Patient acquisition case study | Bariatric surgery | France | Google Ads, Meta Ads, procedure-specific landing pages and local search

Case Study Summary

Client / Practice Type: Small private surgical practice
Medical Specialty: Bariatric surgery
Market: France
Starting Point: Approximately 20–30 bariatric surgeries per year
Main Challenge: Heavy reliance on referrals and no consistent patient acquisition system
Strategy: Google Ads, Meta Ads, procedure-specific landing pages and local search
First 12-Month Result: +100 sleeve gastrectomies
Second 12-Month Result: 260 sleeve gastrectomies
Current Target: 300 sleeve gastrectomies over the current 12-month period
Strategy Led and Implemented By: Nils Dávila through Medical Marketing Agency
Important note: We are not acquiring 100% of patients from our Ad Campaigns, most of the patients this year come through referrals from patients that did come from Ad campaigns, it is a snowball effect that we have created.

The Starting Point

When I began working with the practice through Medical Marketing Agency in mid-2024, the surgeon was performing approximately 20 to 30 bariatric surgeries per year, together with a small number of intragastric balloon procedures.

The problem was not the surgeon's clinical work.

Patients who reached the practice through referrals were already willing to choose him for treatment. The problem was that relatively few potential patients outside that referral network knew he existed.

The practice had limited visibility online, a small social media presence and no structured patient acquisition system. Previous attempts with freelancers and other marketing providers had also failed to create a meaningful acquisition channel.

This was particularly challenging in France, where communication around medical services is highly regulated and conventional direct-response approaches can create unnecessary compliance risk.

The goal was therefore not simply to generate more leads.

It was to create a predictable way for suitable prospective patients to discover the practice, understand the procedures available and progress toward a consultation.

The Patient Acquisition Strategy

I designed and implemented a multi-channel acquisition system built around one central principle:

The metric that ultimately matters is not the number of leads generated, but the cost and predictability of acquiring an actual patient.

A campaign producing hundreds of inexpensive inquiries is not particularly valuable if those people do not answer the phone, cannot afford the procedure or have little intention of progressing.

For a surgical practice, the more useful questions are:

• How much does it cost to acquire a patient who ultimately has surgery?

• What percentage of consultations convert into procedures?

• How long does the patient decision process take?

• At what acquisition cost can advertising spend be increased sustainably?

With that framework in place, Google, Meta and the practice's own online presence each played a different role.

Google Ads: Capturing Existing Demand

Google Ads were used to reach people who were already actively researching bariatric surgery.

These were prospective patients further along in the decision process, searching specifically for surgical solutions rather than simply looking for ways to lose weight.

The purpose of Google was therefore straightforward: make the practice visible when existing patient intent was strongest.

Meta Ads: Reaching Patients Earlier

Meta Ads addressed a different part of the patient journey.

Many people living with obesity are actively looking for a solution but have not yet considered bariatric surgery or started searching for a surgeon.

Meta made it possible to reach some of these potential patients earlier in the decision process and introduce bariatric treatment as an option.

The objective was not to generate the largest possible number of leads. Campaigns were designed around reaching a smaller, relevant audience and allowing appropriate prospective patients to progress naturally toward a consultation.

Procedure-Specific Landing Pages

Instead of sending advertising traffic to a generic medical website, dedicated landing pages were created for individual procedures.

This allowed each page to continue the context of the patient's search or advertisement and provide information specifically related to the procedure they were considering.

For a patient coming from Google or Meta, this created a much clearer path than landing on a broad practice website and having to search for the relevant information themselves.

Google Maps and Local Search

The practice's organic visibility was also improved through Google Maps and local search.

Before the strategy was implemented, even someone actively searching for bariatric treatment had relatively few opportunities to discover the surgeon organically.

Improving local visibility supported the paid acquisition channels while creating another source of patient discovery that did not depend directly on advertising.

What Happened Inside the Practice

The marketing system was designed to work with a relatively small private practice rather than requiring the surgeon to build a large organization.

I was responsible for the marketing strategy, advertising campaigns, landing pages and acquisition infrastructure.

Once prospective patients entered the system, the surgeon and his assistant continued to manage inquiries, follow-up and consultation booking internally.

This distinction was important.

Marketing could create a predictable flow of suitable prospective patients, but the practice still needed someone internally who could respond to inquiries, follow up and move patients toward a consultation.

Results

Before the new acquisition system was implemented, the practice was performing approximately:

20–30 bariatric surgeries per year

During the first approximately 12-month period, from mid-2024 to mid-2025, the surgeon reported completing:

213 sleeve gastrectomies

During the following approximately 12-month period, from mid-2025 to mid-2026, he reported completing:

260 sleeve gastrectomies

The practice is now working toward:

300 sleeve gastrectomies between mid-2026 and mid-2027

That target is equivalent to approximately 25 procedures per month.

The 300 figure is a current objective, not a completed result.

The figures above were provided directly by the surgeon and should therefore be understood as client-reported practice figures rather than independently audited data.

Why the Strategy Worked

The biggest constraint was visibility, not the clinical offer.

The surgeon already had evidence that patients who reached the practice were willing to choose him. What was missing was a consistent way to reach suitable people beyond the existing referral network.

Google and Meta then solved two different acquisition problems.

Google captured patients who were already searching for bariatric surgery.

Meta reached potential patients earlier, before they had developed explicit search intent.

Procedure-specific landing pages gave those patients relevant information once they interacted with the advertising, while local search increased the practice's visibility outside paid campaigns.

Most importantly, the strategy was not evaluated primarily by lead volume.

A large number of inquiries can look impressive in an advertising dashboard while producing very few actual patients.

The more useful question was:

How much does it cost to acquire a patient who ultimately chooses surgery, and can that acquisition cost support further growth?

That shift in focus made it possible to evaluate marketing based on the economics of the practice rather than surface-level campaign metrics.

A Small Practice Can Still Build Predictable Demand

One of the useful lessons from this case is that increasing patient volume does not necessarily require turning a private practice into a large clinic.

The surgeon remained focused on clinical work while an assistant helped manage incoming prospective patients, bookings and follow-up.

The objective of the acquisition system was not organizational expansion for its own sake.

It was to create enough predictable demand for the surgeon to operate a highly productive practice while keeping the structure relatively simple.

Why the Practice Is Anonymized

The surgeon has been anonymized because of the strict rules governing medical communication in France and to avoid creating unnecessary regulatory exposure through the commercial use of his professional identity.

About the Strategy

The patient acquisition strategy described in this case was developed and implemented personally by Nils Dávila through Medical Marketing Agency.

The project combined Google Ads, Meta Ads, procedure-specific landing pages and local search with a focus on understanding the economics of acquiring an actual surgical patient rather than optimizing campaigns around lead volume alone.

Although this case involved bariatric surgery, the underlying approach is applicable to other private surgical practices where patient value is high, the decision process is complex and the quality of the prospective patient matters more than generating the largest possible number of inquiries.

Today, Nils applies the same principle to patient acquisition systems designed for private medical practices that want more control over their marketing and a clearer understanding of what it actually costs to acquire a patient.

Learn more about the In-House Patient Acquisition System