CampfireWhat it costs to book a patient from Meta ads in cash-based PT and chiro, 2026
Across 9 cash-based PT and chiro clinic ad accounts we manage, $166,898 of Meta spend in the last twelve months bought 4,188 leads at a pooled $39.85 per lead ($61.34 for patient leads only). Where bookings were tracked, a booked appointment cost $131.96. CPM was $18.63, CTR 1.8%.
Why we published this
Every owner we talk to asks the same two things: "what should I expect to pay for a patient?" and "is what I'm paying good or bad? I have no gauge." There was no public number for cash-based clinics specifically. These are ours.
Cost per lead by month
Pooled across the accounts active each month (two to six). The decline through 2026 is real but partly mix: one account added a low-cost lead-magnet campaign in May.
Cost per lead by monthly spend
Median across accounts in each tier. Small accounts pay more per thousand impressions and less per lead, because local audiences click more. The $1k to $5k tier's median is pulled up by two accounts with broken landing pages; the pooled figure for that tier is $17.35.
| Monthly spend | Accounts | Median CPM | Median CTR | Median CPL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <$1k/mo | 4 | $29.67 | 3.11% | $26.34 |
| $1k-5k/mo | 4 | $22.90 | 3.77% | $105.47 |
| $5k-15k/mo | 1 | $17.67 | 1.48% | $58.48 |
Cost per booked appointment
Only 3 of 9 accounts fire a booking event, which is itself a finding: most clinics running ads cannot say what a booked patient costs. Across those accounts, $17,947 of spend produced 136 booked appointments, $131.96 each. Per account: $51, $167, $224. One account with year-round tracking landed at $167.49.
For comparison, a hybrid online-program account outside the clinic set booked 372 calls at $29.72 each with a direct "book now" page. The page, not the ad, is the lever.
What to do with these numbers
- If you pay under $58 per lead and don't know your cost per booked patient, fix tracking before you touch the ads. How to track where patients come from.
- If you pay over $100 per lead, the landing page or the offer is broken. Two accounts in this set were at $600+ per lead on $3k of spend for exactly that reason.
- Size a starting budget from $58 per lead: $1,500 a month is roughly 25 leads, enough to learn from. Starting budgets.
Method
Pulled from the Meta Ads API for every PT and chiro clinic account under Campfire Creative Media's business, October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, account level, monthly. "Lead" is Meta's lead field (pixel, CAPI, instant form, on-Meta leads). "Booked appointment" is the Schedule conversion event, campaign level, lifetime for the window. 6 accounts had no spend and are excluded. One account's online lead-magnet campaigns ($4,902, 1,547 leads) are removed from the "patient lead" figure. Three online-program and agency accounts are excluded from the clinic set. Accounts are aggregated; no clinic is identifiable. The largest account (about three-quarters of spend) runs DM-objective campaigns and no booking event, so its true cost per lead is understated.
Cite as: Campfire Creative Media, The Campfire Benchmark: Meta ads for cash-based PT and chiro clinics, edition 1, October 2026, https://campfirecreativemedia.com/benchmark/cash-pt-meta-ads-2026. Free to reuse with attribution.
Questions around the fire
What does a lead cost for a cash-based PT clinic on Meta?
Across 9 cash-based PT and chiro clinic accounts managed by Campfire, October 2025 to September 2026, the pooled cost per lead was $39.85, or $61.34 once one account's online lead-magnet campaigns are removed. The median account paid $58.48.
What does a booked appointment cost from Meta ads for a PT clinic?
Where bookings were tracked with a Schedule event (3 accounts, 136 bookings), the pooled cost per booked appointment was $131.96. The median account paid $167.49. Treat this as a range, not a rule: the sample is small.
What is a good CPM and CTR for physical therapy Facebook ads?
In this dataset the pooled CPM was $18.63 (median account $22.50) and pooled CTR was 1.8% (median account 3.61%). Small local accounts pay a higher CPM but see a higher CTR.
Where does this data come from?
Directly from the Meta Ads accounts Campfire Creative Media manages for cash-based PT and chiropractic clinics, pulled through the Meta API, aggregated so no clinic is identifiable. It is refreshed every quarter.
How many clinics are in the benchmark?
15 clinic accounts were in scope; 9 spent in the window and are included. Total spend $166,898.