How to tell if your dental ads are working: 5 numbers to check

In short

You can tell whether your practice's ads are working from five numbers for one month. They are ad spend, leads, booked appointments, patients who showed up, and the cost of one patient who showed up. The first two numbers come from the ad platform, and the other three come from your practice. So a report built only from ad data can't show the whole picture until your practice adds its own numbers. Below you'll find a table, a way to gather the numbers once a month, and a sample message to your agency.

Who this is for

This is for you if your practice pays for ads and gets a report on them every month. It's useful when the report looks good and you still have the same open chair time. It also helps if you're deciding whether to keep the ads running for the next few months.

If your agency already adds booked appointments and patients who showed up to the report, use the table below as a checklist. If your schedule is booked months ahead, this article won't help you. You'd have nowhere to put new patients anyway.

We wrote this at Helpify. Helpify brings patients to dental practices and follows up so they make it to the chair. You'll find who we are on the About Helpify page.

Five numbers for one month

Take one month, from the first day to the last, and fill in five numbers in the table. Together they trace the path from the money spent on ads to a patient in the chair.

You work out the fifth number yourself. Divide ad spend by the number of patients who showed up. We explain why the same ad spend can give you three different costs in our article on dental patient acquisition cost.

Why a good report and an empty schedule can both be true

An ad report shows what happens in the ad and on the page, up to the moment someone becomes a lead. Your schedule shows what happens after that. Both can be accurate about the same month and still give you two different pictures.

There are several steps between a lead and the chair. Someone has to call back, offer a time, and remind the patient about the visit. If people drop off at one of those steps, the ad platform won't see it, because it can't see your schedule.

Your agency may tell you that ads take constant testing and that the result only shows up in the monthly summary. If so, ask for that summary to include your schedule as well.

Illustrative example, fictional data. These are not Helpify's results, our fees, or typical numbers for a practice. In the first month, a practice spent $4,000 on ads, got 40 leads, and 10 patients showed up. In the second month it spent the same amount, got 50 leads, and 8 patients showed up. The cost per lead dropped from $100 to $80, so the report looks better. The cost of one patient who showed up went up from $400 to $500.

What each number tells you, and what it doesn't

Ad spend. This is what you paid for the ads themselves, without the agency's fee, so it isn't the full cost of working with an agency. On its own it says nothing about results, because the same amount can bring in patients or bring in none.

Leads. This number shows how many people the ads got to leave a phone number. It doesn't tell you whether those people want the service you have open chair time for, or whether anyone called them back.

Booked appointments. This shows how many leads turned into a specific time on your schedule. When you have lots of leads and few appointments, the cause could be the ad, how long it takes to call back, or the call itself, and this number alone won't tell you which.

Patients who showed up. This is the first number that counts people in the chair. It doesn't yet tell you how many of them will accept a treatment plan.

Cost of one patient who showed up. It ties the money to your schedule, so it's the best answer to whether you should keep the ads running. Compare it with your earlier months and with what your practice earns on the service, because a number from another practice won't tell you much.

Who has each number, and how to gather them once a month

Ad spend and leads are in the ad platform. Your agency knows them, or whoever runs your ad account. Your front desk knows the booked appointments, and your schedule shows who showed up. The cost of one patient only exists once all of these numbers land in one table.

To gather them once a month, agree with your team on the order of steps:

1. Each time the front desk books someone, they note that the person came from an ad. Without that, your schedule can't tell them apart from your existing patients.
2. On the first business day of the month, the agency sends ad spend and the number of leads for the previous month.
3. The front desk counts how many of those leads have a booked appointment.
4. You check the schedule and count how many of them showed up.
5. You enter the five numbers in one spreadsheet, next to your earlier months. Then you divide ad spend by the number of patients who showed up.

Count people by the month they became a lead. If someone filled out the form at the end of the month and their appointment is in the next month, add them at the next monthly review. The latest month in your spreadsheet will always be a little incomplete, so read it with that in mind.

If you've ever wondered whether your ad spend makes sense, a spreadsheet with these five numbers over several months in a row is an answer you can build yourself.

If you want to see at which step between the lead and the visit you lose the most people, read our article on how to get more dental patients. It shows how to count the people who move from one stage to the next.

Numbers you can skip

Reach tells you how many people saw an ad. Impressions tell you how many times it was shown. Clicks tell you how many people went to the page. These numbers help the person who sets up the ads, because they use them to adjust the image, the text, or the audience.

None of them tells you whether you have fewer openings in your schedule. High reach can bring few leads, and lots of clicks may not bring a single patient. It's enough to know who looks after these numbers.

How to ask your agency for this report

You don't need to switch agencies to get these five numbers. One message is enough, as long as you also say what your practice will send. Here's an example:

Hi Mike,

Starting next month, I'd like to judge our ads by five numbers. Could you answer five questions?

1. How much did we spend on the ads themselves last month, not including your fee?
2. How many leads came from the ads, and how do they reach us?
3. Can you add the number of booked appointments to the report if we send it from our front desk?
4. Can you add the number of patients who showed up if we send it from our schedule?
5. Can the report show the cost of one patient who showed up next to the cost per lead?

We'll send the front desk and schedule numbers on the first business day of each month.

If your agency already prepares a report like this, compare its numbers with your schedule for the same month. If they don't match, first check whether the front desk marks people from ads when it books them.

How we do it

Helpify brings patients to dental practices and follows up so they make it to the chair. A lead you paid for isn't a patient yet.

We run Facebook and Instagram ads with videos filmed at the practice, and we build a service page with a form. After every lead, the patient gets a confirmation and the front desk gets reminders to call and book. We remind patients about appointments, and after a no-show we help the front desk reschedule. The dashboard shows leads, booked appointments, patients who showed up, and ad spend. Those are the first four numbers from the table above.

You pay once for the campaign build: the service page, the ad videos, and front desk training. After that, you pay a flat monthly fee for campaign management, and it doesn't start until the day your ads go live. You pay your ad budget separately, straight to Meta. I'll show you the numbers along with a plan for your practice.

Helpify's fee doesn't depend on the size of the practice's ad budget. You don't have to drop your current agency.

Helpify is based in Poland. We work remotely and take on dental practices in Poland and the United States.

The Helpify System page describes each step of the system. Book a free 30-minute call. It's online, with Maciej Odrobina, the founder of Helpify. Book a call.

Questions and answers

How do you tell if your Facebook ads are working?

Use the same five numbers for one month. You'll find ad spend and leads in your ad account or in your agency's report. You count booked appointments and patients who showed up at your practice. The cost of one patient is ad spend divided by that last number.

How many leads should turn into an appointment?

We won't give a number, because we don't have a solid source that fits every practice and every service. The result depends on things like the service, the price, and how fast your front desk calls back. Compare your own result month to month and check whether it's going up.

What if your agency doesn't know how many patients showed up?

Your practice has that number, in its schedule. Count it yourself or ask your front desk to, and send it to your agency every month along with the number of booked appointments. Without it, no report can show the cost of one patient who showed up.