The dental marketing strategies worth running are the ones whose patients you can count in your practice software. Start with answering calls, recall, referrals and your Google Business Profile, which cost staff time rather than ad money. Then add a website that books, insurance directories and ads, and judge each by the patients who came in.
Quick answer
- Add one required question, "How did you find us?", to phone booking, online booking and the intake form, with the same pick list in all three.
- Before paying for ads, count last week's missed calls and work the overdue recall list in your practice software.
- Ask every patient for a Google review and a referral, and never pay for a review.
- Buy ads last, for searches and treatments where one new patient covers many clicks.
- Each month, divide what each strategy cost, in money and staff hours, by the patients it brought who came in.
What should you fix before you spend on ads?
Answer every call
One named person owns the phone in opening hours, and every missed call gets a call back the same day. It costs staff time, or an answering service for lunch and after hours. Your phone system's call log lists missed calls with their times, so you can count them this week. Every practice needs this, since every strategy below ends in a call or a booking.
A website that books
Online booking lets a new patient pick a real opening in your schedule without calling. You pay for the site and the booking tool's fee. Ask the vendor to sign a business associate agreement, the contract HIPAA expects before a vendor handles patient information for you (HHS, checked 2026-10-04). Bookings show in the tool's report from the first week. Skip it if your dentists want to speak to every new patient first.
How do you get more from patients you already have?
Recall and reactivation
Recall means contacting patients due for a checkup and cleaning; reactivation means reaching those long past due with nothing booked. Both lists sit in your practice software, so the cost is staff time plus any texting tool you already pay for. Bookings show from the first round of calls and texts. It does little for a new practice with few past patients. Patient appointment reminders covers what to send before the visits recall books.
Referrals
Ask patients to send family and friends, and give them something to pass on, such as a card with your booking link. It costs a sentence at checkout and grows only as fast as you see patients. Before you reward anyone for a referral, ask a health care lawyer what federal and state rules allow. The federal Anti-Kickback Statute is a criminal law against knowingly and willfully offering or paying anything of value to induce or reward patient referrals for care payable by federal health care programs, such as Medicare or Medicaid (HHS OIG, checked 2026-10-04).
How do new patients find you without ads?
Google Business Profile and reviews
Your Business Profile is the free Google listing that shows on Maps and in local results. Keeping it accurate and answering reviews takes staff time, and it is never a bad fit. Google says local results rest mainly on relevance, distance and popularity, that more reviews and positive ratings can help, and that no one can pay for a better ranking (Google, checked 2026-10-04). Its Performance page counts calls, website clicks and direction requests, plus bookings if a booking provider handles yours. Search numbers update at the start of each month (Google, checked 2026-10-04).
Reviews have rules. Google prohibits offering discounts or free services for a review, asking only happy customers, and asking staff to collect a set number of reviews (Google, checked 2026-10-04). So send the same review link to every patient after the visit, and reply without confirming anyone's care. In 2022 HHS's Office for Civil Rights settled with a California dental practice over patient information disclosed in its responses to online reviews, along with other potential violations of HIPAA's Privacy Rule. The practice paid $23,000 and agreed to a corrective action plan (HHS, checked 2026-10-04).
Insurance network directories
Joining a dental plan's network lists you in its find-a-dentist search. The cost is the plan's contracted fee in place of your own on every member's visit. Nothing shows until credentialing (the plan's check of your license and qualifications) is done. It is a bad fit when a plan's fees do not cover what a visit costs you. If you are already in-network, search each directory for your practice as a patient would, and check the address, phone number and whether it says you accept new patients.
When do ads make sense for a dental practice?
Google Ads for high-value and urgent searches
Google Ads show your practice to people searching right now, from emergencies to implants, and you pay per click. Keyword Planner puts the average cost per click (CPC, what Google charges each time someone clicks your ad) at $13.92 for "dentist near me" and $39.05 for "dental implants near me" (Google Ads Keyword Planner estimates for the US, October 2026). Prices in your area differ. Calls can start on day one, but judge the ads on new patients who came in during a finished month. Skip them while calls go unanswered or the schedule has no new-patient openings. Google Ads for dentists covers what to expect month by month.
Facebook and Instagram ads for elective treatment
These ads reach people nearby who are not searching. That suits treatments people weigh for a while, such as Invisalign, whitening or implants. You pay for the ads, plus staff time to call back each lead (a person who left a name and number in a form inside the app). Leads arrive as soon as the ads run; patients come in only after call-backs and first visits. They fit poorly when most new patients pick you from their insurance plan's list, or when nobody can call leads back the same day. See Facebook ads for dentists and why a lead is not a patient.
How do you learn where each new patient came from?
Ask once, at booking, from a fixed list, and keep the answer in one field. That version survives a busy front desk.
- One question, "How did you find us?", with the same options on the phone, in online booking (required) and on the intake form: Google search or Maps, friend or family (who?), my insurance's list, Facebook or Instagram, drove or walked by, other.
- The desk picks from that list in the practice software's referral source field before saving a new patient, so "google", "Maps" and "internet" never become three sources.
- Ads get their own line, a call-tracking number that rings your desk but appears only in the ads. The desk marks its calls "Google ad line", since a patient may not know whether they tapped an ad.
- Every Monday, the office manager lists last week's new patients with no source and fills them in from the intake forms.
What should you count each month?
The ADA's planning guide asks for two counts, inquiries and actual new patients, and says that when marketing works the gap is very small (ADA, checked 2026-10-04).
| Strategy | What to count | Where | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answering calls | Missed calls in opening hours | Phone system call log | Weekly |
| Website that books | Online bookings; how many came in | Booking tool, practice software | Monthly |
| Recall and reactivation | Overdue patients contacted, booked, came in | Recall list | Monthly |
| Referrals | New patients naming a referrer | Referral source field | Monthly |
| Business Profile and reviews | Calls, website clicks, directions, bookings; new reviews | Performance page; your profile's reviews | Monthly |
| Insurance directories | New patients from a plan's list, by plan | Referral source field | Quarterly |
| Google Ads | Spend; ad-line new patients who came in | Ad account, practice software | Monthly |
| Facebook and Instagram ads | Spend; leads reached, booked, came in | Ad account, lead list, practice software | Monthly |
| Every strategy | New patients with no source | New patient report | Weekly |
Business Profile numbers include actions that came through Google Ads, and its Calls figure counts taps on the call button, not answered calls (Google, checked 2026-10-04). Read them as a trend, and never add them to the ad account's calls.
Which strategy is paying off?
Cost per patient = (money spent + staff hours × hourly staff cost) ÷ patients from that strategy who came in.
Illustrative: every number below is made up for an imaginary two-dentist general practice, and none comes from a client.
| Strategy | Money spent | Staff hours ($30 each) | Patients who came in | Cost per patient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | $2,400 | 4 | 12 new | ($2,400 + $120) ÷ 12 = $210 |
| Facebook and Instagram ads | $1,200 | 6 | 4 new | ($1,200 + $180) ÷ 4 = $345 |
| Reactivation calls and texts | $0 | 20 | 15 returning | $600 ÷ 15 = $40 |
| Source left blank | 5 new |
Reactivation is the cheapest row. It also runs out, since every patient who books leaves the overdue list. Facebook's four patients are too few to judge, since one more or one fewer moves its cost to $276 or $460. The five blanks outnumber them and could reorder the table alone, so I would fix the question before cutting anything. Then set each cost against what that kind of patient, new or returning, collects in its first 90 days, net of what those visits cost, worked out from your own records.
Which questions show whether an agency counts new patients?
- Can you report new patients who came in, by strategy, from counts the practice sends you, next to what each cost?
- What does your "lead" or "conversion" (the ad platform's word for a counted result) count: a call of any length, a form, a booking?
- Who owns the ad accounts, the Business Profile and the tracking numbers if the contract ends?
- Will you sign a business associate agreement if your work touches patient details, such as call recordings or form entries?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best marketing strategies for dentists?
The ones whose patients you can count in your practice software. Start with what costs staff time rather than ad money: answer every call, work the overdue recall list, keep your Google Business Profile current, and ask every patient for a review and a referral. Add a website that books and paid ads after that, and keep what brings patients who come in at a cost you can carry.
How much should a dental practice spend on marketing?
No fixed percentage fits every practice, so work from your own records. What a new patient collects in the first 90 days, minus what those visits cost to deliver, is the most one new patient can cost before marketing stops paying back inside 90 days. Count staff hours as spend too. The ADA's planning guide expects about 10 hours a week from one team member when a practice runs its own marketing.
How do I find out how new patients heard about my practice?
Ask one question at booking, 'How did you find us?', with the same fixed pick list on the phone, in online booking and on the intake form, and save the answer in your practice software's referral source field. Give ads their own phone number, because a patient may not know whether what they tapped was an ad. Each week, list new patients with a blank source and fill them in from the intake forms.
Can I offer patients a discount for leaving a Google review?
No. Google's review policy prohibits offering payment, discounts or free services in exchange for a review, and it also prohibits asking only happy customers. Send the same review link to every patient after the visit, and reply to reviews without confirming any detail of a patient's care.
Should a dental practice market to existing patients or new ones first?
Existing patients first: recall and reactivation cost staff time rather than ad money, and the list already sits in your practice software. That list runs out, though, so growth beyond it has to come from referrals, your Business Profile and, last, ads.
How long does dental marketing take to show results?
It depends on the strategy. Missed calls show in this week's call log and a recall list shows bookings from the first round of calls; ads bring clicks the day they start but need a finished month judged on new patients who came in. Business Profile search numbers update at the start of each month, so read the profile month over month.