Google Ads Best Practices · June 15, 2026 · 11 min read

How A Multi-Location Dental Group Cut Cost Per New Patient By Rebuilding Google Ads Around Local Intent

Alexander PerelmanHead Of Product @ groas

Multi-location Google Ads management for dental practices is one of the most mishandled areas in paid search, and the pattern is almost always the same: a group with multiple offices runs one national campaign, wonders why cost per new patient keeps climbing, and blames Google Ads rather than the structure underneath it. This article walks through a representative scenario based on patterns groas sees repeatedly across multi-location healthcare accounts. A dental group with 11 locations was spending around $45K per month on Google Ads, generating clicks across all markets, but booking new patient appointments at roughly three locations while the other eight bled budget. After a full structural rebuild around local intent, the account moved from unprofitable at a portfolio level to consistently acquiring new patients at a sustainable cost across every market. Here is how that rebuild worked, step by step.

The Setup: A Dental Group With 11 Locations And One Broken Google Ads Account

What They Were Running Before: Everything At Once, Nothing In Control

The group had grown from three locations to 11 over several years. Their Google Ads account had grown with them, but not deliberately. It started as a single campaign targeting service keywords like “dental implants near me,” “emergency dentist,” and “teeth whitening cost” across a broad geographic radius. As new locations opened, someone added location extensions and adjusted the geo targets, but the campaign structure never changed. One campaign. One ad group per service category. Location extensions doing the heavy lifting for local relevance.

At roughly $45K per month in ad spend, the account was generating clicks and form submissions. But when leadership looked at actual booked appointments by location, the numbers did not add up. Three locations near the group’s headquarters accounted for a disproportionate share of new patient bookings. Several suburban and newer locations were getting almost nothing despite collectively receiving a significant chunk of the total budget.

The Core Problem: One National Campaign For A Hyper-Local Business

Google Ads for dental practices is fundamentally a local intent game. Someone searching “dentist accepting new patients” is looking for an office within a reasonable drive. When a multi-location dental group runs a single broad campaign, Google’s algorithm optimizes for the path of least resistance. It finds conversions wherever they come easiest, which means budget flows toward locations with stronger brand recognition, more reviews, and better landing page signals. The other locations starve.

This is not a bug in Google Ads. It is the predictable outcome of asking a single campaign to serve 11 different local markets with 11 different competitive landscapes. The algorithm does what it is told: maximize conversions within the budget. It just cannot differentiate between a new patient booked at a flagship location and one booked at a location the group desperately needs to fill.

Why The Old Structure Worked Against Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding needs clean conversion signals to work. This account had two compounding problems. First, the conversion action was “form submission,” not “booked appointment.” A form submission might be someone requesting information, asking about insurance, or submitting a form that never leads to an actual appointment. Smart Bidding was optimizing toward form fills, many of which had no downstream value. Second, even with phone call tracking in place, the calls were not being scored or filtered. A two-minute call about office hours counted the same as a seven-minute call that ended with a scheduled cleaning.

The result: Smart Bidding had bad data, a broad geographic mandate, and no way to distinguish between a $0 form fill and a $300 new patient appointment. It did what any algorithm would do with those inputs. It found the cheapest conversions, which happened to be low-intent form fills in markets where competition was lower but patient value was also lower.

The Diagnosis

Geographic Performance Spread: Where Budget Was Going Vs Where Conversions Came From

Pulling a geographic report by location radius told the real story. Around 60% of spend was concentrating in three ZIP codes near the group’s original offices. Two locations that had been open for over a year were receiving less than 4% of total budget each. The algorithm was not distributing budget based on business need. It was distributing budget based on where it could hit cost-per-conversion targets most easily.

This is a common structural failure in multi-location Google Ads management. A single campaign cannot serve multiple geographies equitably because Google’s bidding algorithms are designed to maximize total performance, not balance performance across locations.

Keyword-Level Bleed: Service Terms Triggering Informational Queries

The keyword report revealed another layer. Broad match terms like “dental implants cost” and “Invisalign near me” were matching to queries like “how much do dental implants cost without insurance,” “Invisalign reviews Reddit,” and “is Invisalign worth it.” These are informational searches from people in the research phase, not people ready to book. The account had a thin negative keyword list that had not been updated in months. Without a robust negative keyword system operating at the MCC level, every location was paying for the same irrelevant clicks.

Tracking Problem: Form Submissions Vs Actual Phone Booked Appointments

The conversion tracking gap was the root cause that made every other problem harder to fix. Until the account could tell Google “this click resulted in a booked appointment” rather than “this click resulted in a form being submitted,” no amount of structural improvement would unlock Smart Bidding’s full potential. The group’s call tracking was basic: it counted calls over 60 seconds. But a 90-second call where someone asks “do you take Delta Dental?” and hangs up is not a conversion. The tracking infrastructure needed to capture booked appointments specifically, whether they came through phone calls or online scheduling.

This mirrors a pattern groas sees across healthcare advertisers. The gap between tracked conversions and actual business outcomes is where most Google Ads accounts for dentists lose the most money. You cannot fix bidding until you fix tracking.

The Rebuild Plan

Breaking National Into Market-Specific Campaigns By Location

The first structural decision was straightforward: one campaign per location, with geo-targeting set to a reasonable service radius around each office. This is non-negotiable for multi-location dental groups running Google Ads. Each location competes in a different market. Different competitors, different CPCs, different patient demographics. One campaign per location means independent budgets, independent bidding strategies, and independent performance reporting.

Each campaign got its own budget based on the location’s patient capacity and growth targets, not a blanket split of the total budget. Newer locations that needed to build patient volume got proportionally more budget relative to their current output.

Restructuring Match Types Around High-Intent Local Terms

The keyword strategy shifted from broad service terms to high-intent local queries. “Dentist accepting new patients [city],” “emergency dentist [neighborhood],” and “dental implants [city] cost” replaced generic national terms. Phrase match and exact match replaced most broad match usage. Broad match was retained only in a dedicated discovery campaign with tight negative keyword coverage and a lower budget cap.

Fixing Conversion Tracking To Capture Booked Appointments, Not Just Clicks

The tracking rebuild had three components. First, online scheduling completions replaced form submissions as the primary conversion action. Second, phone call tracking was upgraded to score calls based on duration and outcome, with only calls resulting in a booked appointment counting as conversions. Third, enhanced conversions were implemented to improve match rates between ad clicks and downstream appointment data from the practice management system.

This is the step most generalist agencies skip or defer because it requires understanding the dental group’s actual patient intake workflow, not just the Google Ads interface.

Implementing Negative Keywords At The MCC Level Across All Locations

A shared negative keyword list was built at the MCC level and applied across all location campaigns. This covered informational queries, competitor brand terms the group did not want to bid on, insurance-related research queries, and geographic terms outside each location’s service area. The list was designed to grow weekly based on search term reports from all 11 campaigns feeding a single review process.

The Execution

Month 1: Account Structure Migration Without A Traffic Gap

The migration happened over two weeks. Old campaigns were paused in phases as new location-specific campaigns went live, ensuring no gap in ad coverage for any market. Manual CPC bidding was used for the first phase to control costs while the new structure collected data. This is a critical detail: you cannot flip an account from one structure to another and immediately activate Smart Bidding. The new campaigns need fresh conversion data under the new tracking setup before automated bidding can be trusted.

Month 2: Smart Bidding Activation After Conversion Volume Stabilized

After roughly four weeks of manual bidding and clean conversion data flowing, target CPA bidding was activated on the five highest-volume location campaigns. The remaining six locations stayed on manual bidding until they individually reached sufficient conversion volume. Activating Smart Bidding too early on low-volume campaigns is one of the most common Performance Max and Smart Bidding mistakes multi-location advertisers make.

Month 3: Performance Max Layered In For New Patient Acquisition

Once search campaigns were stable and Smart Bidding was performing, a Performance Max layer was added with a specific goal: incremental new patient acquisition beyond what search was capturing. The PMax campaigns used tight budget controls and were structured per location cluster rather than account-wide. Asset groups were built with location-specific creative and landing pages to maintain local relevance.

The Results

Cost Per New Patient Appointment Before Vs After

Before the rebuild, the blended cost per form submission looked acceptable on paper, but cost per actual booked new patient appointment was significantly higher because so many form submissions and counted calls never converted to real appointments. After the rebuild, cost per booked new patient appointment dropped materially across the portfolio. The exact improvement varied by location, but the directional shift was clear: the account was now optimizing toward real appointments rather than vanity metrics.

Location-Level Performance Variance Eliminated

Before: three locations consumed the majority of budget and generated most conversions. After: all 11 locations operated within their individual budget allocations and generated new patient appointments proportional to their market opportunity. Locations that were previously starved of budget started producing consistently.

Phone Call Attribution Now Feeding Smart Bidding Correctly

With scored phone calls feeding back into Google Ads as conversions, Smart Bidding could finally differentiate between a low-value inquiry and a booked appointment. This single fix improved bidding accuracy across every campaign and compounded the structural improvements.

Why This Rebuild Requires A Fully Managed Approach

This is not a set-it-and-forget-it project. The rebuild described above requires deep Google Ads structural knowledge, conversion tracking expertise, familiarity with dental practice operations, and ongoing management across 11 separate campaigns plus Performance Max layers. A generalist agency running dozens of clients typically assigns one media buyer who checks the account a few times per week. That person does not have the bandwidth to manage 11 location-specific campaigns, review search terms across all of them weekly, coordinate with practice managers on conversion data quality, and layer in PMax with proper controls.

This is exactly the scenario groas is built for. As a fully managed service, groas assigns a dedicated senior strategist who owns the account end-to-end, from campaign structure through landing pages and conversion tracking. Underneath, the proprietary engine trained on over $500 billion in profitable ad spend handles execution around the clock, catching geographic budget drift, negative keyword gaps, and bidding inefficiencies in real time rather than during a weekly check-in. There is no onboarding fee, no long-term contract, and the strategist works on everything from the first click to the final booked appointment.

For a dental group like this, the difference between a generalist agency and a fully managed model shows up in the details: how quickly search term reports get reviewed, how conversion tracking gets maintained as the practice management system updates, how Performance Max budgets get adjusted location by location rather than at a portfolio level.

What This Means For Multi-Location Healthcare Practices

The Specific Google Ads Mistakes Dental And Medical Groups Make

If you are running Google Ads for multiple dental or healthcare locations, audit these three things immediately. First, check whether you are running one campaign for multiple geographies. If yes, your algorithm is picking winners and starving other locations. Second, verify what your conversion action actually measures. If it is form submissions or unscored phone calls, Smart Bidding is optimizing toward the wrong outcome. Third, look at your negative keyword coverage. If you do not have a shared negative list updated weekly across all locations, you are paying for the same junk queries at every office.

Why A Fully Managed Model Handles This Better Than A Generalist Agency

The volume of ongoing work across a multi-location dental account is beyond what a single media buyer at a traditional agency can handle in their allotted hours. The structure needs to be built correctly, but more importantly, it needs to be maintained, optimized, and expanded continuously as locations grow. A traditional agency is capped at whatever one person can physically get through in a week, and you pay full rate for that ceiling. groas puts a senior strategist on top of an engine that never stops running, so execution scales with the account rather than being bottlenecked by human bandwidth.

For multi-location dental groups and healthcare practices evaluating how to run Google Ads for multiple locations profitably, the math points clearly toward a model where execution runs continuously and a senior strategist owns the entire account. That is what groas delivers. No onboarding fee. No long-term contract. Apply and let groas figure out the right plan on the call.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Should A Multi-Location Dental Group Structure Google Ads Campaigns?

Every location needs its own dedicated campaign with independent geo-targeting, budget, and bidding strategy. Running one campaign across multiple offices forces Google's algorithm to pick winners, starving newer or lower-performing locations of budget. Each campaign should target a realistic service radius around the office, use high-intent local keywords like "dentist accepting new patients [city]," and feed conversion data from actual booked appointments rather than generic form submissions. This structure gives you location-level performance visibility and lets Smart Bidding optimize each market independently based on its own competitive dynamics.

What Is The Best Conversion Tracking Setup For Dental Practice Google Ads?

The best setup tracks booked appointments, not form submissions or raw phone calls. For online scheduling, fire the conversion tag only when a patient completes the booking confirmation step. For phone calls, use call scoring that distinguishes a booked appointment from an insurance inquiry or general question. Enhanced conversions should feed appointment data from your practice management system back to Google Ads. Without this foundation, Smart Bidding optimizes toward low-value actions and your cost per real patient stays inflated regardless of how good your campaign structure looks.

Why Does Smart Bidding Fail On Multi-Location Dental Accounts?

Smart Bidding fails when it receives bad conversion signals or when a single campaign spans multiple geographies. If your conversion action counts form fills instead of booked appointments, the algorithm chases cheap, low-value clicks. If one campaign covers all locations, the algorithm concentrates budget where conversions come easiest, not where your business needs growth. Both problems compound each other. Fix conversion tracking first, then activate Smart Bidding on individual location campaigns only after each has collected enough clean conversion volume to give the algorithm something meaningful to optimize toward.

How Much Should A Dental Practice Spend On Google Ads Per Location?

There is no universal number because it depends on your local market's competition, the services you are advertising, and each location's patient capacity. The important principle is that budget should be allocated per location based on that office's growth targets and market opportunity, not split evenly from a single pot. A newer location building its patient base may warrant proportionally more budget than a mature office that is near capacity. Per-location budgets also let you measure cost per new patient appointment at each office independently.

Can Performance Max Work For Multi-Location Dental Groups?

Yes, but only after your search campaigns are stable and your conversion tracking is clean. Performance Max should be layered on top of proven search campaigns as an incremental new patient acquisition channel, not used as the foundation. Structure PMax campaigns by location or location cluster with dedicated asset groups, location-specific creative, and individual budget caps. Without tight budget controls, PMax will redistribute spend unpredictably across locations. groas handles this layering as part of its fully managed service, with the proprietary engine monitoring PMax budget allocation across locations around the clock.

What Are The Signs That A Dental Group's Google Ads Account Needs A Full Rebuild?

Look for three red flags. First, a small number of locations consume the majority of ad budget while others receive almost nothing. Second, your conversion tracking measures form submissions or unscored phone calls rather than actual booked appointments. Third, you have a single campaign or a small number of campaigns covering all locations with broad geographic targeting. If any of these are present, incremental optimization will not fix the problem. The account structure itself is working against you and needs to be rebuilt from the foundation.

How Long Does It Take To See Results After Rebuilding A Multi-Location Google Ads Account?

Expect roughly 90 days for the full rebuild cycle to produce stable, optimized results. Month one focuses on migrating the account structure and collecting clean conversion data under manual bidding. Month two activates Smart Bidding on campaigns with sufficient conversion volume. Month three layers in Performance Max for incremental acquisition. Results start appearing within the first month as budget stops bleeding to low-value clicks, but the full compounding effect of Smart Bidding plus PMax takes the full quarter to materialize.

Why Is groas Better Than A Traditional Agency For Multi-Location Dental Google Ads?

A traditional agency assigns one media buyer who checks your account a few times per week. With 11 location campaigns plus Performance Max layers, that person cannot review search terms, adjust location budgets, maintain conversion tracking, and coordinate with practice managers within their allotted hours. groas assigns a dedicated senior strategist who owns the entire account, backed by a proprietary engine trained on over $500 billion in profitable ad spend that runs execution 24/7. There is no onboarding fee and no long-term contract. The engine catches geographic budget drift, negative keyword gaps, and bidding issues in real time instead of during a weekly check-in.

Should Dental Practices Use Broad Match Keywords In Google Ads?

Broad match can work in a controlled discovery campaign with a limited budget and aggressive negative keyword coverage, but it should not be the default match type for dental campaigns. High-intent searches like "emergency dentist [city]" perform better on phrase or exact match where you control what triggers your ads. Broad match on terms like "dental implants cost" will match to research queries like "how much do dental implants cost without insurance," which generate clicks but rarely generate appointments. Reserve broad match for testing new keyword themes and keep it tightly managed.

How Does groas Handle Conversion Tracking For Healthcare Clients?

With groas's fully managed service, the dedicated strategist owns conversion tracking end-to-end. This includes setting up online scheduling completions as primary conversions, implementing scored phone call tracking that only counts booked appointments, and configuring enhanced conversions to match ad clicks with downstream appointment data from your practice management system. The strategist coordinates directly with your office managers to understand the patient intake workflow and maintains the tracking setup as your systems evolve. This is the level of tracking depth that makes Smart Bidding actually work for dental accounts.