HealthMark IQ / Benchmarks
Healthcare Marketing Benchmarks 2026
Current benchmarks for paid search, patient acquisition, email, social, reputation and digital access—with the source and methodology behind every number.
Updated August 2026
The short answer
Healthcare marketing benchmarks vary dramatically by specialty and channel. In the strongest current healthcare-specific paid-search dataset, healthcare search campaigns averaged a 6.07% click-through rate, $5.64 cost per click, 8.09% conversion rate and $66.02 cost per lead. Specialty performance ranged from a $18.54 cost per lead in dermatology to $141.17 in mental health, which is why a single “healthcare average” should be treated as context rather than a target.
Overview
2026 healthcare marketing benchmark snapshot
The headline healthcare paid-search figures, with the all-industry comparison alongside. Every panel below carries the dataset, the sample and the period it came from.
6.07%
Healthcare search CTR
$5.64
Healthcare search CPC
8.09%
Healthcare search CVR
$66.02
Healthcare search CPL
Source: LocaliQ · 3,542 campaigns · Oct 2024–Sep 2025 · Published Jan 2026
| Search metric | Healthcare | All industries |
|---|---|---|
| Click-through rate | 6.07% | 6.64% |
| Cost per click | $5.64 | $5.42 |
| Conversion rate | 8.09% | 8.18% |
| Cost per lead | $66.02 | $66.69 |
The healthcare-specific figures come from LocaliQ’s analysis of 3,542 U.S. search campaigns running 1 October 2024 through 30 September 2025. The all-industry comparison uses WordStream/LocaliQ’s separate dataset of more than 13,000 U.S. campaigns running April 2025 through March 2026. The datasets cover different—but overlapping—periods, so the comparison is directional rather than a controlled experiment.
Paid search
Healthcare Google Ads benchmarks by specialty
LocaliQ states these figures are technically medians rather than means, used to reduce the effect of outliers. This is the strongest healthcare-specific paid-search dataset currently available.
| Healthcare specialty | CTR | CPC | CVR | CPL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare overall | 6.07% | $5.64 | 8.09% | $66.02 |
| Addiction Recovery | 4.57% | $3.46 | 0.5% | $120.30 |
| Assisted Living / Elder / Home Care | 6.35% | $6.30 | 5.51% | $74.44 |
| Dermatology | 5.91% | $4.90 | 25.33% | $18.54 |
| Emergency Dentistry | 6.4% | $7.85 | 8.89% | $75.19 |
| Emergency Medicine | 10.33% | $2.29 | 6.89% | $41.68 |
| General Dentistry | 5.06% | $7.03 | 7.74% | $84.77 |
| General Practice / Family Medicine | 5.5% | $5.47 | 11.63% | $62.80 |
| Hearing Aids & Care | 5% | $8.00 | 5.62% | $96.54 |
| Hospitals & Clinics | 7% | $4.90 | 6.1% | $72.97 |
| Mental Health | 4.46% | $4.22 | 1.85% | $141.17 |
| Ophthalmology | 6.52% | $4.95 | 18.29% | $30.88 |
| Oral-Maxillofacial Surgery | 5.89% | $7.85 | 11.6% | $55.15 |
| Orthodontics | 4.35% | $8.76 | 14.21% | $71.52 |
| Physical Therapy | 6.61% | $4.95 | 15.35% | $32.79 |
| Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery | 5.81% | $5.75 | 8.52% | $102.51 |
| Urology | 5.93% | $5.64 | 4.61% | $111.05 |
Compared with the healthcare overall figure
Addiction Recovery
CTR
4.57%
Click-through rate
-25% vs healthcare overall
Healthcare overall 6.07%
CPC
$3.46
Cost per click
-39% vs healthcare overall
Healthcare overall $5.64
CVR
0.5%
Conversion rate
-94% vs healthcare overall
Healthcare overall 8.09%
CPL
$120.30
Cost per lead
+82% vs healthcare overall
Healthcare overall $66.02
The spread is enormous. Dermatology’s measured conversion rate of 25.33% is more than 13 times the 1.85% rate for mental health, while cost per lead ranges from $18.54 to $141.17. That makes an “average healthcare CPL” useful for executive context but poor for setting a specialty-specific performance target.
LocaliQ also found healthcare CTR fell by an average of 11.64% year over year, while CPC rose for 56% of healthcare categories. Despite that pressure, healthcare CPL actually declined an average of 5.83% and conversion rates were nearly flat overall.
Compare your performance
Enter your own paid-search numbers to see how they sit against the benchmark for your specialty. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.
Want the full paid-search view? Open the healthcare Google Ads benchmarks.
Healthcare email marketing benchmarks
There is no single credible 2026 healthcare email open rate. Providers report materially different numbers because they measure different customer populations, campaign definitions and industry taxonomies—and because Apple Mail Privacy Protection distorts reported opens.
| Metric | Benchmark | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Open rate — Health and Wellness Services | 30.68% | Constant Contact |
| Open rate — all Constant Contact customers | 30.8% | Constant Contact |
| Open rate — Medical, Dental and Healthcare | 43.75% | MailerLite |
| Click-to-open rate | 7.31% | MailerLite |
| Click rate (cross-industry) | 2.09% | MailerLite |
| Unsubscribe rate (cross-industry) | 0.22% | MailerLite |
| Open rate | 43.95% | GetResponse |
| Click-through rate | 3.08% | GetResponse |
| Click-to-open rate | 7.01% | GetResponse |
| Unsubscribe rate | 0.21% | GetResponse |
| Bounce rate | 3.17% | GetResponse |
Verified benchmark Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry — Constant Contact · Constant Contact customer base · Jan 2026–Mar 2026 · Published Apr 2026 Provider-reported open rates are affected by Apple Mail Privacy Protection and differ materially between email platforms. View source
Verified benchmark Email Marketing Benchmarks — MailerLite · 3.6M campaigns from 181,000 accounts · Published Jun 2025 MailerLite cautions that Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates reported opens, making click behaviour a more reliable performance signal. View source
Reference benchmark Email Marketing Benchmarks — Health care — GetResponse · GetResponse customer base An older dataset retained as a directional reference point. It should not be presented as measured 2026 performance. View source
Reputation
Search, reputation and patient-choice benchmarks
Press Ganey's research draws on 6.5 million patient encounters plus nationwide consumer survey work, connecting marketing metrics to how patients actually choose a provider.
| Metric | Benchmark | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Healthcare journeys beginning with a Google search | 72% | Press Ganey |
| Search beginning with specialist type | 20% | Press Ganey |
| Search beginning with symptoms or condition | 15% | Press Ganey |
| Search beginning with provider name | 14% | Press Ganey |
| Would reconsider a referred provider rated below 4 stars | 84% | Press Ganey |
| Use online search to find a new primary-care provider | 59% | Press Ganey |
| Cite insurance acceptance in provider choice | 51% | Press Ganey |
| Cite specialty expertise in provider choice | 45% | Press Ganey |
| Cite location in provider choice | 42% | Press Ganey |
| Cite appointment availability in provider choice | 38% | Press Ganey |
| Reviews typically read before booking | 6 | Reported as a range of 5 to 7 reviews. |
Verified benchmark Consumer Experience Research — Press Ganey · 6.5M patient encounters plus a nationwide consumer survey · Published Jun 2025 Combines encounter data with nationally fielded consumer survey research. View source
Patient access
Online scheduling and patient-access benchmarks
Marketers often drive demand into operational bottlenecks. These figures describe what happens after the lead.
| Metric | Benchmark | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Say online scheduling influences provider choice | 80% | Press Ganey |
| Patients saying access improved | 18% | Experian Health |
| Providers saying access improved | 46% | Experian Health |
| Patients saying access stayed roughly the same | 64% | Experian Health |
| Patients saying the payment experience worsened | 32% | Experian Health |
| Patients receiving a cost estimate | 45% | Experian Health |
| Patients saying the estimate was easy to understand | 71% | Experian Health |
| Providers enabling online preregistration | 68% | Experian Health |
| Providers using AI to improve data collection | 28% | Experian Health |
| Patients saying an accurate estimate helps them prepare for payment | 82% | Experian Health |
Verified benchmark Consumer Experience Research — Press Ganey · 6.5M patient encounters plus a nationwide consumer survey · Published Jun 2025 Combines encounter data with nationally fielded consumer survey research. View source
Verified benchmark 2026 State of Patient Access — Experian Health · 1,000+ patients and 200+ healthcare decision-makers · Published Jan 2026 Survey research covering both the patient and provider view of access, estimates and payment. View source
Editorial standard
What we do not publish as a benchmark
Plenty of pages publish an average healthcare customer acquisition cost, a marketing percentage of revenue, a universal website conversion rate or a patient lifetime value. Many trace back to agency estimates, mix B2B healthcare with patient acquisition, or omit a clear denominator. We label data by how much weight it can carry instead.
Every figure on this page carries one of three labels. The definitions appear in the methodology section below, and the label travels with the number wherever it is reused across HealthMark IQ.
How HealthMark IQ selects benchmark data
HealthMark IQ does not treat every statistic published online as an industry benchmark. We prioritise datasets that disclose the population measured, the period analysed, the metric definition and the source methodology. When current healthcare-specific data is unavailable, we identify the figure as a reference benchmark rather than presenting it as measured 2026 healthcare performance.
Benchmarks should be interpreted in context. Results can vary materially by specialty, geography, campaign type, brand strength, payer mix, conversion definition and patient intake process. A lead is also not necessarily a patient: marketing conversion, appointment scheduling, attendance, treatment acceptance and revenue are distinct stages of the acquisition funnel.
- Verified benchmark
- A credible, defined dataset that discloses its population, period and methodology.
- Reference benchmark
- A credible source that is older, broader, or an imperfect match for the question being asked.
- Planning range
- A useful estimate for planning. Explicitly not a measured industry benchmark.
Sources
- Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry — Constant Contact · Constant Contact customer base · Jan 2026–Mar 2026 · Published Apr 2026Population: Health and Wellness Services accounts on Constant ContactProvider-reported open rates are affected by Apple Mail Privacy Protection and differ materially between email platforms.
- 2026 State of Patient Access — Experian Health · 1,000+ patients and 200+ healthcare decision-makers · Published Jan 2026Population: U.S. patients and provider decision-makersSurvey research covering both the patient and provider view of access, estimates and payment.
- Email Marketing Benchmarks — Health care — GetResponse · GetResponse customer basePopulation: Health care senders on GetResponseAn older dataset retained as a directional reference point. It should not be presented as measured 2026 performance.
- Healthcare Advertising Benchmarks — LocaliQ · 3,542 campaigns · Oct 2024–Sep 2025 · Published Jan 2026Population: U.S. healthcare search campaigns on Google and Microsoft Ads, with at least 43 active campaigns in every specialtyLocaliQ states these "averages" are technically median figures, used to reduce the distorting effect of outliers.
- Email Marketing Benchmarks — MailerLite · 3.6M campaigns from 181,000 accounts · Published Jun 2025Population: Medical, Dental and Healthcare accounts on MailerLiteMailerLite cautions that Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates reported opens, making click behaviour a more reliable performance signal.
- Consumer Experience Research — Press Ganey · 6.5M patient encounters plus a nationwide consumer survey · Published Jun 2025Population: U.S. healthcare consumersCombines encounter data with nationally fielded consumer survey research.
- Healthcare Social Media Landscape — Rival IQ · Live competitive panelPopulation: Large healthcare and pharmaceutical brands tracked by Rival IQA live enterprise panel rather than a broad medical-practice dataset. Shown separately and never blended with practice-level data.
- 2025 Healthcare Content Benchmark — Sprout Social · 3B+ messages across 1M+ public profiles · Published Jan 2025Population: Large healthcare brands and systems with active social teamsReflects large healthcare brands with staffed social programmes. It is not a benchmark for an individual physician practice.
- Search Advertising Benchmarks — WordStream / LocaliQ · 13,000+ campaigns · Apr 2025–Mar 2026 · Published May 2026Population: U.S. search campaigns across all industriesA separate dataset from the healthcare study, covering an overlapping but different period. Treat cross-study comparisons as directional, not controlled.
Social
Healthcare social media benchmarks
Sprout Social's healthcare benchmark reflects large healthcare brands with staffed social programmes. Rival IQ's live panel tracks large healthcare and pharmaceutical brands. Neither is a benchmark for an individual physician practice, and the two are shown separately rather than blended.
Verified benchmark 2025 Healthcare Content Benchmark — Sprout Social · 3B+ messages across 1M+ public profiles · Published Jan 2025 Reflects large healthcare brands with staffed social programmes. It is not a benchmark for an individual physician practice. View source
Reference benchmark Healthcare Social Media Landscape — Rival IQ · Live competitive panel A live enterprise panel rather than a broad medical-practice dataset. Shown separately and never blended with practice-level data. View source