For UK MSK clinic owners
How to make money from Meta ads for your MSK clinic
Spoiler: most clinics don’t. Run your own numbers and see why.
A six-layer cost stack that exposes what your £10 lead actually costs once you count the chase, the offer, the retention gap and the brand damage.
Your data stays in your browser. We never see or store individual clinic numbers.
Your £10 Meta lead isn’t a £10 Meta lead.
The agency sells you 30 leads a month at £10 each. The maths sounds great. Then the agency fee is £2,000. Suddenly each lead costs £77.
Then only one in five books. Then someone has to chase the four who don’t. Then the offer that gets them through the door is a free assessment, which is unpaid clinical time. Then the patients who came on a discount don’t come back. Then the discount slot displaced a full-price patient who would have.
By the time you’ve added all six layers, you’re paying £400-£700 per retained patient for a service the agency told you was £10 a lead. The Reality Calculator stacks every layer against your actual numbers and shows the gap.
Six real costs, not just the lead
Ad spend, agency fee, lead-to-booked, chase time, offer cost, retention gap, diary cannibalisation. Each one rolled into the headline cost per retained patient.
Break-even in plain English
How many paid sessions per Meta-acquired patient you’d need just to recoup the cash. Compared to what they actually attend.
Honest about the exceptions
Pelvic health, sports performance, post-surgical rehab packages above £800 are different. The model says so and explains why.
Three steps. Three minutes.
Tell us the pitch
Monthly ad spend, promised cost per lead, agency fee. The numbers your account manager uses on calls.
Add your reality
Conversion, who chases, what offer, how often Meta-acquired patients come back compared to your organic ones.
See the real number
Cost per retained patient. Sessions you’d need to break even. Monthly bleed in pounds.
What makes this different
It counts the agency fee against the leads
Most calculators stop at cost per lead. This one rolls the £2k retainer into the lead figure. That single move turns £10 into £77.
It prices the chase
Hours per month phoning leads who don’t answer. Whoever does it — you, reception, dedicated admin — the time costs money. The maths shows it.
It models retention honestly
Discount-acquired patients come 1.5 times a year on average. Brand-acquired patients come 5+. The retention gap is the real cost, not the cost per lead.
Your report includes
Real cost per retained patient
The headline number. All six layers stacked, divided by the patients who actually return. Updated live as you change inputs.
Six-layer cost waterfall
Visual breakdown showing where each pound went — from the £10 myth to the final figure. Green to dark red.
Break-even sessions per patient
How many paid sessions per Meta-acquired patient you’d need just to recoup cash. The maths most clinic owners never run.
Monthly bleed in pounds
The shortfall per patient multiplied by your booking volume. The number on your bank statement, not in the agency report.
Offer-specific maths
Free assessment, £25 first session, free spinal check, full price. Each one prices the trade differently. The model picks it up.
Hidden taxes flagged
Diary cannibalisation, brand positioning, team morale. The costs that don’t show up in a spreadsheet but show up in a clinic.
Other HMDG planning engines
Each engine targets a different lever in your clinic. Pricing tells you what to charge. Capacity tells you what your diary can actually deliver. Retention tells you whether your patients come back. Valuation tells you what the business is worth today. Podiatry Ads tells you which podiatry services to actually advertise on Google. Market Signal tracks UK MSK market conditions weekly. Use them together.
FAQs
Why does my £10 Meta lead actually cost £77?
Because the agency fee divides into the leads, not the spend. £300 ad spend at £10 a lead = 30 leads. Add £2,000 agency fee, you’ve spent £2,300 to get 30 leads. That’s £77 a lead. The agency’s £10 figure is the cost of the click, not the cost of the lead to your business.
I run a free assessment. What’s the cost?
Thirty minutes of clinician time at £75/hour opportunity cost — £37.50 per booked patient. The cost is real even though no money changes hands. Free assessments work as offers because they convert; they don’t work as profit centres because the time is gone.
Why don’t you include LTV gain from Meta patients?
We do, indirectly. The retention gap layer counts what you don’t earn from Meta-acquired patients compared to organic ones. The cost per retained patient already accounts for the LTV they don’t deliver. Stacking a positive LTV figure on top would double-count.
Is Meta always wrong for MSK?
For cold acquisition at typical MSK price points, almost always yes. For warm retargeting of existing patients, brand awareness or the three exception niches, no. The calculator focuses on the cold acquisition case because that’s what most agencies sell.
Do I need exact numbers?
No. The defaults are calibrated to UK MSK clinic typicals based on 1,061 reviewed clinic calls and 715 clinic owners surveyed via the Private Practice Barometer. Adjust the ones that differ in your clinic. Estimates work — the model is for directional planning, not financial forecasting.
What do you do with my data?
Nothing. Your inputs stay in your browser. We never see or store individual clinic numbers.
Is it free?
Yes. No card, no email, no sign-up.
Who built this?
HMDG. We work with UK MSK clinics on marketing strategy. This is one of the HMDG planning engines, alongside Pricing, Capacity, Retention, Valuation, Podiatry Ads, and Market Signal.