How do I work out my marketing budget?
Your monthly ad budget is the number of new patients you need each month, times what one booked patient costs you, with the management fee on top.
Start with the chairs, then work backwards to the ad spend.
- Find out how many new patients you need each month to fill the diary, using your chair occupancy rate.
- Divide your ad spend by the new patients it brought in. That is your cost per booked patient.
- Multiply that cost by the new patients you want. The result is your ad budget.
- Add the management fee.
Cost per booked patient is your ad spend over a period, divided by the new patients that spend brought in over the same period.
What does the management fee cover?
Shoutout Digital’s fee covers the agents that watch the account, the people who own it, and the website and landing page work in the plan. We agree the budget with you, then our team and agents run it 24/7.
All run month to month. Ad spend is paid direct to Google or Meta, with no markup. See pricing.
Why not use a percentage of revenue?
Percentage rules ignore how full your chairs are. A practice at 70% occupancy needs more new patients than one at 95%. A fixed share of revenue can overspend where the diary is full, and underspend where it is not.
A percentage still works as a cross-check. The Australian figure is BDO’s: advertising at 3 to 6 percent of gross patient fees for a general dental practice. BDO says its benchmarks fit practices above $750,000 of gross patient fees best, are not split by state, and come from its client base and industry knowledge, not from a public sample. The other figures you will see describe different businesses.
| Source and date | Figure | Who it describes | Use here |
|---|---|---|---|
| BDO (Australia)First published 12 August 2019; same band after the pandemic | 3 to 6% of gross patient fees, on advertising | General dental practices; best fit above $750,000 of fees; not split by state | Cross-check |
| American Dental AssociationPage read 7 October 2026; no date on the rule | 3 to 6% of collections for a new practice, about 4% in the middle years, 2 to 3% when mature, 5 to 7% in the first year after buying in | US practices; called a rule of thumb | Contrast only |
| Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey11 May 2026 | 7.8% of company revenue | 401 marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe, most at companies over $1 billion in revenue | Contrast only |
| The CMO Survey (Duke Fuqua, Deloitte, AMA)31 March 2026 | 9.0% of company revenue | 308 marketing leaders at US for-profit companies | Contrast only |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
You will also see higher bands on agency blogs, often 5 to 15 percent, so treat them as one agency’s view, not a benchmark.
On $1,000,000 of gross patient fees, BDO’s 3 to 6 percent advertising band is $30,000 to $60,000 a year. The middle of that band is $45,000, which is 4.5 percent. The band is BDO’s, from the note first published 12 August 2019. A goal of 20 new patients a month has no dollar answer until you enter what one new patient costs you.
Run your own figures in the dental marketing budget calculatorQuestions
Is ad spend part of Shoutout Digital’s fee?
No. Ad spend is paid direct to Google or Meta, with no markup from Shoutout Digital. The management fee is separate.
As of October 2026, our management fees are:
- Foundation: $1,990 a month
- Growth: $3,490 a month
- Group: from $5,990 a month
All prices are plus GST, and all plans run month to month.
So the budget has two parts. Work out the ad spend first: new patients needed, times the cost to win one. Then add the management fee on top.
Where does the 3 to 6 percent figure come from?
From BDO’s benchmark for a general dental practice, first published 12 August 2019. The same 3 to 6 percent is in the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic columns of BDO’s later note.
BDO is open about its limits:
- the benchmarks fit practices above $750,000 of gross patient fees best
- they are not split by state
- they come from its client base and industry knowledge
It is not a 2026 national survey. Use it as a cross-check on your budget, not as the budget itself.
How do I find my cost per booked patient?
Take last quarter’s marketing spend and divide it by the new patients that spend produced. The result is your cost per booked patient.
If you are not sure of the second number, the free account audit reads up to 12 months of your Google Ads history, and you get the findings in writing within 1 business day.
Once you have the number, the method on this page runs forwards: new patients needed, times cost per booked patient, gives the monthly ad spend. The budget calculator does that sum for you.
Should the budget cover patients who left?
If you want it to. Add them to your new-patient goal, and the budget method then covers them too.
- Count the patients who left last year.
- Divide that number by 12 for a monthly number.
- Add it to your new-patient goal.
Use your own count, from your own records, rather than a general figure. The result is a monthly number of patients, which the method treats like any other patient you need to win. For example, if 24 patients left last year, that adds 2 a month to your goal. If you would rather not plan for them, leave them out and keep the budget to brand-new patients only.
Do I have to commit for a year?
No. All Shoutout Digital plans run month to month, so there is no year to commit to.
Plans are charged to a card monthly in advance, and you can leave with 30 days’ notice. If you leave, you keep your Google Ads and Meta accounts, campaigns, keyword lists, landing pages and change log.
As of October 2026, fees are Foundation $1,990, Growth $3,490 and Group from $5,990 a month, plus GST. Ad spend is separate and paid direct to Google or Meta. See pricing.
Author and sources
Charlie, Co-founder, Shoutout Digital.
How this page was made. Drafted with AI assistance. Sources checked by Charlie.
- BDO: benchmarking for dental practice owners, why context is keyFirst published 12 August 2019
- BDO: benchmarking in the dental industry, pre and post COVID-19Undated page, read October 2026
- American Dental Association: how to purchase with confidenceUS; read 7 October 2026
- Gartner: 2026 CMO Spend SurveyPress release, 11 May 2026
- The CMO Survey, 35th edition (Duke Fuqua, Deloitte, AMA)31 March 2026
- Shoutout Digital pricingFees as of October 2026
Related reading. Size the goal with your chair occupancy rate, see how the agents run the spend in Google Ads for dentists, and put your own numbers into the dental marketing budget calculator. Before the ads go live, read the Ahpra advertising rules for dental marketing.
Published . Last updated .