How to Reach New Patients Within 5 Miles of Your Practice

If you're a local healthcare provider, chances are your best patients live nearby. But traditional marketing makes it easy to waste budget—targeting people too far away, running generic ads that don't resonate, or paying for impressions that never turn into appointments.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to advertise your healthcare practice within a 5-mile radius using smart, hyperlocal digital tools—so you can attract more of the right patients without burning your marketing budget. These strategies are especially helpful for healthcare providers focused on local visibility.

Why a 5-Mile Radius Matters for Healthcare Providers

• Over 70% of patients choose providers within a short drive from home or work (Source: NRC Health)
• Especially for urgent care, family practices, dental, and vision clinics—convenience is king
• Targeting broader areas can lead to wasted impressions and lower conversion rates

Whether you're running a pediatric clinic or a chiropractic office, your best marketing ROI comes from reaching people close to your physical location.

The Problem With Traditional Healthcare Advertising

• Billboards or local magazines (high cost, low targeting precision)
• Social media boosts (often target too broad or the wrong audience)
• Search ads (competitive, with rising CPCs)

These methods can drive visibility—but they don’t guarantee you’re reaching the right local people. And without tight control over geography and intent, you’re likely paying for visibility without impact.

Enter: Hyperlocal Digital Ads

Hyperlocal advertising allows you to target people based on where they are, where they've been, and even what they do online—within a specific geographic radius.

With platforms like HeyNeighbor, it works like this:

Step 1: Pick Your Radius

Choose a 3-, 5-, or 10-mile radius around your office. You can even target by zip code or a custom map boundary.

Step 2: Define Your Ideal Patient

Want to reach parents with young children? Retirees? Working professionals? Use device data and location behavior to serve ads to those most likely to book.

Step 3: Show Up on the Apps and Sites They Already Use

• Mobile apps like news, weather, games, health, and lifestyle
• Websites patients visit every day
• Across devices (phones, tablets, laptops, even streaming TV)

Step 4: Retarget to Stay Top of Mind

Re-engage people who clicked your ad or visited your site but didn’t schedule—building familiarity and trust over time.

Real-World Case Study: Radius Targeting for a Dental Practice

A good example of this in action is Radiant Dental, a regional dental group that ran a hyperlocal campaign around their office locations using a 5-mile radius and mobile-first ad delivery. They specifically targeted mothers with young children and showed ads near high-traffic areas like schools, grocery stores, and pharmacies.

Results:

• 1,567 tracked walk-in visits
• A 30% lift in new patient bookings
• 80% of appointments came from within the targeted radius

Smart Targeting for Different Healthcare Providers

Why HeyNeighbor Works Better for Local Practices

• Radius-based targeting (as tight as a neighborhood)
• Done-for-you ad setup and reporting
• Transparent pricing—no platform fees or fluff
• Retargeting included

You focus on care. We’ll handle the ads.

Final Thought: Don’t Just Advertise—Localize.

Today’s patients want local, convenient, and trusted providers. By focusing your advertising within a 5-mile radius and showing up where your ideal patient already is, you can grow your practice smarter—not louder.

👉 Start a campaign or book a demo with a local ad expert to see how it works.