How to Choose a Dental Marketing Agency: 12 Questions to Ask Before You Sign

"Dental marketing" can mean very different jobs: running Google and Meta ads, SEO and content, a new website, social media posting, or the follow-up that turns enquiries into appointments. Few agencies are equally good at all of them.

• Write down the one result you want in the next 90 days, for example more implant consultations or fewer empty hygiene slots.
• Decide which treatments matter most and roughly what a new patient is worth to you. Our LTV calculator helps.
• Set a monthly budget for ad spend and, separately, for agency fees.

An agency that cannot tell you which of these jobs it will do, and how, is selling activity rather than results.

• What will you measure? The answer should include booked and attended appointments, not just clicks, leads or followers.
• Can I see results from a dental client, with the numbers behind them? Ask for a case study you can verify, not a screenshot of a single good week.
• What happens in the first 30, 60 and 90 days? A clear plan beats a promise.
• How will you track calls, forms and bookings back to each campaign?

The number we judge every channel by is cost per kept appointment: total spend divided by the patients who actually turned up. It is harder to look good on than cost per lead, which is exactly why it is useful.

This is where many practices get stuck when they want to leave. Ask before you sign:

• Will the Google Ads, Meta ads, Google Analytics and Google Business Profile accounts be in the practice's name, with the agency given access?
• Who owns the website, the domain and the content if we part ways?
• Will I keep the tracking setup, audiences and ad creatives?
• How quickly will you hand everything over if we end the contract?

Google's rules for agencies say that if they manage Google Ads for you, you should be able to get cost and performance data, either through reports or by signing in to your own account, and that any separate management fee must be disclosed in writing before your first purchase and shown on invoices (Google Ads transparency requirements).

• Is the fee fixed, a percentage of ad spend, or tied to results? Each model has trade-offs; make sure you understand which one rewards the agency for spending more.
• Is the ad spend paid directly to Google and Meta from your card, or through the agency? Paying directly makes spend easy to check.
• What is the minimum term and the notice period?
• What is included, and what costs extra: landing pages, creatives, video, call tracking?

Patient enquiries contain personal data, often health data. If an agency handles your leads or patient lists, UK data protection law requires a written contract between you and the agency: the ICO says that whenever a controller uses a processor there must be a written contract in place (ICO guidance on contracts).

A general marketing agency can produce ads that work for a gym but break the rules for a dental practice. Ask how they handle:

• GDC guidance on advertising, including "specialist" titles and the information your website must show.
• ASA rules on before-and-after photos, testimonials and claims such as "pain-free" or "guaranteed".
• Meta's restrictions on ads that imply something about a person's health.
• Consent for patient photos and reviews.

If an ad goes wrong, it is your practice's name on it. More on the common problems in why "best dentist" and "guaranteed results" can put dental ads at risk.

• Guaranteed rankings or a guaranteed number of patients.
• Reports full of impressions, reach and clicks, with no bookings.
• Ad accounts created in the agency's name that you cannot access.
• Long lock-in contracts before any results.
• Packages of hundreds of backlinks or "SEO" with no clear monthly work.
• No one who can explain what happens after a lead comes in.

The best ads in the world are wasted if nobody calls the patient back. Ask the agency how leads reach your team, how fast they expect a response, whether they set up reminders, and whether they look at no-shows. In our own campaign for a dental clinic in Larnaca, €250 of spend produced 12 patients who attended in 14 days, and fast follow-up with reminders was a large part of that (case study). One campaign is not a benchmark, but it shows where agencies should be looking.

• Month 1: tracking set up and checked, campaigns live, first leads, response times measured.
• Month 2: cost per lead and cost per booked appointment by campaign; budget moved to what works.
• Month 3: cost per kept appointment and treatment accepted, compared with your other sources of patients.

If after 90 days the agency still cannot tell you how many patients attended from its work, that is your answer.

Want a second opinion on an agency proposal or your current setup? Book a free 30-minute audit call.