How Much Should My Ad Budget Be?

Let’s start by managing your expectations right now.  Because the most common ad budgeting mistake is…

Expecting to spend $200 and get 20 new patients.  What that’s also saying is “I want to spend $200 on ads and make $20,000 in new patient revenue.”

Well who doesn’t want to do that?  It’s just not realistic.  I know you’ve seen this type of “claim” on your newsfeed.  We packed this chiropractors office with 67 “new patient opportunities” on only $67 in ad spend.

Do you really believe it?  It’s certainly easy to get sucked into the hype of it. And maybe it happened once for someone… but come on… you know better.

So how much should you budget to get the result you want?  And this math is strictly for the chiropractic profession.  We have a HUGE advantage with our case fees and “pain” niche.

You should be willing to spend $200 in ad spend to get ONE new patient.  And some chiropractors will cringe when they see that number.  But are you willing to spend $200 to get a patient that is worth $2,000 (not counting any referrals they send you)?  I’ll spend that all day.  We are extremely spoiled in our profession.

And when you follow the chiropractic marketing “funnels” that I’ve laid out in previous posts you’ll see that over time your ad spend will go even further.  But you have to be ready to start at the lower end of ROI.

So why do so many chiropractors spend $200 or more on ad spend and NOT GET NEW PATIENTS?

I could go on for days answering this question.  But I’ll give you the short answers and bullet points.

You don’t understand your prospect and what they really want.  Spend time asking your current patients what is causing them to lay awake at night.  They will tell you EXACTLY what to put in your ads, landing pages, seminars, workshops etc.

You don’t test ads and your conversion process long enough.  I see people running an ad and spending $12 without getting a new patient and they ask what’s wrong with the ad.  Nothing may be wrong with the ad.  Your prospects have to go through a buying sequence of their own.  If the ad is new and they’ve never seen you before or chiropractic for kids or headaches is new to them… they need more info and more time to process that info before they call your office.

You don’t retarget the people that have engaged with your ad and keep showing them the “front end” ad.  When someone engages your ad you want to start showing them a different set of ads that are kinda like a follow up to the first ad.  This is your opportunity to walk them down a path of what they can expect if they come into your office.

You get shiny object syndrome and start running ads like your competitor just because you see them running ads.  That doesn’t mean they are having any better success than you are.

Different parts of your entire conversion process may be jacked.  The process may go something like this.

Click ad (is it clear you want them too?)…Read article or watch video (do you have a clear call to action of what you want them to do now? Call your office? Schedule online? Tell them what to do.)Answer phone and actually schedule new patient.  You really should listen to your staff answer the phone.  I’ve seen and heard so many receptionists do a great job of answering questions on the phone only to NEVER ask them to schedule an appointment.  Their entire job is to schedule appointments.  Make it clear to them.

Okay… so that’s the long version of how much you should be budgeting to get new patients from the internet.  But you need to understand the entire process so you can manage your expectations.  Once you do that you will have much greater success and see a nice ROI.

If you’re not willing to do it all yourself please find someone and outsource it so you can continue to grow your practice.  The inter webs isn’t going away anytime soon.