A small private clinic in the UK gets new patients online by being easy to find when someone searches for a treatment nearby, easy to trust once they land on the website, and quick and careful when they get in touch. In practice that means a website with a page per treatment and clear prices, Google Search ads for the treatments people actively look for, Facebook and Instagram ads for treatments people need reminding about, and a way to answer enquiries within the working day without giving clinical advice by message. Below is a worked example. The clinic is invented to show the journey; the figures are Adyft’s real prices.
The example clinic
Imagine a two-room physiotherapy clinic in a market town. Two physios, a part-time receptionist, a steady flow of GP-referred patients, and a wish to grow private self-pay appointments for back pain, sports injuries and post-surgery rehab. Most new patients currently come from word of mouth. The website is an old one-page site with a phone number.
The same journey applies, with small changes, to a dental practice, a skin clinic or a chiropractor.
Stage 1: the website patients check before they book
Patients choosing a private clinic want to know four things: can you treat my problem, who will treat me, how much will it cost, and can I get an appointment soon. A single page cannot answer that for several treatments.
- 1A page for each main treatment: back and neck pain, sports injuries, post-operative rehab.
- 2Prices: initial assessment and follow-up sessions, stated plainly.
- 3Clinicians: names, qualifications and professional registration (for physios in the UK, HCPC registration).
- 4Practical details: parking, accessibility, hours, how long the first appointment lasts.
- 5Contact on every page: a call button, a WhatsApp button and a short enquiry form.
- 6A privacy policy that explains what happens to the details people send.
Adyft Sites Growth fits this clinic well: 12 pages including 5 service pages and 3 town pages for nearby areas, a page made for ads, tracking for calls, WhatsApp clicks and forms, and a monthly SEO report. It costs £699 to set up and £39 a month with 4 new articles a month, or £19 a month without. If the clinic needed a team page with each clinician, or a booking calendar, the Pro plan includes both.
Stage 2: ads that reach people who need the treatment
Clinics have two kinds of demand, and each suits a different platform.
| Demand | Example | Platform | Destination |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active: they are searching now | “physio near me”, “sports injury clinic [town]” | Google Search | The matching treatment page |
| Latent: they have put it off | Back pain they have lived with for months | Facebook and Instagram | Website or lead form |
Adyft Ads builds both from a short description of the clinic, shows each ad for approval, and launches into the clinic’s own Google Ads and Meta ad accounts. The Starter plan is £39 a month and takes 0% of ad spend; the clinic sets the daily budget. The Growth plan of Adyft Sites also includes one campaign set up and 3 months of Adyft Ads Starter free.
💡 Health ads in the UK must follow the CAP Code: no promises of cure, no misleading before-and-after claims, and care with anything that could play on people’s worries. Meta and Google have their own health-related policies too. Keep claims factual.
Stage 3: answering patients quickly, and carefully
A patient in pain who messages at 8 pm wants an answer that evening, not two days later. But a clinic must not diagnose by message. The fix is to separate practical questions from clinical ones.
- 1Practical questions can be answered straight away: price, availability, parking, whether a referral is needed for self-pay.
- 2Clinical questions get a kind, standard reply: a clinician will discuss it at the assessment, and urgent symptoms should go to NHS 111 or emergency services.
- 3Every message gets an owner: the receptionist during the day, a physio covering the evening slot.
Adyft Reply’s Free plan, open today, gives the clinic one shared inbox for up to 3 people that collects website chat and Telegram. When Meta approves WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, they join the same inbox. Reply’s paid AI plans, opening soon, answer from the clinic’s own website and price list, can follow rules the clinic writes about what must never be said, and hand any conversation to a person with the reason.
Stage 4: from enquiry to booked assessment
The conversion step is simple but often skipped: every reply ends with two specific appointment times. “I have Tuesday at 8 am or Thursday at 5:30 pm for an initial assessment. Would either suit?” If the patient goes quiet, one follow-up the next day with a third option is enough.
What the clinic would watch after a month
Enquiries by treatment
Which treatment pages and ads bring people in.
Assessments booked
Enquiries that became a first appointment.
Cost per booked assessment
Ad spend divided by booked first appointments.
Response time
How long enquiries waited for a first useful reply.
Rough first-year cost for this example
Adyft Sites Growth with blogs: £699 + 11 × £39 = £1,128 in year one. Adyft Ads Starter after the 3 free months included with Growth: 9 × £39 = £351. Adyft Reply Free: £0. That is about £1,479 before VAT, plus the ad budget the clinic chooses, which goes directly to Google and Meta.
Questions about getting clinic patients online
Should a small clinic use Google ads or Facebook ads?
Often both, for different jobs. Google catches people searching for a treatment now; Facebook and Instagram reach people who have been putting it off.
Can a clinic answer patient questions by WhatsApp?
Practical questions, yes. Clinical questions should get a standard reply directing them to an assessment or, if urgent, to NHS 111 or emergency services.
Should clinic prices be on the website?
For self-pay services, yes. Patients compare, and a clear price for an assessment removes a common reason not to enquire.
Does Adyft Sites include a team page for clinicians?
A team or staff page is included on the Pro plan. Starter and Growth can describe clinicians on the About page.
Can Adyft Reply answer WhatsApp for my clinic today?
Not yet. WhatsApp opens once Meta approves it. Website chat and Telegram work today on the Free plan.
Reach patients looking for your treatments
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