Google Ads

Google Ads for dentists: what a patient enquiry really costs

Andrej GaškoFounder, Ouradent · Google Partner · September 2026 · 9 min read

Every agency says Google Ads "works". Very few show the numbers. Here is what a patient enquiry costs at three dental clinics we run ads for, and what makes the cost per patient go up or down.

An enquiry = a phone call or a form submission tracked in Google Ads.

Why one clinic pays €3 per enquiry and another €10

Same agency, same method, three times the price per enquiry. The difference comes from things you can understand and partly control:

• Country and city. Every market has its own click prices. Our clinics paid about €0.09 to €0.40 per click; in Germany or the UK, expect clicks to cost more.
• Competition. The more clinics bid on "dental implants" in your area, the more each click costs.
• Treatment. Implant and veneer searches cost more than check-ups, and they are also worth much more per patient.
• The landing page. A page with prices, photos and one clear button turns more clicks into enquiries. A generic home page wastes clicks.
• Tracking. If calls aren't tracked, Google can't learn which clicks bring patients, and the cost stays high.

Cost per enquiry is not cost per patient

An enquiry is someone asking. A patient is someone in your chair. The step in between is where most clinics lose money. At one of our clinics, across all channels, 550+ enquiries led to 100+ booked visits: about one in five. What decides that ratio is mostly not the ads:

• How fast you reply (see why the first 5 minutes decide)
• Whether someone calls back the people who didn't pick up
• Follow-ups on day 1, 3 and 7
• Clear prices, so patients aren't surprised on the phone

How to set up Google Ads for a dental clinic

1. Start with Search campaigns

Search ads show when someone is actively looking: veneers price, emergency dentist. That intent is why they convert. Leave Display and YouTube for later.

2. One ad group per treatment

Implants, veneers, orthodontics, emergencies: each gets its own keywords, its own ads and its own landing page. Mixing them makes every ad less relevant and more expensive.

3. Add negative keywords from day one

Block searches that will never become patients: free, job, course, school, salary, DIY, cheap kit. Check the search terms report every week and keep adding.

4. Target the patient, not your address

For local patients: a radius around the clinic. For dental tourism: the patient's country, in the patient's language, sending them to a page in that language.

5. Track calls and forms as conversions

This is the step most clinics skip, and the one that matters most. Without it, Google optimises for clicks. With it, Google optimises for enquiries, and the cost per enquiry drops.

6. Reply fast

The cheapest enquiry is the one you don't lose. A reply within 5 minutes, day and night, turns far more enquiries into consultations.

Common mistakes we see

• Sending all ads to the home page
• Broad match keywords without negatives: paying for "free dental care" searches
• No call tracking, so nobody knows what works
• Turning ads off after two weeks, before Google has learned anything
• No one answering the phone on the busiest ad hours

Google Ads or SEO?

Both, in the right order. Google Ads brings enquiries from the first week and shows which treatments and searches bring patients. SEO takes months, but then brings those patients without paying per click. Start with ads, build SEO with what you learn.

Ouradent is a Google Partner agency, certified in Google Ads Search. Since 2017 we have managed €647K in Google Ads spend and 1.55M clicks across our accounts.

The short version: track calls and forms, one page per treatment, reply in 5 minutes. That is what took one of our clinics under €5 per enquiry.