Google Ads for dentists
Google Ads for dentists measured in new patients in the chair, not in phone clicks
Dental is one of the most competitive local auctions in healthcare: $12 to $22 a click for a dentist search in the large metros, more for implants and orthodontics. The practices that profit are the ones where the front desk's outcomes reach Google, the campaigns follow the treatments that pay, and the research searches are excluded.
Where dental accounts waste money
- One campaign for the practice. Emergency, general, implants, Invisalign and whitening are different patients with different lifetime values. Sharing a budget, the cheap emergency clicks take it and the implant inquiries never get seen.
- A call counted as a patient. Insurance questions, existing patients and wrong numbers ring the tracked line. Until the front desk marks booked and attended, Google optimizes toward whoever calls.
- Research searches paid for. "Does a root canal hurt", "how much do implants cost", "dentist near me open now" from outside the catchment. Excluded, and the budget goes to the searches that name a treatment and a place.
- Insurance and financing left off the page. The two questions every new patient has, answered on the landing page before the form, raise conversion more than any bid change.
- Health policy ignored. Google restricts personalized advertising on health conditions, so remarketing built on treatment pages is not available. The account has to work without it.
What a click costs by metro
Average cost per click from Google Ads keyword data for the US, October 2026, for "dentist [city]". Market averages, not a forecast; treatment searches such as implants and orthodontics cost more.
| Search | Houston | Dallas | Phoenix |
|---|---|---|---|
| dentist [city] | $16.76 | $12.60 | $21.82 |
What management includes for a practice
- A campaign per treatment line, with location targeting matched to how far patients travel for each one (a few miles for general, much further for implants), and the research vocabulary excluded.
- Measurement to the chair. Call tracking with front-desk outcomes, online booking tracked, and the practice management system (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve) feeding attended new-patient appointments back as offline conversions, without sending any health data to Google. See conversion tracking.
- A page per treatment, built by me, with the dentist, the process, insurance and financing answered, the next available appointment and a phone number at the top. See landing pages.
- Local Services Ads and the Business Profile alongside Search, compared on cost per new patient.
- Meta where it fits: cosmetic and orthodontic treatments, within Meta's health restrictions, judged on booked consultations. Meta Ads →
- A monthly report in new patients and cost per new patient, by treatment, alongside the platform numbers.
Who this fits
Single and multi-location dental practices in the US and Canada, general and specialist, and DSOs that want one senior person rather than a vendor's account team, spending roughly $3,000 to $40,000 a month. Healthcare is among the sectors I have worked in over 14 years; there is no dental case published on this site and none will be invented. The method is the one that moved the Houston home services account, applied to a practice: split by service, track the real outcome, read the search terms every week.
Questions people ask before hiring
How much should a dental practice spend on Google Ads?
Enough to buy a meaningful number of clicks in your metro and treatment: at $12 to $22 for a general search and more for implants, a few thousand dollars a month is the floor in a large city. The first call includes this arithmetic for your practice.
Can you connect Google Ads to our practice management software?
Usually, through an offline conversion import: Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental and Curve can export which new inquiries booked and attended, without any clinical data leaving the practice. Where there is no export, front-desk outcomes from call tracking do most of the job.
What about HIPAA?
No protected health information goes to Google or Meta. Conversions are sent as outcomes (booked, attended) with hashed contact data only where enhanced conversions are used, and the setup is documented for your compliance officer. Your business associate agreements with your software vendors are unaffected.
Do you work with DSOs and multi-location groups?
Yes. Each location gets its own catchment, budget and pages, the structure is maintained once, and the report is broken down by location and treatment.
How much does Google Ads management for a dentist cost?
A flat monthly fee set from the scope: treatments, locations, platforms and how much landing page and tracking work is included. Never a percentage of spend. Quoted in US dollars by email from the form. See pricing.
Related services
Tell me about the account
Spend band, site and what is not working. You get a straight answer on whether I can help, what I would do first and a price range. No proposal deck, no sales follow-up sequence.