Are You Measuring the Wrong Number?
The Marketing 32 Minute
As promised: 1 growth insight. 1 minute or less. Every week.
Most marketing companies want you to judge success by one metric: “How many leads did we get you?”
Why? Because leads are easy to generate and even easier to sell. But here’s the truth: leads don’t pay the bills. Patients do.
We recently worked with two practices running the exact same implant campaign.
- Practice A: Their agency bragged about delivering 117 leads. On paper, it looked like a win. But not a single patient started treatment. Net result? Lost money.
- Practice B: Their campaign brought in just 39 leads—about one-third as many. But their systems were solid. They converted 8 patients into treatment, collecting $112,000 in production.
If you judged only by leads, Practice A looks like the winner. In reality, it burned cash while Practice B added six figures to the bottom line.
Lesson: Don’t let agencies sell you “leads” as if they’re results. The only scoreboard that matters is revenue collected.
Action: Pull last month’s marketing report. Instead of asking “How many leads did we get?” ask:
- How many actually showed up?
- How many started treatment?
- How much revenue was collected?
That’s the number that matters. Everything else is noise.
