Most agencies show you a number. We show you the number next to the benchmark it beats. Below is a live AI-managed health practice campaign, compared against published Google Ads benchmarks for the healthcare sector.
The benchmark column is published average performance for healthcare search advertising. The campaign column is live account data from a health practice running under continuous AI management.
| Metric | This campaign | Healthcare average | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per acquired patientThe benchmark measures cost per lead — an inquiry. Ours measures a patient who attended. | $18 | $66.02 | 73% lower |
| Campaign-wide CTRClicks ÷ impressions across the entire campaign — not a cherry-picked keyword. | 7.6% | 3.27% | 2.3× higher |
| Click-to-patient conversionShare of ad clicks that became an actual patient, not just an enquiry. | 17.8% | 11.6% | 1.5× higher |
| Average cost per clickTighter intent and higher ad relevance mean Google charges less per click. | $3.20 | $5.64 | 43% lower |
| Time from audit to liveHow long before the campaign is actually spending on real searches. | 3 days | 2–4 weeks | ~7× faster |
| Management fee modelPercentage-of-spend fees rise every time your budget does. | Flat fee | 10–20% of spend | No markup |
| Optimisation cadenceHow often the account is genuinely reviewed and adjusted. | Continuous | Weekly–monthly | Always on |
Healthcare averages sourced from published Google Ads benchmark data for healthcare search advertising (LocaliQ healthcare search benchmarks; Promodo healthcare marketing benchmarks; PPC Chief physicians & surgeons benchmarks). Benchmarks vary by specialty, geography and competition — treat them as guideposts, not guarantees.
Two of these bars are things you want higher than average. Two are things you want lower. The campaign lands on the right side of all four.
The cost-per-acquisition gap matters most — and it's understated here. The benchmark counts a lead: a phone call or a form fill. Ours counts a patient who actually walked through the door. We're beating a softer metric with a harder one.
The framework behind these numbers — hyper-specific keywords, time-targeted budget, compliance-first copy, continuous AI optimisation — is the same one we apply to every practice type above. Benchmarks differ by specialty. The method doesn't.
The practice was adding service hours it had never offered before. Nobody was searching for it, because nobody knew it existed. There was no Google Ads account, no conversion history, no quality score — and a low Google rating quietly undoing every click that did come through.
The task wasn't getting ads live. It was making a small budget work hard enough to justify the added staffing cost behind the new hours.
No account, no conversion data, no quality score — starting from zero.
A rating below 4.0★ means patients click the ad, check Google, and bounce.
A tight service window meant ads had to catch intent before the doors closed.
A nearby practice held a far higher rating and review count. Patients defaulted there.
Tight match types built around the exact service and the exact catchment — zero generic waste.
Ads run only inside the hours that convert. Every dollar targets the real booking window.
A tight radius around the practice — only patients who'd realistically attend.
QR review cards, hours fix, and a review response workflow running alongside the ads.
Google discounts clicks on ads it judges highly relevant to the search. Tight keyword-to-ad matching is why cost per click sits 43% under the healthcare average — the same budget simply buys more clicks.
Someone searching for a specific service, at a specific time, in a specific area is not browsing. Cutting broad, curious traffic is what moves click-to-patient conversion above the sector average.
Cheaper clicks × higher conversion is multiplicative, not additive. That compounding is the entire reason cost per acquired patient lands at $18 against a $66 benchmark — and why a monthly review cadence never catches up.
The ad gets the click — then the patient opens Google Maps. If the rating there sits below 4.0★ while a nearby competitor sits well above it, many leave before reading a single review. The ad budget did its job. The rating lost the patient.
4.0★ is the threshold where patient hesitation drops off sharply. Below it, patients actively seek alternatives. Our ratings strategy runs alongside the ad campaign, because paying for clicks into a trust gap is the most expensive mistake in health-sector advertising.
| Period | New Reviews Needed | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | 15–25 reviews | QR cards + verbal |
| Month 2–3 | 30–50 reviews | + SMS follow-up |
| Month 4–6 | 60–100 reviews | Full cadence |
A rating increase from 3.1 to 4.0 is estimated to lift conversion from ad clicks by 25–40% — on the same ad budget. Available as the Google Rating Accelerator add-on.
The average for medical practice PPC campaigns is around 3.27%. Consistently above that signals strong keyword intent and ad relevance. The campaign benchmarked above runs at 7.6% campaign-wide — roughly 2.3× the healthcare average. Note the phrase campaign-wide: a single keyword can post a headline CTR that says nothing about the account behind it.
Healthcare search ads average roughly $66 per lead, though it swings hard by specialty — dermatology sits far lower, cosmetic surgery far higher. The right question isn't the benchmark, it's your break-even. A $120 lead that becomes a $7,000 procedure is a bargain. A $40 lead that never books is not.
Google discounts clicks on ads it judges highly relevant to the search. Tight keyword-to-ad matching and daily negative keyword hygiene raise relevance, which lowers what you pay per click. It isn't a trick — it's the ad auction working as designed for advertisers who do the work.
Maybe not — and we'd rather say so upfront. Benchmarks and results both move with specialty, geography, competition and your own Google rating. A med spa in a saturated market and a rural optometry practice face very different auctions. What transfers isn't the number, it's the method. The free audit will tell you what's realistic for your location before you spend anything.
Dental practice, medical spa, optometry, physio, or primary care — we'll run the same analysis for your location, your competitors, and your catchment, and show you the gap. Free, no obligation.