Chiropractic & healthcare practice planning
What would it take to
reach your growth goal?
Start with the lifetime value of a patient. Then set your new-patient growth goal and explore the marketing budget needed to support it.
- 01 Understand your growth
- 02 Build your marketing plan
First, see the opportunity
What is one more patient worth?
Start with patient value. Then see how a bigger goal translates into a manageable number of new patients.
Now, give your goal a plan
Get Known. Build Trust. Get Found.
Suggested monthly planning budget
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Total marketing envelope, including service fees and media. This is a planning starting point, not a package quote.
These are the original calculator’s editable starting assumptions. They are not industry benchmarks or a proven affordable acquisition cost.
Selecting a practice stage loads ChiroCandy’s original channel mix. Adjust it below to fit your practice. Changing the mix distributes the same budget; it does not increase it.
Get Known
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Introduce your practice to more people in your community.
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Build Trust
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Stay familiar with people who have already shown interest.
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Get Found
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Show up when people search for the care you offer.
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Channels support more than one goal. These groups organize the budget: retargeting reinforces familiarity, while reviews, content, and community relationships also build trust.
Turn your patient goal into a practical plan.
Review your mix, capacity, and next steps with ChiroCandy.
The thinking behind your plan
How many more patients do you need to grow?
Start with the value of a patient, compare last year’s collected revenue with your annual goal, and divide the difference by patient value. This gives you a planning target for additional new patients. Break that target into a monthly and weekly pace before deciding how to invest in marketing.
Known patient lifetime value is the average amount collected over the full patient relationship. A rough estimate is average collections per visit × average lifetime visits. If you do not know it, this tool offers the original calculator’s shortcut: last year’s collections ÷ last year’s new patients. Because that shortcut includes collections from existing patients, it is a planning proxy, not measured LTV.
The growth formulas
- Growth gap = annual revenue goal − last year’s collections, with a minimum of zero.
- Additional patients = growth gap ÷ patient value, rounded up.
- Total new-patient goal = last year’s new patients + additional patients.
- Additional monthly pace = additional patients ÷ 12; weekly pace = additional patients ÷ weeks open.
For example, $1.2 million in collections and 480 new patients gives a $2,500 patient-value proxy. A $1.5 million goal creates a $300,000 gap: 120 additional patients, or 10 more per month and 2.5 more per week across 48 working weeks. The total target becomes 600 new patients.
This is a way to size a growth ambition. It assumes the existing baseline holds steady. Lifetime collections can arrive over multiple years, so the patient target is not a prediction that the entire revenue gap will be collected in the next calendar year.
How does the marketing budget connect to the patient goal?
The tool uses the lower of two amounts: your revenue-based monthly marketing allowance, or your total monthly new-patient target multiplied by your patient-value acquisition allowance. The original defaults are 12% of last year’s collections for marketing and 15% of patient value for acquisition. Both are editable ChiroCandy planning assumptions, not industry benchmarks.
In the example above, the monthly marketing allowance is $12,000. The value-based allowance is $375 per patient × 50 total new patients per month, or $18,750. The model therefore suggests a $12,000 monthly planning envelope. That budget covers the total target, including the existing acquisition pace; it is not an added budget just for the 10 extra patients.
Service fees and advertising both come out of this envelope. Compare it with ChiroCandy’s service packages, available cash, appointment capacity, and your actual acquisition results before choosing a budget. A new practice with no prior-year collections needs a separate startup funding plan.
How should a practice divide its marketing budget?
Get Known builds local awareness. Build Trust reinforces familiarity and confidence. Get Found supports discovery when people search for care. A channel can serve more than one purpose; these groups organize the original channel allocations.
New practices start with a broader awareness mix. Established practices with weak search visibility put more toward SEO and Maps. Practices with strong search visibility put more toward expanding reach. These are editable starting mixes, not promises about results.
| Channel | New practice | Established, building search visibility | Established, strong search visibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta advertising | 25% | 15% | 20% |
| Streaming TV | 5% | 5% | 20% |
| Direct mail | 5% | 5% | 5% |
| Community events | 10% | 0% | 5% |
| Retargeting (Meta + Streaming TV) | 10% | 10% | 15% |
| SEO + AI search | 10% | 25% | 20% |
| Local SEO / Google Maps | 15% | 20% | 5% |
| Google advertising | 20% | 20% | 10% |
Every starting mix totals 100%. Adjusting the sliders redistributes the budget. The tool asks you to rebalance to 100% before displaying channel dollar amounts.
Optional deeper analysisCheck campaign costs and 90-day break-evenAlready have campaign data or a package in mind? Explore those numbers here.
Your practice. Your assumptions.
Make the numbers work.
Know what you are measuring
One acquisition month.
A 90-day view of value.
This model follows the patients acquired from one month of paid advertising and estimates what that group collects during each patient’s first 90 days. It does not forecast your practice’s monthly cash flow or total profit.
Use actual collections from a comparable group of new patients. Billed charges, lifetime value, and total practice revenue are different measures.
InquiriesAdvertising spend ÷ advertising cost per lead
Acquired patientsInquiries × booking rate × show rate × new-patient rate
Contribution per patient90-day collections × share left after care costs
After care and marketing costsAcquired patients × contribution per patient − total marketing spend
Patients needed to break evenTotal marketing spend ÷ contribution per patient, rounded up
A worked example
Suppose you spend $2,000 on advertising and $1,000 on other marketing costs. At $40 per inquiry, you generate 50 leads. If 50% book, 75% of those attend, and 80% of attendees become acquired patients, the scenario produces 15 patients.
If each of those patients generates $1,000 in collections over 90 days and 60% remains after incremental care costs, that cohort contributes $9,000 before marketing. Subtracting $3,000 in marketing leaves $6,000 before fixed overhead and taxes. Five patients would cover the marketing spend.
These numbers illustrate the arithmetic. They are not ChiroCandy pricing, average client results, or a prediction for your practice.
Why include more than advertising spend?
Management fees, software, creative, and allocated setup work are part of acquisition cost. Leaving them out can make a campaign look more profitable than it is. Include costs consistently and avoid counting the same expense both in care costs and marketing.
Can I use a ChiroCandy package in my scenario?
Yes. The optional package selector loads the published monthly service fee. Advertising spend is separate, and the preset does not include setup or usage charges. Add applicable costs to the service-cost input and keep your practice assumptions editable. See current packages, inclusions, and terms.
What if I do not know my conversion rates?
Start with a recent, comparable period in your advertising account and CRM. Use inquiries as the denominator for bookings, bookings for attendance, and attendance for patient acquisition. If those numbers are missing, tracking them is the next useful step. The example button lets you explore the tool without treating an assumption as a benchmark.
Does a positive scenario mean I should increase spending?
It is a starting point for discussion. Check appointment capacity, how quickly collections arrive, retention, and whether lead costs change as spend increases. Actual results may differ from these inputs. Compare the scenario with your own performance before changing a budget.
How is the return calculated?
The displayed return equals the amount left after care and marketing costs divided by total marketing spend. It is not advertising-platform ROAS or net practice profit. With zero total spend, that percentage is undefined. With no contribution per patient and positive spend, break-even is not achievable in the model.