If you’ve searched for the best chiropractic marketing companies, you’ve seen pages of agencies ranking themselves. This guide is different. It doesn’t name anyone. It helps you judge any agency, ours included.
Hiring badly is expensive, mostly in lost months. A few good questions will protect you.
First, do you need one?
Many clinics get the biggest gains from tasks that need no agency: a complete Google profile, an online booking link, a steady stream of reviews, referral relationships and a clear website. Our chiropractic marketing ideas are a good example of work you can start yourself, and most of them apply to physiotherapy clinics too.
An agency makes sense when you have those basics and want more of something you can’t do yourself: ongoing website work, paid advertising, search optimisation or content, because you lack the time or the skills.
What agencies usually offer
- Website design and updates.
- Local search work, including your Google profile. (Basics)
- Paid ads on search and social. (What to know first)
- Content and email.
- Review and reputation management.
- Reporting.
Be wary of anyone who offers all of it without asking about your clinic first.
Questions to ask any agency
About how they work
- What will you do in the first 90 days, specifically? You want a list of tasks, not a vision.
- Who will actually do the work, and who will I speak to? Ask whether it’s outsourced.
- How do you report, and what will you report on? Look for new patient enquiries and booked appointments, not just clicks and impressions.
- How will we know it’s working? Ask how they’d track bookings from each source.
About health care
- How do you handle the advertising rules for regulated health professions? Rules differ by province, state and country and cover things like testimonials, titles and outcome claims. A good agency knows they exist and asks to see your regulator’s guidance. (Overview)
- How do you handle patient privacy? Forms, booking and call tracking can touch personal information.
About ownership and contracts
- Who owns the website, domain, Google profile, ad accounts and analytics? The answer should be you. You should be the owner or an administrator on every one.
- What’s the contract length, and how do I leave? Ask what happens to the website and accounts if you cancel.
- What do I pay for beyond the fee? Ad spend, software, stock photos, changes.
About fit
- How many clinics like mine do you work with? And ask whether you can speak to a clinic owner who has worked with them for more than a year.
- What do you need from me? Good agencies ask for time, photos and access.
Red flags
- Guaranteed rankings or patients. Nobody controls Google. Guarantees are a sign of a sales process.
- Reports full of vanity numbers with no link to bookings.
- You don’t get access to your accounts, or the agency registers the domain or profile in its own name.
- Long lock-in with no clear exit.
- A template pitch that never mentions your town, your services or your patients.
- Pressure to decide today.
- Fake or bought reviews, or any scheme to steer unhappy patients away from reviewing. These can get your Google profile restricted. (Asking for reviews properly)
- Ignoring advertising rules for your profession.
- Secrecy about what they do for the fee.
How to compare two or three
Ask each for a short written plan for your clinic. Then compare:
- Do they mention your actual patients, location and booking process?
- Do they say what they would not do?
- Can you read the plan and explain it to a colleague?
- Does the cost match the work described?
Trust the one that explains things plainly and asks you good questions.
Before you sign
Run a quick audit of your own so you can judge what they tell you. Is your Google profile complete? (Checklist) Does your website have a visible booking button? (Homepage checklist) An agency that tells you something is broken should be able to show you.
A practical check
Write down these four answers before any sales call:
- How many new patients do I want per month, and how many do I get now?
- Which sources send my patients today?
- What’s the most I’m willing to spend per month, including ad spend?
- What would I want the agency to own, and what must I own?
Take those four answers into every conversation.
A word on cost
Fees vary widely, so we won’t quote any. Ask what is a fixed fee, what depends on ad spend, and how soon you’ll know if something isn’t working.
If you’d like a no-obligation look at your Google profile and website to see where you stand before talking to anyone, claim your marketing audit and we’ll send you what we find, with no strings.