ZocDoc Pricing For Doctors

New Patient Acquisition Costs Compared VS PatientGain Pricing

Comparing the patient acquisition cost (PAC) of Zocdoc with an appointment app from a HIPAA compliant marketing and technology company like PatientGain, which is hosted on your own website, reveals two fundamentally different approaches to acquiring new patients. Zocdoc is a high-visibility, pay-per-booking platform, while a website-based app is a tool for maximizing the conversion of existing web traffic at a lower, flat-rate cost.

Comparison of Zocdoc PAC vs. PatientGain app PAC

Feature	Zocdoc	PatientGain.com app on your website
Zocdoc Patient Acquisition Model 1	Marketplace Discovery: You gain access to Zocdoc’s large, built-in audience of users actively searching for providers. You pay only when one of these users books an appointment.	Website Conversion: Your practice already pays to attract visitors to its website through SEO, local SEO, Google Ads, or other marketing. The PatientGain app’s goal is to convert that existing traffic into appointments.
Zocdoc Patient Acquisition Model 2	ZocDoc places a booking link on Google Business Profile. The “Bypass” Effect: This model often “bypasses” the practice’s own website. The patient may never visit the practice’s official website before booking. While this offers convenience, it also means the practice misses the opportunity to:Control the initial brand experience. Capture direct website traffic data. Promote other services or content on their own site. Integrate the patient into their own conversion funnel.	PatientGain Website Conversion:  There is no Bypass Effect. Your practice already pays to attract visitors to its website through SEO, local SEO, Google Ads, or other marketing. The PatientGain uses SPOC intelligent conversion app to capture new appointments, SMS/Text messages and tracks new patient phone calls
Zocdoc Patient Acquisition Model 3	ZocDoc places a Google PPC ads in your target area and competes with your local Google Business Profile.  Zocdoc places Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads that can and do compete with your practice’s own local Google Business Profile (GBP) and other PPC efforts. This is a strategic component of Zocdoc’s business model to attract new patients, and it creates a direct competition for patient attention in search results. In essence, by pacing ads on Google, ZocDoc captures the leads on it’s platform, and then sells the same leads to the highest bidder in the target area.	PatientGain does not place ads to send new patients to it’s own platform, and then in-turn sell the leads to practices.
Pricing Structure	Pay-per-booking: You are charged a fee for each new patient booking made through the Zocdoc platform, which can range from $55 to over $100 depending on the specialty and location. You are charged even if the patient no-shows. For some practices it is as high as $165 per new patient booked.	Flat monthly fee: You pay a flat monthly fee for the PatientGain appointment app, regardless of how many patients book through it. PatientGain lists its online appointment app for $199/month. Some of their higher-tier marketing packages include the app.
Patient Acquisition Cost (PAC)	High, variable PAC: Your PAC per new patient is the Zocdoc fee, typically ranging from $50 to $180, divided by the number of bookings needed to get one new patient (accounting for no-shows).	Low, fixed PAC: The PAC is a portion of your overall website marketing cost. Your PAC for the app specifically is the monthly fee divided by the number of patients who book through it. The more patients you convert from your website, the lower your PAC becomes.
Strategic Advantage	High-volume exposure: Ideal for new practices or for quickly filling empty time slots. You leverage Zocdoc’s marketing budget to reach a wide audience you may not otherwise find.	Control and ownership: You own the patient relationship from the beginning. You are not dependent on a third-party marketplace, and you build your own brand awareness.
Long-term Value	Less sustainable: Over-reliance on Zocdoc can create a dependency that becomes very expensive. Zocdoc patients may be more “transactional” and have a lower long-term patient value, as they found you through a marketplace.	Sustainable and efficient: You are investing in your own digital assets and marketing, which builds long-term value. Acquiring patients from your own website is a much lower-cost and higher-retention strategy.
Branding and Experience	Zocdoc-branded: The booking experience is standardized and owned by Zocdoc. The patient interacts with the Zocdoc interface, not your unique brand identity.	Your-branded: The booking app is a seamless, branded extension of your practice’s website. This reinforces your brand and allows you to control the entire patient experience.

Example 1 calculation comparison – New practice with low SEO and low GBP optimization

Consider a scenario where your website gets 500 visitors per month, and you want to acquire 20 new patients through online booking.

Scenario A: Using Zocdoc

• Assume Zocdoc fee: $70 per new booking.
• Assume 15% no-show rate for Zocdoc patients.
• To get 20 new patients, you need 20 / (1 - 0.15) ≈ 24 bookings.
• Total cost: 24 bookings * $70 = $1,680.
• PAC per new patient: $1,680 / 20 = $84. 

Scenario B: Using PatientGain.com app

• Assume PatientGain app fee: $199 per month.
• You use your existing website traffic and convert just 4% of your 500 visitors.
• New patients: 500 visitors * 4% conversion rate = 20 patients.
• Total cost: $199 (monthly fee).
• PAC per new patient: $199 / 20 = $9.95. 

Note: This example doesn’t account for the marketing costs associated with driving the initial 500 visitors to your website, but it clearly illustrates the dramatically lower cost per conversion for traffic you already own.

Example 2 calculation comparison – Established primary care, urgent care, walk in practice with good SEO and good GBP optimization

Consider a scenario where your website gets 1000 visitors per month, and you want to acquire 40 new patients through online booking.

Scenario A: Using Zocdoc. Established primary care, urgent care, walk in practice

• Assume Zocdoc fee: $70 per new booking.
• Assume 15% no-show rate for Zocdoc patients.
• To get 40 new patients, you need 40 / (1 - 0.15) ≈ 48 bookings.
• Total cost: 24 bookings * $70 = $3,360.
• PAC per new patient: $3,360 / 40 = $84. 

Scenario B: Using PatientGain.com app. Established primary care, urgent care, walk in practice

• Assume PatientGain app fee: $199 per month. Included for free if you are using PLATINUM service, which includes SEO and GMB Optimizations every month
• You use your existing website traffic and convert just 4% of your 1000 visitors.
• New patients: 1000 visitors * 4% conversion rate = 40 patients.
• Total cost: $199 (monthly fee) or $1399 for PLATINUM service for a primary care
• PAC per new patient: $199 / 40 = $5.  (if you use only 1 app)
• PAC per new patient: $1399 / 40 = $35.  (if you use full PLATINUM service for your practice)

Note: This example accounts for the marketing costs (Using the PLATINUM service for) associated with driving the initial 1000 visitors to your website, but it clearly illustrates the dramatically lower cost per conversion for traffic you already own.

See an example of a real marketing and performance dashboard of a PLATINUM primary care practice, located in a very competitive area of western USA. In the month of May, there are 691 new patient appointments and phone leads.

The strategic conclusion

While Zocdoc can be an effective tool for a fast boost in patient volume, its high, transactional PAC makes it a less efficient long-term strategy. The PatientGain website app, on the other hand, represents a more sustainable and cost-effective approach. It leverages your existing marketing efforts to lower your overall PAC, reinforces your brand, and gives you complete control over your patient acquisition funnel. The decision depends on your practice’s immediate needs versus your long-term growth and branding goals.