Google, a friend, 'saw the sign'
The new patient form asks how they heard about you. Answers include 'Google', 'internet', 'friend', 'Sarah', 'Facebook', 'walked past', and quite often nothing at all. The clinic spends money on Google Ads, a local magazine, a leaflet drop and the occasional event. At the end of the quarter, the owner tries to work out which of those is working and ends up going with a gut feeling.
A chiropractic clinic's growth depends heavily on new patients, and on those new patients staying for their care. Knowing only the first half, and that roughly, makes marketing decisions guesswork.
Why the source gets lost
- Free-text answers cannot be counted reliably.
- Online bookings arrive with tracking information that is thrown away before it reaches the clinic software.
- Phone bookings depend on reception asking, and recording, the same way every time.
- 'Google' covers ads, the map listing and organic search, which have very different costs.
- The source is never linked to what happened next: did the patient start care, and how many visits did they have?
What guesswork costs
Money keeps going into channels that bring enquiries but not patients who stay, while the ones that bring loyal patients are underfunded. Referral sources who send you excellent patients go unthanked. And the clinic cannot answer a simple question from a marketing agency: which of your channels is worth more?
| Source | Captured today | Captured after |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | 'Google', maybe | Campaign and keyword from the booking |
| Map listing | 'Google', maybe | Tagged link on the listing |
| Patient referral | A first name | Linked to the referring patient's record |
| Event or talk | Rarely | Event tag from the capture form |
| Phone booking | Whatever reception types | One choice from a short list |
How we connect sources to patients
- Every link you publish, whether on ads, your map listing, social profiles or printed QR codes, carries a clear tag.
- When someone books online or fills in an enquiry form, the tag is captured and stored with their new patient record in your clinic software.
- For phone bookings, reception picks from a short fixed list, with 'referred by a patient' prompting them to look up and link the referrer.
- Each new patient's source is joined to their later visits, so the report shows not just how many came from each source but how many started care and their visit average.
- Where the ad platform allows, such as Google Ads, conversions are sent back so the platform learns which clicks become patients, not just which fill in a form.
- A monthly report shows new patients by source, with cost where you enter it, and the follow-on visits each source produced.
We do not claim any channel will work for your clinic, and the numbers shown are only as good as the capture. What the build does is replace a free-text box with a record you can count.
What you can do with it
Marketing decisions are based on patients who stayed, not on clicks. Patients who refer friends can be thanked, in whatever way your clinic thinks appropriate. Events can be judged on real bookings. And when an agency or a magazine rep asks for your budget, you have your own figures to hand.
The first month's report is rarely surprising in every row, but it is usually surprising in one, and that one is often where the budget changes.
Is this your clinic?
- 'How did you hear about us?' is a free-text box.
- You cannot say which marketing channel brings patients who stay.
- 'Google' is recorded without knowing whether it was an ad or the map.
- Referring patients are not linked to the people they referred.
- Marketing spend is decided mostly by feel.