{"id":17709,"date":"2023-08-01T16:07:29","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T21:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/resources\/?p=17709"},"modified":"2024-05-29T12:54:34","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T17:54:34","slug":"how-to-properly-track-patient-acquisition-costs-in-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/resources\/blog\/article\/how-to-properly-track-patient-acquisition-costs-in-google\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Properly Track Patient Acquisition Costs In Google"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Search engine marketing, also known as SEM, is an important tool to acquire new patients. While it\u2019s a crucial marketing lever, it can be difficult to perfect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One major mistake you might be making is misinterpreting your data within Google. Making measurement mistakes can skew your read on the cost per acquisition, also known as the CPA.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Read about a few other common mistakes you may be making in our \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/about\/content\/google-mistakes\/?utm_medium=organicpro&amp;utm_source=TheScript&amp;utm_campaign=TheScript\">What Healthcare Businesses Get Wrong about Google<\/a>\u201d white paper.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google displays ads relevant to users based on their searches. The search engine then charges a business every time a user clicks on one of its ads. Since this is simply the way Google Ads is set up, you might focus on tracking the cost per click, also known as CPC, and inadvertently start to think of that dollar amount as if it\u2019s your acquisition cost for the channel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-17718 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/zocdoc.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/COST-FUNNEL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thescript.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/COST-FUNNEL.jpg 960w, https:\/\/thescript.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/COST-FUNNEL-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thescript.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/COST-FUNNEL-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thescript.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/COST-FUNNEL-740x370.jpg 740w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a misstep. You shouldn\u2019t make the mistake of conflating cost per click with cost per booking. While receiving clicks is a positive sign, not everyone who clicks on an ad will make a booking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s an entire funnel of behavior after a patient books where they can drop off and drive up actual acquisition costs. Do they click but never book? Do they book but never show up? Do they show up but turn out to be a returning patient versus a newly acquired patient? These are fairly common scenarios and need to be factored into the math.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taking the time to account for multiple factors and refine your true CPA will ensure that you make the best decision for your business\u2019s growth in the long run. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Search engine marketing, also known as SEM, is an important tool to acquire new patients. While it\u2019s a crucial marketing lever, it can be difficult to perfect.\u00a0 One major mistake you might be making is misinterpreting your data within Google. Making measurement mistakes can skew your read on the cost per acquisition, also known as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":17524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[121],"class_list":["post-17709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing-guides","tag-general-healthcare"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Properly Track Patient Acquisition Costs In Google - Practice Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Key measurement mistakes to avoid.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/resources\/blog\/article\/how-to-properly-track-patient-acquisition-costs-in-google\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Properly Track Patient Acquisition Costs In Google - 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