The interview partners
Prof. Dr. Patrick Da-Cruz is a professor of business administration and health management at the Faculty of Health Management at Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences (HNU) and the academic director of the MBA program in Leadership and Management in Healthcare.
Prior to joining HNU, Dr. Da-Cruz worked at leading strategy consulting firms in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors and held executive positions at companies in the healthcare industry both in Germany and abroad.
Max-Raphael Feibel has been the founder and managing director of the digital agency Partner & Söhne (a Google Ads Premium Partner) since 2017, with a focus on healthcare marketing. As a licensed nurse with over ten years of clinical experience, he combines industry knowledge with digital strategies for medical practices, medical care centers, and clinics in German-speaking countries. Feibel serves as a guest lecturer and regularly publishes articles on healthcare-specific topics on LinkedIn and on his own website.
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How has marketing in medical practices changed in recent years?
Max-Raphael Feibel: The trend can be described simply as a shift from print to digital, and from digital to AI. However, this simplification does not do justice to the immense complexity behind it.
What has changed structurally is the relationship between visibility and impact. Until a few years ago, the logic was that visibility led to appointment bookings. That is no longer guaranteed today. AI systems answer questions without patients having to visit a website. An increasing proportion of appointment bookings takes place through apps from specialized appointment booking portals such as Doctolib and others. In addition, we are currently seeing consent rates of between 50 and 60 percent for cookie banners in the healthcare sector. This means that we are not collecting relevant data from half of all website visitors. For digital campaigns whose algorithms rely heavily on data quality, this is an increasingly challenging situation.
On top of that, patients today are more informed than ever before. When a practice communicates, it must anticipate where a person is in the patient journey: Are they still researching, have they already started comparing options, or are they looking for a specific appointment? Each phase requires different content and different digital touchpoints. At its core, however, healthcare communication remains what it has always been: building trust. Patients don’t make a purchasing decision; they make a decision based on trust. Practice marketing that focuses primarily on conversion fundamentally underestimates this aspect.
Through which digital channels—from social media and Google Ads to reviews—can practices most effectively attract new patients and retain them over the long term?
Max-Raphael Feibel: There is no one-size-fits-all answer. The right channel depends on the competitive landscape, location, specialty, and objectives. However, a practice’s own website remains the central element: it is the only place where a practice has complete control over its data as well as creative and content freedom. External portals are useful supplements, but they are no substitute.
A marketing strategy is crucial for attracting new patients. Before launching any initiatives, we identify who our target patients are, what prior knowledge they bring with them, and what an ideal solution to their problem would look like. Understanding this allows us to approach marketing with empathy.
Search engines primarily reach people with a clear search intent—this is known as pull marketing (“We draw patients to our website”). When it comes to services that are not yet in high demand, new treatment methods, or preventive care options, social media ads offer a way to bring these topics to the attention of potential patients (push marketing).
In addition to the immediate visibility provided by advertisements, building a sustainable online presence through local search engine optimization (Local SEO) remains a key tool in digital practice marketing.
Service offerings, reputation, and trust are essential for long-term patient retention. In-house patient portals, through which test results and documents can be accessed at any time, are becoming increasingly important in this regard. By diversifying communication channels and utilizing artificial intelligence—for example, through digital reception systems, online appointment booking, or AI-powered phone assistance—a practice can ensure it remains accessible even outside of regular office hours while also reducing the workload on the practice team.
Active reputation management is also mandatory for healthcare providers. According to a representative survey conducted by Bitkom Research in 2023, online reviews carry the same weight as recommendations from personal contacts for 37 percent of respondents.
The patient journey is becoming increasingly digital. How can medical practices leverage digital touchpoints to communicate in a more patient-centered, personalized, and trustworthy way?
Max-Raphael Feibel: Today, the first point of contact is almost always digital, and it determines whether the next step will be taken. Digital communication is a conversation that must begin before a person walks through the practice’s doors. From my time in clinical practice, I know how significant the information gaps between healthcare professionals and patients can be. A well-designed practice website, with clear explanations, well-maintained FAQ sections, and insights into daily practice life, enables an encounter on equal footing.
It is becoming increasingly important for the appointment booking process to be as clear and simple as possible. In a survey conducted by Bitkom Research last year, 75% of patients stated that they would like to have the option to book appointments online. This is no longer just a matter of convenience, but an expectation that patients have of medical practices.
To succeed in the digital realm, you need measurable results. Which metrics are particularly important for medical practices in online marketing?
Max-Raphael Feibel: This is one of the questions I often start my consulting sessions with. Many practices aren’t familiar with their relevant metrics because no one has taken the time to explain these figures to them and put them into context.
The foundation is built on three key metrics: cost per lead, cost per acquired patient, and patient lifetime value. Based on these metrics, we can calculate very precisely at what point a given initiative becomes economically viable. In addition, we examine the conversion rate—that is, the percentage of website visitors who actually book an appointment.
A unique challenge in the healthcare sector is the non-linear patient journey. Someone sees an ad, reads reviews weeks later, and then books an appointment. Traditional web tracking does not reliably capture this time span, leading to distorted data and incorrect budget decisions. That’s why we rely on future-proof server-side tracking in our projects, which provides us with up to 50 percent more data to inform our decisions.
Looking ahead, what emerging trends could bring about lasting changes in communication between medical practices and patients over the next five years?
Max-Raphael Feibel: Four developments seem particularly relevant to me in this regard:
- Search behavior is undergoing a fundamental shift. AI systems are answering general health questions directly, leading to a noticeable decline in informational traffic to medical practice websites. What remains are visitors with a specific intent to take action, which will require different types of content and a diversification of conversion paths.
- Agentic-AI: AI systems that not only answer questions but also act independently, check availability, compare practices, and book appointments without the user having to intervene. In this scenario, anyone who isn’t machine-readable, doesn’t have structured data, and doesn’t offer API-enabled appointment booking will simply be left out.
- The E-E-A-T principle continues to gain importance: experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness are key factors for search engines and AI systems. This significantly boosts the importance of personal branding for healthcare professionals. An anonymous practice website will struggle more than a site backed by a person with proven professional expertise.
- Video content is becoming one of the most important factors in building trust before a patient’s first visit: The key question is no longer, “What qualifications does this practice have?” but rather, “Do I trust this person?” Short-form videos in which practitioners introduce themselves or provide insights into their treatment options represent a fundamental shift in how trust is established in the healthcare sector.
Thank you very much for the interview!
The content and statements presented in the interviews reflect the perspectives of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the editorial staff’s position.
