The strategy
This clinic was brand new, so we ran our pre-launch plan: get the clinic seen first, then show booking ads to the people who showed interest.
Three campaigns ran over 30 days:
- Step 1, get seen: $578.35 put the clinic in front of 55,236 local people.
- Step 2, build interest: $455.06 brought 1,958 people to the clinic's Instagram profile, at $0.23 each.
- Step 3, book appointments: $372.90 in reminder ads turned that warm audience into 8 booked appointments.
Each step narrowed the audience for the next, so the booking ads only went to people who already knew the clinic. Counting every dollar across all three campaigns, each booking cost $175.79.
What the first visits brought in
This clinic's first visit is $100.
8 patients × $100 = $800 in first-visit revenue.
On first visits alone, the launch doesn't pay for itself yet. That's exactly why first visits are the wrong way to judge a launch.
Revenue so far
This clinic is too new to know how much revenue an average patient brings in over time, so instead of guessing, we counted what these 8 patients have actually bought on top of their first visit:
- 3 bought programs worth $750 each: $2,250
- 2 bought 6-visit plans at $360 each: $720
- All 8 paid for a $100 first visit: $800
That's $3,770 in revenue so far.
The return
That's a 2.7× return on the full $1,406.31 spent across all three campaigns, and it's still growing. 5 of the 8 new patients have already signed up for a program or plan, and every future visit adds to it.
Why a launch costs more per patient
$175.79 per booked appointment is expensive next to what an established practice pays for a new patient. That gap is what a clinic pays for being unknown.
An established practice has reviews, a website with history, patients who refer friends and a name people have seen around town. A clinic that hasn't opened has none of that, so every booking has to be built from scratch: get seen, earn enough familiarity to be considered, then ask for the appointment. That's the three steps in this campaign, and each one costs money.
The cost comes down from there. As reviews accumulate and the clinic becomes a known name locally, the same ads produce cheaper bookings.
What the first eight patients tell us
Five of the eight bought a plan or a program, worth $2,970 between them. That's an average of $594 on top of the first visit, from patients who had never heard of the clinic a month earlier.
That ratio is the most useful signal in this case study. It says these were people who wanted care, not people chasing a cheap first visit. A launch filled with discount hunters produces the opposite: a full calendar in week one and an empty one by week six.
What the numbers mean for your clinic
If you're opening, plan for three costs rather than one: being seen, being remembered, and being booked. This clinic spent $578.35, $455.06 and $372.90 on those three jobs. Counting every dollar, each booked appointment cost $175.79.
Against that, the first visit brings in $100 and the plans so far have added $2,970. Revenue so far is $3,770 against $1,406.31 spent, and it keeps moving as those patients continue care.
The planning number to take away: a new clinic should expect to spend between one and two hundred dollars to get a first appointment in the opening weeks, and should judge the campaign on what those patients do next, not on the opening month alone.
Questions clinic owners ask
Only 8 patients. Is that worth $1,406?
On the first visits alone, no. With the plans those patients bought, it's already 2.7× and climbing. A launch is judged over months, not days, which is exactly why we show the plan purchases.
Why not run booking ads from day one?
You can, and they cost more. Asking strangers to book an appointment at a clinic that doesn't exist yet is the most expensive ad you can run. Each step before it makes the next one cheaper.
How long before the cost per booking comes down?
As reviews build and the clinic becomes familiar locally, costs fall. An established practice in the same market pays a fraction of what a launch costs per patient.
Why not use a discount to fill the calendar faster?
Because you can fill a calendar with people who came for a discount and have nothing left in month two. Five of these eight bought care plans, which is the number we were trying to protect.
When will you know what these patients are really worth?
When enough of them have finished a plan to form an average. Until then we count what has actually been paid, which is $3,770.
Why count the awareness and interest campaigns in the cost?
Because they were part of the same launch. It would be easy to report only the campaign that produced the bookings, which would make each one look like $46.61 instead of $175.79. Every dollar spent across all three campaigns is counted here.
How we count revenue
Revenue counts what new patients spend over time, not just the first visit. Each study multiplies its new patients by that clinic’s own average revenue per patient. First visit revenue is shown separately.