For a lot of specialist clinics, the patient isn't the first person to find you. When the condition mostly affects older people, as osteoporosis does, the search often starts with a son or daughter reading about their parent's diagnosis late at night. The person who books might be them, and the person on the video call might be both of them.
Most clinic marketing is written for a single patient who searches, reads, and books alone. A clinic whose patients rely on family needs to reach 2 audiences, and its landing pages, booking, reviews, and reminders all need to work for both.
This guide covers how to market a virtual clinic when the family does the research. It uses a bone health clinic as the example, and it applies to any condition where older patients rely on their children.
Key takeaways
- 01Market to 2 audiences: the patient who searches for help, and the adult child who researches and often books for them.
- 02Use Google for intent and Meta for reach: Google Search catches people looking now, while Facebook and Instagram reach families earlier.
- 03Send every advert to its own page: one service, phone first, with the price and the booking calendar on the page.
- 04Trace every booking to its advert: judge campaigns by cost per booking, without sending health details to ad platforms.
- 05Own your ad accounts: spend is paid by you to Google and Meta, on accounts in your name.
- 06Keep patients coming back: in a clinic where most care is ongoing, reminders for doses and reviews are your cheapest marketing.
Who are you actually marketing to?
You're marketing to 2 people, who meet your clinic at different times.
| The patient | The adult child | |
|---|---|---|
| When they find you | When they're actively looking for help | Earlier, while they're reading about the condition |
| Where they find you | Google Search, or a recommendation | Facebook, Instagram, Google, and AI search tools |
| What they want to know | Who they'll see, and whether it'll be easy | Whether the clinician is good, and what it costs |
| What they need from the website | Large text, simple steps, a phone number | The price, the process, and a way to book for a parent |
Both of them need to see the same things before anybody books: who the clinician is, what happens from the first consultation to treatment, and what it costs.
Why use both Google and Meta?
Google and Meta reach these 2 audiences at different moments, so each does a different job.
Google Search catches people looking now
Somebody who types "private osteoporosis clinic" or "bone density scan near me" wants to book, or is close to it. Google Search adverts put your clinic in front of them at that moment, with a link straight to the page for that service.
These searches are specific, so they're worth building the campaign around. A patient searching for a scan isn't looking for a general private GP, and your advert and landing page should say so. Our guide to what a professional Google Ads campaign looks like for a clinic covers how to structure it.
Facebook and Instagram reach families earlier
Adult children often learn about a parent's condition well before anybody looks for a clinic. Facebook and Instagram reach them while they're still reading about it.
Meta doesn't let advertisers target people by health condition, so you can't show an advert to "people with osteoporosis" or their families. Target by location and age instead, and let the advert do the work. An image of an older couple, and a line such as "osteoporosis care by video, with tests arranged near you and treatment delivered to your door", tells the right person straight away that it's for their parent.
Advertise the consultation, not the medicine
UK law doesn't allow prescription-only medicines to be advertised to the public, and Google and Meta both restrict healthcare adverts. Advertise what your clinic does: the specialist consultation, the tests arranged near the patient, and the care delivered at home. The choice of treatment belongs in the consultation.
What does every landing page need?
Every advert should lead to its own page, written for that one service. Send a scan search to the scan page, and a Facebook advert about osteoporosis care to the osteoporosis page. A general homepage makes both audiences hunt for what they came for.
For a clinic serving older patients and their families, each landing page needs:
- Phone-first design, with large, clear text. Both audiences are mostly on phones, and many patients have weaker eyesight.
- The price, in full, before anybody starts booking.
- The booking calendar on the page, reading your real diary, so the next free time is visible.
- The clinician, with a name, photo, and specialism.
- The journey in 3 steps, such as a video consultation, tests near you, and treatment delivered.
- A way to book for someone else, so a son or daughter can book and pay for a parent.
Our guide to what a high-converting clinic website looks like covers the rest of the page.
How do you know which adverts work?
Trace every booking to the advert that produced it. A list of this week's bookings should show whether each one came from Google, Facebook, or Instagram, and which campaign. Then you can judge each campaign on what it actually costs to get a booking, not on clicks.
| What to measure | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Spend | What each campaign costs, paid by you to Google and Meta |
| Bookings | How many paid bookings each campaign produced |
| Cost per booking | Spend divided by bookings, the number that decides where the budget goes |
| Where they came from | Google, Facebook, or Instagram, and which campaign |
| What changed | What was adjusted last month, and what's changing next |
Track the booking, not the health details
Conversion tracking should record that a booking happened, and which advert it came from. It shouldn't send health information to an advertising platform. Make sure the tracking on your booking pages passes the event and nothing about the patient's condition.
Set the budget once you can see the costs
Don't guess a budget before you know what your search terms cost. Start with a modest budget, look at what clicks and bookings cost in the first weeks, then adjust it once there are real numbers to work from. Always run the adverts on accounts you own, with the spend paid by you directly to Google and Meta.
What a booking is worth depends on how long patients stay. A patient with a long-term condition might have consultations, tests, reviews, and treatment for years, so a clinic like that can afford more per first booking than one selling a single appointment. Work it out with what one patient is actually worth to your clinic.
How does a blog build alongside the adverts?
Adverts bring patients in from the first week, and stop when the spending stops. A blog builds something you keep.
Publish a post every month on the questions patients and their families ask: what a bone density result means, what affects fracture risk, which treatment options exist, and how to prepare for a first consultation. Each post adds a page that can rank in Google and be cited by AI search tools.
Over the first 6 to 12 months, a growing share of bookings comes from search rather than adverts. Our guide to how a monthly blog builds a lead no competitor can buy explains why it compounds.
How do reviews help families choose?
Adult children choosing a clinic for a parent read reviews carefully. They want to know the clinician was kind, the video call worked, and the process was easy for somebody older.
Send a review request after each appointment, for Google and Trustpilot. In a clinic where the relative booked and joined the call, the request can go to them, because they were part of the appointment. Never offer anything in return for a review. Our guide to why patients don't leave reviews even when they're happy covers how to get more of them.
Why are reminders your cheapest marketing?
In a clinic where most care is ongoing, the patient you already have is worth more than the next one you advertise for. Reminders keep them on track and bring them back.
- Dose reminders, sent by email and notification when a dose is due.
- Review reminders, sent when your clinical protocol says a treatment review or repeat test is due.
- A regular check-in for treatments on a monthly cycle, such as a message every 4 weeks when the next supply or review is due.
- The relative, where the patient agrees, so whoever drives them to the scan or orders the medicine knows what's coming.
Each reminder that brings a patient back is a booking you didn't pay an advert for. The recall message that brings patients back 6 months later covers how to write them.
Market your virtual clinic with Clinic Pro
Clinic Pro builds the marketing alongside the clinic, so adverts, landing pages, and bookings are joined up from the day you go live.
- Google and Meta campaigns built and ready to switch on, on accounts you own.
- A landing page for each service, phone first, with the price and the booking calendar on the page.
- Booking for someone else, so a family member can book and pay for a parent.
- Conversion tracking, so every booking is traced to the advert that produced it.
- A monthly report on spend, bookings, cost per booking, and what's changing next.
- A monthly blog post, and automatic review requests for Google and Trustpilot.
- Reminders for doses and reviews, through the patient portal.
If you're planning a virtual clinic and want patients from the first week, see how a virtual clinic launches on Clinic Pro.
Market to the family as well as the patient
When older patients rely on their children, your marketing has 2 jobs. Catch the patient when they search, and reach the family earlier, while they're still reading.
Send every advert to a page that works on a phone and lets somebody book for a parent, trace each booking to its advert, and let reviews and reminders do the rest. Then the clinic fills from both ends.
