Honestly, You Really Need to Know These 6 Dental Marketing Metrics to Control Your Costs

Getting honest feedback from your dental marketing metrics doesn’t have to be complicated.

There are literally hundreds of various metrics you can track for marketing. If you want to know which ones will give you an accurate measurement of your dental office marketing performance, watch this video from Xaña Winans, who runs one of the most experienced dental marketing agencies in the country. Xaña will help you separate meaningful data from vanity metrics and clue you in on the 6 metrics you really need to keep tabs on.

Want to dig deeper into marketing your dental practice effectively? Subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to engage and learn. You can also visit our website to schedule a quick Marketing Breakthrough Call!

Transcription

Numbers don’t lie. Or do they?

Hi, I’m Xaña Winans, owner and CEO of Golden Proportions Marketing, the most experienced dental marketing company in the country. There are literally hundreds of various metrics you can track for marketing. Some are brutally honest. Others (known as vanity metrics) will just tell you what you want to hear.

Getting a sincere perspective from your marketing KPIs isn’t as complicated as some would have you believe. Today I’m going to give you the three most important numbers to capture, and the three cost metrics you need to calculate that will tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about how efficiently you’re spending your dental marketing budget.

The Three Numbers You Need to Capture

Cost by Source

The very first thing you need to get a handle on is exactly how much you’re spending for marketing and advertising. And it needs to be easily broken down by each individual source. If you’re lumping pay-per-click charges in with SEO service charges, you won’t have a clear picture of the effectiveness of either.

Leads Generated by Source

Next is the number of leads your dental marketing generates from each of those sources. Some metrics, like referrals, might be tracked by your front desk staff, and others, like digital advertising, will probably be reported by your marketing agency. Either way, all of this information should be captured in one place, preferably your patient management system, so you can keep tabs on where your new patients came from, which brings us to our next metric…

New Patients by Source

Obviously not every lead will be convinced to come to your office. For those who do, make sure you’re able to accurately track the marketing source they came from. Use call tracking numbers, and if you can’t do that, ask them where they heard about you.

The Three Numbers You Need to Calculate

Ok, with those three pieces of data in hand, you can pull out the calculator and start exposing the good, the bad, and the ugly of your marketing spending.

Cost Per Lead by Source

Comparing the amount you spend for each marketing source to the number of leads you generate will tell you how effective that source is. However, leads don’t pay the bills, patients do. That’s why you should also calculate…

Patient Acquisition Cost by Source

If you have a low cost per lead but a high patient acquisition cost, then you know you have a lead conversion problem. It might be wise to get your staff some additional training in converting those inquiries into appointments before you invest any more in lead generation. Breaking this down by source will also help you weed out marketing that is only attracting tire kickers and window shoppers.

ROI by Source

This is the mother of all metrics since it ultimately tells you if you’re getting your money’s worth from your marketing. Your ROI (or return on investment) includes such factors as cost, number of new patients, number of referrals, and how long your patients remain active at your office. The calculation for this one is a bit more complicated, but we do have an easy-to-use calculator that will do the math for you. Just visit goldenproportions.com/roi and drop in your numbers to get an honest assessment of your current marketing so you can make smarter budget decisions.

Thanks for watching.