01The monthAugust beside July.
More people attended. The book was worth more.
July August
Each pair uses its own scale. Values are shown beside every bar.
02New chairsFirst-timers who then attended.
Seven from the listing. Seven from ads. One from chat.
Ads spent $2,792 to get seven new patients in — about $399 each, and $2,750 back in the chair. The listing matched that number with no ad spend. Fair buy. Don’t raise the budget until the $8,130 waiting list is worked.
Google listing
new patients attended
$0 Google Ads media spend
Google Ads
new patients attended
$2,792 media spend · about $399 each
Each dot is one new patient who attended. Website chat: 1
View attendance breakdown, including existing patients
| Source | New patients who attended | Existing who attended |
|---|---|---|
| Google listing | 7 | 23 |
| Google Ads | 7 | 14 |
| Website chat | 1 | 1 |
| Front desk / unsure | — | 2 |
03How they found youThe 88 people who moved in the book.
The listing did more of the work than ads.
Share of 88
These are source records, not a count of new patients who attended. Bars share one scale.
| Source | August |
|---|---|
| Google listing (Maps) | 49 |
| Google Ads | 31 |
| Website chat | 6 |
| Front desk | 1 |
| Unsure | 1 |
Google Ads account
Google Ads: one live search campaign, $2,792, 159 clicks, 34 conversions. Everything else in the account is paused.
04The phonesAugust on the practice line.
164 calls answered. 61 of them first-time.
Separate reported counts. These records have not been matched as a single patient journey.
49 new records were opened from all of that. Answered is not the same as booked — the gap is at the desk, not Google.
05The websiteAugust beside July.
Fewer visits. Search held. Facebook did not book.
July August
Each pair uses its own scale. Visits and people are distinct measures; neither is an attended-patient count.
| Metric | August | July |
|---|---|---|
| Website visits | 2,055 | 2,855 |
| People | 1,738 | 2,595 |
| From Google search (unpaid) | 407 | 390 |
| From Google ads | 105 | 125 |
| From Facebook / Instagram ads | 630 | 1,000 |
Facebook ads spent $276. Those 630 visits did not show as bookings. Don’t grow that spend on this month.
06Still waitingAlready in your hands.
26 people, $8,130 — bigger than last month.
Value still waiting
$26 people to follow up
July: $6,390August: +27%
Each dot is one person waiting.
Call them before you spend more on ads. Four people who already attended still have $0 on the card. Put a number on those so next month is honest.
07The planHow we get more new patients in, for less, without wasting the fee.
The number that matters is $399 per new patient — not Google’s $82.
Google’s reported conversion cost
$8234 platform conversions
Cost per new patient attended
$3997 new patients from Google Ads
Same $2,792 spend, different outcomes and denominators. This is not a July-to-August comparison.
Google says 34 conversions at $82. That is clicks and form fills. You care about new people who sat down. Ads spent $2,792 and 7 of those sat down. That is $399. The listing did the same 7 with no media bill. Fourteen more ads patients were existing — useful for the book, useless as a reason to spend more.
So the plan is not “get more leads.” It is: more first-timers in the chair, fewer wasted clicks, and none of the $8,130 left sitting.
1Make ads cheaper without starving new patients
Clicks fell 23% and cost per click rose to $17.56 from $14.51. You paid more for each click and got almost the same conversions (34 vs 35). That is a tax. We will:
| Move | What it does |
|---|---|
| Cut queries that are existing patients, other clinics, or “how much does a check-up cost” tyre-kickers | Stops paying $18 for people who were never going to be new. |
| Keep the search terms that actually became the 7 new patients — dentist near Windsor / Prahran, emergency, new patient | Protects the $399 buy. |
| Do not turn the paused campaigns back on yet | One live search campaign is enough until $399 holds for two months. Extra campaigns split the budget and hide which one worked. |
| Match the ad to a new-patient page, not a generic homepage wander | 159 clicks became only 105 website sessions from ads. Some never landed. That leak makes CPA look worse than the chair result. |
We only raise the $2,792 if new patients from ads stay near $399 and the 26 waiting people have been called. Raising spend into a leaky desk is how CPA blows out.
2Get more new patients — without buying more of the same
This month 15 new patients attended. Half were free (listing). Half were paid (ads). Chat brought one. Facebook brought none. So volume comes from the two that already work, plus fixing the hole between the phone and the book.
| Channel | This month | How we grow it |
|---|---|---|
| Google listing | 7 new in the chair, $0 ads | Every checkout asks for a Google review. Fresh photos. Posts on the listing. This is the cheapest new-patient machine you have — treat it like a campaign, not a nice-to-have. |
| Google Ads | 7 new in the chair, $2,792 | Keep spend. Tighten queries. When $399 holds, add budget in small steps — not a second campaign that we cannot read. |
| The phone | 61 first-time calls, 49 new records, 15 new attended | That drop-off is the biggest unused volume in the practice. Answered is not booked. Speed of call-back, a new-patient script, and every first-time call becoming a card. If 61 first-timers became 20 in the chair instead of 15, ads did not have to spend more. |
| People already waiting | 26 people, $8,130 | This is paid-for demand. Call them this week. It is cheaper than another thousand in ads. |
| $276, 630 visits, no bookings | Leave it small. If we try again, it is with a booking path and a real offer — not more traffic. We will not scale a channel that did not put anyone in the chair. | |
| Website search | 407 visits, held vs July | Keep pages fresh. Quiet site overall (2,055 vs 2,855) was Facebook and direct falling, not search dying. Don’t panic-spend on SEO because visits dipped. |
3Stop leaking the patients you already paid for
You cannot advertise your way out of a slow desk. 164 calls answered. 61 first-time. 49 cards opened. 15 new in the chair. $8,130 still waiting. Four attended visits with $0 on the card. That is not a media problem.
| Leak | Fix |
|---|---|
| First-time caller with no card | Every new number becomes a record the same day, marked new patient, with a source. |
| Card with no dollar value | When they attend, the value goes on the card. Otherwise we cannot tell if $399 was a good buy. |
| 26 still waiting | A same-week call list. Not “we’ll get to it.” |
4What the next 90 days look like
September
What we do
Hold ads at ~$2,800. Clean search terms. No Facebook increase. This same report.
What you should see
The 26 waiting people called. Reviews at checkout. Four $0 visits valued. New patients from ads still around that $399.
October
What we do
If $399 held and the waiting list shrank, we test a small ads increase — same campaign, not a new one. Listing still the other half.
What you should see
More than 7 new from ads without the cost per person jumping. Listing still doing its 7.
November
What we do
Only then do we talk extra budget or a second angle (emergency vs new patient) as its own ad group inside the same campaign.
What you should see
You can see which half of search is buying new patients. We do not guess.
Lianna Your account manager
Lianna is your person. You get this page every month. If new patients from ads drift toward $600, we cut waste before we spend more. If the listing slips, we treat reviews like a campaign. We will not promise a patient count. We will show who sat down, what it cost, and whether that got cheaper.
08This weekSo September actually starts.
You work the book. We tighten ads. Nobody spends more yet.
- Call the 26 people still waiting ($8,130).
- Put a dollar on the four attended visits that show $0.
- Ask for a Google review at every checkout.
- First-time callers get a card the same day, marked new patient.
- Hold Google Ads at this spend. Strip wasted search terms. Watch cost per new patient, not Google’s conversion score.
- Leave Facebook where it is.
- Same report in 30 days — so you can see if $399 moved.