Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
The first call is twelve to eighteen months before construction. Most of your competitors lose it in week one.
An architect's enquiry is a long, slow burn. A homeowner thinking about a second-storey addition starts researching in autumn, books two or three 'have a chat' calls before Christmas, picks a practice in February, signs the brief in March, and you don't lodge the DA until June. By the time the build starts in the following autumn, you've been in the conversation for fifteen months. The practices that fill their books are not the most published. They are the ones who show up at the first Google search ('architect [suburb]' or 'second-storey addition cost Sydney'), who have a per-project case-study library that mirrors the work the client is actually thinking about, and who never go quiet between the first call and the signed brief. Lose the visibility in October and you lose the year.
Good architecture-practice marketing is three things, in this order: a per-project case-study library deep enough that any homeowner researching their own project ('Federation alts and adds Inner West', 'sloping-block new build Northern Beaches', 'commercial fit-out Surry Hills') lands on a project that mirrors their brief, a Google Ads presence in the council areas you actually want to work in (filtered tight, because broad 'architect' keywords burn budget on commercial enquiries you don't service), and a social cadence that shows the work-in-progress: the site visit, the schematic sketch, the DA conditions, the topping-out. The practices that win in autumn for the following year are the ones whose case-study library already ranks, whose ads are already running, and whose Instagram still shows what last Tuesday looked like on a job site.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Builds your annual plan around the work you actually want more of (residential alts-and-adds vs new builds vs commercial fit-out vs heritage) rather than chasing every architect keyword. Briefs the other agents so the case studies, the council-area ads, and the social posts all push toward the project type and price band you want in the pipeline twelve months out.
Imports your existing portfolio site so you stop paying Squarespace plus Houzz plus a hosting bill, and makes spinning up a new project case study a five-minute job. Ships a case-study page for every completed project (brief, site constraints, DA path, schematic, DD, construction documentation, final gallery) with schema and a fee-proposal CTA, to your live site in two taps.
Goes through your live site for the things that actually move rankings in a credentialled-services search: AIA-member and registered-architect signals on every project page, suburb-keyword optimisation, architect-and-LocalBusiness schema, project-type internal linking (Federation extensions linking to heritage work linking to alts-and-adds), and a Google Business Profile that beats the draftsmen on completeness. Auto-applies the low-risk fixes.
Launches tight Google Ads campaigns on the queries that actually convert ('architect [council area]', 'second-storey addition [suburb]', 'heritage architect Inner West', 'Passive House certified architect Sydney'). Filters out commercial enquiries if you're a residential practice. Drops Meta unless you specifically want hospitality fit-out leads, where founder-led brand work does move.
Turns every site visit, schematic sketch, and topping-out into a post in your real accounts: a carousel of the rear extension framing, a story of the Section J energy report you just signed off, a LinkedIn post about the new ESD initiative on a heritage project. Builds the trust signal that keeps a 12-month-out client warm through the DA wait.
Drafts the long-form pieces that catch homeowners early: 'second-storey addition cost in Sydney', 'CDC vs DA: which approval path is right for your renovation', 'how a Passive House certified architect actually affects your build', 'what does a Section J energy report cover'. Two drafts a month, in your voice, that bring the careful researcher to your site months before they're ready for a fee proposal.
Your first 30 days.
- Three project case-study pages indexed and ranking on long-tail project-type plus council queries
- Annual plan weighted to the project types you want more of (residential alts-and-adds, heritage, Passive House) delivered by Sam
- Google Business Profile rebuilt as 'Architect' with AIA membership, registration and project-type list
- DA versus CDC approval-path explainer published for the three councils you take most work in
- Council-area Google Ads live with commercial-architect negatives loaded against your residential focus
- Section J energy report and ESD specialty page surfaced as the sustainability differentiator
- Schematic-to-CD timeline transparency page wired to the fee-proposal CTA
- Architect plus LocalBusiness schema deployed sitewide with project-type internal linking
Architecture enquiries are a long, slow, fifteen-month conversation, and most practices lose them in week one because the homeowner can't tell them apart from the draftsman down the road. The work is making sure the case-study library matches the brief the homeowner is forming, the AIA and registered-architect signals are loud, and you stay visible the whole way through the DA wait.
Agencies are too dear to actually run the case-study library and the council-area ads for $3.5k a month. Tools are cheap but you write project write-ups on Sundays and they never finish. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the project pages, launch the alts-and-adds ads, post the site-visit photos and draft the cost guides. You stay in the driver's seat, two taps to approve, minutes a day. Stop losing 18-month enquiries to the cheaper option ranked above you.