Emerson North currently operates this system for clients across healthcare, legal, real estate, and content creation. The frameworks and numbers in this article come from active deployments — not theory.
Patient acquisition cost (PAC) is the total marketing and sales spend required to bring in one new patient. Formula: PAC = Total Marketing Spend / Number of New Patients Acquired
If you spent $2,000 last month on ads and referral incentives and brought in 20 new patients, your PAC is $100. That number is only meaningful against your patient LTV. A $100 PAC against a $10,000 LTV is outstanding. A $100 PAC against a $500 LTV means you have a serious problem.
Include all relevant costs: paid advertising, content creation, referral incentives, lead generation services, and staff time dedicated to intake follow-up. Most practices undercount because they forget labor. Track new patients by source so you can calculate channel-level PAC.
| Practice Type | PAC | Est. LTV | LTV:PAC Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speech Therapy (Pediatric) | $100 | $10,000 | 100:1 |
| Mental Health (Private Pay) | $100 | $6,825 | 68:1 |
| Chiropractic | $111 | $3,120 | 28:1 |
| Physical Therapy | $125 | $2,700 | 22:1 |
| Dermatology | $150 | $3,000 | 20:1 |
| Occupational Therapy | $100 | $2,400 | 24:1 |
A healthy LTV:PAC ratio for healthcare practices should target 10:1 or higher once content and referral channels mature. Paid acquisition at 5:1 is acceptable if the volume is there. At 2:1 you are barely breaking even on acquisition cost before overhead.
When you track PAC by channel, you can answer: Is Google Search worth what I am spending? Should I renew my Zocdoc listing? Is my Instagram time generating real patients? The math answers all of it.
To build a PAC and LTV tracking system alongside a full pipeline dashboard, the Growth Engine includes the reporting infrastructure that makes these numbers visible in real time.
Emerson North builds the marketing systems, CRM pipelines, and content engines behind growing businesses. Active clients include a 150K+ healthcare content creator, a speech therapy practice, a real estate syndication firm, and a digital operations company. The Growth Engine has been running in production since 2023. Questions or feedback: hello@emersonnorth.com
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