What each one is, in the vendor's own terms
Lead ads are a Meta ad format in which the form opens inside the app the patient is already using, with some fields filled from the profile. A landing page is a page on your own domain, with your own form, your own tracked phone number and your own booking link, that the ad sends the patient to. Both produce a name, a phone number and a question. The difference is what happens in the next ten minutes, and where the name is stored in ten months.
The speed-to-lead question is settled by what fires on submission
A lead that is not answered in minutes is answered by the next practice Jess scrolled past. With lead ads the form submission lands first in the ad account. The practice gets it when something pulls it out: a download by hand, an email notification, or an integration that fires in seconds. The integration is the difference between a lead answered in one minute and one answered on Tuesday. With a landing page the form posts straight into your system, and the tracked phone number on the page rings the desk. Either path is fast when something fires the moment the form is submitted. Build that first, whichever you pick.
The data-ownership question is settled by where the name is written first
A landing page form writes to your CRM or record system the moment it is submitted, with the consent language you wrote, the source field filled, and the question Jess typed. A lead ad form writes to the ad account first. Pull every lead out the same day into the same CRM, with the campaign name in the source field. Otherwise the names sit in an account the practice may not control, and access to it turns on who the admin is and which agency holds the login. The consent you collect on either form, what it covers and how it is stored, is a question for counsel before the first text goes out.
Cost per lead rewards the easiest form; cost per booked consult rewards the channel that produced patients
Cost per lead is the number the ad platform shows, and it favors the form that takes the fewest taps. Cost per booked consult is the spend divided by consults that went on the calendar, and cost per completed first visit is the spend divided by patients who sat in a chair. Run both paths for the same month with the same budget, and compare on the second and third number only. A campaign with a low cost per lead and one with a higher cost per lead can finish in either order once the consults are counted. The follow-up that never happened has its own cost. The missed-call calculator puts a figure on the leads that rang the desk and were never answered, from your own call log and ticket.
| Question | Lead ads (the form in the app) | Landing page (your form) |
|---|---|---|
| Where the lead lands first | In the ad account, until something pulls it out | In your CRM, the moment it is submitted |
| Speed to the first text | As fast as the integration you connect; by hand, as slow as the next download | As fast as the system behind the form; the tracked number rings the desk |
| What you own afterward | What you exported, with the fields the form captured | The form, the consent language, the source field and the page itself |
| What you can test | The ad and the form questions | The ad, the page, the offer, the form and the phone number |
| The number to read | Cost per booked consult and per completed first visit | The same two numbers, on the same sheet |
How the answering system works with each path
- Lead ads: the integration fires on submission and the lead lands in the CRM with the campaign as the source. A text goes out within a minute in Dana's words, offering two consult times with a link. A call follows at the time Jess picks. Consent for that first text is captured on the form, with wording confirmed by counsel.
- Landing page: the form posts to the same CRM and triggers the same text. The tracked phone number on the page is answered by the practice's system when the desk cannot pick up, and the call is logged against the campaign.
- Both: the source field is set by the system, not typed by Priya, so cost per booked consult can be read by campaign next month without anyone remembering where Jess came from.
- Both: a lead that does not reply gets one more text and one call, then a quarterly note from Dana. Nothing more.
How to run the test in one month
- Split one budget in two: a lead ad campaign and a landing page campaign, same offer, same audience.
- Connect the lead ad integration before the campaign runs, and test it with your own phone.
- Put a tracked number and a tagged booking link on the landing page, and nowhere else.
- At month end, count booked consults and completed first visits by source, divide the spend, and put the two numbers side by side. Move next month's budget toward the lower cost per completed first visit.
What to do next
NorthCore's Answer every patient solution connects both paths to your CRM, sends the first text within a minute of either form, and shows cost per booked consult by campaign on the dashboard. Results in 90 days, or we keep working until you have them.
