How a 14-provider orthopedic group built 120+ monthly consultations and fully absorbed 3 new providers in 8 months.
The practice was adding surgeons faster than referrals could consistently fill schedules. We implemented SEO, Google Ads, landing pages, and conversion tracking tied to booked consultations. Within 8 months, the practice was consistently generating enough patient demand to support the expanded provider team.
120+
Monthly Qualified Consultations
+38%
Show Rate
+94%
Organic Consultation Volume
8 mo
To Full Provider Absorption
Snapshot
Client snapshot.
- Practice type
- Multi-site orthopedic surgery group, 14 providers
- Locations
- 3 offices
- Specialties
- Joint replacement, sports medicine, spine surgery, hand and upper extremity
- Patient profile
- Primarily insurance-based; some cash-pay sports medicine and regenerative programs
- Prior marketing
- Minimal, primarily referral-dependent; small Google Ads spend, no structured management
- Services used
- Healthcare SEO · Google Ads · Tracking · Google Business Profile
- Core problem
- Adding providers faster than referrals could absorb them
- Engagement timeline
- 8 months · ongoing
The Problem
The referral channel couldn't keep pace with provider growth.
This orthopedic group had grown steadily through physician referrals over many years. The model worked, until they began adding providers faster than their referral network could absorb. Adding a new orthopedic surgeon to a group is an expensive commitment. That surgeon needs a patient pipeline within 6-12 months to be financially viable.
With three new surgeons joining over an 18-month period, the group needed a patient acquisition channel that could generate consistent, predictable consultation volume, and that could be directed toward specific providers who needed schedule filling.
The referral channel was valuable and they wanted to protect it. But they needed something they could actually control.
We needed a channel we could turn on for the new surgeons. The referrals were good, but they weren't something we could ask for more of when a new doc started.
Audit
What we found when we looked at their existing setup.
Four gaps explained why the existing marketing budget was producing unclear results and no scalability.
Unmanaged Google Ads account
Approximately $4,000/month in spend running for two years with no structured management, generating an unclear number of patient inquiries because tracking was almost entirely absent.
No procedure or condition content
Their website had a general “Our Services” page listing procedure categories without any condition or procedure-specific content. No procedure pages, no condition pages.
Partial Google Business Profiles
Google Business Profiles for their three locations were partially set up and inconsistently maintained. Categories, photos, and procedure information were all incomplete.
Unrouted inquiry follow-up
Web inquiries flowed to a general admin inbox with no priority routing and no tracking. Response time was inconsistent and there was no visibility into which sources converted to booked consultations.
Strategy
SEO as the foundation, Google Ads as the accelerant.
For an orthopedic group with high-volume surgical categories, SEO is particularly effective because the procedures have consistent, substantial search volume.
Procedure & condition SEO
Build out procedure pages and condition pages for joint replacement, arthroscopy, sports medicine, spine, hand and upper extremity, pages designed to rank for procedure + city searches and convert organic visitors into consults.
Local SEO & GBP
Three location pages with consistent NAP, embedded maps, provider listings, and location-specific content. Google Business Profile rebuilt for all three offices with structured review request process.
Procedure-level Google Ads
Rebuild the ad account around procedure and condition campaigns, joint replacement, ACL/sports injuries, spine conditions, hand procedures, each with dedicated landing pages.
Tracking connected to bookings
Call tracking with campaign attribution, form tracking with full source data, and consultation booking tracking connected to their scheduling system.
Engagement Timeline
Month 0
Audit + intake
Month 1
Ads restructure + tracking install
Month 2
First procedure pages live
Month 4
Procedure SEO compounding
Month 8
Full provider load achieved
Results
Results at 8 months.
120+
Monthly consultations
Up from ~35 at intake
+94%
Organic consultation volume
+38%
Show rate vs. baseline
3 of 3
New providers absorbed
Key Takeaways
What this case shows about orthopedic patient acquisition.
SEO and paid work best together
SEO built the durable long-term channel. Google Ads generated near-term volume for providers who needed consultation flow immediately. Running both simultaneously let the group address both the short-term problem and the long-term goal.
Tracking changes what gets optimized
Once the group could see which campaigns were producing actual booked consultations, budget allocation shifted significantly. Campaigns that had been generating lots of inquiries but few bookings were deprioritized.
Procedure-specific infrastructure matters at scale
A 14-provider group with multiple surgical categories can't operate effectively on a single undifferentiated “orthopedics” campaign. Procedure-level structure is what makes patient acquisition scalable for a practice this size.
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Growing your provider roster? Let's make sure the patient acquisition keeps up.
We'll look at your current setup and show you what a scalable orthopedic patient acquisition program looks like for your specific group.
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