Australian dental marketing benchmarks 2026
The Australian dental marketing benchmarks will be a yearly report of four measures taken from Shoutout Digital client accounts: missed-call rate, cost per enquiry, cost per booked patient and review response time. Figures will be aggregated across practices and anonymised. No practice will be named. Each measure leads with a cited US guide figure.
What do the benchmarks measure?
| Measure | Definition | Dental benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Missed-call rate | Calls to the practice that nobody answers, divided by all calls received | US guide figure: 38% of calls missed. 4,280 calls across 26 US dental practices, February 2026 (Peerlogic, a vendor case study). |
| Cost per enquiry | Ad spend divided by enquiries (calls, forms and chats) the ads produced | 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. |
| Cost per booked patient | Ad spend divided by new patients who booked an appointment | 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). The source does not say whether the patient booked or attended. |
| Review response time | Time from a new Google review to the practice's reply | 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, no sample size given). Also, 81% of 1,002 US adults expect a reply within a week (BrightLocal, 11 February 2026). |
Key facts
- Report
- Australian dental marketing benchmarks
- Edition
- 2026
- Source
- Aggregated, anonymised Shoutout Digital client accounts
- Update cycle
- Yearly
- Sample size
- Each US guide figure above states its own sample.
How are the figures collected?
Planned method: Shoutout Digital will take each measure from the practice's own call records, ad accounts and Google Business Profile, not from estimates. Cost per booked patient needs the practice's booking count, so it covers only practices that share it.
Questions
Are these figures Australian?
No. They are US guide figures, shown in US dollars and not converted.
Each of the four measures leads with a US figure as a rough guide. The page names the source, the date and the sample for every figure so you can see what it covers.
Each figure has limits. The missed-call figure comes from one vendor case study. The booked-patient figure rests on 11 practices and does not say whether patients booked or attended. The review figure covers US healthcare businesses, not dentists alone.
Each figure is shown as published, in US dollars, with its own source, date and sample, so a US result is never presented as an Australian one.
Whose data will the Australian benchmarks use?
Shoutout Digital client accounts only.
The benchmarks are not a random sample of Australian practices, so they do not describe the whole market. Figures are aggregated across practices and anonymised, and no practice is named.
The report covers four measures: missed-call rate, cost per enquiry, cost per booked patient and review response time. Each comes from the practice's own records.
Clinical outcomes are not measured. A practice with different services, suburbs and chair capacity may land well away from the figures.
Should my practice treat a benchmark as a target?
No. A benchmark is a reference point, not a target.
A practice with different services, suburbs and chair capacity will land elsewhere. A US figure shows how one group of practices fared in one year. It does not show what your practice should reach.
Start with your own numbers: missed calls, cost per enquiry, cost per booked patient and how fast you reply to reviews. Then watch how they change over time.
To see how your own numbers compare, book a strategy session or get the free Google Ads account audit.
Next step
Want to see how your own numbers compare? Book a strategy session or get the free Google Ads account audit.