The budget, in one line
New patients×Cost per booked patient=Ad spend
Guide ·
How much should a dental practice spend on marketing?
Work backwards from the new patients you need, with BDO’s 3 to 6 percent band as a cross-check.
Dental marketing resources, written for practice owners.
Guides, original data, comparisons and tools for Australian dental practices. Each page answers one question a practice owner asks, opens with the answer and links every figure to its source. They come from a team with over a decade working with dental clinics.
Australian dental marketing benchmarks
Our yearly report will hold anonymised figures from the dental accounts we run, so a practice can set its own numbers beside other practices. No practice is named.
- Missed-call rate
The share of calls to the practice that go unanswered. - Cost per enquiry
What the ads cost for each call, form or chat that asks about an appointment. - Cost per booked patient
What the ads cost for each new patient who books. - Review response time
How long a practice takes to reply to a new Google review.
US dental benchmarks. Each measure leads with a US figure, in US dollars, as a guide only.
The report, in outline
Dental marketing benchmarks, 2026
| Measure | US guide figure |
|---|---|
| Missed-call rate | US guide figure: 38% of calls missed. 4,280 calls across 26 US dental practices, February 2026 (Peerlogic, a vendor case study). Dental benchmark. |
| Cost per enquiry | US guide figure: median US$72.97 per lead. US dental search campaigns, 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 (WordStream, 18 May 2026). A lead is a tracked conversion, not a booked patient. Dental benchmark. |
| Cost per booked patient | US guide figure: about US$350 to US$400 per new patient. 11 US practices, data pooled 2021 to 2026 (First Page Sage, updated 21 September 2026). Dental benchmark. |
| Review response time | US guide figure: median 1.6 days to reply to a Google review. US healthcare businesses, average 2.1 days, 10 March 2026 (ReplyOnTheFly, a US vendor). Also, 81% of 1,002 US adults expect a reply within a week (BrightLocal, 11 February 2026). Dental benchmark. |
Results vary. Not a guarantee, and not from one channel alone.
Where should a practice owner start?
Three pages that are ready now: a guide to the budget, a tool to work it out with your own figures, and a comparison for owners weighing up their agency.
Example, not a typical practice
$30,000to$60,000
Tool ·
Dental marketing budget calculator
Your own figures in; a share band and a goal line out, with the working shown. No email needed.
The same jobs, three ways
Our team + agentsA typical agencyDo it yourself
Comparison ·
AI agents vs a traditional dental agency
Four jobs every practice pays for, side by side, with the question to ask your own agency in each one.
Every guide, by topic
Pick a topic on the left, or read down the list.
Dental marketing
- How much should a dental practice spend on marketing?
Work backwards from the new patients you need each month, then add the management fee on top.
- How much does Google Ads cost for dentists in Australia?
What sets the cost of a click and of a booked patient, and what a practice pays on top in fees.
- What are Ahpra’s advertising rules for dental marketing?
What section 133 and Ahpra’s guidelines mean for a dental ad, including testimonials about clinical care.
- What is a chair occupancy rate?
How full the chairs are, how to work it out, and how it sets the number of new patients to aim for.
- How to get more new dental patients
The channels that bring new patients, and how to check which of them book.
- Dental marketing ideas
Ideas a practice can run, each checked against Ahpra’s advertising rules.
Google Ads and search
- What are the best keywords for dental Google Ads?
Which searches to bid on, which to block, and how to judge each one on cost per booked patient.
- How do you get cited in ChatGPT and AI Overviews?
How AI answers choose their sources, and what a practice page needs to be one of them.
- Why don’t dental Google Ads convert?
The common reasons clicks do not become bookings, and how to check each one.
AI
- How do you deploy AI in a dental practice?
Where AI fits in a practice, and what stays with your team.
- AI agents vs chatbots
What an agent does that a chatbot does not.
- AI in dentistry
How AI is used across a dental practice, from the front desk to marketing.
Comparisons
- AI agents vs a traditional dental agency
The same jobs done three ways, with the question to ask your own agency in each one.
- Dental SEO vs Google Ads
What each channel costs, and how long each takes to bring in patients.
- Managed Google Ads vs doing it yourself
When running your own account makes sense, and what someone still has to do.
Tools
- Dental marketing budget calculator
Your own figures in; a share band and a goal line out, with the working shown.
- Missed-call calculator
What unanswered calls may cost a practice, worked out from your own call figures.
- Chair occupancy calculator
Your chair occupancy rate, worked out from your own diary figures.
Glossary
- Dental marketing glossary
One page, one short definition per term: Ahpra advertising, AI Overviews and AI Mode, chair occupancy, cost per booked patient.
How is each guide written?
Every guide opens with the answer to its question, then gives the evidence and links the source. Figures are dated and Australian where an Australian figure exists. Each page shows who wrote it and when it was last checked, and nothing on it is a clinical claim.
On every guide
- The answer first
The question is the heading; the first sentences answer it. - Dated figures, linked sources
Each figure says when it was published and links to where it came from. - An author and a last-updated date
The byline links to the team on our About page. - Tables and answers as text
Never as images, so people and search engines can read them. - Ahpra’s advertising rules
No clinical testimonials and no promised results. We also run no before-and-after photos, which is our own rule.
Want these numbers for your own practice?
Start with the free account audit: you share your Google Ads account number and accept our manager link request, our agents read up to 12 months of account history, and you get the findings in writing within 1 business day. You keep the audit either way. Or book a free 30-minute strategy session.
A person replies within 1 business day.
