One clinic per market: why we sign exclusivity into every contract
Ask any agency one question: 'Who else do you work with in my city?' The quiet conflict in healthcare marketing — and why we contractually refuse it.
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Ask your marketing agency one question: "Who else do you work with in my city?"
If the answer is a pause, you have learned something important. Much of healthcare marketing runs on a quiet conflict of interest: the same agency, the same keywords, the same map pack — sold to three competing clinics at once, each billed monthly for the fight between them.
The conflict, concretely
There is one top spot on the map for "med spa near me" in your area. There are a handful of profitable ad positions for the same search. If your agency also serves your competitor, every ranking it wins for them is a ranking it costs you — with your money in one pocket and theirs in the other. Nobody has to be evil for this to go badly. The structure does the damage on its own.
An agency serving two rivals isn't playing to win your market. It's playing to keep two subscriptions alive.
What exclusivity changes
Incentives. One clinic per market per specialty means our only way to succeed is your market share growing. There is no hedge.
Candor. We can tell you exactly which keywords, offers and neighbourhoods to attack, because that plan is not simultaneously for sale to anyone across town.
Compounding. Everything we learn about your market — which ads convert, which pages rank, which offers book — compounds for one clinic instead of being averaged across rivals.
The honest trade-off
Exclusivity means we say no. If your specialty in your city is taken, we will not onboard you — not at any budget, and we would rather tell you quickly than waste your week. It also means the engine has to work, because we cannot replace you with your competitor if it does not. We think that is exactly the pressure a growth partner should live under.
How to pressure-test any agency (including us)
- Who else do you serve in my metro area, in my specialty — now or planned?
- Will you put market exclusivity in the contract?
- What do you report on — impressions, or booked appointments and revenue?
- Who owns the ad accounts, the website, and the data if we part ways?
Any partner worth signing answers all four in writing without flinching. Ours are in the method, and the exclusivity check takes one conversation: tell us your specialty and your city, and we will tell you if it is open.
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