100 Patients Are Searching. Your Marketing Reaches 28 of Them.

Of every 100 patients searching for MSK services online right now, your SEO and Google Ads are only reaching 28 of them. The other 72 are finding clinics through AI tools that most practices aren't visible in at all. This post explains where those patients are going, why the ones coming via AI convert at four to five times the rate of traditional search, and why almost nobody is competing for them yet.

Where the 100 Patients Are Actually Going

The data behind this comes from multiple sources and the numbers vary slightly depending on which research you look at, but the direction is consistent.

Around 44 of those 100 people are now using AI tools as their primary search method. Not as an occasional alternative to Google, but as the first place they go. They're typing their question straight into ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or whichever tool they prefer, and getting an answer directly. They never see a Google results page at all.

Of the 56% who do go to Google, around half of those searches now return an AI Overview at the top of the page. That's the generated summary that answers the question before the user sees any links. When that happens, a significant proportion of users get what they need from the overview and don't scroll down to the organic results.

Work through those numbers and you're left with roughly 28 people out of 100 who are reaching the traditional search results where your Google Ads and SEO-optimised pages live. That pool is real, but it's shrinking, and it's shrinking fast.

What the Other 72 Are Doing

The 44 people who go straight to AI tools are having a conversation. They describe their symptoms, ask follow-up questions, get recommendations for practitioners, and arrive at a clinic name before they've visited any website at all.

This matters more than it might initially seem. By the time those patients do click a link, they're already largely decided, which is why the conversion rate for patients arriving via AI recommendations is currently around four to five times higher from AI search, than for patients arriving through traditional organic search. They're not browsing. They're booking.

The 28 who get an AI Overview on Google are also getting a curated answer before they see any links. If your clinic is referenced in that overview, you're well placed. If you're not, you're invisible to them at the most important moment of their search.

Where Does Your Money Actually Go?

Here's the question that matters: are you investing your marketing budget to reach the 72, or the 28?

Right now, almost every clinic's marketing spend is chasing the 28. And while there are still patients in that pool, you're competing for them against every other clinic doing exactly the same thing, in a pool that's getting smaller every month.

Meanwhile, 72 out of every 100 patients are searching through AI tools that almost no clinics are optimised for yet. That's not a niche or an emerging trend, that's the majority of your potential patients, right now, in a space where the competition is still minimal. The window for getting in early won't stay open indefinitely.

And here's the b*mmer: those AI-referred patients convert at four to five times the rate of patients coming through traditional search. They've already had the conversation, done their research, and arrived at your name before they've even visited your website. They're not browsing, they're booking.

Redirecting a meaningful portion of your budget towards AI visibility, which largely means restructuring and adapting content you already have, isn't a gamble. It's the most straightforward reallocation in digital marketing right now. The only question is how long you want to wait before making it.

I'd suggest this is worth thinking about!

Warm wishes

Tor