10 Proven Channels for Patient Acquisition

No medical or dental practice can thrive without an effective approach to new patient acquisition. There are hundreds of strategies, apps, consultants, experts you can use or hire to provide you with “how to”. However the following is compiled from 10+ years of PatientGain’s exclusive focus on working with medical and dental practices of all sorts, single location to dozens of locations, and even some 100+ location healthcare companies.

The most important step is your own practice and how you genuinely take care of your patients, staff, and your reputation. This is the most important prerequisite.

Where do patients look and where do patients come from?

10 proven channels for new patient acquisition – Your patients come from these:

1) Google SEO (Learn more about how healthcare SEO works) This strategy takes time, and having a professional and HIPAA compliant website for your practice is the starting point. If you do not have a website that is designed for high conversion and providing useful information for your current and potential patients, rest of the steps will not produce good results.
2) Google local SEO (Learn more about how local SEO works) This strategy is typically mid to long term, most important part of this is Google Business Profile (GBP) optimization.
3) Google Ads (Learn more about how Google ads work) This is a short term strategy and is expensive, but it produces results for 98% of healthcare professionals.
4) Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok Ads (Learn more about social media advertising) This is a short term strategy and is expensive, conversion from social media ads is less than Google PPC ads.
5) AI Agents (Artificial Intelligence based software agents like Gemini, ChatGpt, MS Copilot-OpenAI ) This is a new area, and mostly it depends on good content on your website and other medical and dental SEO attributes.
6) Digital ads on other secondary websites (Insurance websites, healthgrades, vitals, and other medical and dental directories etc)
7) Offline traditional advertising (Newspapers, TV, Yellow pages, billboards, leaflets, flyers, USPS mailed attention grabbers)
8) Referrals and relationship marketing (Referrals from your network of other providers, building local relationships, referral events, local presence events)
9) Influencer marketing (Using social media influencer personalities endorsing your services, another form is other patients posting good experience with your practice, A.K.A Google Reviews)
10) Word of mouth marketing (Existing happy patients tell their family members, friends and neighbors)

Insights from PatientGain for medical and dental practices

The first five points are the most important mediums for your online success. Also note: If used properly, conversion from Google search is 3 times higher than from social media sites. However, if you are building your brand, then social media is a better channel. Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok and YouTube ads are the best way to increase awareness, do promotional marketing, and interact with patients. Google ads and Bing ads are the best search PPC platforms that can quickly convert new patients. Overall the best marketing tool with high ROI is marketing automation solution, based on AI agents, apps, HIPAA compliance, high performance website and professional services. A patient focus website that caters to your existing patients and attracts new patients, every day for your healthcare practice. We are seeing 2% of the leads coming from Gemini, ChatGPT and Copilot-OpenAI.