Is Your Clinic Losing Money on Its Most Popular Treatments?

Why High Bookings Don’t Always Mean High Profit 💡

In a busy clinic, fully booked schedules often feel like a sign of success. However, many clinic owners are shocked to discover that their most popular treatments are not necessarily their most profitable. High volume does not automatically translate to high profit. In fact, without proper data tracking and cost analysis, your top-selling services could actually be draining your resources.

Consider this: if a treatment takes significant staff time, uses expensive equipment, or comes with high administrative and payroll overhead (like doctor or technician salaries), its profitability may be much lower than anticipated. Combine this with possible pricing mistakes or inefficiencies, and you may find yourself losing money on every patient served.

Let’s dive in.

1. How Clinics Overlook Service Margins
2. Set Up Smart Tagging in Your EMR to Drive Profit
3. Calculate Profitability Per Treatment
4. Optimise Your PPC Campaigns Based on Real Data
5. Don’t Forget: Lifetime Value (LTV) Matters
6. Action Steps to Improve
7. Final Thoughts

1. How Clinics Overlook Service Margins 📉

Most clinics focus their performance metrics on revenue, patient volume, or appointment count. While these are important, they often leave a blind spot around service margins — the actual profit you make after deducting the cost of delivering a treatment.

Let’s take an example:

• An ultrasound scan brings in €100 per patient.
• The cost of using the equipment (maintenance, depreciation, supplies) is €20.
• The doctor or radiologist’s time costs €40.
• Admin time, setup, and cleaning add another €15.

Your net profit is just €25.

A Dublin-based clinic discovered their €90 ultrasound scan was generating only €5 in net profit after overhead and staff costs — far less than expected. That realization led them to update pricing and shift focus to more profitable services.

Now compare this to a shorter, simpler consultation that charges €80, costs €10 to deliver, and takes half the time. Despite the lower price tag, the margin is higher (€70) and you can perform more of them in a day.

Most Practice Management Software platforms don’t automatically show you these insights unless you specifically track them. That’s where proper tagging and data discipline come in.

2. Set Up Smart Tagging in Your EMR to Drive Profit 🖥️

Your EMR or practice management system like Semble or Cliniko is the backbone of your data. But if your services aren’t tagged correctly, it’s like driving with your eyes closed. You need to be able to clearly identify each treatment, its type, its revenue source (e.g. organic, PPC, referral), and any modifiers (e.g. bundled, promo, recurring).

Here’s how to start:

1. Create a clean service list. Eliminate duplicates, ambiguous names, and outdated entries.
2. Tag each service by category. For example: Imaging, Consultations, Diagnostics, Therapy, etc.
3. Add source tracking. Was the booking made via phone, web form, Google Ads, Meta, etc.?
4. Link services to campaigns. Especially for PPC campaigns, make sure leads can be traced to the treatments they eventually booked.

Once you clean this up, your reports become meaningful. You can see which services are being sold, how patients found you, and how profitable each treatment is.

3. Calculate Profitability Per Treatment 📐💸

Now comes the critical step: calculate true net profit per service.

Here’s a simplified framework:

• Revenue per treatment: What you charge (including promotions or discounts).
• Direct costs: Materials, medical supplies, equipment usage, staff and doctor time (pro-rated by hourly wage).
• Indirect costs (optional but valuable): Admin time, room cost, utilities, cleaning.

Then: Revenue – Direct Costs = Gross Profit.

Once you calculate this across services, rank them by:

• Highest profit per treatment
• Highest margin percentage
• Quickest time-to-deliver

You may find that your “cash cow” treatment is just a sacred cow — draining your team and yielding minimal returns.

4. Optimise Your PPC Campaigns Based on Real Data 🎯

Most clinics using Google Ads or Meta Ads send patients to a general booking form. This is a mistake. Instead, use your new data to drive smarter campaigns:

1. Promote your most profitable services, not just your most popular ones.
2. Track conversion paths: which ad groups lead to which services.
3. Adjust budgets: Reallocate spend toward high-margin services that convert well.
4. Test pricing: If a service is high-converting but low-margin, consider increasing the price or bundling it.
5. Cut what’s not working: Even if a service is popular, if it’s unprofitable and hard to scale, reduce ad spend or upsell patients to better options.

👉 Read our article on Google Ads healthcare insights for deeper insights into PPC performance trends.

5. Don’t Forget: Lifetime Value (LTV) Matters 🔁💎

Before you cut spending on a service that seems unprofitable, take a step back. Sometimes the cost per acquisition (CPA) might seem high upfront, but if the patient stays with your clinic, books other services, or refers others, their lifetime value (LTV) could make them very profitable in the long run.

For example, a PPC campaign that brings in new ultrasound patients at €50 per lead might look expensive. But if 30% of them book additional services like consultations, blood work, or annual checkups, their long-term value could exceed €500.

So while calculating profitability per treatment is essential, also weigh the strategic value of each treatment as an entry point into a broader patient journey.

6. Action Steps to Improve ✅

Here’s a 5-step plan you can start this week:

✅ Step 1: Audit Your Service List

Clean up names, categories, and remove old or unused entries. Get clarity on what you’re actually selling.

✅ Step 2: Assign Tags and Sources

Map services to marketing channels, delivery method (in-person, remote), and campaign origin.

✅ Step 3: Calculate Margins

Pick your top 10 treatments and calculate real profitability for each. Include doctor and staff time.

✅ Step 4: Match Services to Campaigns

Use UTMs, tracking links, or software integrations to follow the path from ad click → booked treatment.

✅ Step 5: Adjust Marketing Strategy

Pause spend on low-profit services. Double down on profitable, scalable offers. Train staff to upsell or bundle accordingly. Review LTV projections before cutting any acquisition channel.

Final Thoughts 💭

Your clinic is likely sitting on a goldmine of data. But without proper structure and analysis, it stays hidden. By focusing not just on bookings, but on profit per service, and combining that with patient lifetime value, you can create a leaner, more lucrative business.

Remember: more patients doesn’t always mean more money. But better data always leads to better decisions.

Want help tagging your services, calculating real margins, or optimizing your PPC strategy?

👉 UpMedico helps clinics turn data into profit. Book your free audit today.