Wealth Firms Boost Marketing, But Tracking Lags

Wealth managers are spending more on marketing to attract clients, but many have limited data on which efforts generate new business. Gregory, a public relations firm, surveyed 100 marketing professionals at wealth managers by email from Aug. 6 to Sept. 30, 2026.

The survey found that 64% of firms increased marketing spending during the past year. Seventy-seven percent had an in-house marketing team of at least two people or worked with an outside marketing firm.

Half of respondents identified revenue growth or growth in assets under management as the clearest measure of marketing success. Only 23% said their firms were effective at tracking the source of new business, while 46% described their efforts to identify the sources of revenue or new assets as incomplete.

Joe Anthony, Gregory’s CEO and founder, described the next stage for wealth managers as adding analytics to established marketing teams. “If you say the last five years is about getting a professionalized [chief marketing officer] function in place, the next two years are maybe about getting marketing analytics functions built in alongside the CMOs,” Anthony said.

Firms often record that a prospect was referred by an existing client or a professional such as an accountant, then stop asking about the prospect’s decision-making process, according to Anthony. A prospect may have attended an event, read an article or seen an advisor discuss a specific financial need before contacting the firm.

“If you want to have more measurability and accountability for marketing, you have to do simple things like giving people the opportunity to tell you how they found you,” Anthony said.

Customer relationship management systems often include questionnaires that ask prospects whether they saw an advertising campaign, attended an event or encountered the firm through another channel. Nearly 80% of Gregory’s respondents considered coverage in articles or other material produced by professional journalists important or critical to their marketing efforts.

Referrals remain the main expected source of growth for independent advisors. Charles Schwab’s 2026 Independent Advisor Outlook Study, based on a survey of 1,235 independent advisors, found that 70% expected referrals to drive business growth over the next three years. Assets under management were the main business measure for 75% of respondents, followed by new clients at 53%, client referrals at 44% and changes in assets per client or household at 40%.

Respondents to Gregory’s survey estimated that referrals from existing clients or other professionals accounted for about 40% of their business. Slightly more than 70% said referrals produced the strongest returns.

Artificial intelligence is becoming part of how prospects search for advisors. Eighty-eight percent of Gregory’s respondents considered appearing in AI-generated search results as important as or more important than ranking in traditional web searches. More than 40% called inclusion in AI-generated results a top priority.

In a separate analysis, Gregory reviewed 8,389 AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Google’s AI Overview. Eighty-four of 100 firms in a 2026 ranking of leading advisory firms did not appear in the searches examined. Mercer Advisors appeared in 26.6% of responses, Creative Planning in 18.1% and Mariner Wealth Advisors in 15.4%.

The analysis used 248 questions representing searches by athletes, attorneys, business owners, doctors, entertainers and media executives. Firms that appeared frequently included Dentist Advisors, Hockey Wealth Group and Artisan Financial Planning.

Anthony described using client data to identify prospects who first encountered a firm through media coverage or events. Firms could then contact those prospects when a related event or article appeared, creating a record of how marketing activity relates to conversions and assets gathered. “And then you can, all of a sudden, based upon those prospects, convert those clients and improve wallet share. And that becomes something you can measure,” he said.