Calculator
What does a new patient cost your practice?
Enter what you spend on marketing in a month, how many new patients arrive and what a patient brings in over the years they stay. The calculator shows the cost of each new patient, the return on it, when it pays back and the most you could spend.
Your figures
The result
Each new patient costs $200 and brings in $900 over the years they stay, a ratio of 4.5 to 1.
Each new patient costs $200 and brings in $900 over the years they stay, a ratio of 4.5 to 1.
- Cost per new patient
- $200$5,000 a month divided by 25 new patients.
- Revenue from one patient over the years they stay
- $900$120 a visit, 2.5 visits a year, for 3 years.
- Return on each new patient
- 4.5 to 1Each dollar spent to win a patient comes back as $4.50 of revenue over the years they stay.
- Months until a new patient has paid back what they cost
- 8 monthsAt $25 of revenue a month from each patient.
- Most you could spend a month at a ratio of 3 to 1
- $7,500For the same 25 new patients a month. Spending less than this keeps the ratio above your target.
Paid search on the benchmark for healthcare overall
- A click costs $5.64 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026), and 8.09% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) become a lead: a call or a form from the ad.
- That is $69.72 a lead. If 50% of leads book a visit, each new patient from paid search costs $139.44.
- Your $5,000 a month would buy about 887 clicks, 72 leads and 36 new patients at those rates. The return on each patient would be 6.5 to 1.
A benchmark is the middle of many advertisers in a broad category, not a prediction for your practice: your specialty, city, keywords and landing page move both numbers. Replace either with your own account's figures when you have them.
How the numbers work.
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Cost per new patient
What you spend on marketing in a month, divided by the new patients who arrive in that month. Count every channel you pay for, and only patients who actually came in.
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Revenue from one patient
What a visit brings in, times visits a year, times the years a patient stays. Use collections, not charges, from your own billing data.
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The ratio and the break-even month
Lifetime revenue divided by the cost per new patient is the return on each patient. The cost per patient divided by a month of revenue from that patient is how long they take to pay it back.
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The most you could spend
New patients a month, times lifetime revenue, divided by the ratio you want to keep. Spend above that and each new patient earns back less than your target.
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Paid search, if you use it
Cost per click divided by the share of clicks that become leads is a cost per lead; divided again by the share of leads who book, a cost per new patient. The figures can be a published benchmark or your own.
Data and assumptions
Everything but the paid search benchmark is your own figure, and the calculator keeps none of it. The benchmark comes from LocaliQ’s healthcare search ads report: the middle of a large sample of US search campaigns on Google and Microsoft, by subcategory. A lead is a call or a form the ad produced, not a booked patient. It describes a broad category, not your practice.
Cost per click
| Category | Figure | Source | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare overall | $5.64 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Addiction Recovery | $3.46 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Assisted Living, Elder & Home Care Services | $6.30 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Dermatology | $4.90 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Emergency Dentistry | $7.85 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Emergency Medicine | $2.29 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| General Dentistry | $7.03 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| General Practice & Family Medicine | $5.47 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Hearing Aids & Care | $8 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Hospitals & Clinics | $4.90 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Mental Health | $4.22 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Ophthalmology | $4.95 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Oral-Maxillofacial Surgery | $7.85 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Orthodontics | $8.76 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Physical Therapy | $4.95 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery | $5.75 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Urology | $5.64 a click (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks |
Clicks that become leads
| Category | Figure | Source | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare overall | 8.09% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Addiction Recovery | 0.5% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Assisted Living, Elder & Home Care Services | 5.51% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Dermatology | 25.33% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Emergency Dentistry | 8.89% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Emergency Medicine | 6.89% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| General Dentistry | 7.74% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| General Practice & Family Medicine | 11.63% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Hearing Aids & Care | 5.62% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Hospitals & Clinics | 6.1% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Mental Health | 1.85% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Ophthalmology | 18.29% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Oral-Maxillofacial Surgery | 11.6% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Orthodontics | 14.21% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Physical Therapy | 15.35% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery | 8.52% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks | |
| Urology | 4.61% of clicks (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks |
Cost per lead
Shown for comparison; the calculator divides the cost per click by the conversion rate instead, so either can be replaced with your own.
| Category | Figure | Source | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare overall | $66.02 a lead (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026) | LocaliQ: healthcare search ads benchmarks |
Assumptions
- Revenue per visit is what the practice collects, not what it bills.
- A month of revenue from a patient is revenue per visit times visits a year, divided by twelve.
- The most you could spend holds the new patients a month where they are and asks what spend keeps your target return.
- In paid search mode, clicks are your monthly spend divided by the cost per click.
Questions about this calculator.
What is a good patient acquisition cost?
One that each new patient pays back several times over the years they stay. The same cost is cheap for a practice whose patients come back for years and dear for one whose patients come once, so it only means something next to what a patient brings in.
In the worked example above, a new patient costs $200 and brings in $900, a ratio of 4.5 to 1. Many practices set a target ratio and hold spending under the figure the calculator shows for it.
How do I work out what a patient is worth?
From your own billing data: the average collected per visit, the average visits per patient per year, and how many years a typical patient keeps coming. Multiply the three. If patients often bring family members, or a first visit leads to procedures, the true figure is higher; if many patients come once, it is lower.
What does a click cost in healthcare search ads?
LocaliQ’s benchmark puts the middle of healthcare search campaigns at $5.64 a click, with 8.09% of clicks turning into a lead (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026). By subcategory, the cheapest click is emergency Medicine at $2.29 a click and the dearest orthodontics at $8.76 a click.
These are benchmarks for broad categories, not predictions: a practice’s own clicks depend on its city, its keywords and its landing page. Use your account’s figures once you have a few months of them.
Why is the cost per lead here different from LocaliQ’s own figure?
LocaliQ also publishes a cost per lead for healthcare, $66.02 a lead (benchmark, LocaliQ, 2026). Dividing its cost per click by its conversion rate gives $69.72 instead, because each benchmark is the middle of many campaigns and middles do not divide into each other exactly. The calculator divides, so that your own click cost or conversion rate can replace either one.
Does the calculator keep what I type?
What you type is used on this page to work out the result, and it is written into the page address so the result can be bookmarked or shared; anyone you send that address to can see the figures in it. The calculator does not send your figures to us, and nothing you enter is added to the site’s data. Like any page you load, the address reaches our host when the page is requested, as the privacy policy explains.