most common mistake we see is practices trying to look bigger or more corporate than they actually are while stripping out the personal element, which is what resonates with most would-be clients. They should see team photos and faces so they get a sense of who they'd actually be working with.
This is a personal service, and people want to see who they're trusting with their financial future.
What "Professional and Human" Looks Like
The professional signals: AFSL number displayed, qualifications listed, security badges visible, Financial Services Guide accessible, compliance disclosures clear.
The human signals: real photographs of the team (not stock images), bios that include personality alongside credentials, a video introduction if possible, and language that's warm without being casual.
The conversion elements: a clear primary action on every page, contact forms that are short and easy to complete on mobile, and no separate "Contact Us" page that sends people away from the content they were reading.
The difference between a landing page that converts and one that doesn't almost always comes down to trust signals and friction reduction. An over-complex design will only put people off.
Content Marketing: The Education-First Approach
Content marketing is one of the most effective and cost-efficient strategies for financial advisors. For advisors specifically, it’s also a compliance function.
Educational content on topics like superannuation strategies, retirement planning and investment principles doesn't come under the same ASIC scrutiny that direct product promotion does because you're teaching, not selling.
Topics That Resonate in Australia
The topics that consistently perform for Australian financial advisors are:
- Superannuation strategies (consolidation, contribution caps, SMSF)
- Retirement planning and income stream structuring
- Insurance within super (TPD, life, income protection)
- End-of-financial-year tax strategies
- Life stage planning (first home, growing family, pre-retirement)
- Estate planning (wills, powers of attorney, death benefit nominations)
Each of these gives answers to questions that people are actively searching for, all while building trust by demonstrating expertise long before the first conversation happens.
Video: Authenticity Over Production
Over 80% of people reported that they trust financial advisors more after watching authentic video content. The key factor here is authenticity.
High production values can actually work against you because most people are more inclined to trust raw, straightforward video over polished corporate content. A two-minute video of you explaining a concept at your desk is far more effective than a professionally shot and scripted production.
Three video formats that work particularly well are "the worst financial advice I've heard" (relatability), a clear opinion on a topical issue (authority) and a serious walkthrough of a planning strategy (confidence).
Navigating ASIC Compliance
ASIC's Regulatory Guide 234 governs the advertising of financial products and advice services in Australia. A proposed update in late 2025 consolidated the guidance from several existing documents into a single, comprehensive framework.
The core principle of the guide is the "overall impression" test. This is the cumulative effect of everything in your ad (headlines, images, fine print, etc.), which must be accurate and not misleading from the perspective of an ordinary member of your target audience on first viewing.
What You Can't Do
- Imply guaranteed returns or performance outcomes
- Understate risks or oversell benefits
- Hide key disclosures behind a click (especially on social media)
- Misrepresent qualifications or experience
- Use prohibited or restricted language without meeting legal requirements
What You Can Do
- Share educational content on financial topics
- Reference past performance with appropriate disclaimers
- Use genuine client testimonials (with certain caveats)
- Promote your qualifications, experience and approach
- Run paid advertising with compliant messaging
- Build thought leadership through content
The Compliance Advantage
This is something we take very seriously for all our regulated industry clients. Working in regulated industries can sometimes make you feel like you aren't able to say anything because the regulations make it seem like every ad has to sound the same.
But that's actually not true at all. The key is understanding exactly what you're allowed to do and maximising the impact of what's within the rules. The financial practices that fully understand their compliance obligations are able to market more confidently, while the ones that don't end up either overclaiming (and getting penalised) or undermarketing themselves (and staying invisible).
A common frustration we hear from advisors who've worked with agencies before is that they didn't properly understand the regulations, so they'd end up writing copy that had to be pulled. Either that or they'd play it so safe that the ads didn’t actually say anything.
Compliance knowledge isn't a limitation. It's a competitive moat.
EEAT: Being Found in the Age of AI Search
Financial content falls under Google's YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) classification, which means it gets the highest level of quality scrutiny.
Google's December 2025 Core Update hit YMYL categories hardest. AI-generated financial content without demonstrable human expertise was downgraded, so thin, generic content lost ground to content with genuine practitioner insight.
For financial advisors, this is good news, as real expertise is a competitive advantage. Practices that invest in proper author profiles, post credentials on their website and upload content that demonstrates genuine experience will dominate both search results and AI citations.
If you're creating content, make sure it's attributed to a named, qualified author with a proper bio, include all your qualifications (CFP, AFP, SMSF Specialist, etc.) and link your author profile to your LinkedIn. This is the trust signal that determines whether Google and AI systems treat your content as authoritative.
For more on implementing these trust signals, see our EEAT Playbook.
Where to Start
If you're a financial advisor looking into digital marketing for the first time, or reassessing what isn't working with what you’re already doing, here's where to focus:
First, get your reviews flowing. Set up a systematic process for requesting reviews after every positive client interaction. Respond to every review and analyse the language clients use so it can help your marketing.
Second, build your personal brand presence. A professional photo, a proper bio and a short video introducing yourself. People buy from people in financial services, so make sure they can see and hear you before they make contact.
Third, start with content. One educational article or video per week on a topic your clients ask about will build your search presence, social proof and trust signals at the same time.
Fourth, choose one paid channel. If you have budget and conversion infrastructure, go with Google Ads for high-intent search. If you're starting with less, use Meta with creative diversity and a funnel-staged approach.
The financial practices that treat marketing as a trust-building system rather than a lead-buying exercise are the ones that grow. In a sceptical market, trust isn't just an advantage, it's the entire strategy.
Leadtree helps financial advisors build personal brands that convert, from video content and social proof systems through to funnel-staged paid campaigns. If you want prospects who already trust you before the first conversation, book a free 30-minute call.
