Marketing for dental practices
A dental practice does not need more patients. It needs more of the right cases. Those are two completely different campaigns, and the cheap new-patient special usually buys the wrong one.
What goes wrong when dental practices advertise
The ninety-nine dollar cleaning and x-ray special fills the schedule with patients who came for the special, decline treatment, and leave. It is a busy calendar and a flat bank account.
High-value cases, implants, full arch, ortho, cosmetic, are slow and emotional decisions. They need months of follow-up, and most practices give up after two voicemails.
Dental is a sensitive advertising category in the same way aesthetics is. Copy that names the viewer's teeth or appearance gets rejected, and most dental ad copy is written exactly that way.
What To The Max builds for dental practices
Case-type campaigns first: implants, clear aligners, full arch, cosmetic. Each gets its own creative, its own audience, and its own budget line.
A consultation offer with a stated scan, a stated plan, and a stated price range, so the appointment produces a decision rather than a maybe.
Follow-up measured in months, not days, with the front desk given an actual sequence. High-value dental leads convert on the fifth touch far more often than the first.
Compliant copy written against Meta's health policy from the first draft, third person, about the treatment rather than the reader's mouth.
Reactivation of dormant patients in the practice management system, which almost always books more chair time in the first month than new advertising does.
The math to run before you spend
Every number below is a planning range or a target, not a claimed result. The only claimed results on this website are dated in the Ledger.
- Single implant case
- $3,000 to $6,000
- Full arch case
- $20,000 to $50,000
- Clear aligner case
- $3,500 to $7,000
- What a high-value consult lead can cost
- $100 to $400
- Touches before a big case closes
- Often 5 or more
On a full arch case, a four hundred dollar lead at a one in ten close rate still means four thousand dollars of ad spend on a job worth many times that. The cheap new-patient lead is the expensive one.
Questions dental practices ask
Do Facebook ads work for dentists?
Yes, particularly for high-value elective cases: implants, clear aligners, full arch, and cosmetic work. Those are considered, emotional purchases that respond well to feed advertising. Routine hygiene is better served by search and by reactivating the patients already in your system.
How much does a dental implant lead cost?
One hundred to four hundred dollars for a consultation booking. That sounds high until you put it against a case worth several thousand dollars. On full arch, even a four hundred dollar lead closing at one in ten is comfortable. Cost per case is the only number worth reporting.
Should a dental practice run a new-patient special?
Only if you want a full schedule and a flat bank account. Cheap cleaning specials attract patients who came for the price and decline treatment. If you run one, it should be tied to a comprehensive exam that surfaces real treatment, not to a standalone discount.
Why do dental ads get rejected on Facebook?
Personal attributes, nearly every time. Copy addressed to the reader's teeth, smile, or appearance reads as implying a personal condition and violates Meta's health policy. Writing about the procedure and the outcome in the third person clears review and performs no worse.
What is the fastest way for a dentist to fill the schedule?
Reactivate dormant patients. Most practices have hundreds of people with unscheduled treatment plans or overdue hygiene sitting in the practice management software. A specific, dated message about the treatment they already agreed to books chair time within a week and costs nothing in ad spend.
The receipts behind this
To The Max is a one-operator agency run by Maximus Fayrweather in Huntsville, Alabama. The founder owns Supreme Clean, a pressure washing company doing five thousand dollars a month, and every strategy is funded with his own money on that business before it is sold to anyone. Wins and failures are both recorded with dates in the Ledger.
If you want to see what the leads actually look like when they arrive, there is a walkthrough of the lead feed. If your trade is not this one, the full list of industries has the plan for it.