The full definition
Patient Acquisition Cost (sometimes called CAC, Customer Acquisition Cost) is the total marketing and sales spend divided by the number of new patients acquired in a period. The 'fully-loaded' version includes intake coordinator salaries, CRM and call tracking costs, agency fees, and any other directly-attributable spend. PAC is most useful when paired with Patient Lifetime Value (LTV) — a healthy ratio is roughly 3:1 LTV to PAC.
Why it matters in practice
Most practices know their cost per lead but not their cost per booked patient. The leap from lead to booked patient is where AI follow-up and intake speed matter most — practices that respond in under 30 seconds book 2–3× more patients from the same lead volume, effectively cutting PAC in half.
Real-world examples
- $10,000/mo Google Ads → 100 leads → 30 booked patients = $333 PAC (just ad spend)
- $10,000/mo Google Ads + $4,000/mo intake staff → $467 fully-loaded PAC
- After implementing AI follow-up: $10,000/mo Google Ads → 100 leads → 60 booked patients = $167 ad-only PAC
Inside Velant
Velant practices typically see PAC drop 30–50% within 60 days of implementing AI Voice Agent + sub-30-second AI Lead Follow-up — same ad spend, 2× the booked patients.
Related terms
- DNI (Dynamic Number Insertion)A call tracking technique that dynamically swaps the phone number on a website based on the visitor's traffic source — enabling closed-loop attribution from ad click to phone call.
- GCLID (Google Click ID)A unique identifier appended to Google Ads click URLs that allows offline conversion uploads back to Google Ads for closed-loop attribution and bidding optimization.
- FBCLID (Facebook / Meta Click ID)A unique identifier appended to Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads click URLs that allows offline conversion uploads via the Meta Conversions API.