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Dental Practice

How SmileCraft Dental doubled new patients with local Google Ads

A multi-location dental practice with 4 offices was losing new patient bookings to competitors with stronger online presence. Their Google Ads were running, but barely.

+210%
New Patient Bookings
-42%
Cost Per Booking
6.2x
ROAS

The Challenge

SmileCraft Dental had 4 locations across the metro area and a solid reputation offline, but their digital presence was practically invisible. They were spending $3,200/month on Google Ads and getting maybe 12-15 new patient calls per month — most of which were price-shopping or looking for emergency services they didn't offer.

The deeper issue: their campaigns were set up as one national account with broad keywords like "dentist" and "dental clinic." There was no location targeting, no call tracking, no ad scheduling, and no differentiation between their general dentistry services and their high-value cosmetic and implant services. They were essentially competing against every dentist in a 50-mile radius with the same generic ads.

Our Approach

1. Location-Specific Campaign Architecture

We rebuilt the account with separate campaigns for each location, each with hyper-local targeting:

  • Geo-fencing: Each location targeted a 5-mile radius with bid adjustments for the most affluent neighborhoods
  • Location extensions: Full Google Business Profile integration with real photos, hours, and 200+ reviews per location
  • Local keywords: "dentist near [neighborhood name]", "dental implants [city]", "cosmetic dentist [zip code]"
  • Call-only ads: For mobile searches during business hours, ads went straight to click-to-call

2. Service-Tier Segmentation

Not all dental services have the same value. We separated campaigns by lifetime patient value:

  • High-Value (Cosmetic & Implants): Dedicated budget with premium ad copy highlighting "free consultation" and financing options
  • Mid-Value (General & Preventive): New patient special offers — "$99 cleaning + exam" as the entry point
  • Emergency: After-hours campaign with "same-day emergency appointments" messaging

3. Call Tracking & Conversion Optimization

Before us, SmileCraft had no idea which ads were driving calls. We implemented:

  • Dynamic number insertion (DNI) via CallRail — each location and campaign got unique tracking numbers
  • Call recording and scoring — we tagged calls as "booked", "price shopper", or "wrong number" to train the algorithm
  • Ad scheduling — paused campaigns during hours when no one could answer the phone, shifted budget to peak booking times (Tue-Thu 9am-2pm)

The Results

After 90 days, the numbers told a completely different story:

89
New Patients / Month
(up from 28)
$38
Cost Per Booking
(down from $114)
$4,200
Avg. First-Year Value
per new patient

The cosmetic dentistry campaigns were the real winner. While they represented only 30% of the ad spend, they generated 52% of the total revenue. A single dental implant patient had a first-year value of $8,500 — meaning each implant booking from ads paid for nearly two months of the entire ad budget.

Perhaps most importantly, the call tracking revealed that 34% of their "failed" calls were actually people who called back and booked later. We built a remarketing campaign specifically for these "call-no-book" prospects, which recovered an additional 18 bookings per month.

"I was skeptical about spending more on ads, but Viridian showed me we weren't spending wrong — we were spending blind. Now I know exactly which location, which service, and which ad brings in every single patient. Our front desk even uses the call recordings for training."

👤
Dr. James Park
Founder, SmileCraft Dental

What Made the Difference

Local service businesses have unique paid search dynamics that most agencies ignore:

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