More budget doesn't fix a leaky bucket. Healthcare practices are showing up in search, using AI in daily workflows, and reaching patients across more digital channels — yet leads are still slipping through the cracks before they ever become booked appointments.
The biggest growth opportunity, argued CallRail's Senior Vertical Marketing Manager Amanda Kepshire and Baruch Labunski, founder and CEO of RankSecure — a Google Premier Partner agency with over 20 years in digital marketing — in a recent Greystone.Net webinar: it's not a bigger budget, but knowing what's working and having the intake structure to act on it.
Bigger budgets, but not better results
Healthcare marketing budgets are up, with 62% of healthcare practices planning to increase marketing spend this year. Most new dollars are going toward digital visibility channels, such as influencer marketing (58%), email (50%), and video (48%).
Yet, 63% say lead follow-up and conversion is their single biggest operational challenge. Until that's fixed, bigger budgets won't book more patients. Amanda describes it as a leaky bucket: practices keep pouring more into campaigns, but inquiries drain out before they become booked appointments.
Practices are getting better at being found, but it breaks down during the intake process when a patient reaches out.
– Amanda Kepshire, Senior Vertical Marketing Manager, CallRail
Only 51% of healthcare marketers say they’re extremely confident they know which channels generate their best patients. The practices that do know have one thing in common: a structured intake process.
The clients with strong intake know their numbers. Because of this workflow, their attribution is clean, and it gives them confidence to scale the right channels.
– Baruch Labunski, founder & CEO, RankSecure
Why leads aren’t converting to patients
The intake process at most practices wasn't built for the volume or speed that digital marketing now demands. 58% of practices still rely on front-desk staff as their primary method for handling new patient inquiries. 49% route web form submissions straight into a shared email inbox. Fewer than half use automated routing, a CRM, or call tracking as part of their intake process.
These mostly manual processes have a human cost for staff as much as patients. A patient clicks an ad, fills out a contact form, and the submission lands in an inbox no one follows up on. Amanda experienced this herself: she filled out a med spa’s contact form twice and never heard back until she called directly days later.
Meanwhile, the front-desk staff fielding those calls are spending their time logging notes and chasing follow-ups instead of caring for the patients in front of them.
According to CallRail data, 28% of calls go unanswered across all industries. In healthcare, that number ranges from 24–42%, with smaller practices trending toward the higher end, where front-desk staff often manage intake, scheduling, and patient care simultaneously. 78% of consumers have taken their business elsewhere after failing to reach a company by phone.
Three things growing practices do differently
As Baruch outlined, the practices converting the most inquiries into patients aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets, but they build intake systems that make timely, consistent follow-up easier in three ways:
- They centralize intake. Every inquiry — call, form, text — lands in a single dashboard with a clear next step, so nothing gets missed and no one has to chase information across systems.
- They automate time-sensitive steps. Missed calls, after-hours inquiries, and form fills trigger instant auto-replies, keeping prospective patients from moving on to the next practice while staff are with someone else.
- They connect their tools. Call, form, and conversation data live in one system — including AI-generated call summaries that replace manual note-taking and free staff to focus on patient care rather than documentation.
When intake is consistent, conversions improve without increasing any ad spend.
– Baruch Labunski, founder & CEO, RankSecure
How CallRail connects marketing spend to booked patients
CallRail unifies patient inquiries, marketing sources, and follow-up activity, ensuring no lead slips through the cracks.
- Call Tracking ties inbound calls to the campaigns that drove them.
- Form Tracking gives form fills the same visibility as phone calls.
- Premium Conversation Intelligence™ summarizes conversations, flags patient intent, and identifies sentiment so teams can understand patient needs faster.
- Voice Assist picks up when your team can't — capturing patient information, booking appointments, and keeping things moving until a staff member can follow up.
CallRail also supports HIPAA compliance when used with its Healthcare Plan and a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
The result: Faster responses, fewer lost leads, and a clearer path from ad spend to booked appointments.
As Amanda put it, the impact goes beyond capturing more leads: consistent intake means better data, better data means smarter spend, and smarter spend means more patients in your chairs.
Stop the leak: See how CallRail can help your practice turn more inquiries into appointments.
Try CallRail free for 14 days — no credit card required — to track, capture, and convert every patient inquiry, from the first call to the confirmed appointment.
