Google Ads for dentists that fill the schedule with new patients,
Dental is one of the best niches for Google Ads and one of the easiest to waste money in. A search for "dentist near me" can be a $1,200 new patient or a job seeker. "Dental implants" can be a $6,000 case or someone researching prices for next year. We build dental accounts that tell the difference, track every call and booking back to the keyword, and put budget where the high-value treatments are. not price shoppers.
LEADSTACK™ Five layers. One account that keeps growing.
Most Google Ads accounts are one campaign wearing five hats. LEADSTACK is how we build a lead-gen account instead: the campaign types stacked in the order that pays, each layer fed by the booked jobs the layer below it produced. Below, the stack as we build it for dentists.
Remarketing · videoSupport
Remarketing · displaySupport
Performance MaxScale
Local Services AdsCore
SearchCore
One campaign, five jobs
Booked jobs → Google
0:00 · The leak
You are paying for clicks. You need booked jobs.
Most accounts we audit have one campaign doing five jobs, broad match with no negative list, and Google optimizing toward form fills it never sees close. That is where the budget goes.
0:38 · Layer 1 · Search
Capture the demand that already exists.
Exact and phrase match, split by service value and urgency, with call ads while someone answers the phone. The base of the stack and usually 55 to 70 percent of the budget.
1:12 · Layer 2 · Local Services Ads
Pay per lead, above the ads.
Where the category qualifies, the Google Screened or Guaranteed badge sits above every search ad. We run it beside search, dispute junk leads weekly and compare cost per booked job each month.
1:40 · Layer 3 · Performance Max
Scale, but only on real data.
Performance Max finds more of the people who already book with you, if it is fed booked-job conversions and fenced with brand exclusions and search themes. Switched on in month two or three, never on day one.
2:10 · Layer 4 · Remarketing on display
Bring back the 95 percent who left.
Most visitors do not call on the first visit. A small display budget, 30-day windows and one message per service keeps the quote request alive for a few dollars a day.
2:35 · Layer 5 · Remarketing on YouTube
Be the name they remember.
For long decisions like a roof, an implant or an injury case, six-second bumpers to past visitors cost cents per view and lift branded search and close rate.
3:05 · The loop
Booked jobs flow back to Google. Bids follow revenue.
Offline conversion imports tell Google which clicks became customers, so every layer bids toward the cases that pay. By month three the target is hit, or our fee drops to zero until it is.
Film in production · storyboard preview0:00 / 3:40
The film is being shot with Hamid this quarter. Until it is live, the storyboard above walks the same chapters.
Google Ads works for dentists who can answer the phone.
We keep the roster short on purpose. These are the dentist practices we do the most for, and the ones we turn away.
Good fit
Private practices and small groups (1–5 locations) that want more new patients, not just more calls
Practices with a treatment worth promoting: implants, Invisalign, cosmetic, emergency, sedation
A front desk or call service that answers during ad hours and books on the first call
Willing to run a real new-patient offer and let us test it
Not yet
Practices that cannot see or track their schedule (no PMS access, no call tracking)
Anyone expecting Google Ads to fix a 3.9-star review profile first
Budgets under $100 a day in a competitive metro
Where dentists lose money
Three leaks in most dentist accounts
We see the same three problems in almost every dentist account we take over. Each one is fixable in the first month.
01
Emergency searches at 9pm go to whoever answers
Emergency dental is the highest-intent search there is. If your ads run 24/7 but nobody picks up after hours, you are paying for calls your competitor books. We schedule ads and route calls around your real availability.
02
Implant and Invisalign budgets get eaten by general terms
One campaign for everything means "cheap dentist" and "dental implants cost" share a budget with your best treatment. We split campaigns by treatment value and bid accordingly.
03
You cannot see which calls became appointments
Google counts a 12-second call as a conversion. We track call duration, filter spam, and connect your practice management software so booked appointments, not calls, drive the bidding.
The audit checklist: mistakes we fix in most dentist accounts
One campaign for all treatments, so "cheap dentist" and "dental implants" share a budget
Broad match with no negative list, paying for jobs, schools and DIY searches
Ads running 24/7 while the phone goes to voicemail after 5pm
Conversions counting every call, including 8-second wrong numbers
No separate branded campaign, so brand searches inflate the "new patient" numbers
Sending implant clicks to the homepage instead of an implant page with a consult offer
No offline conversion import, so Google optimizes for calls instead of booked patients
How new patients search
Four moments. Four different campaigns.
The same person searches differently at each stage. Treating them as one keyword list is how dentist accounts pay big-ticket click prices for small-ticket searches.
01 · Trigger"tooth pain", "emergency dentist near me", "chipped tooth"
Something hurts or broke. This patient calls the first practice that answers and is open. Ads must run when you can pick up, and call-only formats often beat forms here.
02 · Research"dental implants cost", "invisalign vs braces", "best dentist for implants in [city]"
A high-value patient comparing options for weeks. They read reviews, want prices or ranges, and respond to consult offers and financing. Remarketing keeps you in front of them.
03 · Decision"[practice name] reviews", "dentist accepting new patients [area]", "dentist that takes [insurance]"
Ready to book. Insurance accepted, online booking and a visible new-patient offer decide who gets the appointment.
04 · Retention"teeth cleaning near me", "dentist open Saturday"
Existing and lapsed patients. Cheap to win back with branded and recall campaigns; we keep these separate so they do not inflate the new-patient numbers.
Benchmarks
What good looks like for dentists
From our dentist accounts across US metros, 2025–2026. "Typical" is what we see when we take an account over. "Good" is where a rebuilt account lands within 90 days.
Metric
Typical account
Good, after the rebuild
Cost per click (search)
$4–$12
$3–$8 with tight match types and negatives
Cost per lead (call or form)
$60–$120
$45–$90 after tracking and structure are fixed
Lead to booked appointment
30–45%
50%+ with live answer and online booking
Cost per new patient
$150–$350
$100–$220
Implant / Invisalign consult lead
$150–$300
$100–$200 with a dedicated page and offer
First-year value of a new patient
$900–$1,500
$4,000–$20,000 for implant and full-arch cases
Local Services Ads cost per lead
$35–$90
Runs alongside search; compare cost per booked patient, not per lead
Campaign blueprint
How we structure a dentist account.
Campaigns are split by intent and treatment value so budget follows the new patients worth the most.
EmergencyCall now
emergency dentist near me · tooth extraction today · broken tooth dentist
High-value treatmentsConsult booking
dental implants · all on 4 implants · invisalign dentist · veneers
New patientBook a first visit
dentist near me · dentist accepting new patients · family dentist
One page per treatment: implants, Invisalign, emergency, new patient
New-patient offer with a clear price and what it includes
Online booking button tracked as a conversion, phone number tappable on mobile
Review count and rating from Google next to the call button
Insurance accepted, financing available, hours and parking
Doctor photo and a short video: patients choose people, not logos
Ads that work
Ad copy examples
Written for the person about to call, not for the algorithm. Every headline names the service, the promise or the area.
Emergency campaign · Sponsored
Emergency Dentist Open Today | Same-Day Appointments · Call Now | Tooth Pain? We Can See You Today
yourpractice.com › emergency
Walk-ins and same-day emergency visits. Most insurance accepted, financing available. Call now and speak to a real person.
Implants campaign · Sponsored
Dental Implants From $99/Month | Free Implant Consultation + 3D Scan | All-on-4 Specialists in your city
yourpractice.com › implants
Replace missing teeth with permanent implants. Free consult, 0% financing, one office for the whole procedure. Book online in 60 seconds.
New patient campaign · Sponsored
New Patient Special: $99 Exam & X-Rays | Accepting New Patients · Book Online | 4.9★ Rated Family Dentist in your area
yourpractice.com › new-patient
Cleaning, exam and X-rays for $99. Evening and Saturday hours, most PPO plans accepted. Book your visit online today.
Offers that move the close rate
New-patient exam, X-rays and cleaning at a fixed price
Free implant or Invisalign consultation with a 3D scan
Same-day emergency guarantee during business hours
In-house membership plan for uninsured patients
Financing from $X per month on high-value treatments
Campaign types
Which Google Ads campaign types we run for dentists, and which we skip.
Every campaign type Google offers has a job. Most accounts we audit run the wrong ones, or run the right ones in the wrong order. This is the mix for dentists, in the order it is switched on.
CoreRuns from day one and carries most of the budget.
ScaleAdded once booked-job tracking is proven, usually month two or three.
SupportA small budget with one specific job.
Not hereWe would not run it for this account, and we say why.
SearchLSAPMaxDisplay RMKVideo RMK
Starting split of the monthly budget, rebalanced every month by cost per booked job. Shares are the midpoint of each range.
Core55%of budget
Search
Responsive search ads · exact and phrase match
Why it is core
Implant, Invisalign, emergency and new-patient searches are the whole game for a practice. Each gets its own campaign so a $4,000 implant case never shares a bid with a $79 cleaning.
How we set it up
One campaign per intent tier, never one campaign for everything
Exact and phrase match with a shared negative list from day one
Ad schedule and bid adjustments around open hours
Location targeting by service area, not a city-wide radius
Core15%of budget
Local Services Ads
Google Screened / Google Guaranteed · pay per lead
Why it is core
Dentists qualify for Google Screened. The badge sits above the ads for "dentist near me" searches and costs $35 to $90 a lead, which we dispute and reconcile against booked appointments.
How we set it up
License, insurance and background checks submitted and kept current
Junk leads disputed every week
Reviews synced from Google Business Profile
Cost per booked job compared with search every month
CoreInside search
Call ads
Call-only ads and call assets on mobile
Why it is core
Emergency and same-day searches are mobile and urgent. Call ads run only while the front desk answers, and calls under a minute do not count as leads.
How we set it up
Runs only while the phone is staffed
Calls under 60 seconds left out of the conversion count
Recordings scored weekly so the ad group learns from booked calls
Scale10–15%of budget
Performance Max
Asset groups across Search, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Maps
Why it is a scale layer
Switched on in month three with booked-appointment imports and one asset group per high-value treatment. Without that data it fills the calendar with price shoppers.
How we set it up
Never switched on before offline conversions are flowing
Brand exclusions and search themes on every asset group
One asset group per service, with real photos rather than stock
Lead form questions that filter price shoppers
Support5%of budget
Remarketing (display)
Display ads to past visitors and past callers
Why it is a support layer
Implant and Invisalign researchers compare three practices over weeks. A small remarketing budget with the consult offer keeps yours in the running. No personalized ads run from health-condition pages, to stay inside Google healthcare policy.
How we set it up
Audiences by page visited at 7, 30 and 90 days
Frequency capped at three a day
One message per service, with the offer in the headline
Customers who already booked are excluded
Support3%of budget
Remarketing (video)
YouTube bumpers and skippable in-stream to past visitors
Why it is a support layer
A 15-second office tour or founder clip to past implant-page visitors, measured on consult bookings. Cosmetic and implant only; general dentistry does not need it.
How we set it up
Six-second bumper cut from a phone-shot founder video
Audiences shared from the search and display campaigns
Measured on branded search lift and assisted bookings, not views
Not here0%of budget
Demand Gen
Visual prospecting across YouTube, Discover and Gmail
Why we skip it
Smile-makeover creative can work for a large cosmetic practice, but for a general practice it burns budget before search and LSAs are saturated. We revisit it above $15,000 a month.
What would change our mind
Lookalikes built from booked customers, not site visitors. Job-site or before-and-after creative. Capped at ten percent of budget until cost per booked job matches search.
A starting split we adjust every month as the cost per new patient comes in by campaign. The highest-value campaign gets the biggest share because one high-value treatment plan can pay for the month.
Minimum we recommend: $3,000 a month, at least $100 a day.
Emergency (search + call-only)
20% Same-day calls during open hours
High-value treatments (implants, Invisalign)
35% Consult bookings; highest value per patient
New patient (general)
25% First-visit bookings with the new-patient offer
Local Services Ads
15% Pay-per-lead volume above the search ads
Brand + remarketing
5% Protect the name, bring back consult researchers
Tracking, Local Services Ads and compliance
Measure new patients, not clicks
The account can only be optimized toward what it can see. For dentists that means calls with duration, form and booking events, and new patients imported back to Google with a value.
01
What we connect
Call tracking with recording and duration (CallRail or WhatConverts)
Online booking events from NexHealth, Zocdoc, LocalMed or your PMS booking widget
Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft or Curve appointment exports for offline conversion imports
GA4 + Google Tag Manager with HIPAA-safe configuration (no PHI captured)
Enhanced conversions for forms, so Google matches more bookings to clicks
02
Local Services Ads for dentists
Available · $35–$90 per lead in most metros
Dentists qualify for Local Services Ads (Google Screened). You pay per lead, not per click, and appear above the search ads. We run LSAs and search together, dispute junk leads, and compare cost per booked patient from each channel every month.
03
Compliance notes
No patient data in URLs, form fields or analytics (HIPAA-safe tracking setup)
Call recording only with the consent notice your state requires
Before/after photos need patient consent and no guaranteed-result claims
Google Local Services Ads are available for dentists: Google Screened badge plus pay-per-lead pricing, which we run alongside search
Seasonality
The dentist calendar
Budgets that stay flat all year waste money in quiet weeks and starve the account in busy ones. We plan by week around these moves.
January
Insurance benefits reset; new-patient and cleaning searches jump. Raise budget on new-patient campaigns.
August
Back-to-school checkups and pediatric searches peak.
November–December
"Use it or lose it" benefits drive crowns, implants and cosmetic bookings. Run a benefits-deadline offer.
Summer
Invisalign and whitening searches rise before weddings and vacations.
What the first 90 days look like for a dentist
Weeks 1–2
Tracking rebuilt: call tracking with duration, booking events, PMS export mapped. You see honest numbers, often lower than you were told.
Weeks 3–4
New account structure live: treatment campaigns, negatives, schedules matched to your hours, treatment landing pages.
Month 2
Cost per booked patient typically drops 25–40% as search terms are cleaned and bids follow booked appointments.
Month 3
Offline conversions flowing; budget shifts toward implants and Invisalign where the return is highest. Scaling decisions made on cost per booked patient.
Your numbers
What a monthly budget produces for dentists
Benchmarks from our accounts. Move the slider. Estimates, not promises.
With DGENCY—leads / month—new patients / month—revenue / month
Assumes cost per lead $90 → −30% and lead-to-customer rate 40% → +25% after tracking and structure are fixed, at $1,200 per new patient. Open the full projector to use your own numbers.
Proof
The proof is in the booked jobs
Numbers our clients get paid on, from accounts in healthcare.
Dental
Bright Smile Dental
Austin, TX · $6,500/mo ad budget
$6.40Revenue per $1 of ad spend (from $2.10)
+240%New patient bookings in 4 months
Treatment-specific landing pages (implants, Invisalign, emergency), online booking tracked as a conversion, and Local Services Ads added once reviews passed 100.
8 client stories
★★★★★
“Three agencies before DGENCY. Every one of them sent me a report with a bunch of graphs. Hamid sent me a spreadsheet of booked jobs and what each one cost. That was the whole difference.”
Rick MorenoOwner, Canyon Air Conditioning
★★★★★
“They told me in the first call that my landing page was the problem, not the ads. I did not want to hear it. They were right, and signed cases went from four a month to fourteen.”
Danielle HarperManaging Partner, Harbor Injury Law
★★★★★
“We are a small practice. I was worried we would be too small for a real agency. Hamid looks at our account personally and my front desk knows exactly which new patients came from ads.”
Dr. Sana PatelOwner, Bright Smile Dental
★★★★★
“Our old agency reported clicks. DGENCY reports booked jobs, and the number went from 61 to 140 a month on the same budget once the tracking was honest.”
ME
Marcus EllisonOwner, Summit Air & Heat
★★★★★
“Hamid called our office as a customer before we signed and told us we missed a 4pm call. That is the level of detail. Cost per booked job is down 38 percent.”
LO
Lena OrtizGeneral Manager, TrueLine Plumbing
★★★★★
“Three quotes a week became eleven. The difference was the search terms they cut and the financing line they put in the ad. Nothing fancy, just correct.”
GW
Grant WhitakerOwner, Bluegrass Roofing
★★★★★
“We are a two-attorney firm. They gave us a plan for $5,000 a month and did not try to sell us $20,000. Consults are up 70 percent and the fee is flat.”
PN
Meera NairPartner, Keystone Estate Law
★★★★★
“Quarterly plans at $41 each from Local Services Ads and search together. Our previous agency never turned LSAs on. They did it in week two.”
The same process on every account. Management from $999 a month, never a percentage of spend; your ad budget is paid to Google in your own account. Three-month minimum, then month to month, with the fee dropping to zero if we miss the written target.
01
Weeks 1–2
Audit and tracking rebuild
We audit the account line by line and rebuild the measurement so that only real leads count.
02
Week 2
Blueprint
A written plan that maps your budget to the services and areas that make you the most money.
03
Weeks 3–4
Build
New campaign structure, ad copy and landing pages, built in your account, owned by you.
04
Month 2 onward
Run, learn, scale
Weekly hands-on optimization with AI doing the heavy lifting and Hamid making the calls that matter.
One-time
$299
Account audit
A line-by-line review of your existing Google Ads account, tracking and landing pages, with a written list of what to fix and what it is costing you. Credited toward setup if you continue.
Full hands-on management by Hamid and an experienced Google Ads strategist. Fee scales with the complexity of the account (service lines, locations, campaign types), not with your ad spend.
Everything in phases one to three: tracking rebuild, blueprint, campaign build and the first landing pages. Priced by the number of service lines and locations.
More on the FAQ page, or send your numbers with the growth plan request.
How much should a dental practice spend on Google Ads?
At least $100 a day, and we recommend $3,000 or more a month in most metros so the account gets enough data to learn. Practices focused on implants or Invisalign often run $5,000 to $15,000 a month profitably because one case pays for a month of ads.
What is a good cost per new patient from Google Ads?
$60 to $120 per lead and $150 to $350 per new patient who books is typical for a well-built account. Implant leads cost more, often $150 to $300, and are worth far more.
Do Local Services Ads work for dentists?
Yes, in most metros. You pay per lead rather than per click and appear above search ads with the Google Screened badge. We run LSAs and search together and compare the cost per booked patient from each.
Can you track which ad clicks became appointments?
Yes. Calls with duration and source, online bookings as conversions, and where your practice management software allows it, completed appointments imported back to Google Ads with a value.
How long until we see results?
Tracking is fixed in the first two weeks and the rebuilt account goes live in week three or four. Most practices see a clear drop in cost per booked patient by the end of month two.
Should we advertise implants or general dentistry first?
If you place implants, start there: a single case can pay for a month of ads. Run a smaller new-patient campaign alongside it to keep the schedule full. Practices without high-value treatments start with new-patient and emergency campaigns.
Do you write the landing pages?
Yes. Our CRO and web team builds treatment-specific pages that match the ad, with the offer, reviews, insurance and booking above the fold. They live on your domain and you own them.
Can you work with our practice management software?
Almost always. We export booked and completed appointments from Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve and others and import them into Google Ads as offline conversions with a value, without any patient data.
Ask Hamid directly
Send your numbers and get straight answers in the written plan.
Send your details and Hamid reviews your account, your market and your competitors before the call, then walks you through the five changes that would move your cost per new patient the most. Twenty minutes, a written plan, no obligation.
Step 01
Tell us about your business
Two minutes on the form.
Step 02
We do our homework
Website, landing pages, market and, with read access, your account.
Step 03
You get the plan in writing
A one-page plan you keep either way, and a call to walk through it if you want one.
