Have you had marketing companies quote you something like:

“For just $500 per month, we guarantee you website traffic, social media likes, impressions, views, ads, etc.?”

Well, who cares?!

Marketing, like any business, is all about ROI (Return On Investment).

What is ROI?

It’s simply how much you get back after you invest.

If you invest $1 in marketing for your practice you should get back more than $1 in collected professional fees.

Bad ROI – Spending $1 a month on marketing but NOT getting at least $1.01 in collected fees that can be linked back to the marketing efforts.

Good ROI – Spending $1 a month on marketing AND getting at least $1.01 in collected fees that can be linked back to the marketing efforts.

How to calculate ROI?

Simply stated, your marketing ROI its how much you collected from fees that you can directly link back to marketing efforts less the cost of that specific marketing effort.

Collected Fees – Marketing Costs = Marketing ROI

Remember, you can only count the fees and marketing costs that you can track back to each other.

For instance, if you “invest” in a Google Ad and track all of the new patients that contacted your office via that Google Ad, then followed them all as they either decline or accept treatment. Once the patients complete treatment and fully pay, you can measure your “return” by subtracting your Google Ad “investment” costs from your collected fees “return.”

Here is that same example with numbers for you “visual types,” like me. I’m keeping the numbers nice and round for symplicity. Results may vary… blah, blah, blah… Just get the ROI logic and keep rolling. 🙂

Marketing ROI Example:

  • $1,000 spent on a Google Ad “investment”
  • 100 patients call your office
  • 50 patients come in for a seminar and/or consultation
  • 25 patients start treatment plans
  • 10 patients actually complete a bariatric surgery
  • $50,000 total collections from 10 surgeries

Remember our equation?
Return – Investment = ROI
So…
$50,000 collected fees – $1,000 spent on a Google Ad = $49,000 ROI

What’s your ROI?

Most practices don’t track the numbers very well, so don’t give up if you don’t have the exact data. We can still find a good starting point for your ROI.

Here is what you need:
Investment: Total Marketing spend for the last 12 months $_______
Return: Total Collections for the last 12 months $_______

That’s it. Now simply work the formula (Return – Investment = ROI)

Obviously, the real trick in getting accurate ROI data is connecting your marketing cost directly to the collections. Unless you have been doing some seriously disciplined tracking you won’t have pure end-to-end data.

No worries. If you want to get serious about really understanding your Marketing ROI so you can make educated decisions on your marketing spending, just shoot me an email and I will point you in the right direction.

Every practice is different in the way data is collected. Your front desk and your EMR can get it on track with a little instruction. Unfortunately, EMRs are not set up to track marketing but most can be rigged for it with a little front desk creativity.

Go figure out your Marketing ROI and commit to never spending another dollar without knowing that you are getting a solid Return On your Investment!
Future Email Topics:
● Newsletter or not?
● Phones are ringing but patients aren’t booking…
● Closing ratio: How many surgeries should I be booking for every X number of leads?

Talk soon,

Chris