Cost per consult
Cost per consult is ad spend divided by consultations the patient actually showed up to.
The denominator has to be consultations that showed, not consultations that were booked. At a benchmark 60 percent show rate, dividing by bookings understates the real cost of a consultation by roughly 40 percent, and it is the most common quiet error in this category's reporting.
This is the last stage before the practice rather than the media controls the outcome, which makes it the fairest place to draw a line between a marketing problem and an operations problem.
The formula
Divide total ad spend by the number of consultations where the patient was physically present.
cost per consult = ad spend / consultations showed
What is included and what is excluded
Counts
- Consultations the patient attended in person
- Attended virtual consultations
- Attended consultations that ended without a treatment plan
Does not count
- Booked consultations that were not attended
- No shows and same day cancellations
- Rescheduled appointments, counted at their new date
A worked example
A practice spends 15,000 dollars, books 21.25 consultations and 12.75 show.
- 01Ad spend: $15,000
- 02Booked: 21.25
- 03Showed: 12.75
- 04$15,000 / 21.25 = $706 per booked consult
- 05$15,000 / 12.75 = $1,176 per attended consult
The honest figure is $1,176. Dividing by bookings understates it by $470 per consultation.
How this differs from
- Show rate
Show rate is the ratio between the two denominators used above.
- Cost per qualified lead
That stops at the screen. This absorbs booking and show performance too.
- Cost per seated arch
This ends at attendance. That continues through presentation and the deposit.
These definitions come from our published measurement standard. Read The Arch Standard for the reporting rules they sit inside, or see every term.
Want this measured in your practice? A consult walks through how we track it, if that is useful.
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