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Dental · why otp

We will tell you which dental campaigns not to run.

DVA. Compassionate release of super. Afterpay. Three campaigns Australian dental practices ask for regularly, and three we will usually argue against, with the evidence for why.

The number most agencies hide behind

A $10 cost per lead that is 95 per cent your own name is not a result.

The most common way a dental account is made to look successful is by leaving branded search inside the blended reporting. People googling your practice by name were already coming. Counting them alongside genuinely new demand produces a cost per lead that looks excellent and means nothing.

We split branded and non-branded before quoting any number, and we report them separately for the life of the account. It usually makes our figures look worse than the agency we replaced. It is the only version that lets you make a decision.

How we work

Four things specific to dental.

We treat cosmetic as a separate compliance perimeter
Since 2 September 2025 veneers sit under Ahpra's higher risk cosmetic advertising guidelines, with a banned phrase list, a prohibition on appearance prediction tools, and restrictions on targeting and imagery. That is a different rule set from the rest of your account, so it gets a different campaign and a different copy review.
We bid on case value, not on bookings
A check up bundle at about $219 and a full arch at up to $30,000 cannot share a conversion action without the bidding drifting towards the cheaper one. Where your software supports it, we send treatment value back with the attendance.
We test the booking flow before we quote
On some Australian dental booking layers the click identifier cannot survive to the booking, so click-identifier conversion imports are not buildable at any price. We establish that first, and quote the architecture that actually applies.
We use your own numbers for lifetime value
The $10,000 to $40,000 dental patient lifetime values quoted across the industry are agency figures resting on retention rates nobody publishes. There is no published Australian dental patient lifetime value. We build the target from your own practice data and say plainly that is what we have done.
Google approving your ad tells you nothing about Ahpra
These are two entirely separate systems. Google's policies do not implement the National Law, and Google will happily approve advertising that breaches section 133. The registered practitioner carries that liability, not the platform and not the agency. It is the reason we insist on a named sign-off on ad copy against the guidelines, and the reason we will not put clinical testimonials into assets we control even when a client asks for them.
Straight answers

Questions clinic owners actually ask

Why would you advise against running a DVA dental campaign?
Because the search demand is not what it appears. When you look at what Australians actually type around DVA dental, the suggestions are dominated by provider-side queries such as the DVA dental fee schedule, which is practitioners looking up what they will be paid rather than veterans looking for a dentist. Meanwhile veterans dentist skews heavily to United States results. DVA is a genuine and worthwhile revenue stream, and it is reached through referral relationships and your Business Profile rather than through paid search. Advising you not to spend there is the honest answer.
Can you help with compassionate release of superannuation campaigns?
We will build an eligibility and education page. We will not build an offer campaign. The Dental Board publishes patient red flags for using superannuation to fund dental treatment, and the first one listed is advertising or marketing compassionate release of super as an easy way to help fund treatment. A joint statement from Ahpra and the Dental and Medical Boards in May 2025 put practitioners on notice that action would be taken. There is real patient demand here and it can be served responsibly, but not with the offer-led campaign that usually gets requested.
How long until a dental Google Ads account is profitable?
Live in seven days, with enquiries usually inside the first fortnight because dental has genuine urgent demand. Cost per lead typically starts high, around $130 to $200 in the first month, and settles towards $55 to $85 by months two and three as the bidding learns and the negatives tighten. Judging profitability rather than volume takes longer, because it depends on attendance and case acceptance rather than on leads. Expect a real answer at about three months, and treat anyone promising profitability in week two as describing something that has not happened yet.
Do you work with more than one dental practice in the same area?
No, one practice per catchment. Dental has the highest cost per click of any clinical niche in Australia at a weighted average of $11.74, so two clients in the same suburb would be bidding each other up in the most expensive auction in healthcare, with us taking a fee from both. That is not a conflict that can be managed with internal walls, so we decline the second one.
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A campaign partnership built for clinics

Ads that earn their place in your P&L.

A senior team that lives inside your account. Conversion infrastructure wired in before any ad goes live. Reporting that ties spend to booked appointments, not impressions.

Dedicated account manager

A senior specialist who runs clinic accounts day to day.

Clinic-only specialists

Every keyword, headline and account structure built inside real Australian clinic accounts.

Award-winning team

Winner, Best Google Ads Campaign, Australia 2025. Google Partner. AFR Fast 100.

When you're ready
We will be too.
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