Dental Marketing Budget, Set It From the Goal Backward

You're setting next year's dental marketing budget, and someone has handed you a percent-of-revenue rule. Set it from the goal backward instead: decide how many new patients you need each month and the most you'll pay to get one, then multiply and add the cost of whoever runs it.

The percentage rule skips the one question that matters, which is whether a new patient is worth what you're paying for one.

Below are the four numbers you need, a worked example with assumed numbers and the order I'd fund things in.

• Ad budget = new patients needed per month × the most you'll pay for one new patient.
• A percent-of-revenue rule gives a full practice and a struggling one the same number.
• Three of the four numbers you need are already in your practice management software.
• In the example, a 55% booking rate instead of 40% cuts cost per new patient from $300 to $218.
• Keep the management fee and the ad spend as two separate lines.

Why not spend a percentage of revenue on dental marketing?

Because a percentage has nothing to do with what you're trying to buy. It ignores whether the schedule is full and what a new patient is worth to you.

Take two practices that each do $1.2 million a year. One is full and adding a hygienist. The other is losing patients to a new office across the street.

They need different budgets, and a percentage gives them the same number. If a new patient is worth more than you pay for one, you probably should spend more than the percentage. If not, the percentage is money spent without a reason.

What numbers do you need to set a dental marketing budget?

Four, and three of them are already in your practice management software. Here they are, with where each one comes from.

1. New patients needed per month. A number from the schedule, not "more." Four open hygiene columns a week is a number.
2. Value of a new patient. Run the average production from new patients in their first 12 months. Use your own figure, because the ones online come from someone else's practice.
3. Allowed cost per new patient. The most you'll pay to get one. This is a margin decision: how much of a new patient's first-year value you're willing to spend to win that patient. Write down the number and the reason.
4. Current booking rate. Of the calls and forms that come in, the share that become a kept appointment. If you don't know it, that's the first thing to fix, and the post on dental call tracking and the front desk covers how.

A free 15-minute call with Blake by phone or Zoom. You get a written Method Plan for the cases you want, with the first fixes in order. It's yours to keep whether we work together or not.

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How do you work a dental marketing budget backward?

Multiply new patients needed by your allowed cost per new patient, and that's the ad budget. Divide new patients needed by your booking rate to get the leads you need, then divide the budget by that number to get the most you can pay per lead.

Here's an example. Every number in it is assumed for the example, and none of them is a benchmark.

Every number here is assumed for the example. None is a benchmark.

Now the budget has a job. If Google Ads in your market brings in leads at $90, you're under the ceiling and should keep spending. If leads cost $180, something has to change: the ad, the page, the phone or the goal. The budget tells you which conversation to have.

Know the ceiling, then buy below it.

Add the management fee on top as its own line. At Double Jaw, the price is scoped and put in writing before anyone commits, and ad spend is never included in it. Two lines, two decisions.

What if your leads cost more than the ceiling?

Check the phone before you touch the ads. A low booking rate makes every lead look expensive, and in my view it's the cheapest thing to fix.

Then work outward, one change at a time. Look at the landing page next, then the ad and the targeting. Only then change the goal itself. If you change all four in the same month, you won't know which one moved the number.

What should a dental marketing budget pay for first?

In the order I'd fund it: the phone, Google Business Profile, Google search ads, reviews, then Meta. The cheap fixes come first because they raise the booking rate, and the booking rate changes every other number in the table.

Call tracking and a front desk scorecard come first. A booking rate that moves from 40 to 55 percent cuts the cost of each new patient by more than a quarter without touching the ads. In the example, at a $120 cost per lead, that's the difference between $300 and $218 per new patient.

Item	40% booking rate	55% booking rate
Cost per lead (assumed)	$120	$120
Leads	40	40
New patients	16	22
Cost per new patient	$300	$218

Google Business Profile is free, so fill in the photos, posts, categories and hours. Google's own tips for local ranking start with a complete profile.

The first paid line is Google search ads: one campaign per service, one landing page per campaign and call tracking on every number. The post on Google Ads for dentists covers that structure.

Reviews cost almost nothing: a text at checkout with your Google review link. Meta comes after the rest is working, since it finds patients who weren't searching yet. That means a lower booking rate and more follow-up, which the post on Facebook ads for dentists gets into.

What I'd cut first: the retainer that reports clicks without a booked-exam number, the directory listings nobody checks and the print ad nobody tracks.

What to do next

In the Double Jaw Method™, the top jaw is thinking: name the patient you want more of. The bottom jaw is action: attract them and wow them. A budget set from the goal backward pays for both jaws: the ads that name the patient and the follow-up that books them. A Method Review applies both jaws to your practice.

1. Run the first-year production report on last year's new patients and write down the average.
2. Count the open hygiene and doctor time on next month's schedule. That's your new-patient target.
3. Pick an allowed cost per new patient and write down why.
4. Multiply, and compare the result to what you're spending now.
5. If you don't know your booking rate, put a tracking number on your Google Business Profile today and start counting.

The dentists page covers how the full program is scoped once the budget is set.

FAQ

How much should a dental practice spend on marketing?

Whatever buys the new patients it needs at a cost below what they're worth to the practice. For most practices, that's a specific dollar figure worked out from the schedule and production report, not a percentage of revenue.

What is a good cost per new patient for a dental office?

It depends on your first-year value and the margin you're willing to spend, so set your own ceiling first. In the example above, with a $240 ceiling, $200 per new patient is fine and $400 means something has to change.

Should a new dental practice spend more on marketing?

Usually, because the schedule has more open time. The math is the same, with a higher new-patient target and often a higher allowed cost in the first year.

How long before I know if the budget is working?

I'd give it 90 days. That's long enough for cost per lead to settle and cost per kept appointment to show up, so judge it on booked exams that showed, not clicks.

Book a Method Review

If you want the math done with your own numbers, book a Method Review: a free 15-minute call with Blake by phone or Zoom. Your written Method Plan includes a straight read on spend: what you pay now and where it belongs, yours to keep whether we work together or not.