Two things reliably catch out anyone planning EOFY marketing from a northern-hemisphere calendar. The seasons are inverted, which people remember. And the financial year ends on 30 June, which they do not.
What actually happens in June
Australian businesses close their books on 30 June. In the weeks before it, there is a real and well-understood rush to bring forward purchases that can be expensed or depreciated in the current year — equipment, software, vehicles, professional services, anything a business was going to buy anyway in the next few months.
For B2B advertisers this is frequently the single most valuable month of the year. It is also entirely absent from a media plan built on a January-to-December calendar.
A northern plan puts the B2B push in Q4. In Australia, Q4 of the financial year is April to June — and the urgency is real rather than manufactured.
How to actually use EOFY marketing
- Build audiences in April. Retargeting pools assembled before the auction heats up are what you spend against in June. Building them at peak is the most expensive possible order.
- Lead with the deadline, not the discount. The motivation is the date, not the price. "Before 30 June" does more work than a percentage off.
- Make the purchase completable. A buyer trying to spend before a deadline needs to actually transact. Long quote cycles and "contact sales" lose to a checkout.
- Step budgets up through May. A large jump restarts the learning phase, and restarting it in the first week of June is an expensive way to find that out.
The other half of the calendar
December is peak retail and peak holiday simultaneously, because it is summer. January is slow for B2B and strong for consumer. If your creative shows coats in July, that is correct for Australia and wrong everywhere else you run it — which is an argument for separating the market rather than extending a global campaign into it.
Who this actually applies to
Not everybody. The deadline only creates urgency if the buyer can claim the purchase against this year. In practice that means:
- Anything a business expenses or depreciates — tools, equipment, vehicles, software subscriptions, laptops.
- Professional services with a defined deliverable, where the work can be invoiced before 30 June.
- Training and certification, which businesses routinely bring forward to use a budget line.
It does not apply to consumer purchases, and it applies weakly to anything with a procurement cycle longer than the weeks remaining. A six-month enterprise sale does not accelerate because of a date.
The rest of the financial year
April and May are the build-up and the cheapest part of it. July is the reset. The quiet stretch is August to October, when budgets exist but nobody feels pressure to use them — which makes it the right window for the long consideration work that June is too rushed for.
If you only run one concentrated push a year into Australia, June is it. If you run two, the second belongs in February, after the summer holidays end and before the financial year starts closing in.
And July
The week after the financial year ends is dead for B2B. Budgets have reset but nobody has released them yet. It is a cheap auction with very little intent in it, which makes it a good window for building audiences rather than chasing conversions.
Planning it from outside Australia
The time difference helps more than people expect. Eastern Australia is four and a half hours ahead of India, so an Indian working morning lands in a Sydney afternoon — enough overlap for same-day decisions during a month when decisions need to be same-day.
What differs about running Australian accounts more generally, including the TGA rules that catch health and cosmetic advertisers out, is on our Australia page. For sizing the June budget before you commit it, use the PPC forecast calculator.
Questions people ask
What does EOFY mean?
End of financial year. The Australian financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June, so the weeks before 30 June are when businesses bring forward purchases they want to claim in the current year, and retailers run clearance sales against that demand.
Who should run EOFY marketing?
Anyone selling something a business can legitimately expense — software, equipment, tools, vehicles, professional services, training. Consumer brands can ride the sale period, but the genuine spike in intent belongs to business purchases.
When should the campaign start?
Build audiences through May and put the offer in front of them from the first week of June, with the heaviest weight in the final fortnight. Starting on 25 June means paying peak prices to reach people who have already decided.
Is there a second spike after 30 June?
Yes, a smaller one in July, when new budgets open and purchases that were deferred rather than rushed get approved. It is a quieter, higher-intent window, and it is usually cheaper to buy than the June rush.