If you’re a medium or large-sized mental health clinic, you have a lot of caseloads to fill.
So of all your marketing efforts, you may be relying on Google and Facebook Ads to put butts in seats. But are you overspending?
If you’re filling 20 seats per month and spend $20 more than you need to acquire a client, that’s $400 per month and $4,800 per year more than you need to!
So you can see why reducing your cost to acquire a client (CAC) is so important.
In this blog, we’ll review our unique ad performance data gathered from over 60 mental health clinics, from large franchises to private practice, and see how yours compares.
Finally, we’ll give you tips for lowering your CAC and increasing the ROI on your ad spend, so you’re not wasting thousands each year on ads at your therapy practice.
Introducing New Ads Benchmark Data for Mental Health Providers
Benchmark data is important for every industry and their corresponding marketing strategies, from hair salons to plumbers to mental health clinics.
By aggregating data from various companies within a particular industry, you get averages. This is what benchmark data is – industry averages for various marketing channels like paid ads, SEO, and social media.
Beacon Media + Marketing gathered Google Ads and Facebook Ads data from 72 and 66 mental health clinics respectively.
Google Ads Benchmark Data
Cost per Click (CPC)
Average: $3.74
25 percentile: $3.11
75 percentile: $4.82
Cost per conversion
Average: $29.20
25 perc: $23.29
75 perc: $41.00
Conversions
avg: 29.99
25 perc: 18.94
75 perc: 40.33
These benchmarks are based on data from 72 U.S.-based mental health clinics.
Facebook Ads Benchmark Data
Cost per Click (CPC)
Average: $1.58
25 percentile: $1.18
75 percentile: $1.78
Leads
average: 7
25 percentile: 4
75 percentile: 10
These benchmarks are based on data from 66 U.S.-based mental health clinics. Interested in learning more about mental health ads?
Click here to join our Benchmark group today and we’ll then provide a FREE consultation based on your results!
Reviewing the Data On Advertising Mental Health Services
While both Google Ads and Facebook Ads are effective at converting new clients for mental health clinics, we have more data supporting Google Ads and target audience conversions for mental health topics.
You can see that the average mental health clinic had a cost per conversion of $29.20 from Google Ads
Not bad to acquire a new client, who can spend a few thousand dollars over the time they spend with your clinic.
Also, the average cost per click was $3.74, and the average clinic gained approximately 30 new leads per month from Google Ads.
Whoever said Google Ads aren’t effective isn’t doing them right.
Now for the Facebook Ads.
While cheaper per click (at only $1.58 CPC), the ROI could be clearer. Gaining 7 leads per month is the average, and is still very valuable, but it may not be enough for some of the larger clinics out there.
Would you like to know how your clinic compares to others across the country? To see if you’re spending too much and learn how to lower costs? Join our Benchmark group for Facebook ads.
How Does Your Mental Health Practice Compare?
If your mental health practice spends less than average to get potential clients, that’s great news. Keep doing what you’re doing and serving your community positively.
However, if you made it this far, we have to assume there’s room for growth.
How can you lower the cost of getting a new client for your mental health clinic?
Tracking Analytics
Tracking analytics is essential for you to know if your strategy is a winner.
For Google and Facebook Ads, you need to be tracking your cost-per-click (CPC) and click-through rate (CTR).
Cost per click is what you spend each time someone clicks on your ad. If you take your total ad spend and divide it by the number of clicks your ads receive, that will tell you your cost per click.
Click-through rate is the percentage of people who click on your ad after it’s displayed onscreen. CTR can tell you if your ad is attractive enough for potential clients, and you should always aim to improve this metric.
CPC and CTR are the most important metrics, yet you should also track the following:
Reach – The number of unique people who saw your Google or Facebook ad.
Impressions – The number of times your ad was shown. Some people will be shown your ad multiple times, which is good because it takes multiple impressions for your ad to connect with a new prospect in most cases.
Engagement (Facebook) – The number of likes, comments, and shares on your ad.
Engagement Rate (Facebook) – The number of likes, comments, and shares on your ad divided by the number of people who saw your ad.
Link clicks – the number of clicks on your ad that go to your profile or website.
Clicks – the number of clicks on your ad, not including reactions, comments, or shares. Examples include clicking to watch your ad video, to expand your ad, or to enlarge a photo.
Tracking these metrics will give greater context for your ad’s success.
Reducing Cost per Conversion Through A/B Testing
A/B testing is how marketers develop more cost-effective ads over time.
By A/B testing your ads over time, you can complete dozens or hundreds of tests and identify an increasingly cost-effective ad.
For example, if your Google Ad sends prospective clients to a landing page for your EMDR specialty, you can test different elements over time. These include your headline, CTA text and color, images, and placement of various elements.
After a few tests, your ad will already perform much better than initially. After hundreds of tests, the cost-effectiveness of your ad will be head and shoulders above the initial test.
By staying consistent in your marketing strategy and testing different parts of your ads and landing pages, you’ll drive down your CPC, increase your CTR, and lower the cost of acquiring a new client.
Outsource Your Ads, Multiply Your Growth
If running, testing, tracking, and updating your ads sounds like a lot of work, consider outsourcing to experts.
Let’s face it, all mental health professionals need to save time so they can focus on therapy services and much more. By outsourcing to marketing experts, you’ll get your time back to focus on operating your clinic and serving your community while growing steadily. You CAN have both growth and time to focus on impacting the lives of those in your community.
At the time of this writing, Beacon Media + Marketing offers a free growth plan to all clinics with a monthly marketing budget of $2,500 or more. If you don’t have this amount for your budget, we have trusted partners who can work with you.
Ads should be a tremendous boon for your practice. If they feel more like a necessary evil or a chore, let our ads experts handle them for you, so you can focus on the work you love.
Ready to learn the art of therapy advertising and how a new class of mental health marketing can drive you to the top of search results? Reach out today for a free discovery call.
