Financial advisor marketingthat gets you chosen
PELORA Marketing runs Google Ads, search and AI-answer visibility for independent financial advisors, planners and small RIAs. Every ad, page and article goes to your compliance reviewer before it runs. Plans start at $3,500 a month plus a $1,500 to $2,000 setup, with a three-month minimum, then month to month. You pay Google or Meta for ads directly.
Launch, $3,500 a month: one ad channel, Google or Meta, and 2 search and AI articles a month. Growth, $5,500 a month with a $4,500 setup: you pick one lane, Google Ads, Meta Ads, or search and AI visibility with no ads.
Preston Durnford, Founder of PELORA Marketing
Last updated October 12, 2026Newport Beach, CA, serving advisors nationwide
What we checked: the SEC Marketing Rule, two SEC enforcement releases, FINRA Rule 2210, and Google’s and Meta’s financial ad policies, all re-read October 12, 2026, plus the Kitces Research 2026 and Wealthtender 2025 survey data.
AI-generated illustration
What does a financial advisor marketing agency do, and is it worth it?
A good one brings you prospects you would not meet through referrals, then makes sure that when anyone looks you up, they find a clear reason to call. It is worth it when referrals have stopped growing the practice and the fee fits your revenue. For many small practices, it is not.
Referrals still come first. In Kitces Research’s 2026 study of 506 advisors, 88% used client referrals, more than any other tactic. But a referral is no longer the whole decision. In Wealthtender’s 2025 survey of 500 US adults from households earning over $100,000, 96% said they would still research an advisor even if that advisor came highly recommended, and 83% said they want to read online reviews and look for awards or other trust indicators before deciding.
So the job splits in two. First, be easy to find for the people who do not know you yet: Google searches, AI answers and directories. Second, be easy to check for the people who do: a website that says who you help, what you charge and how you work, with reviews handled under the rules.
What we do for advisors, and what stays yours
| The work | What we do | What stays with you |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads (or Meta) | Build and run the campaigns, write the ads, track calls and bookings. | The ad account is yours, and so is the budget: you pay Google or Meta directly. |
| Search and AI visibility | Articles that answer your clients’ real questions, plus page titles and the labels search engines read behind the page (schema), so Google and AI tools can read and quote you. | Your website and everything we write for it. |
| Compliance review | Draft to your compliance officer’s checklist and send each piece for review before it runs. | The sign-off. Your CCO, compliance consultant or registered principal approves; we are not your compliance officer and we do not give legal advice. |
| Reporting | One full report a month on Launch. On Growth and every plan through Premier, a written update every two weeks and a full report monthly. | The decisions: what to keep, cut or grow. |
When an agency is the wrong move
James Pollard’s piece on Advisorpedia, “5 Reasons Why Hiring A Financial Advisor Marketing Agency Is A Bad Idea” (2021, read October 12, 2026), makes a fair case: you may not know enough to judge the work, nobody cares as much as you do, few agencies know your niche, you can lose control, and every agency sells the tool it owns. He still concludes that an agency “CAN make sense for financial advisors if they have a proven model, systems in place, a healthy budget, and patience.”
Our own test of “a healthy budget”, cash against cash: year one costs $42,000 on Launch plus $1,500 to $2,000 setup, or $66,000 on Growth plus $4,500 setup, each before ad spend. Kitces Research found the typical practice spends 7% of its revenue on marketing, but only 2.2 points of that is cash; the rest is advisor and staff time. A year of Launch fees equals that typical cash share at about $1.9 million of revenue, and a year of Growth fees at about $3.0 million.
A smaller practice can still hire us if it is moving its own marketing time into paid work, and the “Not a fit” list below is the honest test. If our fee plus your ad budget would be well over what you spend on marketing today, hire us later: start with referrals, your Google Business Profile and a website that states your specialty and fees. If you want our read first, ask for the Free Growth Check (free, and separate from the Growth plan).
On control: you own the ad accounts, the creative and the website, and the term is three months, then month to month with 30 days notice.
A good fit
- Independent advisors, planners and RIAs with a clear specialty or service area and, by the test above, about $2 million in revenue or more, or a smaller practice moving its own marketing time into paid work.
- Practices where referrals are steady but no longer growing.
- Firms with a compliance reviewer who can turn drafts around in days, not months.
- Budgets where the plan plus ad spend sits inside what you would spend on marketing anyway.
Not a fit
- Practices where a year of our fees plus ad spend would be well over what they spend in cash on marketing today, and that are not ready to move their own marketing time into paid work.
- Anyone who wants performance figures, ratings or paid testimonials in ads without the disclosures the rule requires.
- Anyone looking for an outsourced compliance officer. We draft; your firm approves.
- Anyone who wants a guaranteed number of leads or clients. We do not promise one.
We are new to financial advisors
We have not yet run marketing for a financial advisor, planner or RIA, so this page shows no advisor results of our own: every advisor figure on it comes from Kitces, Wealthtender or the other named sources. What carries over: our client work includes health care practices, where Google and Meta also restrict ads. We write to each platform’s rules, every piece goes to your reviewer before it runs, you own the accounts, and we promise no lead numbers. Judge us at the 60-day checkpoint, on your own numbers.
Running a larger, multi-advisor firm? Our wealth management marketing page covers advisor video, local search for every city you serve, and CRM follow-up.
How much does financial advisor marketing cost?
The typical advisory practice spends 7% of its revenue on marketing, and most of that is advisor and staff time, not cash. PELORA’s plans start at $3,500 a month, with ad spend paid by you to the platforms and never marked up.
Kitces Research’s 2026 marketing study split the 7% in two: 2.2 points of hard costs, such as software and listing fees, and 4.8 points of advisor and staff time. Practices actively seeking growth spent 8.1% of revenue, and the ones with standout growth spent 9.1%.
The same study put the typical cost to win one new client at $2,551, down from $3,800 in its 2024 edition. It rises with practice size, from $815 for practices under $250,000 in revenue to $4,896 between $1 million and $2 million, and $15,788 above $5 million.
PELORA’s prices for advisors
| Plan | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Launch | $3,500 a month | A managed start on Google or Meta for a business testing paid ads, with a monthly performance review. |
| Growth | $5,500 a month | Pick Google or Meta and we run it, with fresh ads made for you every month and a written update every two weeks. Growth can also run with no paid channel, as search and AI visibility instead, at the same price. |
| Scale | $7,500 a month | Google and Meta run together, with organic social posted to all your platforms, search and AI visibility and a written update every two weeks. |
| Setup, one time | $4,500 | On every plan above $3,500 a month; $1,500 to $2,000 on Launch. Account builds, tracking and your first creative library. |
| Free Growth Check | $0 | Free, and separate from the Growth plan: one page on what we can see from public information, built before your call. No account access. |
| Audit and Game Plan | $1,500 one time | For practices already running Google or Meta ads: we go inside your ad accounts and tracking, check them against your numbers, and hand you a written plan. Credited toward setup if you sign within 30 days. |
Every plan has a three-month minimum and a 60-day checkpoint. At day 60 we review your numbers together and change what is not working. The three-month minimum still applies; after it you can leave with 30 days notice.
The other two costs: ad spend and review time
Ad spend, our guide. Paid by you to Google or Meta, never through us: $3,000 to $10,000 a month on Launch, and $5,000 to $15,000 a month on Growth’s Google or Meta lane. Growth’s search and AI lane runs with no ads.
Your reviewer’s time. Each month your reviewer sees, on Launch, 5 ad creatives and 2 articles; on Growth, 8 to 12 new ads or organic pieces, 3 articles on a Google or Meta lane, and social posts; on the search and AI lane, the article count is set on the call. That review time, in house or billed by a compliance consultant, is your cost, so count it.
A simple break-even. Launch plus a $3,000 monthly ad budget is about $78,000 in year one, plus setup. If a new client pays you $X a year, you need about $78,000 divided by $X new clients to cover it. As an example only: Kitces found that clients won through paid advertising brought in about $5,000 a year each, and at $5,000 that is about 16 new clients.
Want the number for your practice? A free call, and you leave with a recommended plan and its published price.
Book a free callDo Google Ads work for financial advisors?
They can, because a search ad reaches someone at the moment they look for an advisor. But paid ads cost advisors more per new client than referrals or ranking in search, and Google and Meta both have rules for financial advertisers.
In Kitces Research’s 2026 study, 15% of advisors used sponsorships and paid advertising, at an average cost of $8,406 per new client. Search engine optimization cost $3,020 and client referrals $3,198. These per-tactic figures measure something different from the typical $2,551 above. That one is a practice’s whole marketing cost for the year divided by its new clients that year; each tactic’s figure adds up everything advisors reported spending on it, including money that won no clients, and divides by all the clients it won across the survey. Paid search earns its place when you need new prospects faster than referrals and rankings can bring them, and when your average client is worth well more than it costs to win one.
What does a lead cost? We found no published cost per lead for financial advisors alone. The closest is LocaliQ’s 2026 search benchmarks, a vendor benchmark drawn from thousands of its customers’ Google and Microsoft Ads campaigns: its “Finance & Insurance” category averaged $3.39 a click and $74.44 a lead (LocaliQ, “Last Updated: June 1, 2026,” read October 12, 2026). It is a broad category, not advisors alone, so treat it as a rough marker. Once your ads are approved and tracking is live, we report your real cost per booked call.
What we run for advisors: searches for your specialty and city, searches for your own name, and pages that answer the fee and process questions prospects ask first. More on how we run accounts is on our Google Ads page.
The platform rules for financial advisors, read October 12, 2026
| Rule | What it says | What it means for your ads |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads, Financial products and services | Covers “products and services related to the management or investment of money and cryptocurrencies, including personalized advice.” Advertisers must provide “The physical address for the business offering the financial product or service” and “All associated fees,” and, where you show a rating or accreditation, a link to it; disclosures “must be clearly and immediately visible without needing to click or hover over anything” (re-read October 12, 2026). | The page your ad sends people to shows your business address, your fee schedule and a link behind any rating you show, in plain sight. You also follow the rules of every state you target. |
| Google, financial services and advertiser verification | Google says “Some locations require you to complete additional verification steps to advertise financial services,” and lists those locations; on October 12, 2026 the United States was not on the list. Separately, Google’s advertiser verification page says “all advertisers will eventually be required to complete advertiser verification,” and lists running ads “for certain industries, like financial services” as a reason to be selected. | No extra financial services verification for US targeting today, and we check the list again before every launch. Expect identity verification: we walk you through it with your firm’s documents. |
| Meta, Special Ad Category for financial products and services | Meta requires you to declare a Special Ad Category for financial products and services ads aimed at the US, and it limits the targeting options. In Meta’s words, any advertiser targeting the United States “that is running financial products and services, housing or employment ads, must self identify as a Special Ad Category, as it becomes available, and run such ads with approved targeting options” (Meta Advertising Standards, Discriminatory Practices, read October 12, 2026). | Meta’s setting for financial ads limits who they can be aimed at, so an advisor’s ads reach a broad local audience and the message does the targeting: who you serve, said plainly. |
| SEC Marketing Rule | An ad offering your advisory services to more than one person is an “advertisement” under the rule. Under FINRA Rule 2210, a registered principal approves each retail communication before use. | Every ad, landing page and article goes through your review first. The next sections cover what they can say. |
How do financial advisors show up when prospects ask AI?
The same way they show up in Google: pages that say clearly who you help, where and for what fee, that the AI tools are allowed to read, backed by listings and reviews that agree with them. There is no separate trick.
A quarter of prospects plan to start there. In Wealthtender’s 2025 survey, about 25% (25.4%) of $100K+ households planned to use AI search tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini to start their advisor search, next to about 50% (49.8%) for search engines such as Google or Bing. Wealthtender says people using ChatGPT are much more likely to write detailed prompts, such as a highly rated advisor in a named city who helps one employer’s staff retire. Before contacting an advisor, the two things most wanted to know were “the advisor’s areas of specialization (64%) and fee/pricing structure (62%)” (Wealthtender, read October 12, 2026).
The platforms say what they need, and it is plain:
- Google: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” A page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet (Google Search Central, last updated December 10, 2025).
- ChatGPT: “Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links” (OpenAI).
- Perplexity: “To ensure your site appears in search results, we recommend allowing PerplexityBot in your site’s robots.txt file” (Perplexity).
All three were read October 12, 2026.
What we do to get an advisor named
- Say it on your own pages. Who you serve, where, your fee and minimum, and what the first meeting looks like. Kitces’s October 12, 2026 article on what prospects look for found that “most prospective clients are seeking relatively basic information, such as the advisory firm’s fees (and minimums), demonstrations of the advisor’s expertise (including reviews and testimonials), the nature of the advisor’s investment strategies, and an overview of the discovery process” (Kitces.com).
- Answer the long questions. Articles built on the questions your clients ask you in meetings, written so each section stands alone when an AI quotes it.
- Let the search tools read your site. Let Google, Bing, ChatGPT and Perplexity read your site: their reading tools are allowed in, and your pages can be listed, with titles and labels that match what each page says.
- Make every listing agree. The same firm name, specialty and city on your site, your Google Business Profile, your directory listings and your Form ADV.
- Leave reviews to your compliance officer. Whether you ask clients for reviews, and whether you show them, is your compliance officer’s call. We do not ask your clients for reviews or put reviews on your site without that approval in writing. In the Kitces 2026 study, Google reviews cost $0.85 of marketing per $1 of new revenue when merely collected, and $0.13 when shown on the advisor’s own website. Once you show them on your site, treat them as testimonials, with the disclosures in the next section.
Kitces also measured answer engine optimization for the first time in 2026: 10% of advisors used it, and it had one of the highest costs of any tactic, $23,378 per new client and $3.45 of marketing per $1 of new revenue, figures Kitces flags as resting on 5 to 9 responses. Kitces asks whether advisors will do better with it as it matures, or whether AI search will fail to catch on with people looking for an advisor.
So what would you pay us for? There is no trick here, and a practice could do this work itself. What you pay for is the hours: articles that answer your clients’ questions, written to go straight to your reviewer, and the site’s technical setup. More on our approach: AI search optimization.
What can your ads, website and reviews say under the SEC Marketing Rule?
Almost anything true, fair and balanced, with conditions. The Marketing Rule lets registered investment advisers use testimonials, endorsements, third-party ratings and performance, each with set disclosures, and bans untrue, unsupported or one-sided claims outright.
Who it covers: advisers “registered or required to be registered” with the SEC; compliance has been required since November 4, 2022 (SEC compliance guide). State-registered advisers follow their own state’s rules, which differ. Broker-dealer representatives follow FINRA Rule 2210. This section explains the rules; it is not legal advice, and your compliance officer or counsel has the final word.
Allowed, with conditions
- Client testimonialsDisclose, clearly and prominently, that it came from a current client, whether cash or non-cash compensation was paid, and a brief statement of any material conflict of interest from your relationship with that person; and also disclose the material terms of any compensation arrangement and a description of any material conflict of interest from that relationship or the pay. Have a reasonable basis to believe it complies.
- Endorsements from non-clientsThe same disclosures. Anyone paid for a testimonial or endorsement, client or not, also needs a written agreement, unless the pay totals $1,000 or less in 12 months (your own partners, officers, directors, employees and affiliates are exempt from the written agreement and these disclosures if the tie is apparent or disclosed, and documented).
- Third-party ratingsShow the date of the rating, the period it covers, who created it, and whether you paid for it. The survey behind it must make good and bad answers equally easy.
- PerformanceNet performance shown with at least equal prominence to gross, and one, five and ten year periods.
- Hypothetical performanceOnly with policies that match it to the audience, plus enough on its assumptions, risks and limits to understand it.
Never allowed
- Untrue or misleading statementsIncluding leaving out a fact that makes the rest misleading.
- Claims you cannot back upAny material fact you could not substantiate if the SEC asked.
- Benefits without the risksPotential benefits need fair and balanced treatment of the material risks and limits.
- Cherry-picked resultsPerformance or time periods chosen in a way that is not fair and balanced.
- Claiming SEC approvalAny statement that the SEC approved or reviewed your performance figures.
- Paying a barred promoterCompensating an “ineligible person” for a testimonial or endorsement.
Summarized from 17 CFR 275.206(4)-1, paragraphs (a) to (e), as published on eCFR, read October 12, 2026; the (b)(4)(ii) exemption for your own staff and affiliates checked against the adopting release text (IA-5653).
Testimonials and endorsements, in the rule’s words
“(A) That the testimonial was given by a current client or investor, and the endorsement was given by a person other than a current client or investor, as applicable; (B) That cash or non-cash compensation was provided for the testimonial or endorsement, if applicable; and (C) A brief statement of any material conflicts of interest on the part of the person giving the testimonial or endorsement resulting from the investment adviser’s relationship with such person”
17 CFR 275.206(4)-1(b)(1)(i), the disclosures made “clearly and prominently”Online reviews: what you can and cannot do with them
The SEC answered this when it adopted the rule. Letting everyone post does not make the posts your advertising, as long as you do not curate them:
“permitting all third parties to post public commentary to the adviser’s website or social media page would not, by itself, render such content attributable to the adviser, so long as the adviser does not selectively delete or alter the comments or their presentation and is not involved in the preparation of the content.”
SEC, Investment Adviser Marketing, Release No. IA-5653 (December 2020), page 23, read October 12, 2026And the other side: if an adviser deletes or suppresses negative comments or puts the positive ones first, the SEC said it “would attribute the comments to the adviser” (page 24). Editing for profanity, spam, unlawful content or factual errors under a neutral, written policy is allowed, but “an adviser could not have a policy to remove only negative comments about the adviser” (page 22, footnote 48). Put plainly: do not bury bad reviews, and do not move good ones onto your site without the testimonial disclosures.
What the SEC has actually charged
September 11, 2023: nine registered investment advisers were charged “for advertising hypothetical performance to the general public on their websites without adopting and/or implementing policies and procedures required by the Marketing Rule,” with $850,000 in combined penalties (SEC press release 2023-173).
September 9, 2024: nine more, for ads with “untrue or unsubstantiated statements of material fact or testimonials, endorsements, or third-party ratings that lacked required disclosures,” with $1,240,000 in combined civil penalties (SEC press release 2024-121). Both read on sec.gov October 12, 2026.
December 16, 2025: the SEC’s Division of Examinations reported what its exams found under the testimonial rules: advisers that left out one or more of the required disclosures, disclosures that were “hyperlinked” or “in a smaller or lighter font,” advisers that did not disclose “the material terms of compensation arrangements,” client testimonials copied “from third-party websites onto the advisers’ websites” without the client-status disclosure, and “compensation in the form of gift cards to clients to write reviews on third-party websites” without a basis to believe the paid-testimonial disclosures were met (SEC risk alert, December 16, 2025, read October 12, 2026). That is why every piece we write goes through your review first.
If you are a broker-dealer representative: FINRA Rule 2210
- “An appropriately qualified registered principal of the member must approve each retail communication before the earlier of its use or filing with FINRA’s Advertising Regulation Department.” A retail communication is one made available to more than 25 retail investors within any 30-day period.
- “No member may make any false, exaggerated, unwarranted, promissory or misleading statement or claim in any communication.” And “Communications may not predict or project performance,” with narrow exceptions.
- A testimonial about investment advice or performance must disclose that it may not be representative, that it is no guarantee of future performance or success, and, if more than $100 was paid, that it is a paid testimonial.
Quoted from FINRA Rule 2210, paragraphs (a), (b)(1)(A), (d)(1) and (d)(6), read October 12, 2026. Proposed, not in force: in Regulatory Notice 26-14 (July 9, 2026; comments closed September 11, 2026) FINRA “proposes to remove distinctions between interactive social media and other types of communications.”
How does PELORA work with a financial advisor?
Four steps, and your compliance reviewer is in the third one every time.
1. Free Growth Check. Free, and separate from the Growth plan. Before your call we build one page on what we can see from public information: your site, how you show up in search and AI answers, and any ads you run. No account access.
2. Plan, or audit first. Pick a plan on the call. If you already run Google or Meta ads, you can start with the $1,500 Audit and Game Plan inside your ad accounts and tracking; the audit fee comes off setup if you sign within 30 days.
3. Build, with your compliance team. Ad accounts and tracking are set up in your name. We write the ads, pages and articles and send each one to your reviewer before it runs.
4. Run and report. Reports as your plan states them (one full report a month on Launch; on Growth and every plan through Premier, a written update every two weeks and a full report monthly). At day 60 we review your numbers together and change what is not working.
What your compliance officer will ask us
- State-registered advisers. Your state regulator’s rules apply. We draft to the checklist your compliance officer gives us, and your officer approves each piece.
- Broker-dealer representatives. Your firm may require pre-approval, its own templates, or approved vendors only. We work inside your firm’s requirements. Nothing runs until the principal’s approval is on file; filing with FINRA stays with your firm. If your firm does not allow outside marketing vendors, we are not a fit.
- Records. Your firm keeps the records the rules require. We send every approved final piece to you as a file, with the date it was approved, for your archive.
- Data. Our lead forms ask only for name, email, phone and a short note, never account numbers or Social Security numbers.
- Due diligence. Ask any vendor, us included, for its written agreement and how it handles your data before you sign.
What should you ask any marketing agency before you hire it?
Ask these six, of us or anyone. Our answers are next to each.
- Who owns the ad accounts, the creative and the website?You should. With us, you do.
- Who checks the work against the Marketing Rule or FINRA Rule 2210, and who signs it off?The agency should draft to your compliance officer’s checklist; your firm should sign off. That is how we work.
- What does it cost, all in, and is ad spend marked up?Ask for the number in writing. Ours is published, and ad spend is billed to you by the platforms, never marked up.
- How long am I locked in?With us, three months, then month to month with 30 days notice.
- What will you report, and how often?Ask what each plan includes, in writing. Ours: one full report a month on Launch; on Growth and every plan through Premier, a written update every two weeks and a full report monthly. Each plan’s contents are on our pricing page.
- Will you tell me when I no longer need you?Pollard’s fifth point, and a fair one. Our 60-day checkpoint is a set time to ask it.
How the agency pages we read compare
| What to look for | The 13 pages we read | This page and PELORA |
|---|---|---|
| Names the SEC Marketing Rule | 1 of 13 | Quotes it, with its citation, 17 CFR 275.206(4)-1 |
| Mentions FINRA | 3 of 13 | Quotes FINRA Rule 2210 for broker-dealer representatives |
| Cites a real SEC enforcement case | 0 of 13 | Two SEC releases, from 2023 and 2024 |
| States its own price for this work | 0 of 13 | From $3,500 a month; every plan price on our pricing page |
| Says you own the ad accounts | 0 of 13 that we found | Yes: the ad accounts, the creative and the website are yours |
What do financial advisors ask us most?
Have you worked with financial advisors before?
Not yet. We have not run marketing for a financial advisor, planner or RIA, so this page shows no advisor results of our own: every advisor figure on it comes from Kitces, Wealthtender or the other named sources. What carries over: our client work includes health care practices, where Google and Meta also restrict ads. We write to each platform’s rules, every piece goes to your reviewer before it runs, you own the accounts, and we promise no lead numbers. Judge us at the 60-day checkpoint, on your own numbers.
Is a financial advisor marketing agency worth it?
It is worth it when referrals have stopped growing the practice and the fee fits what you spend in cash on marketing; otherwise, not yet. Year one costs $42,000 on Launch plus $1,500 to $2,000 setup, or $66,000 on Growth plus $4,500 setup, before ad spend. Kitces Research found the typical practice’s cash marketing spend is 2.2% of revenue: a year of Launch fees matches that at about $1.9 million of revenue, and a year of Growth fees at about $3.0 million. A smaller practice can still hire us if it is moving its own marketing time into paid work. If not, start with referrals, your Google Business Profile and a clear website, and ask for our Free Growth Check.
How much does a financial advisor marketing agency cost?
PELORA’s plans start at $3,500 a month for Launch and $5,500 for Growth. Setup is one time: $1,500 to $2,000 on Launch, $4,500 above it. Every plan has a three-month minimum, then month to month with 30 days notice. You pay Google or Meta for ad spend directly, with no markup; our guide is $3,000 to $10,000 a month on Launch and $5,000 to $15,000 on Growth’s Google or Meta lane. Every plan price is on our pricing page.
How much should a financial advisor spend on marketing?
About 7% of revenue is typical, counting your own time. Kitces Research’s 2026 study of 506 advisors found the typical practice spent 7% of annual revenue on marketing: 2.2 points of hard costs, such as software and listing fees, and 4.8 points of advisor and staff time. Practices actively seeking growth spent 8.1%, and those with standout growth spent 9.1%.
Can financial advisors use client reviews and testimonials?
Yes, if you are an SEC-registered adviser and you meet the Marketing Rule’s conditions. The ad must disclose, clearly and prominently, whether the person is a current client, whether cash or non-cash compensation was paid, and a brief statement of any material conflict of interest from the relationship; it must also give the material terms of any compensation arrangement and a description of any material conflict from that relationship or the pay. You need a reasonable basis to believe it complies, and anyone paid more than $1,000 in 12 months needs a written agreement. State-registered advisers follow their own state’s rules, and broker-dealer representatives follow FINRA Rule 2210, which has its own testimonial disclosures.
Can I delete a bad Google review?
Not to make yourself look better. When it adopted the Marketing Rule, the SEC said that if an adviser deletes or suppresses negative comments, or puts the positive ones first, it attributes those comments to the adviser as its own advertising. Removing profanity, spam, unlawful content or factual errors under a neutral, written policy is different, but an adviser “could not have a policy to remove only negative comments about the adviser.”
How do I show up when prospects ask ChatGPT for a financial advisor?
Make your own site the clearest answer to the question they ask, and let the AI tools read it. OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and Google says AI Overviews need nothing beyond normal search eligibility. Then make your specialty, city and fees plain on your pages and consistent on every listing. In Wealthtender’s 2025 survey, about 25% (25.4%) of $100K+ households planned to use AI search tools such as ChatGPT to start their advisor search.
Do you work with broker-dealer representatives as well as RIAs?
Yes, and the approval step changes. Communications for a broker-dealer representative fall under FINRA Rule 2210, which requires a registered principal of the firm to approve each retail communication before it is used or filed. We draft to your compliance officer’s checklist, and your firm’s principal approves. Nothing runs until the principal’s approval is on file; filing with FINRA stays with your firm. If your firm does not allow outside marketing vendors, we are not a fit.
Where does each fact on this page come from?
From the page linked beside it. Every source below was read on October 12, 2026.
Show all 33 sources
Rules and regulators
- 17 CFR 275.206(4)-1, Investment adviser marketing (eCFR)
- SEC, Investment Adviser Marketing, Release No. IA-5653 (adopting release, pages 21 to 24)
- SEC, Investment Adviser Marketing small entity compliance guide
- SEC press release 2023-173, September 11, 2023
- SEC press release 2024-121, September 9, 2024
- SEC Division of Examinations, Risk Alert: Additional Observations Regarding Advisers’ Compliance with the Advisers Act Marketing Rule, December 16, 2025
- FINRA Rule 2210, Communications with the Public
- FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-14, July 9, 2026 (a proposal, not in force)
Ad platforms and AI search
- Google Ads, Financial products and services
- Google Ads, Financial Services Verification: Relevant Regulators and Enforcement Dates
- Google Ads, Advertiser verification
- Meta Advertising Standards, Discriminatory Practices (the Special Ad Category requirement)
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website
- OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers
- Perplexity, Perplexity crawlers
Research and industry
- Kitces Research, The Kitces Report, Volume 2, 2026: How Financial Planners Actually Market Their Services
- Kitces.com, What Information Prospects Seek When Choosing An Advisor, October 12, 2026
- Wealthtender, Study of $100K+ Households Seeking Financial Advice, August 2025 (vendor study)
- LocaliQ, Search Advertising Benchmarks for Every Industry, 2026 data (vendor benchmark)
- James Pollard, Advisorpedia, 5 Reasons Why Hiring A Financial Advisor Marketing Agency Is A Bad Idea, November 2, 2021
Agency pages counted in the comparison table
- agencypartner.com, digital marketing agency for financial advisors
- insidea.com, digital marketing agencies for financial advisors
- indigomarketingagency.com, home page
- properexpression.com, financial advisor marketing agency
- finspirecreative.com, home page
- arcintermedia.com, financial services PPC
- logicalposition.com, financial PPC
- clicksgeek.com, PPC for financial advisors
- mrs.digital, financial services PPC agency (UK)
- chatterbuzzmedia.com, financial services marketing agency guide
- c-k.com, financial services marketing agency
- gobraithwaite.com, financial services
- theinfluenceagency.com, financial services marketing
PELORA’s prices and terms: our pricing page. Our 5.0 rating: our Google profile.
Who wrote this page?
Last updated October 12, 2026. Every rule quoted on this page was re-read at its source on October 12, 2026, and every outside number names the study it came from. PELORA writes marketing for regulated businesses; it is not a law firm or a compliance consultancy.
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