Numbers and measurement

The monthly marketing report for a clinic: 10 numbers to see, and numbers that are not enough alone

Ten numbers that follow the patient from first message to visit and return, with the source of each and who checks it, and a one-page template that ends with a decision for next month.

Naqar Digital team8 November 2026 · 14 min read

A monthly marketing report for a clinic follows the patient from the first message to the visit: enquiries by channel, time to first reply, bookings, attendance, and the cost of each patient who attended. It ends with one decision for next month. Views and followers stay in the report as supporting numbers, read alongside bookings.

A clinic manager reads the report in fifteen minutes between patients, often on a phone. So we build it around a question that comes back every month in a slightly different form: did the money we spent bring patients who walked through the door? Every number in this article either answers that question or explains why the answer moved since last month.

What are the 10 numbers in a monthly marketing report?

We order them the way a patient moves: enquiry, reply, booking, attendance, return. Each one has a definition, a source and a way to read it.

1. New enquiries by channel

People who contacted the clinic for the first time this month, split by channel: Meta ads, Google ads, the Google profile, the website, referrals and walk-ins. A person counts once, even if they sent a WhatsApp message and then phoned the next day. The source is the inbox and the enquiry tracking system. The ad dashboard alone cannot give you this number.

Read it as a trend. A channel whose enquiries rose while spend stayed flat deserves an explanation before it gets a bigger budget.

2. Time to first reply

The time between an enquiry arriving and the first human reply that answers the question. We show the median, the value in the middle of all enquiries, because one message left for two days distorts an average. We show it twice: inside and outside working hours.

In a KFF poll of 1,343 US adults published on 25 March 2026, 65% of those who used AI tools for health information said they did so for quick answers. That figure is about Americans and AI tools, and it still shows what patients now expect from anyone they ask. What the first reply should contain is covered in the first minutes after an enquiry.

3. Open enquiries with no follow-up

Enquiries that ended in neither a booking nor a clear decline, and that nobody has touched for more than 3 days. This number shows work that was left undone, and no ad dashboard will show it to you.

4. Booking rate

New bookings divided by new enquiries, for each channel separately. Someone who messages from your Google profile after searching for a clinic nearby is in a different place from someone who saw an ad while scrolling in the evening.

5. Attendance rate

New patients who attended, divided by new patients who booked an appointment that fell within the month. A no-show turns a booking you paid for into an empty hour in a doctor's diary, and our piece on what missed visits cost puts a number on it.

6. New patients who attended

This is the number we judge marketing by. Show the count, split by channel and by service. If you and your marketing partner have agreed one monthly goal, this is where it belongs.

7. Full marketing cost

Four lines: ad spend paid to the platforms, the agency fee or team salaries, production, and tools. Keeping them apart stops a management fee from hiding inside the ad figure, and stops the ads from looking cheaper than they are.

8. Cost per attending new patient

Full cost divided by new patients who attended. It is harsher than cost per booking because it carries the effect of no-shows, which is why we use it for budget decisions. The per-channel method is in cost per booking from each channel, and the cost per booking calculator gives you a starting point for a target.

9. Returning patients

Patients who came back for a second visit within 90 days of their first, or within the usual treatment cycle in your specialty. A clinic whose new patients do not return pays the acquisition cost again every time.

10. Revenue from new patients

What new patients paid during the month, or their margin if finance tracks it. One total per service is enough. Our piece on the CFO's questions about marketing explains when to read revenue and when to read margin.

Illustrative example of reading them together: a clinic receives 400 enquiries, 160 book and 120 attend. The booking rate is 40% and attendance is 75%. If attendance rose to 85% with the same enquiries, 136 patients would attend. That is 16 more patients, and reaching them through ads at the same rates would take about 53 extra enquiries.

Which numbers are read alongside bookings, and why are they not enough alone?

Reach, views, new followers, click-through rate and Google profile views. The marketing team needs them to know whether an ad was seen, whether it held attention, and which idea used up design time without effect. The owner's question about patients is answered by the ten numbers above.

We put these in a separate section after the ten, in smaller type, and pair each with a patient number:

  • Click-through rate with booking rate. An ad that many people click and few book from is attracting the wrong person, or promising something the booking page does not deliver.
  • New followers with enquiries. Followers in cities the clinic does not serve leave the diary unchanged.
  • Google profile views with calls and direction requests.
  • Video views with what new patients say when asked whether they saw anything from the doctor before booking.

The Google profile gives numbers closer to bookings than many expect. On its Business Profile performance page, Google lists clicks on the call button, message conversations, completed bookings, direction requests, website clicks and the search terms people used. Most of these feed straight into number one.

Where does each number come from, and who checks it?

Each number carries its source and the name of the person who checked it. A CFO asks this before anything else, and rightly so.

  • Enquiries, reply time, open enquiries: from the enquiry tracking system or the WhatsApp Business inbox. Checked by the front-desk supervisor.
  • Bookings, attendance, returning patients: from the clinic's appointment system. Checked by clinic management.
  • Ad spend: from the platforms' own invoices. Checked by the accountant.
  • Fees, production and tools: from invoices.
  • Revenue: from the finance system, as one total per service.
  • Website numbers: from the analytics tool. In Google Analytics the clinic chooses which actions matter, such as submitting a booking form or tapping a WhatsApp button, and Google calls them key events. Its help page on key events notes that marking an event affects reports only from the time it is set, so a month before the change cannot be compared with a month after it.

The report needs counts and percentages only. Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law requires, in Article 23, that access to health data be limited to the fewest possible staff. Egypt's data protection law treats health data as sensitive, and our piece on Egypt's data protection rules covers what changed after the compliance period. So management and the agency receive aggregated numbers, and names and cases stay inside the clinic's system.

How should the report show the gap between platform figures and the booking system?

With a column for each source, the gap as a percentage, and a note when the percentage moves. Financial decisions rest on the booking system, as our piece on the CFO's questions explains. The monthly report's job is to keep the gap visible and measured the same way every month.

The gap exists because each platform credits results to itself in its own way. Google Analytics offers three ways to share credit between channels: one spreads it according to the account's data, another gives all of it to the last channel the person clicked. All of them exclude direct visits from credit unless the whole path was direct, according to Google Analytics help on attribution. Meta explains its own models and settings in its Business Help Centre. And one patient may watch a video on Instagram on Thursday evening, search the doctor's name on Google on Saturday, then phone. Each platform will count that patient as its own.

What we do in the report:

  1. Put both figures side by side for each channel: what the platform reports, and what the booking system recorded.
  2. Keep each platform's attribution setting fixed for the year, and note it in the report's margin. Changing it mid-year moves the numbers while nothing changed at the clinic.
  3. Express the gap as a percentage and track it month to month. A gap that stays roughly steady is fine. A gap that jumps usually means a tracking link broke, or the front desk stopped asking patients how they heard about the clinic.

How do we compare Ramadan with an ordinary month?

Compare Ramadan with last Ramadan, and summer with last summer. Comparing Ramadan with the month before tells you more about the calendar than about marketing.

The Hijri year is about 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year, so Ramadan and the two Eids move through the Gregorian months. The report therefore has two comparison columns: the previous month, and the same occasion last year. Ramadan against Ramadan, Eid week against Eid week. When working hours change in Ramadan, reply time is measured against that month's actual hours.

Each specialty has its own season. A dermatology clinic may fill up before Eid, a dental clinic may get busier in the school holidays, and some routine check-ups slow down in Ramadan. These are observations from practice and they vary by city. Your clinic's real baseline comes from its own data after a full year of regular reports.

How does a doctor see their results, and a manager each branch?

Add a short page for each doctor who sees new patients, and one for each branch, with the same numbers in less detail.

A doctor usually asks: how many new patients asked for me by name, where did they come from, and which service did they want? Answering the first question starts at the front desk, with one fixed question for every new patient: did you ask for a particular doctor? The answer goes into the appointment system. The purpose of this page is to let each doctor see what their visibility and content do for their own diary. It stays between the doctor and management, away from meetings that compare colleagues.

A branch page needs one extra number: doctor hours that were not booked. A branch with a full diary gains little from more ads, and a branch with many empty hours has the stronger claim on the budget. Multi-branch groups will find more on our medical complex page.

What should a good report recommend?

One or two decisions for next month, each with the number that will judge it. A report that describes the month without proposing a change pushes the decision to a meeting that may never happen.

The decision page reads like short minutes:

  • The number that moved: by how much, and against which period.
  • The likeliest explanation: one cause we can test, written so someone who missed the meeting understands it.
  • The decision: what will change, and who signs it off.
  • The review date: when we come back to the same number to judge the decision.

Illustrative decision page: "Median reply time outside working hours rose from 20 minutes to two hours against last month. The likeliest explanation is that the new front-desk rota left evenings unstaffed. Decision: an automatic first reply offering two appointment times, with a human follow-up in the morning, signed off by the clinic manager. We review the booking rate from evening messages in four weeks."

Decisions that come up often on this page: moving part of the budget away from a channel whose cost per attending patient has risen for three months running, adding a second reminder before appointments because attendance dropped, or filming answers to new questions because click-through fell across every ad. Our piece on the first 90 days with a growth company shows how these decisions become a weekly review.

A one-page report template

Copy this order and fill it from the sources:

  1. Top line: new patients who attended, full cost, and cost per attending patient, against last month and the same period last year.
  2. Patient journey: enquiries, bookings and attendance, as counts and rates, for each channel.
  3. Replies: median reply time inside and outside working hours, and open enquiries with no follow-up.
  4. Return and revenue: patients who returned within 90 days, and revenue from new patients per service.
  5. Platform versus booking system: the gap as a percentage for each channel.
  6. Supporting numbers: reach, click-through rate, followers and Google profile views, in two lines.
  7. Decision page: the number that moved, the likeliest explanation, the decision, and the review date.
  8. Appendices: one page per doctor and per branch, then the list of sources and who checked each number.

If the report you receive today runs to 30 pages, ask for this page to come first.

Checklist before you sign off the report

  • Does every number show its source and the name of the person who checked it?
  • Is full cost split into ads, fees, production and tools?
  • Is attendance taken from the appointment system?
  • Are seasonal comparisons made against the same occasion last year?
  • Is the report free of patient names and case details?
  • Does it end with a decision that has an owner and a review date?

In practice

Ask for a report that starts with the patients who attended and what they cost, and follows the patient from the first message to the return visit. End every monthly meeting with one written decision that someone owns. If enquiries and bookings are spread across phones and notebooks, our Systems & CRM service sets up medical lead tracking on BEAK+, so the report comes from one source. And if you are comparing types of company before deciding who should own these numbers, read marketing company vs growth company.

Common questions

What are the key numbers in a monthly marketing report for a clinic?

A monthly marketing report for a clinic needs ten numbers: new enquiries by channel, time to first reply, open enquiries with no follow-up, booking rate, attendance rate, new patients who attended, full marketing cost, cost per attending new patient, patients who returned within 90 days, and revenue from new patients. It ends with one decision for next month and the number that will judge it.

Are followers and views enough to judge a clinic's marketing?

Followers, views and click-through rate measure how far content travelled and whether it held attention. They do not count patients. In a monthly marketing report they stay as supporting numbers, each read with a patient number, such as click-through rate alongside booking rate. Budget decisions rest on new patients who attended and the cost of each one.

Who prepares a clinic's monthly marketing report, and who checks the numbers?

The marketing agency or in-house team prepares the monthly marketing report, and each number is checked by whoever owns its source: the front-desk supervisor for enquiries and reply time, clinic management for bookings and attendance, and the accountant for platform invoices and fees. Each number carries its source and the checker's name, so the CFO can trust the report before basing a budget decision on it.

How should a clinic compare marketing results in Ramadan with other months?

Compare Ramadan with last year's Ramadan and Eid week with last year's Eid week, because the Hijri year is about 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year and the occasions move between months. Give the report two columns: the previous month and the same occasion last year. Measure reply time against Ramadan's actual working hours, since hours change.

Should a monthly marketing report contain patient data?

A monthly marketing report needs only aggregated counts and percentages, with no names or case details. Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law requires access to health data to be limited to the fewest possible staff, and Egypt's law treats health data as sensitive. Names stay inside the clinic's system, and management and the agency receive numbers only.

Sources

More articles