If you searched for a healthcare marketing agency near me, you were probably looking for someone who knows your local market. This hub gives you that knowledge directly. For 33 metros across the US and Canada, the city pages show what patients search, what each Google Ads click costs there compared with the national average, who lives in the area, which state or provincial marketing rules apply and a sample budget. Medfy built these pages from Google Ads Keyword Planner data and official sources; the numbers are the same whether you hire a local agency, run marketing yourself or use software.
Why local data matters more than a local office
What a local agency sells, beyond labor, is local knowledge: which services people search for in your area, what clicks cost here, which state rules apply. Most of that can be measured, and it changes more between cities than most owners expect.
Take one search, "dentist near me". A click averages $21.87 in Phoenix and $10.52 in New York City. In Canada the spread is wider still: $38.74 in Calgary against $15.50 in Toronto. Demand differs just as much. Seattle produces 3.3% of all US searches for "physical therapy near me", well above its usual share, and Vancouver produces 20% of Canada's searches for "registered massage therapist near me".
An office down the street doesn't make those numbers visible; data does. Our guide to choosing a healthcare marketing agency covers what to ask any provider, local or not.
Where Medfy fits. Medfy is software, not a local agency. It has no local offices and doesn't claim local clients in any of these cities. Every practice gets the same plan at the same price: $349 a month for the website, automated SEO, AI visibility tracking, analytics and reporting, with optional Google Ads management ($199 a month), Meta ads with AI creatives ($199 a month) and a HIPAA AI chat widget ($49 a month). Ad spend is paid to Google and Meta directly, never marked up. Details are on pricing.
What changes from city to city: demand, click costs and rules
Demand. The US figures cover Nielsen DMAs: a DMA (Designated Market Area) is a broadcast-market region, usually a metro plus surrounding counties, which Google uses as a location target. Canadian figures cover the city itself. Even after allowing for market size, the mix of searches varies:
- In Phoenix, "primary care doctor near me" makes up 5.9% of US searches for that phrase, against about 2.2% for most searches there.
- In Los Angeles, elective searches (dental implants, Invisalign, med spa) each account for about 6% of US volume, while pediatric and OB-GYN searches account for about 3.3%.
- In Calgary, "registered massage therapist near me" is just 1% of Canadian searches, the mirror image of Vancouver.
Click costs. Google decides which ads show, and in what order, through an auction. Its ad auction explainer (opens in a new tab) says Ad Rank combines your bid, ad quality, Ad Rank thresholds and the context of the person's search. So a city's average cost per click (CPC) reflects local competition for that search, and your own price depends partly on how relevant your ads are. The patterns aren't uniform within a city: San Francisco Bay Area dental clicks cost 23% below national while "therapist near me" costs 34% above it.
Rules. State and provincial rules add a third layer. Examples verified for the city pages:
- Washington: the My Health My Data Act (opens in a new tab) bans geofences of 2,000 feet or less around in-person care sites for tracking people or sending them health ads.
- California: since January 1, 2025, AI-written messages about a patient's clinical information need a disclosure, per the Medical Board's GenAI notification page (opens in a new tab).
- British Columbia: the physicians' college advertising standard (opens in a new tab) bars inducements such as discounts and time-limited offers.
Each city page lists what we verified for its state or province, and says plainly when an official source couldn't be checked. This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm how it applies to your practice with a qualified advisor.
Cities with the most and least expensive patient clicks
The table ranks every city by the average CPC for "dentist near me", the one search with solid volume in all 33 markets. The US national average is $14.71 on 1,830,000 monthly searches; the Canadian average is $17.03 on 246,000.
| Rank | City | "dentist near me" searches/month | Avg. CPC | vs national |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phoenix | 40,500 | $21.87 | +49% |
| 2 | Las Vegas | 14,800 | $19.68 | +34% |
| 3 | Denver | 33,100 | $19.39 | +32% |
| 4 | Austin | 22,200 | $19.34 | +31% |
| 5 | Tampa Bay | 40,500 | $19.01 | +29% |
| 6 | Miami | 27,100 | $18.91 | +29% |
| 7 | Orlando | 33,100 | $18.88 | +28% |
| 8 | Houston | 90,500 | $18.75 | +27% |
| 9 | Orange County | 18,100 | $18.28 | +24% |
| 10 | Los Angeles | 110,000 | $17.28 | +17% |
| 11 | Dallas–Fort Worth | 60,500 | $17.24 | +17% |
| 12 | Seattle | 40,500 | $17.06 | +16% |
| 13 | Washington, DC | 49,500 | $16.99 | +15% |
| 14 | Charlotte | 22,200 | $16.68 | +13% |
| 15 | Nashville | 14,800 | $15.85 | +8% |
| 16 | Chicago | 60,500 | $15.85 | +8% |
| 17 | San Diego | 18,100 | $15.76 | +7% |
| 18 | Atlanta | 49,500 | $15.42 | +5% |
| 19 | Kansas City | 12,100 | $15.37 | +4% |
| 20 | Indianapolis | 18,100 | $15.33 | +4% |
| 21 | San Antonio | 18,100 | $15.31 | +4% |
| 22 | Portland | 18,100 | $14.32 | -3% |
| 23 | Raleigh–Durham | 22,200 | $14.15 | -4% |
| 24 | Boston | 33,100 | $14.00 | -5% |
| 25 | Philadelphia | 60,500 | $12.37 | -16% |
| 26 | Cincinnati | 12,100 | $12.22 | -17% |
| 27 | Minneapolis–St. Paul | 22,200 | $12.21 | -17% |
| 28 | San Francisco Bay Area | 40,500 | $11.28 | -23% |
| 29 | Cleveland | 18,100 | $10.71 | -27% |
| 30 | New York City | 165,000 | $10.52 | -28% |
| 1 (Canada) | Calgary | 14,800 | $38.74 | +127% |
| 2 (Canada) | Vancouver | 8,100 | $17.93 | +5% |
| 3 (Canada) | Toronto | 40,500 | $15.50 | -9% |
Google Ads Keyword Planner data via DataForSEO, 12-month average to Sep 2026. US rows are DMAs (Orange County is the county); Canadian rows are cities, compared with the Canadian average. All CPCs in USD.
Dental is only one specialty. The extremes for others, among the 30 US metros:
| Search | Most expensive | Least expensive | US average |
|---|---|---|---|
| therapist | Denver, $42.47 | Portland, $21.80 | $29.53 |
| fertility clinic near me | Los Angeles, $38.81 | Las Vegas, $4.92 | $14.66 |
| laser hair removal near me | Phoenix, $40.74 | San Francisco Bay Area, $8.75 | $16.94 |
| chiropractor near me | Portland, $19.94 | Boston, $5.99 | $10.02 |
| pediatrician near me | Cincinnati, $20.06 | Portland, $2.25 | $5.11 |
| urgent care near me | Chicago, $6.97 | Minneapolis–St. Paul, $1.94 | $3.79 |
Same source. The patient search demand by city (data) page has the full set of searches for every metro.
Find your city
West
- Los Angeles: the second-largest market in our data, with the highest fertility-clinic CPC ($38.81).
- Orange County: implant searches run about twice the county's usual share, at $42.18 a click.
- San Diego: the most expensive lip filler clicks in our data, but cheap pediatric and OB-GYN clicks.
- San Francisco Bay Area: dental clicks 23% below national, therapy clicks 34% above.
- Seattle: strong physical therapy demand, cheap PT and orthodontic clicks, and Washington's health-data law.
- Portland: the cheapest Invisalign clicks and the most expensive chiropractor clicks in the US data.
- Denver: the highest therapy and psychiatry CPCs we measured.
Southwest and Texas
- Phoenix: the priciest "dentist near me" clicks in the US and outsized primary care demand.
- Las Vegas: pediatrician clicks at 2.5 times national; the cheapest OB-GYN clicks.
- Houston: 90,500 monthly "dentist near me" searches; urgent care clicks at $6.95 against $3.79 nationally.
- Dallas–Fort Worth: urgent care at $6.27 and Invisalign at $15.55, both well above national.
- Austin: the highest Invisalign ($23.50), audiologist ($28.05) and breast augmentation ($22.06) CPCs in our data.
- San Antonio: speech therapy clicks at $22.26, nearly double the national $11.47.
Midwest
- Chicago: the highest urgent care CPC ($6.97) and LASIK at $59.06 a click.
- Minneapolis–St. Paul: the cheapest urgent care clicks in our data ($1.94).
- Cincinnati: "pediatrician near me" at $20.06, about four times national.
- Cleveland: the cheapest plain "dentist" clicks ($10.48) among US metros.
- Indianapolis: hearing care is pricey, with audiologist clicks at $24.04.
- Kansas City: the highest "hearing aids near me" CPC ($19.38) and laser hair removal at $24.18.
Southeast
- Miami: "therapist near me" at $36.08 and pediatrician clicks at $13.53.
- Tampa Bay: 40,500 monthly "dentist near me" searches at $19.01.
- Orlando: "dentist near me" at $18.88 and allergist clicks well above national.
- Atlanta: orthopedic doctor clicks at $17.47, the highest in our data, and the cheapest dental implant clicks.
- Raleigh–Durham: Invisalign at $14.78 and speech therapy at $16.04, both above national.
- Charlotte: the highest OB-GYN ($8.88) and primary care ($10.90) CPCs in our data.
- Nashville: the most expensive "med spa near me" clicks ($10.80).
Northeast
- New York City: the most searches (165,000 a month for "dentist near me") and the cheapest clicks for that search.
- Washington, DC: the highest orthodontist CPC in our data ($32.35).
- Philadelphia: the most expensive physical therapy clicks ($10.42).
- Boston: the cheapest orthodontist clicks ($11.53) and psychiatrist clicks at $26.73.
Canada
How to use your city page to plan a budget
- Find your search. Open your city's page and find the search closest to your main service. Note the monthly searches and the local CPC.
- Turn budget into clicks. Clicks = monthly budget ÷ CPC.
- Apply your own rates. Multiply by the share of clicks that become calls or forms, then by the share of those that book. Use your own history where you have it; every city page labels its example rates as assumptions.
- Check the ceiling. Search volume caps what money can buy. A city with 1,300 searches a month for your service won't deliver 500 clicks however much you bid.
- Compare with patient value. If the ad cost per new patient is close to what a patient is worth, shift effort to your Google Business Profile and website, which don't charge per click.
Hypothetical arithmetic: $1,500 a month on "dentist near me" buys about 69 clicks in Phoenix ($21.87), 143 in New York City ($10.52) and 39 in Calgary ($38.74). With an assumed 12% of clicks becoming inquiries and 60% of those booking, that's about 5, 10 and 3 new patients. Replace both rates with your own before you decide anything.
Before you set a budget at all, a free marketing audit scores your website, SEO, Google listing, AI visibility, social and ads, and lists the five fixes that matter most.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a local healthcare marketing agency?
Not necessarily. A local agency's real advantage is local knowledge: what patients in your area search, what clicks cost there and which state or provincial rules apply. Those facts can be published and checked, which is what these city pages do. What you still need is someone, in-house, an agency or software, to keep your Google listing, website and ads current every week and to report results you can verify.
Why do Google Ads cost more in some cities?
Google sets ad positions in an auction that weighs each advertiser's bid, ad quality and the context of the search, so prices reflect local competition for each search. In our data the same search can cost very different amounts: 'dentist near me' averages $21.87 a click in Phoenix but $10.52 in New York. Your own costs also depend on how relevant your ads and landing pages are.
Which cities are covered?
Thirty US metros and three Canadian cities: Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Chicago, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Miami, Tampa Bay, Orlando, Atlanta, Raleigh–Durham, Charlotte, Nashville, New York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.
How was the local data collected?
Search volumes and cost-per-click averages come from Google Ads Keyword Planner via DataForSEO, as 12-month averages to September 2026. US figures cover Nielsen DMA regions; Canadian figures cover the city itself and are reported in US dollars. Population figures come from the US Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 estimates and Statistics Canada's 2021 Census. State and provincial rules were checked on official sources.