Measure bookings, not clicks
Most clinics can tell you how many new patients they saw last month. Few can say where those patients came from. Without that, every marketing decision is a guess, and it is easy for an agency to report impressive numbers that never reach your schedule.
Four numbers tell you nearly everything:
- New-patient bookings by source: your Google listing, your website, ads and referrals.
- Calls from your Google listing, and how many went unanswered.
- Actions on your Google profile: calls, website visits and direction requests.
- For paid ads, what each new patient cost.
If you use Jane
Jane has two built-in connections that do most of the work.
- Reserve with Google puts a Book Now button on your Google listing that goes straight to your Jane booking page. Jane tags every appointment booked this way, so you can pick them out in your schedule. It is available on Jane's plans other than Balance.
- Google Analytics can be linked to your Jane account and to a Jane Website, so online bookings show up as conversions next to the channel that sent them.
Set up both and your monthly report can say how many appointments came from your listing, your site and your ads, not just how many people visited.
If you use other booking software
Many dental and optometry systems don't connect to Google this neatly. You can still follow the path a patient takes.
- Tag every link you control. Add tracking tags to the website and appointment links on your Google profile, so Google Analytics reports those visits separately from the rest of your traffic.
- Count booking requests on your site as conversions: form submissions, booking button clicks and taps on your phone number.
- Once a month, compare those counts with new patients in your practice software. The totals won't match exactly, but the trend will tell you what's working.
Calls, the channel clinics forget
Plenty of patients still pick up the phone. Call tracking gives each channel its own number, so you can see which ones ring and how many calls go unanswered.
Set it up carefully. If a tracking number replaces your main number on some listings but not others, you recreate the conflicting-number problem that hurts your ranking. Keep your main number consistent everywhere, and ask whoever sets up tracking to show you exactly where each number appears.
Track sources, not patients
None of this needs patient records. A good report shows counts by source, never names or health details. If a marketing tool asks you to upload patient lists, stop and check your obligations under PHIPA, Ontario's health privacy law, first. Our tracking is built so we don't need to see patient records, and you shouldn't need an agency that does. Keep retargeting ads away from pages about specific conditions or treatments, too.
A one-page monthly scorecard
| Number | Where it comes from | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| New-patient bookings from Google | Jane's Reserve with Google tags, or Google Analytics conversions | Rising month over month |
| Calls from your Google listing | Your Business Profile's performance report | Rising, with few missed |
| Missed calls | Your phone system or call tracking | Falling |
| Booking actions on your website | Google Analytics | Rising as pages improve |
| New Google reviews | Your Business Profile | A steady flow, every one answered |
| Cost per new patient from ads | Google Ads, matched against bookings | Falling, or steady as spend grows |
Ask your agency for this page every month. If they can't produce it, that tells you something.