DENTAL
Paid media for dental practices.
Dental accounts usually contain two businesses wearing one budget. Emergency searches convert immediately, cheaply and at modest value. Elective and high-value procedures take longer, cost more per click, and need a different page and a different measure of success.
HOW BUYERS BEHAVE
What search looks like in this vertical.
Emergency intent is immediate and local, and the practice that answers the phone wins it. Elective intent - implants, cosmetic work, orthodontic consultations - involves research, price comparison and often a delay of weeks between click and booking, which means last-click reporting understates it. Insurance questions arrive early and filter hard: a practice out of network loses a share of otherwise-qualified demand.
CAMPAIGN STRUCTURE
How we build the account.
- Emergency and elective separated
- Different bids, different hours, different landing pages, and different definitions of success.
- Procedure-level campaigns for high-value work
- Implants and cosmetic procedures justify their own budgets; routine hygiene does not need one.
- Suburban radius strategy
- Around Austin, the Round Rock and Cedar Park suburban corridors compete differently from the urban core and often price differently too.
- Insurance qualification in copy
- Stating network status in the ad and on the page reduces paid clicks from people who will disqualify themselves at the phone call.
WASTE PATTERNS
Where the money goes in accounts we audit.
- "Dentist near me" bid at one price for every procedure and every hour of the day.
- Emergency campaigns running after hours to a landing page with only a form.
- Elective procedure clicks judged on last-click conversions and cut before the booking arrives.
- Dental school, career and insurance-provider searches on broad match.
- Appointment-request forms counted as booked appointments in the conversion column.
WHAT WE REPORT
The numbers that decide whether this worked.
- Cost per booked appointment
- Ad spend divided by appointments confirmed in the practice management system, per procedure group and date range.
- New patient value by procedure group
- Average first-visit and first-year value, used to set separate cost targets.
- Emergency call answer rate
- Share of tracked emergency calls answered by a person during advertised hours.
- Elective consultation rate
- Share of elective-procedure leads that reach a consultation, measured over a window long enough to be honest.
WHAT WE HEAR
The objections, answered.
“Our cost per lead looks fine.”
A blended figure across emergency and elective almost always looks fine, because cheap emergency leads average out expensive elective ones. Split them and the picture usually changes.
“We tried implants campaigns and they did not work.”
Frequently they were judged too early on last-click data. Elective procedures have a consideration delay, and a campaign cut at thirty days is cut before its own results arrive.
FAQ
Questions from dental businesses.
Should emergency and cosmetic campaigns share a budget?
No. They have different urgency, different click costs, different consideration periods and different patient values. Sharing a budget means the campaign that converts fastest quietly takes the money from the one worth more.
How do you handle insurance questions?
By answering them in the ad and above the fold. Stating network status costs some clicks and saves the front desk from calls that were never going to book.
Can you track appointments rather than form fills?
Where your practice management system or CRM records them, yes - that is the number worth optimising toward. Without it we can get to qualified calls and forms, and we will be clear about the difference.
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