Digital MarketingService
Clinic marketing economics
Patient acquisition cost, attendance and utilisation, the three measures that decide results.
Kaelo Global is a Dubai company licensed in Meydan Free Zone, with over 100 clients served so far.
At a glance
What it is
A clinic at full utilisation does not need cheaper leads.
A principal, Kaelo Global digital marketing
Much clinic marketing is bought on cost per lead, which tells you very little in a business where the real limit is chair time. A clinic that is already fully booked does not need cheaper leads. It needs a better payer mix or more patients in a higher-value speciality. Getting the measurement right usually changes the brief.
Patient acquisition cost for a clinic only makes sense when it is measured speciality by speciality and set against how many booked patients actually attend. Aesthetic, dental and primary care patients cost different amounts to attract and bring very different value over time, so a single blended figure can hide both the best opportunities and the most expensive mistakes.
We do not publish benchmark figures for these measures yet, because we would sooner share numbers we can stand behind. Instead, we help each clinic build an accurate baseline from its own booking and billing data, and we plan the marketing from there.
What's included
Six areas of scopePatient acquisition cost by speciality
A blended acquisition cost hides the details that matter most. Aesthetic, dental and primary care have different acquisition costs and very different lifetime values, and they should not share one budget line.
Attendance and the cost of missed appointments
A booked appointment is not yet revenue. Missed appointments are often the largest recoverable loss in a clinic's patient journey. They rarely appear in the marketing budget, although marketing can help reduce them.
Utilisation as the real constraint
Chair and room utilisation decide whether more demand is worth anything. This is the figure that should guide how much you spend.
Payer mix and self-pay share
Insured and self-pay patients bring different margins and arrive through different routes. A campaign that grows the wrong side of the mix can raise revenue while lowering profit.
Lifetime value by speciality
The value of a patient across repeat visits, further treatments and referrals, which often matters more than the cost of the first appointment.
Reminders and rebooking
Simple reminder messages, easy rescheduling and a follow-up after a missed appointment, measured by how many more booked patients attend.
How the work runs
Setting a baseline
Patient acquisition cost by speciality, attendance, utilisation and payer mix as they stand today, taken from your own booking and billing data.
Finding the real constraint
Working out which of the four measures is holding the clinic back at the moment.
A focused programme
Marketing aimed at that constraint instead of at the number of leads.
A written monthly review
A monthly report measured against the constraint, including a clear note of anything we recommend stopping.
When to come to us
- 01You have more than one speciality and a single blended marketing budget.
- 02You suspect you are paying for enquiries the clinic cannot serve.
- 03Missed appointments are a known problem, but nobody is responsible for fixing them.
- 04Your enquiries have grown but your revenue has not grown with them.
What we do not do
- Optimising cost per lead when utilisation is the real constraint.
- Reporting clinical outcomes. We report on marketing and operational measures only.
- Using benchmark figures from other countries as if they applied to clinics in the Gulf.
Related reading
Patient acquisition that works within the rules clinics have to follow.
High treatment values, restricted channels and compliance details that are easy to miss.
Chair utilisation usually decides what a dental practice needs from its marketing.
Common questions
