Healthcare & dental practices
Patients choose a provider they trust with something they can't easily evaluate themselves.
In a category with more marketing folklore than research, trust signals do more work than clever targeting.
Cost per lead for dental and healthcare practices runs slightly above the typical local average in search advertising data. What's harder to find is reliable, sourced research on how patients actually choose a provider — a surprising amount of the widely-repeated 'patient acquisition' statistics in this category don't trace to any named, dated study.
In the absence of strong industry-wide research, what a practice can actually control matters more: profile completeness, review consistency, and a follow-up process for enquiries that treats a prospective patient's hesitation seriously.
The recurring problems.
Not universal, but common enough that they are the first things worth checking.
- 01
Trust signals treated as an afterthought
Credentials, real patient outcomes and a genuinely current review profile carry disproportionate weight in a decision this personal.
- 02
New patient enquiries handled inconsistently
A prospective patient asking a hesitant first question needs a different response than a returning patient booking a routine visit — most practices don't distinguish the two.
- 03
Marketing claims accepted without checking the source
This is a category with an unusual amount of unsourced 'industry statistic' content — worth verifying claims before building a strategy around them.
- 04
Category and service listing left incomplete
A general 'dentist' or 'clinic' listing without specific services named misses searches for exactly what a practice offers.
What tends to matter most here.
- A complete, specific Google Business Profile naming actual services
- A consistent, ongoing review programme rather than an occasional push
- A deliberate, empathetic enquiry-response process for new patients
- Marketing decisions checked against real, traceable evidence rather than repeated industry folklore
The work that usually leads.
Let’s build something worth finding.
Tell me where search stands for the business. I will say which part of the work matters first, and what it would take.
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