Prices, in public
What Healthcare Marketing Costs, and Why Nobody Publishes It
Founder of FORGE
Real monthly ranges, what sits inside a fee and what does not, and the one question that makes two incomparable quotes comparable.
Managed marketing for a private practice mostly runs between $3,000 and $6,000 a month, plus ad spend, and almost nobody publishes it. Forge starts at $1,200. The number that decides whether any of it is affordable is not the fee, it is what a booked patient contributes.
For managed work on a private practice, most agencies sit between $3,000 and $6,000 a month, with ad spend on top. Forge starts at $1,200 a month.
Below a few hundred a month you are buying automated reporting, or one generalist splitting their week across thirty clients. A website build quoted on its own usually runs between $8,000 and $25,000, with changes billed separately afterwards, which is why so many practice sites look untouched since launch.
A hidden price is a negotiating position. It lets the quote adjust to what the practice looks like it can pay, and it makes comparison between two agencies impossible.
There are legitimate reasons for a range. There is no legitimate reason for a form standing between you and a starting figure. The price is the most important attribute of a service, and withholding it is a decision someone made on purpose.
Of everything I pay you, how much reaches the ad auction?
One question, and two incomparable proposals become comparable. If the answer is not a clean split between a fee and a media spend you can verify inside the platform, the difference is margin you were not told about. Ask for the platform export before you sign rather than a year later.
It varies enough that you have to ask explicitly. The usual extras:
That last one decides whether you keep anything you paid for. It is the first thing to check, and it is covered in the questions to ask before you sign.
Charging a share of media scales an agency's revenue without scaling its work. It is the industry norm rather than a scandal.
The problem is structural: every recommendation to increase spend is also a recommendation to increase their own invoice. A flat fee removes that conflict entirely, which matters most on the paid ads side where the spend is the variable.
Cheap is fine. Unaccountable is not. The question is not the number, it is what you get and whether anyone is measuring it.
A low fee where one person handles thirty accounts with no reporting will cost you more than a higher fee where someone can name the source of every patient.
Not the fee. What a booked patient contributes over the life of the relationship, and what share of enquiries become patients.
Those two figures tell you what you can afford per enquiry, and they turn the whole question from a cost into arithmetic you control. No agency can supply them for you, which is precisely why so few insist you work them out first.
Whatever the fee, the timelines do not move. Ads produce enquiries in weeks. Search visibility takes six to twelve months. Paying more does not compress that, it only buys more hands on the work.
If a proposal implies otherwise, the price is not your problem with it. For how the channels differ, read how the channels compare on speed and durability, and for the definitions underneath, what healthcare marketing actually means for a practice.
This page is part of the reference library published by a healthcare marketing agency run by a physician.
Most agencies working with private practices sit between $3,000 and $6,000 a month for managed work, and will not show you that number until you are on a call. Forge starts at $1,200 per month. Media spend is separate and goes straight to the platform in your own account.
Because a hidden price is a negotiating position. It lets the quote adjust to what the practice looks like it can pay, and it makes comparison between agencies impossible. There are legitimate reasons for a range, but there is no legitimate reason for a form standing between you and a starting number.
It should not be, and if it is, ask to see the platform invoice. Media spend belongs on your own card going directly to Google or Meta. An agency that pays the platform on your behalf and invoices you a round number is a place where margin hides comfortably.
Work backwards from the case. What a booked patient contributes, what share of enquiries become patients, and therefore what you can pay for an enquiry. That number is yours and no agency can supply it, but it turns marketing from a cost into an arithmetic problem you control.
Setup fees, charges per change after launch, software licences billed monthly, the cost of leaving, and whether the accounts are in your name. That last one is not a fee but it is the most expensive item on the list, because it decides whether you keep anything you paid for.
