Count inquiries before you spend more on ads
Ad platforms count clicks for you. Nobody counts inquiries unless you do. Four steps to count phone, form, messenger and map inquiries with Google's own tools.
“Are the ads working?” To answer that you need to be counting where inquiries come from. Ad platforms count clicks and impressions for you. Nobody counts inquiries on your behalf.
Before raising the budget, count for one month first. It takes four steps.
Clinic inquiries arrive in four places
- Phone. The call buttons on your website and on the map
- Website forms. Consultation and booking requests
- Messengers. KakaoTalk channel, LINE, WeChat, WhatsApp
- Maps. Calls, direction requests and website clicks from your Google Business Profile
International patients often ask by messenger rather than by international call. If you do not count taps on the messenger button, a major route goes missing entirely.
Step 1 — Tag your links
Add tags to the end of every website link you place in ads, social profiles and maps. Google Analytics help says to always use these three together.
| Tag | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
utm_source |
Where it came from | google, instagram |
utm_medium |
What kind of channel | cpc, organic, profile |
utm_campaign |
Which campaign | 2026_jp_lifting |
Values are case sensitive. Google and google are recorded as different sources. Keep everything lowercase.
Step 2 — Record inquiry actions as events
Viewing a page is not an inquiry. Record each of these three actions as an event.
- The call button was tapped
- A form submission finished
- A messenger button was tapped
Google Analytics 4 lets you mark an action that matters most to your business as a key event. Mark these three, and your reports shift from visits to inquiries.
Step 3 — Connect it to your ads
Key events in Analytics can be brought into Google Ads as conversions. Once connected, the ads learn from inquiries and not from clicks, and the numbers in the two tools disagree less.
Without that connection, ads run on clicks and not on inquiries. The search terms with cheap clicks and the ones that produce inquiries are often different.
Step 4 — Add what happens on the map
The performance screen of your Google Business Profile shows views, calls, direction requests and website clicks. Calls and direction requests among these never reach Analytics. Write them down on the same day every month.
| Route | Where to count | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | Analytics, map performance | Button taps |
| Form | Analytics | Completed submissions |
| Messenger | Analytics | Button taps |
| Maps | Map performance | Views, directions, website clicks |
Some things cannot be counted
A tap does not always become a consultation. Call content and word-of-mouth referrals are invisible to tools. Asking “How did you hear about us?” at reception and writing the answer in the same table fills the gap.
One rule is not optional. Never put information that identifies a patient into an analytics tool. Names, phone numbers and treatment details must not be sent as event values.
Frequently asked questions
We get too few inquiries for the numbers to mean anything.
Weekly numbers jump around. Collect three months of monthly numbers before you judge.
Can Naver ads be counted the same way?
The principle is the same: tag the links and count with the same key events. The platforms differ, and the ruler you measure inquiries with has to be one for the comparison to work.
Our agency’s report only shows clicks.
Clicks alone cannot tell you whether the ads are doing their job. Ask for the number of inquiries and the cost per inquiry. If they cannot provide it, it is not being counted.
