TL;DR
Ask each chiropractic agency to separate its work from media, software, website access and practice labor. Compare the same initial-visit campaign and response responsibilities across quotes. Keep setup, recurring work and exit costs visible. A lower management fee is useful only when you understand which tasks and assets it actually buys.
Give every bidder the same operating problem
Write a purchasing brief before comparing monthly totals. Name the initial appointment you want to promote, the office and clinician involved, the booking windows you can support and the person who handles inquiries. Include the current website, phone route and reporting gaps.
Do not price a general “new patient campaign” while leaving the appointment undefined. A request for an initial examination, a returning patient's re-examination and an inquiry about a particular technique may need different destinations and staff explanations. Have the practice verify its own visit scope; do not ask a vendor to invent it.
Give each bidder the same brief and ask for exclusions as well as inclusions. Where a bidder proposes a different approach, ask what assumption changed. That makes a recommendation assessable without implying all practices should buy identical marketing.
GetPatients has a commercial interest in healthcare visibility services. Use the same cost and responsibility questions for its proposals and competing providers. This article offers no market-price benchmark or ranking.
Price the initial-exam work behind the fee
Ask each bidder to return the same completed artifact list. These are proposed acceptance records, not standard agency inclusions. The practice supplies the clinical, scheduling and billing facts; the quote must say who turns those facts into a maintained public offer.
| Artifact to purchase | What the chiropractic practice supplies | What the bidder must price and demonstrate |
|---|---|---|
| Initial-exam destination map | Actual exam blocks, routine adjustment types, clinician and office | A page-to-calendar map that cannot substitute a short adjustment opening for the promoted examination; setup and maintenance owner ___ |
| Technique-question handoff | Clinician-approved description, current provider and questions requiring qualified assessment | What the responder may say, where an unresolved technique question goes and who accepts it; included handling and exclusions ___ |
| Initial-visit payment explanation | Billing-approved scope, conditional items and payer-specific limits | Matching wording across the offer, landing page and response script; change owner and charge ___ |
| Promotion eligibility and reporting rule | Actual offer terms, prior-practice-relationship definition and re-examination labels | A sample report that preserves an eligible returning response without calling it a newly acquired person; reconciliation responsibility ___ |
| Exam-capacity change record | Scheduling owner and evidence that the promoted blocks changed | A demonstrated request to narrow or pause the affected offer, confirmation of the public change and the remaining recurring charges ___ |
| Retained offer files | Practice's actual licence and account arrangements | Which approved copy, map, script and report definitions survive cancellation, in what usable form and at what cost ___ |
Beside each artifact, record the quote reference, included work, additional charge, practice work and acceptance evidence. An “included” line needs an owner and a demonstrable output. If a supplier only buys media, label these jobs practice-owned or separately purchased rather than assuming the fee includes them.
Keep a companion expense list: agency setup ___; recurring management ___; platform media ___; website or landing-page access ___; software and telephone tools ___; separately purchased response work ___; exit and replacement work ___. Record actual written amounts, account holders and billing triggers. Retain a bundle's real price when the vendor cannot separate it; do not invent component estimates.
Run an initial-exam quote drill
Ask each bidder to price its response to these practice-approved situations, using your real workflow rather than made-up performance figures:
- The advertised initial examination needs a contiguous block, while the public scheduler also shows shorter adjustment visits. Ask who configures the destination, maintains it when the schedule changes and pays for that work.
- A caller asks whether a named chiropractor uses the promoted technique. Ask what the external responder may explain from approved facts, where a clinical question goes and whether that escalation is included.
- The promotion reaches an existing patient asking about a re-examination. Ask who classifies the inquiry and prevents acquisition reporting from treating it as a newly acquired person.
- The initial-visit payment explanation differs from a visitor's assumption about coverage. Ask which billing owner supplies the verified wording, who keeps advertisements consistent with it and what a change costs.
For U.S. Medicare Part B, coverage is limited to specified spinal adjustments and excludes other services or tests ordered by a chiropractor. Do not price intake as though a general insurance label establishes payment for the promoted visit. Medicare chiropractic coverage.
Write each bidder's answer as: task ___; performer ___; included charge ___; additional charge ___; practice handoff ___; acceptance evidence ___. This drill makes the fee comparison about the chiropractic inquiry job. A bidder supplying media alone and a bidder also maintaining these handoffs are offering different scopes.
Compare total commitments and cash timing
Define your comparison period from the agreements under consideration. For that same period, list agency charges, platform media, required software, separately purchased implementation and planned practice labor. Keep refundable deposits and taxes identified according to the actual terms. Do not compare a launch-only price with another provider's full ongoing commitment.
Use a simple purchasing identity: total planned cash commitment = agency charges + media + required external tools + separately purchased implementation + other disclosed cash charges. Include each cost only where it is paid; do not add media again when a bundled total already includes it. This is bookkeeping, not an ROI forecast.
Keep staff time in a companion field instead of pretending it is free. Record the work displaced when the front desk must call back inquiries during adjustment blocks or the doctor must approve creative. Use actual staffing assumptions and your own approved costing method. Show whether time is paid in cash, absorbed by existing staffing or taken from other work.
Ask how invoices change when media pauses, an initial-exam block becomes unavailable or the agency waits for practice approval. A pause in ad delivery does not tell you whether a recurring service charge stops. The agreement should answer that question.
Inspect the work behind the management fee
A percentage or fixed fee is a billing method, not evidence of value. Ask for a sample change log and an explanation of what prompts a campaign adjustment. Confirm how claims, payment information and appointment availability reach the approver before publication.
If a proposal merges paid search with organic visibility, separate the work and its evidence. Google states that advertising with it does not affect a site's presence in organic search results. Paying media is therefore not proof that an organic improvement was purchased or delivered. Google's SEO hiring guidance.
Use the scope budget worksheet for implementation and review dependencies. This comparison adds the commercial allocation: who pays, who performs the work and what changes when the campaign stops.
Decide which quote you can actually accept
Mark each required responsibility as demonstrated, contractually defined or unresolved. Do not let an attractive total hide a missing owner for initial-exam callbacks or a website that cannot be retained under the proposed terms.
The better purchase for your circumstances may include more agency work, more internal work or a narrower campaign. Decide from the actual constraint and the cost of completing the whole job. Ask the agency selection questions before signing, especially where the fee explanation relies on unsupported performance promises.
Frequently asked questions
Is a large difference between the fee and media spending evidence of overcharging?
No. Assess what the fee buys and whether the agreed work is useful and delivered. Media spending alone does not price creative, implementation, inquiry support or reporting.
Should we compare cost per lead across proposals?
Only after definitions and cost scope match. A form submission, a unique prospective patient and an attended initial examination are different denominators. Proposed unit costs also require assumptions; they are not achieved outcomes.
What if a provider will not itemize its internal margins?
You can evaluate a fixed package without knowing its profit margin. Require clear total charges, deliverables, exclusions, responsibilities and exit terms so you can compare the actual purchase.