285 patient enquiries across three markets. £29 blended cost per acquisition.
A live, international direct-to-patient acquisition system for a novel knee OA treatment - running simultaneously in the UK, Germany, and Sweden, with a Meta CTR more than three times the healthcare benchmark and a per-market cost per acquisition that held below £45 from the first full reporting month.
This is the international patient-acquisition chain on the methodology page, walked in full. See the framework that produced it →
285
patient enquiries across UK, Germany, Sweden
£29
blended cost per acquisition
4.75%
Meta CTR vs sub-1.5% healthcare benchmark
3
international markets running on one system
The challenge
A treatment most patients had never heard of, in markets with very different starting points.
01
Low patient awareness
Arthrosamid sits in a gap between the treatments patients already know about: physio, steroid injections, and knee replacement. It had no cultural presence and no patient community to borrow from. Awareness had to be built from scratch in every market.
02
Three markets, three patient profiles
UK, Germany, and Sweden each required localised messaging, regulatory-compliant claims, and market-specific paid media strategies. What works for a UK patient searching for alternatives to surgery is not the same as a German or Swedish patient doing the same.
03
Private pay with a premium price point
Arthrosamid is a private-pay treatment at a meaningful price point. The campaign had to find patients motivated enough to self-fund. That means reaching the right life-stage, lifestyle, and severity profile, not simply anyone with knee pain.
What we did
A patient acquisition system designed to scale across markets.
Patient persona development
We built detailed patient personas based on lifestyle, life stage, and pain severity. Three primary profiles emerged: the Active Life patient (40s-50s, high activity, not ready to stop), the Late Career patient (50s-60s, managing progression), and the Retirement patient (60s+, quality-of-life focused). Each persona drove distinct creative and channel decisions.
Compliant patient messaging
Medical device regulations vary significantly between the UK, Germany, and Sweden. Every claim was reviewed for compliance in each market before launch, ensuring the campaign was never held back by regulatory risk while remaining compelling enough to convert at scale.
Patient film production
Three patient films were produced, one per persona, featuring real patient stories presented with the Arthrosamid brand identity, subtitles, and AGENCY brand mnemonics. These films became the primary creative asset across paid social, the patient website, and clinic marketing materials.
Meta paid social at scale
Highly targeted Meta campaigns running across all three markets, with creative variants matched to each persona. The campaign sustained over 900,000 impressions per month, a 4.75% average CTR (vs. a healthcare benchmark of under 1.5%), and a top-performing creative delivering 8.83% CTR.
Per-market performance tracking
Each market was tracked independently across enquiry forms and cost per acquisition, so budget could be optimised in real time. The system is designed to scale. New markets can be added using the same infrastructure, creative framework, and measurement model.
The creative
Three personas. Three films. Compliantly produced.
Each film matches a distinct patient profile and ran across paid social, the patient website, and clinic marketing materials in all three markets. Hover to preview.
40-50 years · Early-stage osteoarthritis
Active Life
Patient film
50-60 years · Balancing work and recovery
Late Career
Patient film
58-75 years · Quality of life
Retirement
Patient film
Performance · March 2026
Three markets. One system. All performing.
United Kingdom
£25
cost per acquisition
180
patient enquiry forms
Germany
£28
cost per acquisition
70
patient enquiry forms
Sweden
£45
cost per acquisition
40
patient enquiry forms
Cost per acquisition figures shown are Google paid search spend. Enquiry form counts rounded to the nearest ten.
285
Total patient enquiry forms across all markets
£29
Blended cost per acquisition across UK, Germany, Sweden
4.75%
Average Meta CTR vs. sub-1.5% healthcare benchmark
900k+
Monthly impressions across UK, Germany, Sweden
Top-performing creative delivered 8.83% CTR. The UK market generated roughly 180 patient enquiry forms at £25 cost per acquisition in its strongest month to date, making this one of the most cost-efficient patient acquisition campaigns run for a privately-funded medical device in this category.
The insight behind it
“The treatment is effective. The clinical evidence is strong. The only thing the patient is missing is the knowledge that it exists and that it is available to them. That is not a medical problem. It is a marketing one, and it is solvable at international scale.”
Running patient acquisition across markets?
The Arthrosamid system was built once and scaled to three countries. If you have a private-pay treatment and patients who need to find it, we know how to build the infrastructure that connects them - compliantly, measurably, and at a defensible cost per acquisition.
Talk to us about your patient acquisition challengeOr read the methodology for the diagnostic framework behind this engagement, or browse the Direct-to-Patient service.