Diving Deep Into Marketing for Dentists (My Takeaways)
An avalanche of both booked and patient walk-ins is the dream of dental practitioners. But let’s be honest — getting these patients requires hard work because the dental industry is fiercely competitive.
To help you win and bring your dream to fruition, I will discuss the most interesting dental marketing campaigns I’ve seen and highlight what makes them so effective.
I’ll also share some out-of-the-box marketing strategies for growing your dental business. Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Below are the top dental marketing campaigns I’ve discovered — from Google ads to unique website updates. Here’s how these dental offices and companies found success.
Google Ads is one of the most effective marketing strategies I’ve seen dental companies use. Beyond helping to create brand awareness, Google Ads lets you generate leads fast.
Case in point: Smile Doctors.
Image Source
Smile Doctors started in 2015, and in the first few years, the brand had minimal brand recognition. To connect with people who may need its orthodontic services, they used Google Ads, and I’ll tell you why.
From my experience, marketing channels like SEO take time to bring results — often six and up to nine months to attract just traffic.
Waiting for results wasn’t in the best interest of Smile Doctors. As a business with offices across the U.S., Smile Doctors needed country-wide brand awareness to get clients across their branches.
Embarking on a Google Ad campaign was an easy (though costly) choice to get people searching for dental services in each location.
Part of the campaign included the creation of customized landing pages aligned with each ad campaign. The brand also created many location-specific landing pages.
In fact, as of the time of this writing, Smile Doctors has 269 location-specific landing pages. Here’s an example.
Image Source
With the landing pages set up, they conducted research to find commercial and transactional keywords. They also did competitor analysis and found and bid on many location-based keywords.
The campaign was massive, and insights from SpyFu show they may have invested over $13,000 per month in Google Ads.
Image Source
Here are a few of their ads.
Overall, these ads got Smile Doctors a 35% increase in conversion rates. Call and form submissions also surged by 73%.
The icing on the cake is the incredible increase in online brand awareness — going from a mere 252 monthly visits in 2016 to 62,115 visits in 2023.
Image Source
Google Ads can get you results, but it’s best when you pair it with customized landing pages. These pages have the potential to rank organically, causing you to attract organic traffic and possibly help you cut your Google Ad costs.
Customers will always appreciate your willingness to direct them. Once you can teach them “How to do [insert topic idea],” you will stand out and become an industry authority.
The Klement Family Dental (KFD) knew this about SEO and went all-in on it.
Before they got aggressive with SEO, they had a one-page dental website with subpar copy and no blog.
Image Source
Fast forward to 2024, the website has a new look with lots of pages, resources, and clear calls to action.
Image Source
Their strategy? A combination of content marketing, on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.
Some of the technical SEO boxes they checked off include having a sitemap and optimized site architecture, which looks like this:
Image Source
A practical example is their “dental services” top-level navigation. Hovering on it shows the next-level menu, which has yet another category.
Image Source
This website structure is a plus for user experience because it reduces the crawl/click depth to three clicks.
That means it takes three clicks for a user to reach the bottom of the architecture (tooth filling, for example) and find what they need.
The outcome? Search engines rank such pages high.
The KFD website also has an informative blog with 171 posts. The traffic value of these posts shows they save up to $40,000 on Google ad costs.
Image Source
Besides this saving, what I love even more is their targeting of keywords that have commercial value. For example, their top article about “home remedies for toothaches” brings in 19,000 monthly visitors with a traffic value of $26,800.
The catch with this article? If the home remedy options do not satisfy visitors, they can contact KFD for professional help.
Implementing SEO and content marketing can unlock the full potential of your dental website. But this duo works even better when you target keywords with high commercial value.
A report by B2B SaaS Reviews says 52% of customers consider businesses with an average review rating of four out of five stars suspicious.
Parker Pediatrics and Adolescents, a dental brand, didn’t meet this threshold. The outcome? Patient numbers were taking a hit.
To fix this, they embarked on a reputation management campaign using a two-pronged strategy.
First, they established and optimized business listings primarily focused on Google Reviews. Working on the business listings positioned this dental brand for local SEO success.
This process ensured they had consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) on the internet, which created trust for potential new patients.
The second approach was the simultaneous launch of a Google review solicitation campaign. This helped them generate a steady stream of reviews from actual patients.
Today, when you search for Parker Pediatrics, you see a consistent NAP across listings and a good review page.
The clinic’s average Google Reviews rating underwent a remarkable transformation, going from 3.6 to an impressive 4.2. They’ve also witnessed a 16% increase in new users, according to Cardinal Digital Marketing.
The clinic now boasts over 100 reviews, a testament to the genuine satisfaction of their patients and an accurate reflection of their work.
Online reviews shape perceptions, especially in healthcare. To attract patients with reviews, always ask your past patients to always leave positive feedback.
More positive feedback helps you dilute the overall impact of any negative review on your brand.
Smile Design Dentistry (SDD) is a family-owned practice in Florida. Faced with a low number of new patients, the brand embraced Facebook ads as a solution.
Their objectives were to:
To meet these objectives, Cardinal Digital Marketingworked with SDD to tell video stories, use image carousels, and adopt value-based conversion actions that helped the Facebook algorithm find better prospects.
They also created ads tailored to each location at every stage of the funnel. Plus, the creative planning involved A/B testing assets to achieve the lowest cost per lead (CPL).
Image Source
After this campaign, call duration, conversion rates (CVR), and cost per acquisition (CPA) improved. There was also a notable increase in brand search volume, which shows improved brand awareness.
The indicator of success was not just in the efficiency of conversions but in the actual results — an influx of new patients.
Facebook ads are helpful for patient acquisition. But while you’re at it, watch out for your CVR, CPA, and CPL. If they are too high, you might be doing something wrong. That said, the ultimate barometer for success is more patients.
Quick note: You can connect your ad account to your HubSpot Marketing Automation software to create and manage your Facebook ads directly in HubSpot.
Dr. Geisca Horn and Dr. Chad Loween run Serene Oaks Dental. Looking at their website homepage, all I see is elegance.
Image Source
But it wasn’t always this way.
The site looked like this in March 2016.
Image Source
Web archive results show they have redesigned their dentist service website several times.
In fact, the good folks at Roadside Dental Marketing say they redesign their site roughly every 2 to 3 years. And in 2021, they did a complete website makeover.
This is fascinating. Their rationale?
Serene Oaks Dental is not your average dental practice.
Dr. Horn and Loween are trailblazers in cosmetic dentistry who constantly enhance their skills and invest in the latest technology. They are also in a competitive market near Minneapolis, so they need to always stand out to stay ahead.
According to Roadside Dental Marketing, the results of their rebrand were a 72% increase in mobile traffic, a 37.9% surge in total traffic, and a 52.5% boost in average pages per session.
Your website reflects on your practice. By updating it, you create a great brand perception. This is even more important if you work with patients who want expensive dental services.
Here are four dentist marketing ideas you can use to drive traffic and sales opportunities to your dental business.
“Dentist near me.”
“Dentist in Florida.”
“Best dentist for Invisalign in [state].”
These are local search terms. When patients search for them, Google will return results with profiles in the user’s area.
To win such local clientele, you need to set up or claim your Google Business Profile. Here are some tips for optimizing your profile.
This is the first step to optimizing your Google Business Profile.
A verified profile adds authenticity to your brand. This reassures visitors they are engaging with a legitimate and established dental practice. Here is how a verified Google profile looks:
Image Source
A picture is worth a thousand words, and with a dental practice, it’s worth even more. Showcase your clinic, staff, and facilities using high-quality images and videos.
A visual representation of your dental services can help potential patients get a feel for your clinic and set the tone for a positive experience.
Doing this helps your business appear and rank in the right search results. For instance, here’s what I got when I searched for “orthodontist in New York.”
And “oral surgeon New York.”
These results show Google will return results that reflect the category a user wants. So, if you run a specialized practice, clarify this by choosing the right category and emphasizing it in your description.
Research and identify local keywords for dental services. Think “orthodontist in [location],” “teeth whitening in [location],” etc.
Use these keywords in your profile description, services, and posts to enhance your local search visibility.
Both are bottom-of-the-funnel keywords. Customers who search for them are actively seeking to make a purchase or take action — you just need to be there and gain their trust.
From my experience, such keywords may not have lots of traffic potential.
But their commercial value is enormous and bidding for them will be expensive and rewarding. Smile Doctors’ success shows the effectiveness of these high-conversion keywords.
Here are a few ways you can identify these keywords:
Recommended reading: The Ultimate Guide to Google Ads [Examples]
Facebook has a global advertising audience of 2.25 billion, and Instagram forecasts 1.44 billion estimated users by 2025. Both platforms offer unparalleled reach and targeting capabilities for paid advertisement.
Below are some Facebook and Instagram ad ideas.
The visual impact of a transformed smile speaks volumes.
By creating these images, you give potential patients the confidence to use your service. You can try this out with a side-by-side image featuring a client’s smile before and after using your services.
Highlighting the impact of dental services on lifestyle can resonate deeply. This is as simple as showing happy people with well-aligned and white teeth.
Feature images or videos that capture the newfound confidence and joy your patients experience after fixing their teeth.
Educational content is highly shareable and can position your dental brand as an authority.
Create visually appealing content that educates people on bad habits affecting their dental health — you’ll get engagement and trust that’ll translate into more patients.
Addressing pain points associated with dental issues helps you tap into a patient’s emotional triggers. To execute this, you can design image carousels, create videos, feature past clients, and more.
Plus, there are a myriad of issues you can address, like bad breath, tooth pain, decay, smiles that ruin impressions, and yellow teeth.
You can also create behind-the-scenes videos displaying some work being done, the atmosphere, and everything to the final result.
TikTok is an invaluable tool for dental businesses to connect with a wide demographic.
According to TikTok user research by Backlinko, out of 5.3 billion internet users worldwide, 23% use TikTok. The most interesting part of this data is TikTok’s 1.218 billion ad reach potential.
But newsflash: you don’t need ads to make TikTok work. With organic content, you can get incredible reach and engagement, provided your content is relatable and shows expertise.
Two dentists who use the organic approach on TikTok are @thebracesguy and @veneercheck.
Their numbers and what they do:
@thebracesguy | @veneercheck | |
What they share | Educational videos about the use of braces and aligners. Behind-the-scenes videos and client results. | Use celebrity smiles to explain dental concepts |
Likes | 286.9M | 7M |
Followers | 4,700,000 | 148, 000 |
Average views per video | 50,000 | 10,000 |
Achieving the above feat won’t be easy, but taking a step trumps stagnancy. Here are a few ideas you can implement to establish your brand presence on TikTok.
Create visually striking before-and-after videos showcasing the transformative power of your services. This format will both engage and reinforce the impact of your services and boost confidence.
Offer a glimpse into cutting-edge dentistry by sharing high-quality 3D dental work and behind-the-scenes footage. This content can demystify dental procedures, building trust and appreciation for your services.
Humanize your practice by featuring authentic interactions between dentists and patients. These conversations can address common concerns and foster a sense of community within your TikTok audience.
Educate your audience with hygiene tips and product recommendations. You could create short and informative videos that highlight the importance of dental care practices while subtly promoting your services and endorsed products.
There is no such thing as excess information or ‘the information is already out there.’ Your audience may want to hear from you.
To figure out their concerns, include a call to action in your videos and ask them to comment about their dental challenges.
There is a popular TikTok trend? Cool! Align it with what you do and make a fun video(s). This ensures your content remains relevant and resonates with the platform’s culture.
Also, respond to comments, ask questions, and encourage user-generated content. Bottom line: Engage with your audience.
These marketing campaigns and ideas show you can achieve significant growth right now, while planning for future growth.
To grow right now, you need a substantial PPC or social media advertisement budget. For future growth, you need to consider organic content you can create that won’t only support your ad strategy but also generate traffic in the future.
And if you can execute both at once, that’s even better. You build brand awareness, attract new patients, and generate revenue — this trio will make you smile as a practitioner.
As a one-woman solopreneur running her own business, I’m constantly looking for new AI tools…
Here’s the skinny: email marketing has come a long way in just the past few…
Today, most marketing teams I talk to are laser-focused on conversion rate optimization (CRO) fundamentals,…
Just about anyone can start a business … but what does it take to run…
Learn how to build professional relationships that don't just open doors — but blow them…
Team black or team green? Earlier this year, HBO launched an incredibly moving ad for…