22 September 2026 · 5 min read · Oscar Markham
What a veterinary practice should advertise, and it is not services
Look at almost any Irish veterinary practice's advertising and you will find individual services being promoted like items in a shop. It treats a relationship business as a transactional one, and it leaves most of the value on the table.
What a client is worth
A registered client is not one consultation. It is years of vaccinations, check-ups, dental work, and the occasional expensive episode — for one animal, and frequently for several across a family's lifetime.
Once that figure is worked out properly, what you can afford to spend attracting one changes completely, and almost always upwards.
The two moments people choose a vet
Almost nobody switches practice on a whim. The choice gets made twice: when a new animal arrives, and when somebody moves house.
Outside those windows, loyalty is high and advertising largely bounces off — which is why general awareness campaigns for practices tend to disappoint.
Where the registrations actually come from
Breeders, rescues, groomers and trainers, who are talking to new owners at exactly the moment the decision is being made.
Those relationships outperform advertising by a wide margin and cost nothing but time. Targeting recent movers covers the other window.
The one thing worth saying plainly
Out-of-hours arrangements. It is among the most common reasons people leave a practice, and among the least clearly communicated.
Saying exactly what you cover and what happens at three in the morning builds more trust than any offer, and it prevents the worst kind of complaint — the one from somebody who assumed.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.