Professional services
Medical Practice Marketing ROI Calculator
Works marketing return, where the right numerator is lifetime margin rather than a first visit.
Result
Simple payback, with no discounting and no financing cost. For anything large or long, money now is worth more than money later and a lender will want interest, both of which make the real return lower than this.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Margin on revenue attributable to the spend divided by the spend. For a practice the attribution window needs to cover the relationship rather than the first visit, because a new patient in ongoing care produces revenue for years and judging a campaign on first-visit revenue alone understates it severely.
What moves the number
- Margin rather than revenue as the numerator.
- Whether the window covers the relationship or one visit.
- New patients attributable to the spend.
- Payer mix of the patients acquired.
Where this one goes wrong
The payer mix of the patients a channel brings matters as much as the number, because a channel delivering volume at low reimbursement can perform worse than a smaller channel delivering better-paying patients. Measure both. On the compliance side, any use of patient information in marketing requires authorisation under the privacy rules, and tracking tools that transmit identifiable patient information to third parties have been the subject of enforcement action, which makes website and analytics configuration a compliance question rather than only a technical one.
Before you quote
- Use lifetime margin, not first-visit revenue.
- Compare channels on payer mix as well as volume.
- Review website and analytics tools for PHI transmission.
Where the rules come from
Questions
About this calculator
What window should practice marketing be judged over?
The relationship rather than the first visit, since a new patient in ongoing care produces revenue for years. Judging a campaign on first-visit revenue alone understates it severely and leads to cutting spend that was working.
Does the payer mix of new patients matter?
As much as the number. A channel delivering volume at low reimbursement can perform worse than a smaller channel delivering better-paying patients, so comparing channels on count alone can rank them in the wrong order.
Are there compliance issues with practice websites?
Yes. Tracking and analytics tools that transmit identifiable patient information to third parties have been the subject of enforcement action, so the configuration of a practice website is a privacy question rather than only a marketing one.
The formula
payback = cost / (monthly gain - monthly running cost)
Put this calculator on your site
Free to embed. Paste this where you want it to appear. It stays up to date automatically because it loads from BDEVY.
Please keep the attribution line. It is the only thing we ask in return.
How to use this calculator
- Up-front cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $12,000.
- Extra gross profit per month ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $1,400.
- Extra running cost per month ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $220.
- Period to judge it over. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 36.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to payback period, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Up-front cost | $12,000 |
| Extra gross profit per month | $1,400 |
| Extra running cost per month | $220 |
| Period to judge it over | 36 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Payback period main result | 10.2 |
| Net gain per month | $1,180 |
| Net return over the period | $30,480 |
| Return on investment | 254% |
It pays for itself in 10.2 months and returns $30,480 over 36 months, a 254% return.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only up-front cost, this is what happens to payback period. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Up-front cost ($) | Payback period |
|---|---|
| $6,000 | 5.1 |
| $9,000 | 7.6 |
| $12,000 example above | 10.2 |
| $18,000 | 15.3 |
| $24,000 | 20.3 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Up-front cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $12,000.
- Extra gross profit per month ($)
- A money amount, starting at $1,400.
- Extra running cost per month ($)
- A money amount, starting at $220.
- Period to judge it over
- A number, between 0 and 240, starting at 36.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Payback period | The headline result. A decimal figure. |
| Net gain per month | A money figure. |
| Net return over the period | A money figure. |
| Return on investment | A percentage. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.