The stock markets have been on an absolute, and to many observers, unexpected tear since the middle of March. Many wonder how much further they have to climb, and it’s anyone’s guess.
At the same time, cosmetic practices have seen unprecedented demand for a wide range of reasons. This high level of demand has also come as a (welcome) surprise to many plastic surgeons.
No one can guarantee where the stock markets or the demand for cosmetic procedures is headed. But there’s one thing we can tell you for sure: no matter how good the returns in the market have been the past few months, you can still beat them by investing in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for your practice.
Doing the Math
Speaking very generally about PPC campaigns we run on Google, Facebook and Instagram, our goal is to get a lead for about $100. In many cases we can come in well under that, while certain highly competitive and high dollar procedures such as breast augmentations or body lifts might cost a bit more.
But let’s stick with that $100 per lead number. We know that not every one of those leads will turn into a paying patient for you. Some of the leads will be asking about price, some will just want a little information, some will change their minds and “ghost” you. But in our experience, you should be able to book about 60-70% of leads as consultations. From there, we see consultation-to-procedure booking rates of anywhere from 50-90% across all practices that have provided us data.
So let’s take the worst case scenario. You spend $1,500 on PPC in a month and only get 10 leads. Then you get 6 of them in the door for a consultation. Then only 3 of them book. Maybe that sounds like a bum deal to you, but even at $500 to get a new patient to book, it’s very likely a patient you wouldn’t have had otherwise and they have very likely booked a procedure with a net profit in the thousands of dollars.
If you know of any stocks we can buy today for $500 that will be worth $2,000 or more in a few months, we’d love to hear the tip. And again, this is a very conservative estimate of the value of PPC. If you can increase your booking rate, you can do even better. And if you provide excellent customer service and a fantastic outcome, you’ve now earned a long-term patient with even more revenue possibilities down the road.
But I Already Do PPC
Maybe you think this blog doesn’t really pertain to your practice since we already support you with a plastic surgery PPC effort. You’re certainly ahead of the game compared to practices that forgo PPC, but are you really investing aggressively enough in a PPC effort?
Every surgeon has a particular goal about how far out they’d like to be booked for surgery. If you’re at or exceeding that goal right now, great. But keep in mind that you need to maintain a healthy pipeline of patients headed into the fall, and it’s quite possible that we won’t see the traditional “back to school” bump in patients due to distance learning and other events. Increasing PPC now, even if you’re very busy, might be a smart move so you can close out 2020 on a strong note.
