Patient acquisition
Telehealth patient acquisition: why creative is the main lever
A telehealth patient usually arrives through a paid social ad, a landing page, an intake form and a provider review. Each step can be improved, but on paid social the ad decides who enters the funnel in the first place.
This page sets out a patient acquisition strategy for telehealth brands with creative at the center, and links free calculators so you can work out your own numbers.
Telehealth Media works only with telehealth brands.
The telehealth patient acquisition funnel
| Stage | What happens | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Ad | Someone stops scrolling and clicks | Angle, format, hook |
| Landing page | They decide whether to start | Clarity, trust, matching the ad |
| Intake | They answer health questions | Length, tone, mobile design |
| Provider review | A clinician decides if treatment fits | Clinical criteria, not marketing |
| First fill and refills | They start and stay on treatment | Service, delivery, follow-up |
Marketing can change the first three rows. Only the first row decides who you pay to reach. That is why creative is the main lever: a better angle changes the cost and the quality of every patient below it.
Patient acquisition strategies that work in telehealth
- Test angles, not tweaks. A new reason to buy can move results more than any bid or audience change.
- Match the ad to the landing page. If the ad talks about convenience and the page talks about price, people leave.
- Cover every awareness stage. Unaware people need a problem framed; product-aware people need a reason to start today.
- Replace fading angles quickly. Ads tire; plan new angles before the current ones fade.
- Track cost per started intake and per approved patient, not only cost per click.
Work out your own numbers
We do not publish average costs here: they vary too much by treatment, price and funnel to be useful. Use the CAC calculator and the intake funnel calculator with your own data. Our patient acquisition cost article explains what goes into the number.
How batches feed patient acquisition
A batch is one angle made into 10 ads: 5 videos in 5 different formats and 5 statics. The whole batch goes into one ad set. Each video has one hook, so you test formats of the same angle instead of hook versions of the same video. Every video is reviewed for compliance. The next batch is a different angle.
Example batch · Formats across categories
1 ad set
5 videos
Note-card confession Claymation Snapchat POV Podcast confession Paperwork skit
5 statics
Unaware
Birth control · 'What people think / what it is' split
Problem aware
Medication delivery · Badges + product row
Solution aware
GLP-1 · Us vs them split
Product aware
ED · Stacked label chips over photo
Most aware
Peptides · Cinematic 'available by prescription'
The brands in the statics are spec concepts made by Telehealth Media, not real companies. See the monthly packages.
Free tools for this
Further reading
Questions
What is the best patient acquisition strategy for a telehealth brand?
For brands that sell through paid social, the strongest lever is the ad itself: testing new angles across several formats, and replacing angles as they fade. Landing page and intake fixes come next.
Our best ads stop working after a few weeks. Do batches fix that?
Batches are built for it. Ads usually fade because the audience has seen the same reason to buy too many times. Each batch is a new angle, so when an angle tires you replace it with a different reason to buy, not another cut of the same video.
Every ad in our category says the same thing. How is a batch different?
Each batch starts from one angle: a specific reason a specific patient would act. The next batch is a different angle. Over a month you test many different reasons to buy, each in 5 video formats and 5 statics, instead of one message in many colors.
Do you run our ads?
Only on Performance Partner, for proven brands spending $500K+ a month. On the batch packages, we make the creative and your media buyer or in-house team runs the account. We can introduce media buyers we trust.