Case study · Physiotherapy · Queensland
How Essential Health Physio grew online bookings 74% and cut the cost of each new patient by two thirds
Essential Health Physio runs three clinics in Shailer Park, Birkdale and Bracken Ridge. We took over their Google Ads in January 2026. Nine months later they book 95 more patients every quarter, for less ad spend than before.
Visit essentialhealthphysio.com.au
The results at a glance
Nine months in: more patients, for less
What changed after we took over the Google Ads in January 2026.
- +74%online bookings, Jan–Mar to Jul–Sep 2026
- −73%ads cost per booking ($101 to $27)
- 24xphone calls from ads (12 to 290 a quarter)
- −36%less ad spend, with 144% more clicks
Where they started
Ads were running. Nobody knew if they worked.
A busy, well-reviewed practice spending over $2,000 a month on Google Ads, with no way to tell which dollars turned into patients.
No idea which ads booked patients
Not one online booking was tracked back to an ad. Budget went wherever clicks were cheapest, not where patients came from.
Six campaigns fighting each other
Each clinic had its own campaigns, splitting a small budget six ways so none of them had enough to work.
A third clinic on the way
Bracken Ridge was opening, and it needed patients from day one without a whole new ad budget.
What we changed
Three changes, in this order
Step 1
We tracked every booking
Completed Cliniko bookings, phone calls and form enquiries are now recorded, so the budget follows real patients.
Step 2
We rebuilt the ads
Six scattered location campaigns became one Performance Max campaign plus one focused Search campaign.
Step 3
We added the new clinic
Bracken Ridge went live in the same account in July 2026, with no separate budget.
Google Ads results
More patients from ads, for less money
July to September 2025, before we started, against July to September 2026. Same season, so school holidays and winter don’t skew it.
- Clicks from ads
1,2413,031+144% in the same season - Ad spend for the quarter
$6,570$4,23436% less money - Cost per click
$5.29$1.4073% cheaper - Times the ads were seen
13,98356,905Nearly 4x the reach - Phone calls from ads
12290For the quarter - Phone number clicks on the site
52189From ad visitors
278 completed online bookings from ads since February, at about $38 each. In September alone: 56 bookings at $29 each. Before we started, not one was tracked.
Growth quarter by quarter
Every quarter beat the last
Booking tracking went live in January 2026. Since then bookings have climbed and each one has cost less.
| Period | Website visits | Online bookings | Booking rate | Bookings from ads | Ads cost per booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan–Mar 2026 | 6,003 | 129 | 2.1% | 30 | $101 |
| Apr–Jun 2026 | 6,659 | 163 | 2.4% | 70 | $42 |
| Jul–Sep 2026 | 8,136 | 224 | 2.8% | 122 | $35 |
| Oct 2026 (to 29th) | 3,848 | 85 | 2.2% | 56 | $27 |
- Online bookings up 74% from the first quarter to the third (129 to 224).
- Booking rate up from 2.1% to 2.8%, so the site turns more visitors into patients.
- Ads cost per booking down 66%, from $101 to $35, and $27 in October.
- October is the busiest month on record, with 3,848 visits in 29 days.
Where the bookings came from
Ads grew. Everything else grew too.
Completed online bookings by channel, from Google Analytics. Phone bookings aren’t included, so the real totals are higher.
- 95 more booked patients a quarter than when we started.
- Ads went from a quarter of bookings to half, giving the clinic a lever it can turn up or down.
- Google search and returning-patient bookings grew too, so the ads added patients instead of taking credit for ones they already had.
- Patients now arrive from AI assistants like ChatGPT. Small for now, but new.
Website, Google Maps and search
The website and Google profile work harder too
- Website visits up about 90% year on year (around 4,300 to 8,100 a quarter).
- Visits from Google search up 30% (2,183 to 2,838), with 900+ every month since March.
- Every action is now measured. July to September: 1,396 “Book Now” clicks, 224 completed bookings and 154 enquiry forms. A year earlier, none of it was tracked.
- #13.5average Google position, up from #17.3 (Aug to Sep 2026)
- 479direction requests from ads since January
- 494Google profile website visits from ads
- 325five-star reviews at Shailer Park
All three clinics’ Google Business Profiles are optimised. Shailer Park ranks in the local top 3 for “physiotherapist Shailer Park” across most of its 5 km area.
What this means for your practice
Four lessons you can use
- Track bookings, not clicksOnce the ads could see which clicks became patients, the cost per booking fell every quarter.
- One strong campaign beats six weak onesPooling the budget gave Google enough data to find patients across all three clinics.
- Ads add patients, they don’t steal themGoogle search and returning-patient bookings grew too, so the ads brought in people the clinic wasn’t getting.
- The website has to convertThe booking rate rose from 2.1% to 2.8%, so every extra visitor was worth more.
Want results like this?
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Sources: Essential Health Physio’s Google Ads account and Google Analytics 4, pulled 30 October 2026. Search position figures are from the September 2026 local visibility report. See the clinic at essentialhealthphysio.com.au.