The Client
A rapidly growing aesthetic medicine practice with 4 locations across Germany, offering advanced skin treatments, injectables, and aesthetic procedures. They had ambitious expansion plans but faced two critical challenges: high patient acquisition costs through traditional marketing channels, and the long ramp-up time when opening new locations.
Their head of marketing identified the problem: they were spending €25+ per lead on Facebook and Google ads, and when they opened a new location, it took months to fill practitioner calendars while paying full overhead costs. They needed a scalable marketing channel that could generate qualified leads affordably AND build a patient pipeline before opening new clinics.
The Challenge
High acquisition costs limiting growth At €25-€50 per lead through paid ads, scaling to new locations meant burning significant cash before seeing returns. The math barely worked, and aggressive expansion was financially risky.
Slow ramp-up at new locations When opening a new clinic, they had to start marketing from scratch in that city. It took 3-6 months to build enough of a patient base to achieve profitable practitioner utilization. During that time, they were paying rent, staff salaries, and overhead while operating well below capacity.
Ad platform dependency They were completely reliant on Facebook and Google. When ad costs spiked or algorithm changes tanked performance, their entire lead generation suffered. They needed an owned marketing asset.
No way to pre-qualify or segment leads Paid ads brought in everyone - qualified prospects and tire-kickers alike. There was no efficient way to segment leads by location, specific treatment interest, or readiness to book before spending time and resources on follow-up.
The Solution
The head of marketing approached me with an idea: what if we could create a free tool that attracted potential patients organically, built a lead database before opening new locations, and provided value that people would actually share with friends?
I figured out how to make it work technically.
The concept: A 3D skin scanner where people could upload a selfie and get an instant, personalized skin analysis with their estimated skin age and treatment recommendations.
My research and technical approach:
I knew we couldn't build an in-house AI model just for this, so I researched available APIs that could handle facial analysis. I found a skin analysis API that could take a selfie photo upload and return detailed skin data, overlays, and age estimates - exactly what we needed.
What I built:
MVP Launch (9 days):
October 7: Started development
October 16: Fully deployed to production
The initial version was intentionally simple to get it live fast:
Clean upload interface for selfie photos
Integration with the skin analysis API
Results page showing skin age and treatment recommendations
Email capture to receive detailed report
CRM integration so leads flowed directly into their marketing system
Conversion tracking: I set up complete funnel analytics from homepage visit → tool usage → email submission, so we could measure and optimize performance.
Post-launch improvements:
After proving the concept worked, I collaborated with their designer to significantly improve the experience:
Built pixel-perfect implementations of detailed Figma designs
Improved UI/UX based on user behavior data
Enhanced the results presentation to be more engaging and shareable
Sanity CMS integration: I integrated everything with Sanity CMS so the marketing team could update content, treatment descriptions, and recommendations without needing me for every change. This gave them control and speed.
Multi-language support: Set up the tool to work in multiple languages, enabling them to attract international patients who travel to Germany for aesthetic treatments.
Location-based segmentation: Built the system to automatically tag leads by the city they submitted from. This allowed the marketing team to target specific geographic cohorts rather than blasting everyone with the same message. Critical for their pre-launch strategy in new cities.
Viral mechanics: The tool was built to be easily shareable. We saw organic sharing happening through WhatsApp and Instagram DMs as people sent their results to friends.
The REsults
€25 → €3-5 cost per lead Acquisition costs dropped by about 88%. Instead of paying for cold ad clicks, they could now drive traffic to an owned asset that converted at high rates.
9,000+ qualified leads generated Over the 16-month engagement, the tool consistently generated high-quality leads across all current and future locations.
60-70% conversion rate The funnel from homepage visit to email capture converted at 60% initially, then improved to 65-70% after design refinements. This is exceptional for a lead generation tool.
Organic viral spread People naturally shared the tool with friends. We tracked referral traffic from WhatsApp and Instagram DMs, meaning free organic reach beyond paid traffic.
Pre-launch location advantage For new clinic openings, they could now run campaigns driving their target city to the skin scanner tool 2-3 months before opening. By launch day, they had hundreds of qualified leads already warmed up and ready to book, shortening ramp-up time.
Geographic targeting capability Location-based lead tagging enabled sophisticated marketing campaigns. They could send different messages to leads in different cities, promote location-specific offers, and nurture leads in cities where they were considering expansion.
Team autonomy The Sanity CMS integration meant marketing could update content, add new treatment recommendations, and iterate on messaging without waiting for development cycles.
Still running and generating leads today 16+ months after launch, the tool continues to be their primary lead generation engine with minimal ongoing maintenance costs.
Timeline
October 7: Started development
October 7-9: API research and integration
October 10-15: Core tool development and testing + CRM integration and analytics setup
October 16: Deployed to production
Total: 9 days from start to live
Post-launch (ongoing):
Design improvements and conversion optimization
Sanity CMS integration for content management
Multi-language support
Enhanced analytics and segmentation
Key Takeaways
This project succeeded because we didn't try to build everything perfectly from day one. We launched an MVP in 9 days to validate the concept, then continuously improved it based on real user data.
The key was identifying the right API to power the skin analysis rather than trying to build complex AI ourselves. Sometimes the smartest technical decision is knowing what NOT to build.
The 80%+ cost reduction came from shifting from renting attention (ads) to owning an asset (the tool). And the viral mechanics came from providing genuine value - people shared it because it was actually useful and interesting, not because we asked them to.
For their business model, the location-based segmentation was critical. It transformed the tool from just a lead generator into a strategic asset for geographic expansion.
Want similar results for your practice?
Let's discuss how custom technology can reduce your patient acquisition costs and build your pipeline before you even open new locations.