Does all the LASIK Advertising bother anyone but me?

[golfman]

First of all, I'm a 3rd year, and as of now Ophthalmology definitely where I want to be. I won't bore you all with the details of why I enjoy it so much. So many positive, great things about the field.

The one thing the drives me absolutely crazy, though, is all the advertising that I see for LASIK. Part of me just wants to set up shop somewhere, advertise just a bit, and do a great job and just build up patients by word of mouth. It seems, though, at least in my city, that those that actually do LASIK are the ones you hear all the time on the radio, in the newspaper, on TV, and at professional sporting events advertising.

I don't know even know why this bothers me, but it does. One LASIK center in our city spends over $1,000,000 in advertising EVERY YEAR, I've heard from a friend in the Ophthalmologist community.

For those in group of private practice, do you have to advertise much to do LASIK????

I guess it may just be a necessary evil, but it's annoying as @#$@!

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[Visionary]

LASIK (and PRK, etc.) is a cosmetic procedure, which means there is cash on the barrel head. Whenever that's the case in medicine, there will be competitive advertising. Take plastic surgery, as the most prominent example. The advertising budgets can be tremendous, depending on the level of competition in the area. Usually, there are a few practices that are the highest volume and highest advertisers. Keep in mind, however, that advertising is part of your overhead. With the price of LASIK dropping, and doc-in-the-box setups like LASIK Plus out there, that can be a significant burden nowadays. Some practices pay upwards of 70% for overhead! Many are simply scaling back the advertising (I'm seeing fewer billboards, TV ads from practices in my area). Other practices, like my group, rely entirely on word of mouth, focus on cataracts and premium IOLs, do a modest volume of LASIK (Intralase is leased), and have an overhead percentage in the mid 50s. I prefer our setup, but you can take your pick.

 

[golfman]

Do you see cataract surgery following the same route as LASIK in future, in terms of advertising and radio ads and newspaper ads and stuff? I know it's a procedure covered by insurance, but the premium lenses can be considered cash, I guess, and an incentive for centers to pop up and focus solely on cataract surgery.

 

[Visionary]

Do you see cataract surgery following the same route as LASIK in future, in terms of advertising and radio ads and newspaper ads and stuff? I know it's a procedure covered by insurance, but the premium lenses can be considered cash, I guess, and an incentive for centers to pop up and focus solely on cataract surgery.

Not likely. Premium IOLs have been out for a while now. There are some practices advertising them, but the fact is that, as an ophthalmologist, patients will come to you for cataract evals regardless. You can simply discuss premium IOLs at those visits, and it doesn't cost you anything but time. With LASIK, your trying to convince prospective patients to get out of glasses/contacts, when they may not even have a problem with them, aside from inconvenience.

 

[eyesupply]

I don't like any of the drug ads. The evening news has mostly drug ads.

 

[Meibomian SxN]

...For those in group of private practice, do you have to advertise much to do LASIK????

I guess it may just be a necessary evil, but it's annoying as @#$@!

Yes & Yes.

One has to advertise for mostly all out of pocket cosmetic surgeries. Heck, mostly all of medicine is advertising nowadays. Some of the hospitals advertise so good these days it makes you wish you had a brain tumor so you could undergo the fancy "Cyber Knife" that's advertised!

On my drive to work I see a Plastic Surgeon billboard advertisement everyday: Humongous picture of a woman's cleavage, with the words: "At least you're not texting!"

Then I see another Plastic Surgeon billboard advertisement closer to work: 2 signs with just the huge bold words "Breast Implants"; second sign reads "Butt Implant."

 

[DKofLV]

Yes & Yes.


Then I see another Plastic Surgeon billboard advertisement closer to work: 2 signs with just the huge bold words "Breast Implants"; second sign reads "Butt Implant."

Is there a third billboard that says: "Total Wallet-ectomies on us"

 

[tridentc]

I am kind of a website nut. Since advertising on websites is a large industry and growing every day, I try to keep up with the money makers.
Just for the keyword "Lasik" advertising can get around $13 per click.
Now if you get "Laser Eye Surgery" advertising, it can get you around $21 per click, HOWEVER there is less people looking for that term.

My point being is that another revenue stream can be advertising on your website. Its starting to be very common practice now and depending on how generic and widely searched your domain names is, you could generate some a good cash flow.

For instance you can pick up "OPHTHALMOLOGIST.COM". Its a very generic name and picks up around 60,000 exact searches per month. That is WITHOUT advertising. That is natural website traffic. That means if you do it right, you would have a HUGE opportunity to catch a large if not nearly all those 60,000 hits per month. With site advertising (Lasik) you have the potential to make a large sum of revenue.

Now if you had a more focused domain like "eyedoctorofsilverdale.com" for instance. The natural traffic on that domain is less then 100 hits a month. Not many people typing that into Google and searching. The only way for you to gain more web traffic would be to advertise (Radio, TV, Phonebook...etc). The other problem here is that advertising on your website (something like Lasik) will not get you much money at all.

In summary, advertising could be a huge benefit if you do it correctly. Great domains are NOT cheap but can be a HUGE profit maker if you do it right while a more focused domain will cost you less but you will need to spend (way too much in my opinion) tons just to drive traffic to your site and not to mention that the lack luster traffic numbers will hurt your ability to make advertising profit from your website.

Just food for thought. Take from it what you will.
Cheers

 

[IndianaOD]

First of all, I'm a 3rd year, and as of now Ophthalmology definitely where I want to be. I won't bore you all with the details of why I enjoy it so much. So many positive, great things about the field.

The one thing the drives me absolutely crazy, though, is all the advertising that I see for LASIK. Part of me just wants to set up shop somewhere, advertise just a bit, and do a great job and just build up patients by word of mouth. It seems, though, at least in my city, that those that actually do LASIK are the ones you hear all the time on the radio, in the newspaper, on TV, and at professional sporting events advertising.

I don't know even know why this bothers me, but it does. One LASIK center in our city spends over $1,000,000 in advertising EVERY YEAR, I've heard from a friend in the Ophthalmologist community.

For those in group of private practice, do you have to advertise much to do LASIK????

I guess it may just be a necessary evil, but it's annoying as @#$@!

The most successful Lasik / cataract practices in this area don't do heavy advertising. The successful practices are mainly referral from co-managing optometrists. Recommendations from ODs allow them to keep their prices higher and reduce overhead.

Around here the doc-in-a-box Lasik places with in house opticals and all that are suffering.

Unfortunately health care is turning into a commodity for many so I wouldn't be surprised that premium IOLs follow the same path in popular urban areas. "Bifocal IOLs with the amazing intralase cataract surgery for $$" "Walk-in's welcome"

 

[azzarah]

I don't mind at all. Business helps the economy.