Where Should Dental Practices Put Their Google Ads Budget?
We manage Google Ads for over 50 dental practices across the UK. Rather than guessing at trends, we pulled 90 days of live campaign data. Here is what it actually shows about which treatments are worth advertising.
Emergency Dentistry: The Clear Winner
Average conversion rate: 19.3% Average cost per conversion: £16.49
No other campaign type comes close. Roughly 1 in 5 people who click an emergency ad goes on to book or enquire. That is because someone searching for an emergency dentist at 10pm is not browsing options. They are in pain and they need help now.
One of our clients in London generated over 2,350 conversions at £12.38 each. A client in Tonbridge converted at 21%. If your practice handles emergency appointments and you are not running this campaign, you are sending patients straight to your competitors.
New Patients: Reliable and Worth Building On
Average conversion rate: 9.8% Average cost per conversion: £21.71
27 campaigns, over 2,000 conversions. New patient campaigns are the bread and butter of dental Google Ads and the data backs that up across practices of all sizes. A client in Hitchin hit a 19.5% conversion rate at just £6.99 per conversion. A client in Poole converted at 21.3% at £5.45 each. A client in Sandhurst achieved 14.8%, and a client in Exeter brought in over 103 conversions at £10.77 each.
The reason they work so well is that the intent behind the search is really broad. Whether someone has just moved to the area, wants to switch to a better practice, or has been putting off booking for years, they are actively looking and ready to act. Get the messaging right around registration, availability or pricing and this campaign type will deliver time and time again. If you are only going to run one campaign, make it this one.
Invisalign: Plenty of Demand, But Worth Being Strategic About It
Average conversion rate: 3.8% Average cost per conversion: £94.77
Patients are absolutely still searching for Invisalign and in big numbers. The issue is that so is every other provider, which pushes the cost of those clicks up significantly. When everyone is bidding on the same branded terms, you end up paying a premium just to show up.
For practices where the revenue from a completed case justifies the spend, it can still absolutely work. A client in Exeter had 26 Invisalign conversions and a client in Edinburgh generated 40 at £65.26 each, so it is far from a lost cause when it is managed well.
The trick is not to rely on the brand name alone. Mixing in broader aligner and smile straightening terms, and making sure your ads talk about payment plans and affordability, tends to bring that cost per conversion down quite a bit. Think of Invisalign as part of a wider aligner strategy rather than a standalone campaign and it becomes a much more comfortable investment.
Dental Implants: High Value, But the Funnel Has to Be Right
Average conversion rate: 3.0% Average cost per conversion: £103.20
There is a big range here. Some practices are generating implant leads at £37 each. Others are paying over £300. Same treatment, very different results. The difference almost always comes down to how well the journey is set up once someone clicks, clear pricing, a free consultation offer, finance options front and centre. Practices expecting a generic contact form to do the heavy lifting tend to find implant campaigns frustrating and expensive.
Get the fundamentals right though and the numbers make sense. Implant cases are worth thousands of pounds in revenue, so even at £100 per conversion there is a strong return on investment.
Composite Bonding and Cosmetic: A Growing Opportunity
Average conversion rate: 9.5% Average cost per conversion: £23.75
Social media has done a lot of the hard work here already. Patients arrive on Google already knowing what composite bonding is and already wanting it. A client in Surrey delivered 111 conversions at just £10.31 each. It is one of the most efficient cosmetic treatments to advertise right now and still relatively underexploited compared to implants and Invisalign, which means competition and costs are lower than you might expect.
If any of this has got you thinking, Dental Design can put together some keyword and competitor research specific to your practice and location. Just get in touch with your account manager or give us a call on 01202 677277 and we will take it from there.
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