High-margin cosmetic services (veneers, implants, Invisalign) require affluent patients. But broad targeting shows your $5,000 veneer ads to people searching 'cheap dentist' or 'dental payment plans'. These clicks cost $7.85 each and rarely convert to cosmetic cases. Your ads need audience layering and negative keywords to filter by intent.
Mixing general dentistry, cosmetic procedures, and emergency dental in a single campaign destroys your Quality Score. Google rewards relevance—an ad group with 'teeth whitening', 'root canal', and 'dental implants' can't have relevant ads for all three. Low Quality Scores mean you pay 20-40% more per click than competitors with structured campaigns.
73% of dental appointment requests come via phone, especially for emergencies and new patient inquiries. Dental practices running mobile ads without call extensions lose 40%+ of potential conversions. At $83.93 cost per lead, every missed call extension is throwing away leads you already paid to generate.
Broad match keywords trigger your dentist ads for searches like "dentist jobs" and "dentist salary". Without negative keywords, you're paying for clicks that will never convert.
Fix: Add comprehensive negative keyword lists and switch high-value keywords to exact match.
Your homepage isn't optimized for conversions. Dentists who click ads expecting specific services bounce when they land on a generic page.
Fix: Create dedicated landing pages for each service with clear CTAs and matching message.
You're paying the same CPC at 3 AM as you are during peak hours. But dentist searches convert differently throughout the day.
Fix: Analyze your conversion data by hour and day, then adjust bids accordingly.
Running the same ads for months means you're leaving performance on the table. Different messages resonate with different dentist customers.
Fix: Run at least 3 ad variations per ad group and let Google optimize.
These keywords waste budget without delivering customers:
Price-sensitive searchers looking for discounted student work. Not your target patient.
Zero ability to pay. These clicks convert to consultations but never to paid treatment.
Career researchers, dental students—not patients.
People looking to avoid professional treatment. Will never book a whitening appointment.
Insurance shoppers, not patient seekers. Let insurance companies pay for these clicks.
Two powerful tools for dentists to improve your Google Ads performance