Search demand you can turn into booked consultations.

Cost per click for UK dental keywords typically ranges from around £2 for general dentistry terms to £15 or more for competitive dental implant and emergency dentist keywords in major cities.

What matters more is cost per enquiry. Across selected campaigns we typically see £30–£50 per lead. A practical starting budget for a single-treatment campaign in a mid-sized UK city is usually £1,000–£2,000 per month — enough to gather statistically useful data within 30 to 60 days.

Google Ads are usually worth it when three conditions hold: the practice has capacity to see new patients, the treatment has enough value to absorb the acquisition cost, and there is a follow-up process that responds to enquiries quickly.

For high-value treatments such as implants and full-arch cases, a single converted patient can cover several months of ad spend. They are a poor fit when the practice is already at capacity, or cannot respond to enquiries within a working day.

For dental search campaigns sending traffic to a purpose-built landing page, 5–15% is a reasonable working range, with emergency dentistry often converting higher because intent is urgent.

If a campaign is converting below 3%, the problem is usually the landing page or the keyword-to-message match — not the bidding.

Most dental practices should establish Search campaigns first, because they offer keyword-level control and clearer data about which patient intents actually convert.

Performance Max can add incremental volume once conversion tracking is reliable and there is enough conversion history to guide the automation. Running it too early tends to spend budget on low-intent placements.

Calls are tracked using dynamic number insertion — the phone number displayed on the landing page is swapped for a tracking number that attributes the call back to the campaign, ad group and keyword. Calls over a defined length are counted as conversions.

This matters more in dentistry than most sectors, because a large share of enquiries — especially emergency appointments — arrive by phone rather than through a form. Without call tracking, those campaigns look like they are failing.

First enquiries often arrive within days of launch, because search captures demand that already exists.

Reliable optimisation decisions, however, need roughly 30 to 50 tracked conversions — usually 30 to 60 days depending on budget and treatment. Judging a campaign on its first two weeks generally leads to the wrong conclusion.