We get this question all the time, and the answer is actually quite simple. Think about how many available appointments you have per week and spend accordingly. The key element is knowing how much it roughly costs to acquire a patient.
So how do we work that out?
You divide how much youâve spent over a period of time (Iâd suggest a minimum of 3 months) by the number of patients that marketing spend has generated.
For example, if you spent ÂŖ1,000 and got 50 patients, thatâs ÂŖ20 per patient. Thatâs your cost of acquisition (CPA).
As an example, this client spent ÂŖ2.25k on Google ads:
We then need to look at how many patients that generated. You do need to make a few assumptions here, but itâs simple:
There are 85 bookings directly into Cliniko.
There are 36 phone calls. We obviously donât know exactly how many booked, but we can assume at least 50% did, so letâs say 18 bookings from 36 calls.
Then we have 14 form completions. This is where a patient messages on a form and asks a question like âcan you deal with condition xâ. We use the same calculation as above, 50%, so thatâs 7 bookings.
So this account spent ÂŖ2,250 and generated 110 patients, which means that the CPA is ÂŖ20.45. For simplicity, letâs call it ÂŖ20.
Letâs say you have 10 free appointments on average per week, and your cost of acquiring a patient is ÂŖ20, then you want to spend ÂŖ200 a week. If you have 5 free spots, then itâs ÂŖ100 a week.
Itâs that easy. Weâll often see people spending ÂŖ600 when they only have 5 appointments free. Thatâs obviously NOT a good idea.
A few things to note:
1. If you donât know your CPA, then you probably shouldnât be doing any marketing. It would be like Ferrari letting me loose with a toolbox with the hope I can make their F1 car faster. Thereâs a possibility it might work, but in all probability, itâs more likely not to start at all than go faster.
2. If you never have any same-day or next-day availability, then you might want to reduce your spend a little from the above, maybe 30%. If people canât get quick appointments, then you wonât be making the most of your money.
3. Donât change your ad spend every 5 minutes. Itâll cause more issues than you think.
4. Always think about profitability. If you pay your associate 50% of an appointment and your CPA is ÂŖ100 while your appointment is ÂŖ50, then stop spending. You need your CPA to be less than the profit you make unless thereâs a strategic reason.
However they generated over ÂŖ150k in first appointments.
I think most people would bite my hand off if I said, âGive me ÂŖ27k and Iâll give you ÂŖ150k back.â Spending money is only a worry if you donât get anything back (like when my other half spends money, all I get in return is the exercise in bringing Amazon boxes from the front door to the living room).
More importantly, the average patient rarely attends just one appointment. So think about their lifetime value (how many times on average they visit).
For example, if you spend ÂŖ500 and get 20 patients spending ÂŖ50 on an appointment, youâve made ÂŖ1,000. However, what if they come back 5 times on average? Then youâve made ÂŖ5,000. Thatâs actually a 10 times return.
Thatâs not including the referrals they may make or other revenue they might generate.
If you want help with Google Ads from a specialist in the industry, pick up the Batphone and give us a shout!
