Healthcare digital marketing
Marketing for medical practices, measured in collected dollars
Most agency reporting stops at the form fill. A form fill isn’t a patient. A patient who books, cancels, and never reschedules isn’t revenue either.
House of RCM runs SEO, paid search, web, and reputation work for practices, and where we also handle the billing we can follow a campaign past the booking into the claim and tell you what it actually collected. That’s a narrower claim than most agencies make, and it’s the one we can support.
Fee quoted after a free auditNo long-term contractYou own every asset
Free marketing audit
Four fields. We look at the site, the listings, and what’s ranking. No obligation.
- 5+ years in business
- 25+ specialties
- All 50 states
- US-based strategy team
- HIPAA aware, BAA signed first
How we work on marketing
The terms behind every engagement, before any results are promised.
Marketing audit before any spend
Of your ad budget taken as a fee
Signed before any patient data
States served
US-based support
Cost per new patient is the number worth arguing about. Ask any agency for theirs and ask how they define a new patient. If the answer is a lead, it isn’t a patient.
Marketing is the wrong spend for a lot of practices
We’d rather lose the engagement here than six months in. If one of these describes you, more traffic makes the problem worse, not better, because it adds volume to a system that’s already leaking.
Your schedule is already full
If you’re booking four weeks out and turning people away, you don’t have a demand problem. You have a capacity problem or a payer mix problem. Marketing spend on a full schedule buys you nothing but longer waits and more no-shows.
Nobody answers the phone
A practice that misses half its inbound calls will waste every dollar it spends on ads. Fix the front desk first. It’s cheaper, it’s faster, and you can measure it this week. We’ll tell you this on the audit call rather than after the invoice.
Your payer contracts are the problem
If your contracted rates are below market, new patients multiply a bad number. Renegotiation or a change in payer mix moves more money than a campaign will. That’s a different project, and we’ll say so.
Your AR is the bigger leak
If you’ve got aged AR sitting uncollected or a denial rate you can’t explain, the money is already in the building. Collecting what you’ve earned costs less than buying new patients. That work is on a different page and it usually pays back faster.
You want results in 30 days from SEO
SEO doesn’t do that. Local results generally take months, not weeks, and anyone who promises otherwise is either buying links or counting something that isn’t patients. Paid search can move in days. If you need volume this month, that’s the honest answer.
You're not ready to be measured
Revenue attribution means we see your collections. Some practices don’t want a vendor in that data, which is a reasonable position. Without it we can still report bookings, but we won’t be able to tell you what a channel collected, and we won’t pretend we can.
Not sure which of these you are? The audit tells you, and it’s free whether or not we’re a fit.
What a healthcare marketing agency actually does
A healthcare marketing agency is hired to bring a practice patients it wouldn’t otherwise have gotten. The channels are familiar: ranking in local search, running paid ads, building a site people can book on, managing reviews, producing content.
What separates them is the definition of success. Most agencies report on what they can see, which is clicks, calls, and form fills. Those are real inputs, and they’re also the easiest numbers to make look good without moving a dollar of revenue.
The useful question is narrower. Of the people a channel brought in, how many booked, how many arrived, how many had a billable encounter, and what did those encounters collect? Answering that takes access to the billing data, which most agencies don’t have and can’t get.
House of RCM is a billing company that also does this work. For practices where we handle both, that chain is traceable. Where we only do the marketing, we say so and report to the booking.
The honest version of the pitch
Being inside an RCM company doesn’t make our ads better written. It makes the reporting harder to fake.
An agency that can only see form fills has every incentive to buy cheap, broad traffic and show you a rising line. An agency that reports on collected dollars has to produce patients who pay, which is a harder thing to fake and a slower thing to grow.
If your current agency’s reporting is all clicks and impressions, ask them a single question: what did this channel collect last quarter? The answer, or the absence of one, tells you most of what you need.
What we run, and when each one pays
Every channel has a different lag. Running them together matters because the fast ones fund the slow ones while the slow ones compound.
Local SEO and Google Business Profile
Profile completeness, categories, service areas, photos, posts, Q and A, and the review flow. For most practices this is the highest-return work on the list because the searcher is already looking for a provider nearby.
Healthcare SEO
Technical cleanup, service pages that match how patients actually search, condition and procedure content, internal linking, and schema. Built so pages don’t compete with each other, which is the most common thing we find broken.
Google Ads and paid search
Campaigns built around intent, not volume. Negative keyword discipline, geography and hours matched to when you can actually see people, and landing pages that match the ad. This is the lever when you need patients this month.
Web design and build
Speed, mobile, a booking path that takes fewer than three taps, and service pages that can rank. A site that loads slowly loses paid traffic you already paid for, which makes this the cheapest fix on most accounts.
Reputation and reviews
A system for asking at the right moment, routing unhappy patients to a human before they post, and responding publicly without disclosing anything about the patient. That last part is where practices get in trouble.
Content and social
Content that answers what patients ask before they book. Social that keeps an existing audience warm. Neither is a patient-acquisition engine on its own for most practices, and we won’t sell it as one.
Call tracking and intake
Numbers by channel, recorded where law and policy allow, and a look at what happens after the phone rings. Most accounts leak more at intake than at the ad. This is usually where the first real win is.
Physician liaison and referral
For specialties where the patient comes from another provider rather than a search bar. Referral source tracking, outreach materials, and follow-up on referring offices that have gone quiet.
Analytics and attribution
Channel to booking, and where we hold the billing data, booking to collected dollar. Built so the numbers survive a conversation with your accountant rather than only with your marketer.
You don’t have to buy all nine. Most engagements start with two or three and add as the data justifies it.
How a click becomes a number you can bank
Revenue attribution gets asserted a lot and explained rarely. Here’s the actual chain, and the point in it where most agencies stop.
Stage 1
Impression and click
Someone searches, sees you, and clicks. Every agency can report this. It costs money and tells you almost nothing about revenue.
Stage 2
Call or form
They call a tracked number or submit a form. Tagged to the channel that produced it. This is where most agency reporting ends and where most agency dashboards look their best.
Stage 3
Appointment booked
Intake books them. Now there’s a name in the schedule. The gap between stage 2 and stage 3 is where the front desk shows up in the numbers, and it’s often the widest gap on the account.
Stage 4
Patient arrives
They show. No-show and cancellation rates differ sharply by channel, which is why a cheap lead source can be the expensive one once you measure arrivals instead of bookings.
Stage 5
Encounter billed
The visit becomes a claim. Coded, submitted, and adjudicated. Nothing a marketer does touches this stage, but it determines whether the patient was worth acquiring.
Stage 6
Payment collected
Money lands. Now the channel has a real number attached. This is the only stage that pays salaries, and it’s the one almost no agency can report because it requires the billing data.
The prerequisite, stated plainly
Stages 5 and 6 require access to your collections. Where House of RCM handles your billing, that access already exists and the chain closes end to end.
Where we don’t, there are two options. You grant read access to the relevant reports, or we report to stage 4 and say that’s what we’re reporting. We won’t model the last two stages and present the model as measurement. An estimate dressed as attribution is worse than an honest booking count.
Already have a biller you’re happy with? Say so on the call. The marketing engagement doesn’t require moving your billing.
Tracking, pixels, and the part most agencies get wrong
Marketing touches patient data more than practices expect. A tracking pixel on a page where someone types a symptom or books an appointment is a different thing from a pixel on a blog post, and a general agency usually doesn’t know the difference.
What the guidance says, and what a court changed
HHS Office for Civil Rights published guidance on online tracking technologies on November 19, 2022, and revised it on March 18, 2024. It addressed when tracking on a healthcare website creates a disclosure of protected health information.
On June 20, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated one part of it in American Hospital Association v. Becerra. The vacated piece was the theory that an IP address combined with a visit to an unauthenticated public page about a health condition was automatically a disclosure of PHI. The court held that standard asked covered entities to judge a visitor’s unknowable intent. HHS withdrew its appeal in August 2024, and its guidance page now carries a notice of the vacatur, last modified June 26, 2024.
The rest of the guidance wasn’t vacated and still applies. That’s the part worth paying attention to.
What that means for your website
Patient portals and anything behind a login are the sharp end. Tracking there generally touches PHI, and a vendor receiving it is a business associate who needs an agreement in place.
On public pages, the question is what the visitor hands over. A pixel firing on a general service page is one thing. A pixel capturing an appointment request, a symptom field, or a condition-specific form submission is another, and a privacy policy alone doesn’t cure it.
We sign a Business Associate Agreement before we touch anything, inventory what’s already firing on your site, and configure conversion tracking so the platforms get a conversion signal without the content that makes it PHI.
| What we look at | What usually turns up |
|---|---|
| Tags already on the site | Pixels installed years ago by a prior vendor that nobody can account for |
| Pages behind a login | Analytics or ad tags inherited sitewide onto portal pages |
| Form and booking fields | Free-text fields passing symptom or condition detail into analytics |
| URL structure | Condition names in query strings that get sent along with every pageview |
| Vendor agreements | Tracking vendors handling data with no BAA on file |
| Call recordings | Recording running without the disclosure the state requires |
This section reflects the guidance and litigation as described above, and it is not legal advice. Rules in this area have moved more than once. Have your counsel review your setup, and ask any agency you’re considering to put their position on tracking in writing.
Want to know what’s firing on your site right now? That’s part of the free audit.
What it costs
A monthly fee for the work, with ad spend separate. No percentage of your ad budget, because that pays us more when we spend more of your money.
per month, after the free audit
Scope set after the audit. Channels, hours, and deliverables named in writing before you sign.
- Strategy, execution, and reporting
- Ad spend billed separately, paid to the platforms
- No percentage of ad spend
- Month to month after an initial period agreed in writing before you sign
- You own the site, the accounts, and the data
- No charge to hand everything over if you leave
If we also do your billing
Billing runs at 3% of monthly collections. Where both are in place, the marketing reporting closes through to collected dollars instead of stopping at the booking, and there’s no separate charge for the attribution work.
You can buy either one alone. The marketing engagement doesn’t require moving your billing, and the billing engagement doesn’t require buying marketing.
What a new patient has to be worth
Type your own figures. Most practices have never put these three numbers next to each other.
Collected revenue per year
$168,000New patients per month 20
Collected revenue per month $14,000
Return on every dollar spent 3.5x
This is arithmetic on the numbers you typed, not a forecast. Cost per patient varies by specialty and market, and the value figure has to come from what you collected, not what you charged. If you don't know your real cost per patient, that's the first thing the audit establishes.
Comparing proposals? Ask every agency for the fee and the ad spend as two separate lines. Some won’t split them.
Three ways practices buy marketing
All three work for somebody. The question is which problem you have.
| Hire in-house | General agency | House of RCM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Salary plus benefits plus tools | Retainer, often plus a cut of ad spend | A monthly fee quoted after the audit, ad spend separate |
| Healthcare specific | Depends entirely on the hire | Usually not, and it shows in the copy | Only healthcare |
| Channels covered | Whatever that one person knows | Broad | Broad |
| Reports to | Leads and traffic | Leads and traffic | Bookings, and collected dollars where we hold the billing |
| Understands a claim | Rarely | Rarely | Yes, that’s the main business |
| Tracking compliance | Depends on the hire | Often an afterthought | BAA first, tracking inventoried before launch |
| Coverage when they’re out | Nothing happens that week | Covered | Covered |
| Who owns the accounts | You | Sometimes the agency | You, always |
| Exit | Resignation and a rehire | Often an annual contract | Month to month after an initial period agreed in writing before you sign |
Where in-house genuinely wins: a practice large enough to keep one person busy full time, with a leader who knows enough about marketing to manage them. If that’s you, hire. An agency is a worse deal than a good employee you can actually supervise.
Running it in-house and want a second opinion on the plan? We do audits for practices we won’t end up working with.
How an engagement runs
Stage 1 · Week 1
Audit
Site, speed, listings, rankings, what’s firing on the site, what’s ranking for you now, and what your competitors are taking. BAA signed before we look at anything. You get the findings whether or not you hire us.
Stage 2 · Week 2
Scope and number
Channels, deliverables, the fee, and a recommended ad budget, in writing. If the audit says marketing isn’t your problem, this is where we tell you instead of writing a proposal.
Stage 3 · Weeks 2 to 4
Build and instrument
Site fixes, tracking configured, call numbers live, profiles cleaned up, campaigns built. Nothing launches until tracking is right, because untracked spend can’t be judged later.
Stage 4 · Month 1 onward
Launch and iterate
Paid goes live first because it answers questions fastest. SEO and content run underneath. Weekly changes, monthly reporting.
Stage 5 · Ongoing
Report and cut
Monthly numbers by channel, including the ones that aren’t working. Channels that don’t earn their place get cut rather than defended. Expect us to recommend reducing spend at some point.
Stage 1 is free and takes about a week.
What changes by specialty
Patient acquisition looks different depending on who sends you the patient. These aren’t cosmetic differences, they change which channels get the budget.
Primary care
Volume and proximity. Local search and Google Business Profile do most of the work, and the deciding factor is usually whether someone answers the phone.
Behavioral health
High intent, heavily searched, and the most sensitive tracking situation on this list. Privacy on the site and in the ad platforms matters more here than anywhere.
Orthopedics
Split between referral and self-search. Procedure pages carry the search demand while referral relationships carry the complex cases.
Pain management
Referral driven in many markets, with ad platform restrictions on some terms. Liaison work frequently beats paid search here.
Physical therapy
Hyperlocal and repeat-visit economics, so a patient’s value is measured across a course of care rather than one visit.
Dermatology
A mix of medical and elective demand, which means two different audiences and usually two different budgets.
Cardiology
Mostly referral. Marketing spend often does more for referring-provider relationships than for consumer search.
OB-GYN
Long patient relationships and high lifetime value, which makes acquisition cost easier to justify and makes reputation management decisive.
Dental
The most competitive paid search on the list in most metros. Cost per click is high, so intake quality decides whether the channel works.
Tell us the specialty and we’ll tell you which channel we’d fund first.
Platforms we work in
We work in your accounts, not ours. Every platform stays in your name, with us added as a user we can be removed from.
Google Business ProfileGoogle AdsGoogle AnalyticsGoogle Search ConsoleMeta AdsYour CMSYour scheduling systemCall trackingReview platforms
If an agency builds your site or your ad accounts on their own property, leaving them costs you everything you paid for. Ask who the registrant and the account owner are before you sign anything, with us or anyone else.
Not sure who owns your accounts right now? We check during the audit. It surprises people.
What practices say about House of RCM
★★★★★
“I love everyone at House Of RCM. I’ve been using them for 7 years at this point for 2 of my businesses. Nothing but class, professionalism and great service. They address all of our need and go above and beyond to keep us happy. I’d recommend them to everyone and anyone.”
Client for 7 years, 2 businesses
★★★★★
“One of the best decisions I have made to improve the functioning of my business was to outsource my medical billing. House Of RCM Billers take the challenging and intricate task of billing off of my plate so that my team can do what it does best! I am so grateful for their services. As a client for over ten years, I can attest to their dedication, hard work, and attention to detail.”
Client for 10+ years
★★★★★
“Jane is simply amazing. My business would not be nearly as successful if it was not for her. She is always one step ahead of the game, knows all the in’s, out’s, and tricks of billing. She is the best business decision I ever made!!”
House of RCM client
Want to talk to a current client before you decide? Ask on the call and we’ll arrange it.
FAQ
Questions practices ask about healthcare marketing
What does healthcare digital marketing cost?
Our monthly fee is quoted after the free audit, with ad spend separate and paid to the platforms. The scope is set after the audit, so the number reflects which channels you’re actually buying. We don’t take a percentage of ad spend, because that structure pays an agency more for spending more of your money.
How long before I see new patients?
Paid search can produce calls within days of launch. Local search work usually moves over weeks to a few months. Broader SEO takes longer and compounds. Anyone giving you a specific date for a specific ranking is guessing or worse.
Do you guarantee rankings or patient volume?
No. Nobody can, and an agency that does is either counting something that isn’t patients or taking risks with your domain. What we’ll commit to is the work, the reporting, and telling you when a channel isn’t earning its budget.
Is healthcare marketing HIPAA compliant?
It can be, and it often isn’t. The risk sits in tracking: pixels and analytics tags on pages where patients log in, book, or describe a symptom. We sign a Business Associate Agreement before we touch anything, inventory what’s already on your site, and configure conversion tracking that doesn’t carry the content that makes it PHI. This isn’t legal advice and your counsel should review the setup.
What changed with the HHS tracking guidance?
HHS OCR issued guidance in November 2022 and revised it in March 2024. In June 2024 a federal court in the Northern District of Texas vacated one part of it, the theory that an IP address plus a visit to a public page about a health condition was automatically a PHI disclosure. HHS withdrew its appeal in August 2024. The rest of the guidance stands, including the obligations around authenticated pages and business associate agreements with tracking vendors.
Do I have to move my billing to you?
No. The marketing engagement is sold on its own. Moving billing changes one thing: we can follow a campaign through to collected dollars rather than stopping at the booking. If you’ve got a biller you’re happy with, keep them and we’ll report to the booking and say that’s what we’re reporting.
What is revenue-attributed marketing?
Connecting each channel to money that actually landed rather than to leads generated. It requires seeing the collections, which is why most agencies can’t do it. Where we handle your billing, the chain runs from click to booking to arrival to claim to payment. Where we don’t, we report to the booking rather than modeling the rest and calling it measurement.
Who owns the website and the ad accounts?
You do, in every case. Domain, hosting, site, ad accounts, analytics, and call tracking stay in your name with us added as a user. If you leave, we hand over access and there’s no charge for it. Ask every agency this question before signing.
Is there a long-term contract?
Month to month after an initial period agreed in writing before you sign. The initial period exists because the build work happens up front and the first month’s results aren’t representative of anything. After that, if it isn’t working, you shouldn’t be locked in.
Will you tell me not to spend money?
Yes, and it happens. A full schedule, an unanswered phone, poor payer contracts, or aged AR all mean marketing spend produces less than fixing the thing in front of you. We’d rather say it at the audit than collect a retainer for six months and watch you leave.
What's a reasonable cost per new patient?
It varies too much by specialty and market for a single number to mean anything. Dental and cosmetic in a major metro run far higher than primary care in a small market. The useful comparison isn’t against a benchmark, it’s against what a new patient collects for you over a year. The calculator on this page puts those two numbers side by side.
Do you work with practices outside your billing clients?
Yes. Marketing-only engagements are normal. The reporting is shallower for the reasons described above, and we say so up front rather than discovering it in month three.
Find out whether marketing is your problem
The audit looks at the site, the listings, what’s ranking, what’s firing on your pages, and what a new patient is worth to you. It takes about a week and it costs nothing.
Sometimes the answer is that your marketing is fine and the money is leaking somewhere else. You get that answer too.
Fee quoted after a free auditNo long-term contractYou own everything
Request your free marketing audit
No contract, no obligation, and we’ll tell you if marketing isn’t the answer.