90 Days of Marketing for a Multi-Specialty Orthopedic Group — A Modeled Scenario
90 Days of Marketing for a Multi-Specialty Orthopedic Group
Orthopedic groups consistently make one structural marketing mistake: they treat their multi-specialty practice as a single entity in advertising. Patients searching for ACL reconstruction do not care that you also do hip replacements. Patients searching for carpal tunnel surgery do not need to see your foot and ankle surgeon. The fix is segmentation — and it is the single highest-leverage change in most orthopedic marketing accounts.
The composite starting profile
- Six-physician orthopedic group with two locations
- Service mix: sports medicine, joint replacement (hip and knee), hand and upper extremity, foot and ankle, occasionally spine
- Combined paid spend: $12,000 per month across Google Ads ($9K) and Meta ($3K)
- One generic Google Ads campaign covering everything — no segmentation by specialty
- Meta running brand awareness campaigns only, no conversion campaigns
- Single landing page used for all paid traffic regardless of search query
- Conversion tracking: form submissions only, no phone tracking, no segmentation by specialty
- Average organic search positions 18 to 25 for service-specific queries
- Lead volume: 80 to 100 per month with wide month-to-month variance
- Estimated CPL: $145 to $165 with wide variance by procedure type
Phase one
Days 1 to 30: Segment by specialty, not by physician
The first 30 days restructure the account from a single generic campaign into specialty-aware campaigns. This single change typically produces a 25 to 40% CPL reduction within 60 days, with sports medicine and hand/wrist seeing the largest gains because those are the most search-driven specialties.
Split campaigns by specialty
Five specialty campaigns instead of one generic: sports medicine, joint replacement, hand and wrist, foot and ankle, and spine if applicable. Each campaign has its own keyword set, its own ad copy reflecting the specific patient’s search intent, and its own budget that can be optimized independently. When all specialties compete from a single budget, the cheapest specialty wins clicks at the expense of higher-value specialties.
Dedicated landing pages per specialty
ACL reconstruction traffic lands on a sports medicine page featuring the sports medicine physician, with sports medicine-specific imagery and language. Total knee replacement traffic lands on a joint replacement page featuring that surgeon. Generic group pages serve none of these patients well. Each specialty page is built around the same patient journey structure as procedure-specific pages: symptoms or injury, diagnosis, procedure options, recovery, return-to-activity expectations.
Conversion tracking by specialty
When the data cannot show which campaigns drive which procedures, optimization is impossible. We rebuild conversion tracking to attribute every form submission and call to its originating campaign and specialty. This is foundational for Smart Bidding to work correctly downstream.
Call tracking with specialty routing
Different specialties have different intake processes. Sports medicine often handles same-week injury appointments; joint replacement runs 6 to 12 weeks out for surgical evaluation. The call tracking layer routes intelligently and surfaces patient calls that are currently invisible in the account.
Phase two
Days 31 to 60: Layer in Meta for elective procedures
Google Ads catches high-intent searchers actively shopping for care. Meta catches a different patient population: those who are aware of the problem but have not yet started searching. For elective orthopedic procedures, Meta is the underutilized channel.
Meta conversion campaigns for high-elective procedures
Total joint replacement is often patient-driven and scheduled out months in advance — ideal for Meta, where research-mode patients spend time. Hand surgery (carpal tunnel, trigger finger) has high search intent on Google but also high impulse on Meta when patients see relatable content. Sports medicine for the recreational athlete crowd performs well on Meta, particularly post-injury content targeted at active 35 to 55 year olds.
Patient-journey video content
Each specialty gets two or three short video assets (60 to 120 seconds) explaining the journey from symptoms to recovery. These work on Meta where patients are in research mode, and they also boost organic engagement on the practice website. Even smartphone-recorded content with proper subtitles performs better than agency-produced stock footage.
Physician profile build-out
Every physician gets a robust bio page with credentials, conditions treated, years of experience, recent clinical interests, hospital affiliations, and procedure volume where appropriate. These pages rank for long-tail queries patients use (“[surgeon name] orthopedic [city]” or “best [procedure] surgeon near me”) and serve as critical trust signals when patients are deciding between practices.
Schema markup at the physician level
Physician schema for each surgeon includes name, credentials, hospital affiliations, medical specialty, languages spoken, and accepted insurance. This improves rich result eligibility in search and click-through rates.
Phase three
Days 61 to 90: Workers comp and insurance verification flows
Orthopedic practices have a unique conversion advantage most agencies miss: workers compensation patients and self-insured employer programs. The third phase builds the infrastructure to capture this audience properly.
Workers compensation landing page
WC patients have a different intake process than commercial insurance patients — case manager involvement, employer notification requirements, specific documentation needs. A dedicated WC landing page with the streamlined intake process explained reduces friction. WC patients convert at materially different rates than commercial patients, and many practices waste paid spend running them through identical funnels.
Insurance verification flow integrated into lead forms
Adding “we accept [insurance list]” to the lead form and using insurance selection as an intake question reduces drop-off by 15 to 25%. Patients self-disqualify if their insurance is not accepted, saving practice staff intake time and improving qualified lead quality.
Procedure-anchored blog posts
Three blog posts in priority order: “rotator cuff surgery recovery timeline,” “knee replacement vs. partial knee replacement,” “return to running after meniscus surgery” (or whatever the practice’s GSC striking-distance keywords suggest). Each 1,800 to 2,500 words with FAQ schema and internal links to relevant service pages.
Google Business Profile and review automation
Multi-location orthopedic groups often have inconsistent GBP profiles across locations. We standardize profile content, photos, and posting cadence. Review request automation triggers 7 days post-surgery (or post-final-followup for non-surgical patients) and targets practices toward 200+ reviews per location within 6 to 9 months.
Realistic outcome ranges by month 3
These ranges reflect industry benchmarks for similar orthopedic group restructures. Outcomes depend on market dynamics, fee structure, operational capacity, and execution quality.
- Cost per qualified lead reduction: 25 to 40% across all specialties. Sports medicine and hand/wrist typically see the largest gains from segmentation.
- Lead-to-consultation conversion improvement: 20 to 30% lift, driven primarily by insurance pre-qualification on forms and faster response time from call tracking visibility.
- Meta-attributed leads: 0 to 15 to 25 per month for elective procedures, depending on creative quality and audience size.
- Joint replacement consultation requests: typically 40 to 60% increase with proper specialty segmentation and dedicated landing pages.
- Workers compensation referrals: when properly funneled, can become 15 to 25% of practice surgical volume in markets with significant industrial or construction economies.
Why outcomes vary
Orthopedic group outcomes vary widely based on case mix. Groups heavy in sports medicine see fast paid search gains because the demand is search-driven and seasonal. Groups heavy in joint replacement see slower paid search gains but stronger Meta and SEO compounding. Groups with workers compensation infrastructure already in place see WC funnel gains quickly. Groups without that infrastructure may need 6 to 12 months to build it.
Multi-location groups also vary based on location maturity. Established locations with strong reputations compound organic gains faster. Newer locations require more paid investment to build initial momentum, then transition to organic as reviews and authority accumulate.
See what 90 days could look like for your group.
Book a free 30-minute strategy call. We’ll review your current Google Ads structure, conversion tracking, and specialty mix — then give you a specific plan. No commitment required.