Patient acquisition

Marketing a multi-branch medical group: who owns the decision, and how to split the budget

Who decides on brand, ads and content when a medical group has several branches and departments, and how to split the budget by unbooked doctor hours and patient value.

10 November 2026 · 13 min read

In multi-branch medical group marketing, brand, strategy and measurement sit with central management, and every branch and department carries a monthly target of new patients. The budget follows unbooked doctor hours and the value of a patient in each specialty, and everyone reads one report built on the same definitions.

This is my view from working with healthcare organisations of different sizes: what wears medical groups down in marketing is the question of who decides. The ads come after that. When three branch managers and five heads of department ask for campaigns in the same week, the budget goes to whoever spoke first, and a department with doctors waiting for patients stays outside the plan.

Medical group marketing: one brand, or one per specialty?

Most groups start with one master brand that carries the specialties as descriptions. Some specialties earn a sub-brand when their audience is different or their patients need more privacy.

At Naqar we group the options into three shapes:

  • One brand: the group's name everywhere, with the specialty after it as a description. It is easier to run, and every new patient strengthens the same name.
  • A master brand with sub-brands: a distinct name for a specialty with a different audience, such as a fertility centre inside a general group, clearly linked to the group. It suits specialties where patients search for the centre's name or prefer more privacy.
  • Separate brands: usually after acquiring a clinic with a known name. We keep it for a while when the old name is what patients search for, then decide after a year of data.

A few questions settle it. Do patients search for the group, the specialty or the doctor? Do prices and audiences differ a lot between departments? And can your team run two or three names to the same standard?

Google has a rule that shapes the decision. Its guidelines for representing your business on Google say that all locations of a business in the same country must use the same name, with exceptions including a sub-brand whose distinct name is applied consistently to all its locations. So a sub-brand decision is taken once and applies to every branch.

Who owns which decision in a medical group?

The rule we work with: the centre owns what must be identical across branches, the branch owns what it knows better than anyone, and the department owns medical accuracy.

What stays with central management:

  • The brand, visual identity and main messages.
  • Ad accounts, the website, Google profiles and the enquiry database, all registered to the organisation.
  • The split of the total budget between branches and specialties, reviewed monthly.
  • Regulatory review of every ad before it runs, because the organisation is the advertiser answerable to the regulators.
  • Contracts with outside companies, and the consolidated report.

What the branch manager owns:

  • The branch's monthly target of new patients, agreed with management.
  • The doctors' rota and available hours, shared with marketing two weeks ahead.
  • Reply speed at the branch, where replies are handled locally.
  • Updating the branch's Google profile: hours, photos and review replies under a central guide.
  • Proposals for local events and neighbourhood partnerships.

What the head of department owns:

  • Medical review of the department's content within an agreed time, such as two working days.
  • Which services take priority given the department's capacity.
  • Nominating the doctors who appear in content, with their consent.

Write this split on one page and sign it with every new branch manager and head of department. Any dispute the page does not settle goes to management from the marketing lead, with two numbers attached: unbooked capacity and cost per attending patient.

How should the budget be split across branches and specialties?

Start with one question for each department in each branch: how many doctor hours will be empty over the next eight weeks? Then multiply by the value of a patient in that specialty. Advertising does the most good where there are empty hours and high-value patients.

What the decision needs:

  1. Unbooked hours per department and branch, from the appointment system.
  2. Patient value over 12 months per specialty, as margin where possible. Our piece on the CFO's questions about marketing explains revenue versus margin.
  3. Cost per attending patient by channel over the last 3 months.

Illustrative example: a group has three departments. Dentistry is 90% booked, dermatology 60% and orthopaedics 50%, and an orthopaedic patient is worth twice a dermatology patient over a year. The larger share of the next ad budget goes to orthopaedics, then dermatology. Dentistry needs more capacity or a better rota before any new ads, because extra patients would find only distant appointments and leave.

Every plan we write also keeps a central brand share that is not divided between branches: content that introduces the group and its doctors and makes searching for its name easier. The UK's Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, an industry body, says in an analysis updated on 30 March 2026 that a split close to 60% brand building and 40% short-term activation suits most categories, and that the ratio varies by category. It is a cross-industry figure from outside healthcare, so we do not copy it. We use it to remind management that the central share pays back more slowly and deserves a fixed place in the budget.

How do you open a new branch without taking patients from the existing ones?

Define the area the new branch serves, keep its ads away from areas close to existing branches in the first weeks, and track one number: how many of the new branch's patients used to attend another branch.

We call this the transfer rate. It comes from the appointment system as a total, with no individual patient shown. If it is high, the new branch is redistributing the same patients, and its ads need more distant areas or services the nearby branches do not offer.

The launch steps we follow:

  1. A verified Google profile for the branch weeks before opening, under the same name as the other branches.
  2. A branch page on the group's website: address, doctors, hours, and the insurers accepted at this branch specifically.
  3. Ads limited to the branch's area, with a message that names the neighbourhood.
  4. Direct booking from day one, because a patient who finds the branch and no appointment rarely comes back to look again.
  5. A weekly review of the transfer rate and cost per attending patient throughout the first three months.

What does a branch manager control, and how are they held to account?

The branch manager controls what happens after the patient arrives: replies, appointments and the experience inside the branch. They are measured on the branch's target of new patients who attend, and on the attendance rate.

From central marketing, the branch manager needs a fixed weekly slot to share available capacity, access to the branch's Google profile, and a page of the monthly report for the branch. From the branch manager, marketing needs early notice of doctors' leave and changes, and a front desk that asks every new patient how they heard about the group and records it.

Offers follow different rules in each country. In Saudi Arabia, discounts on health services need Ministry of Health approval, according to the summary of the health advertising controls published by Al Watan in January 2025. In Egypt, the Medical Syndicate's general assembly approved the general principles for regulating doctors' media appearance on 23 October 2026, and the draft bans presenting medical services through bundles, discounts or instalments; the final text is still being drafted. So we do not build an Egyptian branch plan on discounts, and rely on information, available appointments and the doctor.

How do heads of department take part, and how do doctors appear?

The head of department is a partner in content: they name the questions their doctors hear every day, review the answers before publishing, and nominate who appears. Every doctor who sees patients has a Google profile and a page on the group's website.

Google's rule here is specific. Under the same guidelines, a doctor is an individual practitioner with their own profile, a location with several practitioners has a separate profile, and the doctor's profile carries only the doctor's name, without the organisation's. Our guide to Google profiles for clinics and doctors covers the set-up step by step.

Promotional content stays on the group's channels. Saudi Arabia's Practice of Health Professions Law, in Article 10, bars practitioners from advertising themselves directly or through an intermediary except in cases the regulations allow. The Ministry of Health's June 2026 action against doctors who promoted their facility from personal accounts is covered in our piece on doctors' personal accounts. For a group, this means prices, offers and booking links come from the organisation's accounts, and doctors keep educational content in their own voice on theirs.

How do insurance contracts and health clusters change demand at each branch?

A new insurance contract at one branch can change its demand more than any campaign. So the schedule of insurance contracts per branch belongs in the marketing plan, and accepted networks appear on each branch's page and profile.

In Saudi Arabia, about 14 million people were covered by private health insurance in the third quarter of 2025, according to the Council of Health Insurance as reported by Al Watan; our piece on insured patients in Saudi Arabia breaks the figure down. The public sector is changing too. The Health Sector Transformation Programme report for 2025, published by the Ministry of Health on 20 June 2026, said the Sehhaty app is used by more than 31 million people and that Seha Virtual Hospital served more than 365,000 beneficiaries through 241 connected facilities. A patient used to booking through an app expects the same from a private group. Our piece on the health clusters explains what they mean for private providers.

In Egypt, Universal Health Insurance is expanding governorate by governorate, and a group with branches in phase one and phase two governorates needs a plan for each. Details are in our piece on phase two of Universal Health Insurance.

A central team, an outside company, or both?

The model we find suits most groups is a hybrid: one internal person who owns the number and knows the branches, and an outside partner that produces content, runs ads and builds the systems. What matters is that the number has one owner.

A fully in-house model needs designers, editors, media buyers, an analyst and a systems lead, which is a high fixed cost for a group of two or three branches. A fully outsourced model still needs someone inside the group to represent management, collect capacity from branches and sign off reviews. You can compare the costs with your own figures in the in-house team or agency tool. If you are comparing types of company, our piece on marketing company vs growth company sets out what each one is accountable for.

One report for management: what goes in it?

One consolidated report with the same definitions for every branch, followed by a page per branch and department. When a "booking" means one thing at one branch and something else at another, comparisons stop meaning anything.

Before the first report we settle:

  • Written definitions: what counts as an enquiry and a booking, and when a patient counts as new or returning.
  • One data source: one system that collects enquiries from every branch, with the appointment system as the source for attendance.
  • One monthly meeting: management, branch managers and marketing, ending with a budget decision for next month.

The contents of the report itself, its ten numbers and decision page, are in our piece on the monthly marketing report for clinics.

A starting checklist for a group's marketing lead

  • Collect the ad accounts, Google profiles and social pages for every branch, and confirm they are registered to the organisation.
  • Write the decision page and sign it with branch managers and heads of department.
  • Ask each branch for its unbooked hours over the next eight weeks.
  • Work out patient value per specialty with finance.
  • Align branch names on Google, on the website and on the signage.
  • Start asking every new patient at every front desk how they heard about the group, and record it in the same system.
  • Set the date of the first monthly meeting and of the first budget decision.

In practice

Keep the brand, the accounts and the measurement at the centre, give every branch and department a clear target and clear authority, and put the budget where there are empty hours and higher-value patients. At Naqar we build this structure with medical groups through Growth Strategy & Management, and build branch and doctor pages through Websites & Web Platforms. What we offer groups is on our medical complex page.

Common questions

Does a medical group need one brand or a brand for each specialty?

Most medical groups work with one master brand and the specialty after it as a description, because every new patient strengthens the same name. A sub-brand suits a specialty with a different audience or a greater need for privacy, such as a fertility centre inside a general group. A sub-brand decision applies to every branch, because Google expects one name for all locations of a business in a country.

How should a medical group split its marketing budget between branches?

A medical group's marketing budget follows three inputs: unbooked doctor hours in each branch and department over the next eight weeks, the value of a patient over 12 months in each specialty, and the cost per attending patient in each channel. Ads go where there are empty hours and higher value, and a fixed central share introduces the group and its doctors.

Which decisions does a branch manager own in a medical group?

A branch manager in a medical group owns what happens after the patient arrives: replies, appointments, updating the branch's Google profile, and telling marketing about available capacity and doctors' leave. They are measured on new patients who attend and on attendance rate. Brand, ad accounts, budget allocation and regulatory review stay with the group's central management.

How do you open a new branch without taking patients from existing branches?

Define the area the new branch serves, keep its ads away from the surroundings of existing branches in the first months, and track the share of its patients who used to attend another branch. If that share is high, the branch is redistributing the same patients and needs more distant areas or new services. Set up the Google profile and direct booking before opening.

May a group's doctors promote it from their personal accounts?

In Saudi Arabia, the Practice of Health Professions Law bars practitioners from advertising themselves directly or through an intermediary except as the regulations allow, and in June 2026 the Ministry of Health acted against practitioners who promoted their facility from personal accounts. So prices, offers and booking links come from the group's accounts, and doctors keep educational content in their own voice on theirs.

Sources

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