What costs belong in a clinic marketing budget?
Separate the agency service fee from the money paid to the advertising platform. Then check whether filming, editing, landing pages, CRM software, messaging charges and enquiry support are included or billed separately. A low management fee can still lead to a larger total commitment when those items are added. Ask for a written scope with recurring charges, setup costs and any third-party subscriptions identified. At Clients2clinics, the service fee and advertising budget are discussed separately before work begins; there is no universal published price on this website.
Should the budget start with ad spend or clinic capacity?
Start with the consultation capacity your clinic can reliably handle. Identify the treatments you want to grow, the number of additional appointments the team can support and who will respond to new enquiries. A campaign that creates more conversations than your reception team can manage can waste spend and leave prospective patients waiting. Agree a realistic workload before increasing the budget. Your opening hours, catchment area, treatment economics and current demand all affect the plan, so a budget that works for another clinic may not fit yours.
Which measures show whether enquiries become appointments?
Track cost per enquiry, enquiry-to-booking rate and attendance separately. Cost per enquiry is advertising spend divided by enquiries from that campaign. Booking rate is booked consultations divided by enquiries from the same group. Attendance rate is attended consultations divided by booked consultations. Keep the period, source and definitions consistent, and allow time for later bookings before comparing campaigns. A cheap enquiry is not automatically a useful enquiry: practical fit, response quality and the patient’s expectations also matter.
How does the calculation work in practice?
Consider an illustrative campaign with £1,000 in advertising spend, 100 enquiries, 20 booked consultations and 15 attended consultations. Advertising cost per enquiry is £10; enquiry-to-booking rate is 20%; advertising cost per booking is £50; attendance rate is 75%; advertising cost per attended consultation is approximately £66.67. These figures are an arithmetic example, not Clients2clinics results, a forecast or a recommended budget. If agency and production fees are additional, include them when calculating your total acquisition cost. Do not describe the advertising-only figure as the full cost of a patient.
How should a clinic connect marketing costs with revenue?
Use revenue from the same campaign cohort and attribution period, with a clear record of which bookings became treatments. Report revenue separately from profit. Treatment delivery, staff time, consumables, agency fees and other overheads can change the commercial picture even when advertising-attributed revenue looks strong. Revenue divided by advertising spend is an advertising return ratio; it does not show net profit. If attribution is incomplete, label the figures as reported revenue rather than presenting them as verified campaign returns.
What should you ask before appointing a clinic marketing agency?
Ask who owns the ad account, creative assets, website and CRM data; which services are included; how frequently filming and reporting happen; who handles follow-up; and what the contract, notice period and handover terms are. Ask how the agency defines a qualified enquiry and how it separates an acknowledgement from a booked consultation. For a case study, ask about the period, advertising spend, attribution method and excluded costs. Genuine examples are useful context, but another clinic’s revenue should not be treated as a promise for your clinic.
When is it sensible to increase the budget?
Consider an increase after the existing journey is working consistently and your clinic has capacity for more consultations. First check whether enquiries receive timely replies, bookings are recorded correctly and the team understands why people do not proceed. Change the budget deliberately and review comparable groups rather than reacting to a single strong day. If demand rises but attendance falls, address the booking and reminder process before assuming more advertising is the solution. Agree the review period and decision criteria with the people delivering the campaign and handling the enquiries.
What should you bring to a growth call?
Bring your priority treatments, catchment area, available consultation slots, recent ad spend and any reliable enquiry and booking figures. If you do not have clean reporting yet, describe what happens after a new enquiry arrives and where the team loses visibility. A useful first conversation should establish the missing information and the scope of support. Clients2clinics offers a 20-minute growth call to discuss these priorities, the service fee and the separate advertising budget before you decide whether to proceed.