Case study
How CitiGen Solutions grew clinic enquiries while cutting its reliance on paid search
The group's flagship clinic went from 2,973 measured enquiries in its first seven months to 8,656 in the latest twelve, while paid search leads stayed flat and fell from 44% of all enquiries to 23%.
- Client
- CitiGen Solutions Ltd
- Sector
- Private dermatology
- Region
- United Kingdom
- Footprint
- Flagship clinic site, plus five focused service sites
- 8,656
- Clinic enquiries in the latest year
- 60%
- Share of enquiries from organic search
- 23%
- Share of enquiries from paid search
- 8.3%
- Enquiry rate from AI assistant sessions
Google Analytics key events, September 2025 to August 2026
Up from 38% in the first period, February to August 2024
Down from 44%, on a paid lead count that barely moved
The highest of any channel in the latest year. Organic search was 1.1%
The situation
A clinic that had to keep buying its own patients
CitiGen Solutions runs a private dermatology practice in the UK. Its flagship clinic had a working website and a Google Ads account that did most of the heavy lifting. In the first months we measured, paid search brought in 44% of every enquiry the clinic received, from under a third of its visits.
That is a workable position and an uncomfortable one. Demand was real, but the cost of reaching it was a monthly bill that had to be paid again every month to hold the same ground. Nothing was compounding.
The medical director's question was not how to spend more. It was whether the same enquiries could come from somewhere that did not reset to zero when the budget paused.
The approach
One clinic site, plus five sites that each did one job
Rather than pile every treatment onto the flagship site, the group built five further sites, each built around a single service in a single area. Each one answers the questions someone actually types when they have that specific problem in that specific place, and each one is measured on its own terms.
The flagship kept the brand and the group's authority. The focused sites went after the demand that a general clinic page tends to answer only in passing.
The figures on this page cover the flagship clinic property only. The focused sites are part of the story, and they are not in this data.
One job per site
A site that answers one question for one area can be genuinely complete on that question, which a section of a larger site rarely is.
Measured separately
Each site carries its own tracking, so a site that is not working is visible early rather than hidden inside a group total.
The flagship keeps the brand
Group authority, the consultant profiles and the trust signals stay on the main clinic site rather than being diluted across six.
The results
Enquiries kept climbing, and the paid line stayed where it was
The clearest way to read this engagement is not the total. It is what happened to the two channels underneath it.
Organic search enquiries went from 1,129 to 3,356 to 5,207. Paid search enquiries went from 1,297 to 2,052 and then back down to 1,953. Between the two complete years, paid enquiries fell slightly while organic enquiries rose by more than half. Paid search enquiries were close to flat between the two complete years, so paid search cannot explain the change, which is what makes the rest of the movement worth reading.
Clinic enquiries by channel
Total height is every enquiry the clinic recorded. Paid search is the one band that stops growing. The first column covers seven months, the other two a full year each.
- Organic search
- Paid search
- Direct
- Other channels
Source: Google Analytics 4, flagship clinic property. Key events are the clinic's lead events (enquiry form, call and booking). Periods end 29 August; the first covers February to August 2024.
View the figures as a table
| Period | Organic search | Paid search | Direct | Other channels | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 (7 mo) | 1,129 | 1,297 | 527 | 20 | 2,973 |
| 2025 | 3,356 | 2,052 | 601 | 204 | 6,213 |
| 2026 | 5,207 | 1,953 | 950 | 546 | 8,656 |
Where enquiries came from, as a share
The same enquiries as a mix. Paid search fell from 44% of the clinic's enquiries to 23% without its lead count dropping much, because everything else grew past it.
- Organic search
- Paid search
- Direct
- Other channels
Source: Google Analytics 4, flagship clinic property. Key events are the clinic's lead events (enquiry form, call and booking). Periods end 29 August; the first covers February to August 2024.
View the figures as a table
| Period | Organic search | Paid search | Direct | Other channels | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 (7 mo) | 1,129 (38%) | 1,297 (44%) | 527 (18%) | 20 (1%) | 2,973 |
| 2025 | 3,356 (54%) | 2,052 (33%) | 601 (10%) | 204 (3%) | 6,213 |
| 2026 | 5,207 (60%) | 1,953 (23%) | 950 (11%) | 546 (6%) | 8,656 |
Sessions from organic and paid search
Between the two complete years, paid search visits were essentially flat at 39,349 then 38,319, while organic visits went from 169,063 to 434,553. The first column covers seven months, so it is not a like-for-like comparison against the other two.
- Organic search
- Paid search
Source: Google Analytics 4, flagship clinic property. Key events are the clinic's lead events (enquiry form, call and booking). Periods end 29 August; the first covers February to August 2024.
View the figures as a table
| Period | Organic search | Paid search |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 (7 mo) | 43,369 | 26,210 |
| 2025 | 169,063 | 39,349 |
| 2026 | 434,553 | 38,319 |
What we did not expect
The smallest channel converts the best
In the latest year, Google Analytics started reporting an AI assistant channel for this property: people arriving at the clinic from an answer engine rather than a results page. It is small, at 1,013 visits against 434,553 from organic search.
It also converts better than anything else the clinic has. 8.3% of those visits produced an enquiry, against 4.8% for paid search and 1.1% for organic. That is a seven times higher enquiry rate than the channel doing four hundred times the volume.
Small numbers move around, and one year is not a trend. But it is the clearest signal we have that being the answer an engine gives is worth measuring separately from being a result on a page.
Enquiry rate by channel, latest year
Share of sessions that produced an enquiry. Volume and conversion rate point in opposite directions.
Source: Google Analytics 4, flagship clinic property, session key event rate, September 2025 to August 2026.
View the figures as a table
| Period | Session enquiry rate | Total |
|---|---|---|
| AI assistant | 8% | 8% |
| Paid search | 5% | 5% |
| Referral | 4% | 4% |
| Organic search | 1% | 1% |
| Direct | 1% | 1% |
How to read these numbers
These are the clinic's total figures across every channel, including paid search, which ran throughout the period. The page is not claiming that search visibility produced all of this growth.
What the channel breakdown does support is narrower and more useful: paid search enquiries were 1,297, then 2,052, then 1,953. Paid was close to flat, and slightly down between the two complete years, while total enquiries rose in every period. The growth above that line came from somewhere other than paid search.
The first period covers seven months, not twelve. Analytics was installed when the engagement began in January 2024 and started collecting in February, so there is no earlier data. Any comparison against it is a comparison against a short period, and the axis says so.
The share of sessions producing an enquiry fell across the period, from 3.2% to 1.3%. That is what happens when a site starts ranking for broader questions asked earlier in the decision: more of the traffic is people who are reading rather than booking. The clinic's enquiry count still rose in every year.
All figures cover the flagship clinic's Analytics property. The group's five focused service sites are described here but are not included in these numbers.
Questions about this case study
Does this show that SEO caused the growth?
Not on its own. It shows that paid search enquiries stayed roughly flat while total enquiries rose from 6,213 to 8,656 between the two complete years, which means the additional enquiries came from the non-paid channels. That is a narrower claim than causation, and it is the one the data supports.
Why does the first period only cover seven months?
Analytics was installed at the start of the engagement in January 2024 and began collecting the following month. There is no earlier data for this property, so the first column is labelled as a seven month period rather than presented as a year.
Why is the enquiry rate falling if the work is going well?
The site began ranking for broader questions that people ask well before they book. That brings in more readers per enquiry, so the percentage falls even as the number of enquiries rises. The count is the figure a clinic actually banks.
Are the clinic's websites named anywhere?
No. CitiGen Solutions agreed to the figures being published but not the site addresses, so the sites are described by what they do rather than named.
What is the AI assistant channel?
It is how Google Analytics labels visits arriving from an answer engine rather than a search results page. It is a small channel for this clinic and the highest converting one, which is why it is charted separately rather than folded into referral traffic.