Patient acquisition cost & LTV calculator

Your numbers, not an agency's benchmark. Put in a month of marketing spend and what it produced, and see what a new patient costs you, what one is worth over the relationship, and how many visits it takes to earn the cost back.

Patient acquisition cost is everything you spent to win new patients in a period, divided by the new patients who attended a first visit. Patient lifetime value is average revenue per visit, times visits per year, times the years a patient stays. Compare the two and you know whether growth is paying for itself. The calculator runs in your browser and doesn't save or send your figures.

Example figures, not benchmarks. Replace them with yours.

One month's acquisition spend
What it produced that month
What a patient is worth

Your numbers

Total acquisition spend
$5,500
Cost per inquiry
$92
Cost per booked appointment
$183
Patient acquisition cost
$229
Patient lifetime value
$2,700
LTV to PAC
11.8 : 1
Visits to pay back
1.3
Inquiries that booked
50%
Booked patients who attended
80%

Each new patient costs $229 to win and brings in about $2,700 over the relationship, 11.8 times what they cost. The acquisition cost is covered by visit 2.

How the numbers are worked out.

Total acquisition spend

Ad spend + agency or management fees + software and tools + staff time on marketing and intake

Cost per inquiry

Total acquisition spend ÷ new inquiries

Cost per booked appointment

Total acquisition spend ÷ new patients booked

Patient acquisition cost

Total acquisition spend ÷ new patients who attended a first visit

Patient lifetime value

Average revenue per visit × visits per patient per year × years a patient stays

LTV to PAC

Patient lifetime value ÷ patient acquisition cost

Visits to pay back

Patient acquisition cost ÷ average revenue per visit

A worked example

A hypothetical practice spends $3,000 on ads, $1,500 on management, $200 on software and about $800 of staff time in a month: $5,500 in all. That month brings 60 inquiries, 30 booked first visits and 24 new patients who attend.

Its patient acquisition cost is $5,500 ÷ 24, or about $229. If a visit averages $180, patients come 10 times a year and stay a year and a half, each is worth about $2,700 in revenue, roughly 11.8 times what they cost to win. These are the calculator's example figures, not typical ones.

Not sure what a click costs where you are? Each of our state pages lists monthly searches and the average cost per click for eight specialties in its cities, from “therapist houston” to “ketamine therapy denver”.

What the calculator leaves out

  • Margin. Lifetime value here is revenue. Multiply by your margin for profit.
  • Timing. Spend this month often books next month. Use a quarter if your numbers jump around.
  • Referrals and word of mouth. Patients who came without any spend make paid acquisition look cheaper than it is. Count only the patients the spend produced, if you can tell.
  • Channel mix. One blended number hides a cheap channel paying for an expensive one. Run it per channel when you can split the spend.

Then look at what happens after the first visit.

Lifetime value is mostly a retention number. The companion calculator works out retention rate, churn and what no-shows cost.

Patient retention & no-show calculator Glossary: patient acquisition cost Glossary: patient lifetime value Guide: patient acquisition strategies What a patient acquisition & retention agency does

Embed this calculator on your site

Associations, consultants and practice-management writers are welcome to put this calculator on their own pages. The figures people type stay in their browser, and the embedded version carries no analytics or advertising tags. Copy the code below, or preview the embed.

<iframe src="https://fillthelobby.com/embed/patient-acquisition-cost-calculator" title="Patient acquisition cost calculator" width="100%" height="1500" style="border:0;max-width:980px" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p>Calculator by <a href="https://fillthelobby.com/patient-acquisition-cost-calculator">Fill The Lobby</a></p>

Questions

Patient acquisition cost: common questions.

Add up everything spent to win new patients in a period (ad spend, agency or management fees, software, and staff time spent on marketing and intake), then divide by the number of new patients who attended a first visit in the same period.

There isn't a universal figure, because a first visit is worth very different amounts in different specialties. The useful comparison is against your own lifetime value: if a patient brings in many times what they cost to win, you can afford to spend more to win the next one; if they bring in less than they cost, no amount of extra spend fixes it.

Multiply average revenue per visit by visits per patient per year, then by the number of years a patient typically stays. Multiply the result by your margin if you want lifetime profit rather than revenue.

Yes, if you want the real number. Time spent answering inquiries, returning calls and running intake is part of what it costs to win a patient. Leaving it out makes in-house work look free and agencies look expensive.

Because a lead that never books, or books and never attends, costs money and brings in nothing. Cost per lead and cost per booked appointment are shown too, so you can see where between the inquiry and the first visit the cost climbs.

Reviewed September 2026.

Want these numbers from your real accounts?

Book a 30-minute call Or start with a free audit.