The seven stages to track
- Qualified inquiry
- Booked first visit
- Attended first visit
- Suitable for a next treatment
- First paid treatment or product
- Revenue collected and what it cost to deliver
- Repeat visit within the normal treatment cycle
Keep them separate. "Patients" should only mean people who attended.
A simple tracking sheet
| Column | What to record |
|---|---|
| Patient ID | An ID from your booking system |
| Source | Which ad, page or offer brought them |
| Booked / attended | Dates, and whether they showed |
| Same-day purchase | Treatment or product, and amount |
| 30-day and 90-day revenue | Everything collected from that patient |
| Returned? | Yes or no within 90 days |
Keep this sheet in a system your clinic controls, with access limited to the people who need it. An ID alone does not make the records anonymous, because visit dates and purchases can still identify a patient. When you share results with an agency or anyone outside the clinic, share campaign totals by default, and get privacy and contract advice before sharing patient-level records.
The math
Total promotion cost = ad spend + marketing fees + direct cost of anything you gave away.
Break-even paying patients = total promotion cost ÷ average contribution per paying patient over 90 days.
For what to count as the cost of a free treatment, see your free treatment is marketing spend.
Why 90 days, not the first week
Many med spa treatments are sold as series or repeat every few weeks. A patient who buys nothing on day one may book a series in week three. The American Med Spa Association's 2024 report found that an average of 73% of med spa patients are repeat patients (AmSpa 2024 report recap). That does not prove your promotion patients will return within 90 days. It does mean that judging only the first week can miss later purchases, so measure the same group of patients over the follow-up period you choose.
Common measurement mistakes
- Counting leads or bookings as patients.
- Letting existing patients use a new-patient offer and counting them as new.
- No source field, so nobody knows which ad brought whom.
- Deciding in week one.
- Ignoring no-shows because they "cost nothing." They cost ad spend and a blocked slot.
When to scale, fix or stop
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Many bookings, many no-shows | Fix confirmations and reminders first. See raising show rates and no-show recovery. |
| Good attendance, few purchases | Look at the in-visit conversation and the fit of the next treatments. |
| Good contribution, free slots left | Raise the budget in steps and keep watching cost per attended visit. |
| Weak on every line after 90 days | Change the offer as well as the ad. |
Common questions
What is a good show rate for a free med spa offer?
There is no universal number. Watch your own trend. If more than about a third of booked promotional appointments are missed, fix confirmations and reminders, and consider a card hold that is released when the patient arrives.
How long should I wait before judging a promotion?
Look at bookings and attendance after about a month. Judge profitability after 90 days, when repeat visits and series purchases have had time to happen.
Should referrals count toward a promotion's results?
Count them only when you can trace them honestly, for example a new patient who says a promotion patient sent them. Never make a free treatment depend on referring someone.
Want help reading your promotion numbers?
Request a free marketing audit and share what you ran and what came in. We will tell you what the numbers say and what we would change.
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