What are typical marketing benchmarks for dermatology practices?

Measure your most recent quarter the same way the benchmark does. Count new patients by source, split medical and cosmetic, and add up spend on ads and agency fees for each side. Record your Google rating, review count, new reviews per month and reply rate for every location. Note answered and missed calls. Write down how you counted each figure, so next quarter is comparable. A baseline built from booked and attended appointments tells you more than one built from clicks or form fills alone.

Divide total marketing cost for a period by the number of new patients who attended a first visit from those channels in the same period. Include ad spend, agency or staff time and software fees, not ad spend alone. Calculate it separately for medical and cosmetic work, because the patient value and payer mix differ. Count attended visits, not booked ones, if no-shows are common. Then compare the result with the value of a new patient over a year, which shows whether the cost is acceptable.

Yes. Mohs and skin cancer care often depend on physician referrals as much as search, patients may travel farther, and the visit value differs from a routine medical appointment. Blending them with general dermatology hides how each side performs. Track referral volume by referring office, time from referral to appointment, and new patients from search separately. Benchmark general medical, skin cancer and surgery, and cosmetic as three lines, each with its own cost per new patient and capacity. Judge marketing for each line against its own open schedule.

Start with your Google Business Profile and reviews. A new practice has little search history, so its profile, rating and review count do much of the early work when patients compare options on the map. Get the profile complete and accurate, with hours, insurance and services, and ask every patient for a review the same way. Then track calls and bookings from the profile. Cost-per-click and acquisition benchmarks become useful once you are running ads and counting new patients reliably.

Use them to frame questions, not as targets an agency must promise. Share your own baseline and ask how the agency would measure progress against it, split by medical and cosmetic. Ask which benchmark they would expect to move first and why. A credible agency explains what depends on your market, schedule and front desk, and reports on booked and attended patients. Be wary of anyone who quotes a guaranteed cost per patient before seeing your data, or who reports only clicks and impressions.