The short answer
The best Google Ads agency for an ultrasound or diagnostic clinic in the UK splits campaigns by modality, schedules ads around the empty hours in the diary, tracks and records patient calls, and reports cost per booked scan. In UpMedico-managed accounts, a booked MSK scan costs £95 to £118 against a £220 fee, and 58% arrive by phone. This comparison scores UpMedico, ICG, Varn Health and Total Medical Design on public evidence any clinic director can check.
In this article
- 1.What the wrong agency costs a diagnostic clinic
- 2.Why baby scan templates leave MSK and pelvic diaries empty
- 3.Five questions to ask before you sign with an agency
- 4.Diagnostic benchmarks to hold any agency to
- 5.Comparison matrix: UK Google Ads agencies for ultrasound and diagnostic clinics
- 6.The question that sorts agencies: what happens to the calls?
- 7.Frequently asked questions
What the wrong agency costs a diagnostic clinic
Choosing an agency for a diagnostic clinic is a decision about empty hours more than about clicks. Across the private ultrasound clinics we work with, 38% of weekly scanner hours sit idle, mostly on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, and UpMedico’s working estimate puts each idle hour at £180 to £220 fully loaded.
On a scanner staffed for 40 hours, that is just over 15 empty hours, or roughly £2,700 to £3,300 every week. The agency fee is a small number next to that. What an agency really costs is whether its campaigns fill those hours or leave them where they are.
Measurement decides which way it goes. A booked MSK scan costs £95 to £118 on our accounts, against an average fee of £220, and 58% of those bookings arrive by phone. An account that only counts online bookings sees 42 of every 100 MSK patients, which puts the visible cost per booked scan at roughly £226 to £281.
That is above the fee. Faced with that report, a clinic cuts the MSK budget, and the modality that fills its most expensive hours loses funding because of a counting error.
Why baby scan templates leave MSK and pelvic diaries empty
Most agencies that work with scan clinics learnt the sector on baby scans. Early pregnancy is a volume product: clicks at £1.75 to £2.10, landing pages converting at 8.2% and bookings at £24 to £36. A template built for that market behaves badly when it meets a £230 pelvic scan.
The first fault is one campaign for every modality. Smart Bidding chases the cheapest conversions it can find, and in a mixed account those are pregnancy enquiries. The account looks efficient while the MSK and gynaecology diary stays empty.
Timing is the second. Google Ads campaigns run “All day” by default, and Smart Bidding does not use manual time-of-day bid adjustments, so the lever that remains is an ad schedule built around the diary. Few generalist accounts have one, and spend follows search volume into the Saturday demand the clinic could already meet.
Geography is the third. The default location setting is Presence or interest, which also reaches people who have only shown interest in your area. Someone who needs an abdominal scan this week books within driving distance, so a diagnostic campaign usually works better on Presence alone.
If your clinic sells mainly early, gender and 4D scans, our comparison of the best Google Ads agencies in the UK for pregnancy scan clinics covers that market. This page is for clinics where MSK, pelvic and abdominal scans carry the margin.
Five questions to ask before you sign with an agency
A specialist answers each of these in a sentence or two. Send them in writing before the first call and compare the replies side by side; vague answers are easier to spot on paper than on a video call.
Do you split campaigns by modality?
A good answer gives early pregnancy, pelvic, MSK and abdominal scans their own budgets, keywords and landing pages, so cost per booked scan can be read for each one. One campaign called “ultrasound” cannot tell you which scan is paying for itself.
How do you decide when my ads run?
A good answer starts from your diary: which hours are empty, what a scan in each of them is worth, and an ad schedule built around both. “We let the algorithm decide” means spend follows search volume, which peaks when you are already full.
How will you count phone bookings?
A good answer names tracked numbers on the ads and the landing page, each call matched to its keyword and its outcome recorded. Between 48% and 58% of pelvic, MSK and abdominal bookings arrive by phone in our call tracking data.
What will you report every month?
Google’s third-party partner policy only requires cost, clicks and impressions at account level. A good answer adds booked scans and cost per booked scan by modality, traced from the keyword to your booking system.
Who owns the account if we part ways?
Google requires partners to give you your customer ID on request. A good answer puts the account in the clinic’s name, keeps the conversion history with you, and states the notice period in writing before you sign.
Diagnostic benchmarks to hold any agency to
Before comparing agencies, it helps to know the numbers a competent diagnostic account should reach. The figures below come from UpMedico-managed ultrasound accounts in the UK, the same data behind the UK Private Ultrasound Clinic Growth Index, with one row added: what each modality looks like when phone bookings go uncounted.
| Metric | Pelvic / gynaecological | MSK (joints, soft tissue) | Abdominal (upper / full) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average CPC, London | £2.90 | £3.40 | £2.70 | UpMedico client data |
| Average CPC, regional UK | £2.30 | £2.70 | £2.10 | UpMedico client data |
| Landing page conversion rate | 5.2% | 4.8% | 4.4% | UpMedico client data |
| Bookings made by phone | 52% | 58% | 48% | Call tracking data |
| Cost per booked scan (CPS) | £78 to £88 | £95 to £118 | £88 to £105 | UpMedico client data |
| Average private scan fee | £230 | £220 | £240 | UpMedico client data |
| CPS as a share of the fee | 34% to 38% | 43% to 54% | 37% to 44% | UpMedico working estimate |
| CPS seen if phone bookings are not tracked | £163 to £183 | £226 to £281 | £169 to £202 | UpMedico working estimate |
Read cost per booked scan against the fee before anything else. Pelvic and abdominal scans cost roughly 34% to 44% of the fee to acquire, while MSK sits at 43% to 54% of its £220 fee, the highest share of the three.
Then read the last row. Without call tracking, pelvic and abdominal scans look roughly twice as expensive as they are, and MSK looks nearly two and a half times as expensive. Any agency quoting you a cost per booked scan should be able to say which of the two rows it is quoting.
Comparison matrix: UK Google Ads agencies for ultrasound and diagnostic clinics
The matrix scores four agencies on the five criteria behind the questions above, with the evidence for every cell in the last column. UpMedico publishes this page and appears in it, so its own row is held to the same rule: a tick needs a public page a clinic director can open and read.
A “Not found” does not prove an agency lacks the capability. It means we found no public evidence of it when we reviewed each site on 27 October 2026. Our Google Ads agency comparison for ADHD and psychiatry clinics uses the same method.
| Agency | Healthcare-only | UK diagnostic imaging experience | Diary-led ad scheduling | Call tracking and recording | Pricing published | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UpMedico | ✓ Healthcare clinics only | ✓ London Private Ultrasound and Numi Scan Birmingham case studies | ✓ Ad schedules mapped to idle hours, published method | ✓ Call-to-Booking Framework™ | ✓ Tiered fees from £700 a month, stated on this page | Case study, case study, method |
| ICG (Ichelon Consulting Group) | Partly: says it works only with healthcare brands; site also lists other industries | Not found (published case studies are in India) | Not found | Partly: call tracking and IVR listed, recording not described | ✓ Retainers from $499 a month outside India | Homepage, case studies |
| Varn Health | ✓ Pharma and healthcare specialist (sister agency Varn serves other sectors) | Not found (published results are SEO for pharma and publishing brands) | Not found | Not found | Not found (proposal on enquiry) | Paid search page, results |
| Total Medical Design UK | ✓ Healthcare industry only | Not found (three case studies, none in diagnostic imaging) | Not found | Partly: call tracking and booking integration described, recording not mentioned | Not found (free strategy call) | Ads service, tracking service |
- Healthcare-only: the agency’s own site says it works only with healthcare or pharma clients.
- UK diagnostic imaging experience: a published case study or named UK client in ultrasound or diagnostic imaging.
- Diary-led ad scheduling: ad schedules or bidding tied to the clinic’s empty hours, described publicly.
- Call tracking and recording: call tracking plus call recording or intake analysis described as part of the service.
- Pricing published: fees, a fee model or a starting price stated publicly, before any sales call.
Read the scheduling column first. It separates diagnostic experience from general healthcare marketing, and it is where public evidence is thinnest. That may reflect what agencies choose to publish rather than what they do, so question two is worth asking every agency in writing, ours included.
UpMedico
UpMedico runs Google Ads for private healthcare clinics in the UK and Ireland, from offices in London and Dublin. Its ultrasound method splits campaigns by modality and maps ad schedules to idle hours, as set out in The Mid-Week Scanner Deficit.
For London Private Ultrasound, which offers abdominal, pelvic and pregnancy scans, the account produced 603 qualified leads and a 20% rise in total bookings against the previous quarter. Management fees start at £700 a month and rise in tiers with ad spend, after a three-month initial term.
ICG (Ichelon Consulting Group)
ICG describes itself as healthcare-first and states on its homepage that it works only with healthcare brands, although its navigation also lists real estate and ed-tech. It lists offices in India, the US and Australia, and its public case studies focus on hospital groups, IVF chains and dermatology practices in India.
Its hospital practice organises campaigns by service line, a structure that would suit a multi-site diagnostic group. It is the only agency here besides UpMedico that publishes a starting price: retainers from $499 a month for clients outside India, with performance-linked payout models available.
Varn Health
Varn Health is the pharma and healthcare arm of Varn, a UK search agency with an office in London. Its published results are mostly SEO and AI search work for pharmaceutical and publishing brands, including Roche.
It lists paid search and social as a service and says it helps clients balance regulatory compliance with platform rules. We found no published case study for a private clinic or diagnostic provider, and no public pricing.
Total Medical Design UK
Total Medical Design UK says on its homepage that it works exclusively with the healthcare industry, and its Google and Meta Ads service is reviewed against ASA, CAP Code and GMC guidance before launch. Its homepage leads with medical website design.
Its analytics service sets up call tracking and booking integrations to track confirmed appointments where possible. None of its three published case studies is a diagnostic imaging clinic, and no fees are published.
The question that sorts agencies: what happens to the calls?
Save it for the end of the call, because one reply tells you most of what you need. Pelvic, MSK and abdominal scans are where patients most often pick up the phone, and the same call tracking data shows 15% to 20% of inbound calls going unanswered between 9:00 and 11:30, with peaks of 24%.
A generalist answer talks about call extensions and cost per call. Both measure a phone ringing. Neither explains why a patient asking about a shoulder scan rang off without a slot.
The Call-to-Booking Framework™
UpMedico’s Call-to-Booking Framework™ combines healthcare-compliant call tracking, call recording, and structured intake analysis to identify why patient calls fail to convert, improving call-to-booking conversion by up to 20% within 90 days.
In practice, each recorded call is scored against the clinic’s intake script: whether the caller heard the fee, whether reception offered the next free slot, whether a question about referral letters got a clear answer. The keyword sits next to the score, so a campaign change and a script change are judged on the same evidence.
Recording those calls means processing data concerning health, which UK GDPR treats as special category data. It is configured with a consent message before the call connects, a defined retention period and access limited to the people who need it. The commercial case is set out in our guide to call tracking in clinics.
What this looks like with UpMedico running your Google Ads
UpMedico manages Google Ads exclusively for private healthcare clinics in the UK and Ireland. Every engagement includes compliant campaign build, keyword-level call tracking and recording, and monthly analysis through our Call-to-Booking Framework™, so you see exactly which keywords produce booked assessments and scans, not just clicks.
If your current agency reports on clicks and impressions but can’t tell you your cost per booked patient, request a 20-minute Clinical Campaign Audit. We’ll show you the gap in your own account.
Frequently asked questions
Is this agency comparison independent?
No, and it does not present itself that way. UpMedico publishes the page and has a row in the matrix. For that reason every criterion is a public test, each cell points to the page behind it and the review date is stated. Any clinic director can re-score the four agencies, UpMedico included, from what each one publishes.
What is a good cost per booked scan for MSK, pelvic and abdominal ultrasound?
In UpMedico-managed UK accounts, a booked pelvic scan costs £78 to £88, an MSK scan £95 to £118 and an abdominal scan £88 to £105, against average fees of £230, £220 and £240. Those figures include phone bookings. A report that leaves calls out shows roughly double, so ask how the number was counted before comparing it.
How much should a diagnostic clinic spend on Google Ads each month?
For a single-site clinic outside London, £1,000 to £2,000 a month is usually enough to gather reliable data across two or three scan types, and London generally needs more. Below about £1,000 a month a search account has too little data to test anything. The management fee is separate: UpMedico’s published fees start at £700 a month.
What should a Google Ads agency report to an ultrasound clinic each month?
Google only obliges agencies to share cost, clicks and impressions, and to disclose their management fee. A diagnostic clinic needs booked scans and cost per booked scan for each modality, phone bookings matched to the keyword, missed calls by hour of the day, and the idle hours the campaign was meant to fill, compared with the month before.
