Google Ads can put your practice in front of someone searching this week, and the clicks stop when the budget stops. SEO is the pages and Google Business Profile that Google shows later, and agencies usually quote 3 to 6 months before it is a steady source of enquiries. In Australia a dental click is often estimated at about $6 to $22, depending on the search (Google Keyword Planner, July 2026, as published by Loudachris).
Buy neither while your book is full or while nobody answers the phone.
to a first enquiry, once tracking, the page and the phone are ready (Odin, 11 January 2026). The clicks stop when the spend stops.
is what agencies usually quote before local SEO is a steady source (Odin, 26 October 2025; PMGS, 5 May 2026). The pages and profile stay, then age.
Agency ranges, not a Google rule.
Figures are 2026 advertised ranges from Australian agencies that sell these services, with the source named in the cell. They are planning bands, not a guarantee of what a practice will pay or get.
| The question | Google AdsPaid clicks | SEOPages and Google Business Profile |
|---|---|---|
| What the patient is doing | Typing a treatment or “near me” search now. | May find the practice later, including in the map results. |
| Time to a first enquiry | Hours to days once tracking, an approved page and an answered phone are ready (Odin, 11 January 2026). | Early local movement is often quoted at 3 to 4 months (PMGS, 5 May 2026) or 3 to 6 months (Odin, 26 October 2025). Competitive terms take longer: 6 to 12 months, and in a saturated CBD 12 to 18. |
| What you pay | Media paid to Google for each click, plus a manager if you hire one. | A retainer, whether or not anyone searches that day. |
| A 2026 Australian planning band | Clicks about $6 to $22 depending on the search (Keyword Planner, July 2026, via Loudachris). Media often starts at $1,500 to $3,000 a month, plus a management fee (Loudachris quotes $800 + GST). | Specialist single-practice retainers about $1,800 to $3,500 a month (Odin, 9 May 2026), up to $4,000 in competitive markets (Odin, 26 October 2025). |
| What remains when you stop | The account history. The clicks stop. | The pages and the profile, which then age. |
| What Ahpra constrains | The ad. | The page. Section 133 applies to both. |
| The number that decides | Cost per attended new patient. | The same number, over a longer window. |
| When this one is the better buy | The book has room, the phone is answered and the practice needs patients this month. A new practice in a competitive suburb. A time-limited offer with its terms in the ad. | The practice can wait, the suburb is less contested, and the owner wants the map results and treatment pages still working next year. |
| When the other one is the better buy | The owner can wait, or the media budget is too small to learn from, so SEO is the better buy. | The owner needs patients before a page can rank, or the only work on offer is blog posts nobody searches, so Google Ads is the better buy. |
Agency pricing pages sell these services, so their ranges are advertised ranges.
Google Ads can show an ad within hours to days, once conversion tracking, an approved landing page and an answered phone are ready (Odin, 11 January 2026). Loudachris spends week 1 of its playbook on tracking before any spend, which is the right order.
to a first enquiry, once tracking, the page and the phone are ready (Odin, 11 January 2026).
to early local movement (PMGS, 5 May 2026). Odin (26 October 2025) says 3 to 6 months for local terms.
Early local movement.
Local terms.
Meaningful organic bookings (PMGS, 5 May 2026). Competitive terms (Odin, 26 October 2025).
A saturated CBD.
These are agency ranges. Google does not publish a time to rank.
The first is media, paid to Google. The second is the manager’s fee.
A single practice buying a specialist dental retainer.
A sum, not a study: at $10 a click, $1,500 of media buys about 150 clicks. How many of those become enquiries depends on the page, the offer and who answers the phone.
WordStream, published 18 May 2026, for 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. A lead is a tracked conversion, not a booked patient.
First Page Sage, updated 21 September 2026, data pooled 2021 to 2026. The source does not say booked or attended.
US dollars, not converted. These are guides only.
| Search | Monthly searchesAustralia, July 2026 | Estimated cost per clickKeyword Planner estimate |
|---|---|---|
| dentist near me | About 135,000 | Typically $6 to $15 |
| emergency dentist | Described as urgent, with after-hours spikes | About $8 to $15 |
| dentist adelaide | About 1,900 | About $19 |
| dental implants cost | About 8,100 | Described as comparatively low |
| invisalign | Described as steady research demand | Typically under $10 |
| teeth whitening cost | About 1,300 | Described as modest |
| cheap dentist | About 880 | Up to $22 |
Source: Loudachris, dental Google Ads, read 12 October 2026, quoting Google Keyword Planner for Australia, monthly averages, July 2026. Click costs are estimates. Volume estimates for “dentist near me” disagree between sources: Red Search prints about 60,500 on its dental SEO page, against Loudachris’s 135,000.
They are a multi-service plan, not an SEO retainer and not an ads-only management fee.
Excluding GST, month to month, with ad spend paid to Google and Meta and no markup from us.
You keep the account history: what searches converted and what did not. New enquiries from the ads stop when the spend does.
Clicks stopThey are not frozen. Rankings can slip once the work stops, so “SEO is free once you rank” leaves out both the retainer and the decay.
Pages and profile stay, then ageAds are the worse buy when they chase “cheap dentist” clicks, run overnight into a closed phone, or are judged on cost per click instead of cost per attended patient.
Google Ads fit when
SEO is the worse buy when the retainer produces blog posts nobody searches. The dental job is the local page and the profile.
SEO fits when
A practice at capacity gains little from more enquiries, and referrals can still be its largest source.
A missed call wastes both channels. An emergency ad that rings a closed phone is the clearest case.
If the practice cannot count an attended new patient, it cannot tell whether either channel works.
If you want both, a modest ads test and a real local SEO retainer can run together, as long as someone counts attended patients from each. PMGS suggests an early 60/40 split of ads to SEO, moving toward SEO later. That is one firm’s planning habit, not a rule.
Section 133 of the National Law applies to a search ad and to a web page alike. Ahpra’s advertising guidelines (in force since 14 December 2020, page reviewed 2 September 2025) say an advertisement:
That means neither channel can promise a patient count. This is not legal advice. Ahpra tells advertisers who are unsure to ask an independent lawyer.
Short answers, with the source and date for every figure.
Agencies usually quote about 3 to 6 months for early local movement.
PMGS (5 May 2026) puts early local movement at 3 to 4 months and meaningful organic bookings at 6 to 12 months, with 12 to 18 months for head terms in a saturated CBD. Odin (26 October 2025) gives 3 to 6 months for local terms and 6 to 12 for competitive ones. Both firms sell SEO, and Google publishes no time to rank, so treat these as ranges rather than a promise.
Agencies commonly quote $1,500 to $3,000 a month in media to start, plus a management fee.
Loudachris (read 12 October 2026) gives that starting range and a flat $800 + GST management fee. PMGS (5 May 2026) puts steady healthcare bookings at $1,500 to $5,000 or more a month, and calls $20 a day a test at metro click costs. A budget too small to learn from tells you little. Set it against what an attended new patient is worth to your practice.
No. SEO is paid for with a retainer, and rankings can slip when the work stops.
Odin (9 May 2026) gives $1,800 to $3,500 a month for a single-practice specialist retainer. What you keep when you stop is the pages and the Google Business Profile, which then age. If an agency says SEO is free once you rank, ask who keeps the pages and the profile current after that.
Google publishes no time to rank, so ask what the retainer covers each month and how it is reported against attended new patients. Count it as an ongoing cost, the same way you count ad spend.
The clicks stop, and so do the enquiries that came from them.
Google Ads charges when someone clicks, so a paused account brings no paid visitors. You keep the account history: which searches turned into enquiries and which did not. That history makes a restart faster. It does not carry traffic on its own, which is the main difference from SEO pages that keep working while the retainer is paused.
Before you switch the ads back on, check that the phone is answered and the booking path works, because a restart sends clicks to whatever is waiting for them.
It can, but it will usually wait months for results.
With early local movement often quoted at 3 to 6 months (Odin, 26 October 2025; PMGS, 5 May 2026), a new practice that needs patients this month may find ads the faster route. A less contested suburb makes SEO alone more realistic. A practice in a competitive suburb often pairs a modest ads test with the Google Business Profile and treatment pages.
Both firms sell SEO, and Google publishes no time to rank, so treat those months as a range. Whichever route you pick, count attended patients from each source.
Yes. Section 133 of the National Law applies to both.
Ahpra’s guidelines cover the ad and the web page alike: nothing false or misleading, no testimonial about a clinical aspect of care, no unreasonable expectation of benefit, and the terms of any gift or discount stated. A guaranteed patient count breaks the rules in either channel. This is not legal advice, and Ahpra tells advertisers who are unsure to ask an independent lawyer.
Whoever writes the ad or the page for you, read the wording before it goes live.
Often, yes, if you can fund both properly and count the results.
That means a media budget big enough to learn from and a real local SEO retainer, with someone tracking attended patients from each. PMGS suggests an early 60/40 split of ads to SEO, moving toward SEO later, with dental work tilted toward ads. That is one firm’s habit, not a rule. If the book is full or the phone goes unanswered, fix that first.
If you do run both, give each its own source in the booking record, so the report can show which channel the attended patient came from.
Cost per attended new patient, from each channel, over the same period.
Cost per click and clicks alone mislead: a cheap click that rings an unanswered phone is wasted. Count enquiries, then booked and attended first visits, then divide the spend for the channel. SEO needs a longer window than ads. Compare your own months, not another practice’s.
As a rough US guide only, not Australian data: WordStream (published 18 May 2026) gives a median of US$72.97 per lead for US dental search campaigns, and a lead is a tracked conversion, not a booked patient. First Page Sage (updated 21 September 2026) puts the cost at about US$350 to US$400 per new patient across 11 US practices, and does not say booked or attended.
Write down what counts as an attended new patient before the first month, so the number means one thing every time.
Read on 12 October 2026 unless a different date is shown. Agency sources sell the services they describe. The two US figures are guides, not Australian data.
Bring your numbers: how full the book is, who answers the phone and what a new patient is worth to you. Book a strategy session and we will go through them with you.
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