Dentist and doctor Google Ads case study: real phone calls for $14 and $8

Why Smart campaigns look cheaper than they are

Google’s Smart campaigns report a click on the call button or on the map as a conversion. That is a tap, not a conversation. Both practices were judging their ads on those numbers, so the reported cost per conversion was a fraction of what a real patient call was costing them.

Pediatric dentist: from about $200 to $14.45 per real call

Before

The practice had spent $8,457.10 on a Smart campaign, which reported 868 “call clicks”. None of those were confirmed calls. When we audited the account, we estimated that completed phone calls were costing around $200 each. That is when the practice turned to an agency.

What we changed

• Replaced the Smart campaign with new search campaigns and new landing pages
• Counted a conversion only when a phone call lasted longer than 30 seconds
• Ran a branded campaign for people searching for the practice by name, separately from new patients who had never heard of it

Results, January 2021 to June 2022

New-patient calls averaged $22 across the whole period because the early weeks were the most expensive. After optimization they came down to around $15 per call.

Orthopedic doctor: from about $100 to $8.32 per call

Before

This doctor was one of several in the same office and was running his own Smart campaign. It had spent $11.7K on 3,070 clicks and reported $43.43 per conversion, but those conversions included taps on the call button and on the map. Counting completed calls only, we estimated the real cost was close to $100 per call.

What we changed

• Replaced the Smart campaign with new search campaigns and landing pages
• Counted only phone calls longer than 30 seconds and submitted lead forms
• Ran a branded campaign on the doctor’s own name, so patients looking for him reached him rather than another doctor in the office
• Ran a separate campaign for new patients who had never heard of him or the practice

Results, late 2019 to September 2022

The cost per conversion fell to around $20 soon after the rebuild, then kept falling with optimization to an average of $8.32 across the account. New patients, the calls that actually grow a practice, cost $13.61 each.

What this means for your practice

• Count calls, not taps. If your account reports conversions from call clicks or map clicks, you don’t yet know what a patient costs you.
• Separate branded searches from new patients. People searching for you by name are cheap and would probably have found you anyway. The new-patient number is the one that tells you whether ads are growing the practice.
• Send each search to a page built for it. Both accounts got new landing pages, not just new campaigns.

Want the same for your practice?

See how we run Google Ads for dentists and doctors and medical practices, or book a call and we’ll show you what your current campaigns really pay per call.