Industries
Marketing for dentists
Websites, Google Ads and Meta Ads for dental practices that want more private treatment consultations, from implants and clear aligners to routine care for nervous patients. Everything is built around GDC standards and ASA rules on dental advertising. Persuasive where it counts. Careful where it must be.
The situation
How the work is won.
Nobody books implants on a whim. A patient weighing up implants or aligners may spend weeks comparing practices, reading about the process and working out whether finance makes it affordable. Many practices also juggle NHS and private patients with little room for new NHS patients, and your marketing has to be honest about that. Every claim, image and title you use falls under GDC standards and the ASA's advertising codes.
What sends them looking
- A missing tooth, a loose denture or a failed bridge that starts the research into implants.
- Wanting to change how their teeth look before a big event, or after years of putting it off.
- No local NHS dentist taking on new patients.
- Dental pain or a broken tooth that needs an emergency appointment in the next day or two.
- Years of avoiding the dentist through anxiety, finally outweighed by a problem that needs attention.
The problem
Why it's harder than it looks.
Where the work slips away
- Turning implant, aligner and composite bonding searches into booked consultations, instead of quick price checks that go nowhere.
- Showing before-and-after cases that meet ASA rules and GDC guidance and still help patients decide.
- Being upfront about NHS availability without putting off private enquiries or implying NHS places that don't exist.
- Presenting finance accurately. Promoting consumer credit brings its own FCA rules.
- Keeping each practice's clinicians, services and booking routes separate across a multi-site group.
What makes customers hesitate
- What the whole treatment will cost, and whether they can spread the payments.
- Will it hurt? And will the dentist be patient with someone who's nervous?
- Whether this dentist has proper experience in the treatment they need.
- Whether the consultation is free, and whether they'll be pressed to go ahead on the day.
The approach
Where Arête would start with dentists.
Every service works on its own. Which one comes first depends on how your customers search and decide.
- Website design
A website built around treatment journeys
Treatment pages for implants, aligners, whitening and composite bonding that walk a patient through each stage, the likely timescale and the cost. GDC details, clinician profiles and a page for each practice come built in. Patients see the whole journey upfront.
Websites for dentists - Google Ads
Google Ads for treatment consultations
Fixed-fee campaigns for implant, aligner, emergency and new patient searches. Each treatment gets its own landing page and its own tracking, down to booked consultations per location. You see which treatments earn their budget.
Google Ads for dentists - Meta Ads
Meta Ads for cosmetic and elective treatment
Facebook and Instagram campaigns for aligners, whitening and composite bonding. Your own clinicians front them, alongside consented cases from your own patients, all within ASA and Meta rules. Patients meet you before they search.
Meta Ads for dentists
Proof and measurement
What customers check, and what counts.
What customers look for before they call
- Clinician profiles with names, qualifications and GDC registration numbers.
- Genuine, consented case photographs that represent typical results for the treatment.
- Fees or starting prices for consultations and the main treatments, stated upfront.
- Independent patient reviews, on Google and on your own site.
- A plain walk-through of each treatment journey, from first consultation to aftercare and retainers.
What counts as an enquiry
- An implant, aligner or other treatment consultation booked online.
- A new patient examination booked or requested.
- A call from your website or an ad, emergency calls included.
- A callback request from someone who wants to talk through options or finance before committing to a consultation.
What gets tracked
- Consultations booked, by treatment and by practice.
- How many consultations turn into treatment, fed back from your practice management system where practical.
- Cost per booked consultation by channel and by treatment.
- Missed calls in opening hours. Each one could be a patient who rang the next practice instead.
Worth knowing
The rules and the practicalities.
Constraints for dentists
- The GDC expects advertising to be accurate and not misleading, and its guidance sets out details practice websites should show, including clinicians' GDC registration numbers.
- Only dentists on a GDC specialist list can describe themselves as specialists.
- The ASA expects before-and-after images to be genuine and not altered to exaggerate results, and a 'free' consultation must cost the patient nothing at all.
- Promoting treatment finance is a consumer credit financial promotion, so the wording must follow FCA rules and is usually agreed with the finance provider.
Questions
Marketing for dentists: your questions answered
What does the GDC expect a dental practice website to include?
GDC guidance on advertising expects practice websites to show details such as each clinician's name, qualifications and GDC registration number, the practice address and contact details, and how to raise a complaint. It also expects every claim to be accurate and not misleading. Arête builds these details into the structure of your site, so they stay correct as clinicians come and go.
Can a practice market to both NHS and private patients?
Yes, as long as you're upfront about which services are available on the NHS and whether you're accepting new NHS patients right now. Imply NHS availability that doesn't exist and you'll get frustrated callers and potential complaints. The sensible split is paid advertising for private treatments, and a plain explanation of NHS availability on the website.
Is it worth marketing to nervous patients specifically?
For many practices, yes. Plenty of people put off treatment because of anxiety. A page explaining how you support nervous patients, such as longer appointments or sedation where you offer it, answers the question they worry about most. It should describe exactly what you do and never promise a pain-free experience.
Start a conversation
Tell Arête about the business and what currently feels missing.
You will receive a direct reply with the most sensible next step, even if that means recommending that nothing needs changing yet.
A direct reply
A personal reply, usually within one working day. No sales script, no chasing.
A short conversation
A look at the business, your current website and what a good result would look like for you.
A clear recommendation
The leanest sensible next step, with fixed scope and a fixed price. Sometimes that's nothing yet, and you'll be told so.
Prefer email? Write to info@aretemarketing.co.uk.