Marketing for Dentists

What does marketing for dentists involve?

Marketing for dentists covers every channel that brings a new patient to the chair or an existing one back for their next visit. In practice that means Google Maps and your Business Profile, a website with treatment pages, Google Ads, reviews, health fund and booking platforms, and recall and referral systems for the patients you already have.

The mix matters more than any single channel. A practice that wants more implant cases needs different marketing from one that wants young families, because those patients search, compare and decide differently. Implant patients research for weeks and compare cost and process. Parents want a gentle, nearby practice with Saturday appointments. Someone with a cracked tooth on a Sunday calls whoever answers first.

Dental marketing also carries rules most industries don’t. Every ad, social post and offer is covered by AHPRA’s Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service, and injectable treatments add TGA and Google restrictions on top. Before going independent, Dyllan spent years inside a Perth SEO agency working on the websites of hundreds of local businesses: dentists, electricians, landscapers, builders and trades. Every dental page and ad we write now gets a compliance check before it goes live.

This page covers the whole mix. For the search-ranking side in depth, see our SEO for dentists page, and for paid search, our Google Ads for dentists guide.

Which marketing channels work best for dental practices?

The channels that bring the most new patients for most practices are Google Maps, treatment pages ranking in organic search, and Google Ads, supported by reviews and a recall system. Social media builds familiarity but rarely books new patients on its own. The right weighting depends on which treatments you want to grow and how quickly.

Search demand shows where patients start. Google’s Australian keyword data (October 2026) puts ‘dentist near me’ at around 135,000 searches a month, ‘invisalign’ at 27,100, ‘teeth whitening’ at 22,200, ‘veneers’ at 18,100 and ‘dental implants’ at 8,100. Even ‘bulk billing dentist’ gets around 2,400, mostly parents looking for Child Dental Benefits Schedule practices.

Channel	Best for	Speed	Typical cost	Rule to watch
Google Business Profile and Maps	New local patients, emergencies, ‘near me’ searches	Weeks to months	Time, or part of an SEO retainer	Don’t reply to reviews in a way that confirms someone is a patient
Treatment pages (SEO)	Implants, Invisalign, veneers: researched, high-value cases	3–6 months	Part of an SEO retainer	No outcome promises; before-and-after images must be genuine and consistent
Google Ads	Filling gaps fast, emergency and high-value treatments	Days	Management fee plus ad spend	Offers need terms; no prescription drug terms
Health fund networks	Steady volume of fund members	Weeks	Lower fees per item	Check the margin, not just the volume
Booking platforms (HotDoc, HealthEngine)	Patients who book online	Weeks	Platform fees	Track whether bookings are new or existing patients
Recall SMS and email	Bringing existing patients back	Immediate	Low	Spam Act consent and unsubscribe rules
Social media	Familiarity, team and practice personality	Slow	Time or agency fees	No clinical testimonials on your own pages; influencer limits

We deliver the search, Maps, Ads and website parts of that table. Social media is worth doing well, but we treat it as a supporting channel and don’t manage it.

How do AHPRA’s advertising rules apply to dental marketing?

Section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law bans advertising that is false or misleading, offers a gift, discount or inducement without stating the terms, uses testimonials, creates an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment, or encourages unnecessary use of health services. It applies to every channel: your website, Google Ads, social accounts, emails, flyers and signage.

Ahpra says the 2022 amendments to the National Law raised the maximum penalty per advertising offence from $5,000 to $60,000 for an individual and from $10,000 to $120,000 for a body corporate, and ongoing breaches can be treated as separate offences. A whitening promotion that runs for three months is not one small mistake.

Marketing activity	What the rule says	Compliant approach
‘$199 new patient check-up and clean’	Discounts and inducements must state their terms and conditions in plain language	Show the inclusions, exclusions and expiry, or link to them where space is short
‘Free consultation’	Ahpra reads ‘free’ as absolutely free	Only say free if no part of the cost is recovered later
Patient quotes on Facebook or Instagram	Clinical testimonials are banned in advertising you control, including your own social accounts	Keep non-clinical comments, and disable review features where you can’t remove clinical ones
Replying to Google reviews	Engaging with a review on a third-party site may count as using it as a testimonial	Thank people generally; don’t repeat clinical claims or confirm treatment
‘Implant specialist’ or ‘cosmetic specialist’	Only registered specialists can use ‘specialist’, and the Dental Board recognises 13 specialties	Use ‘substantial experience in’ or ‘working primarily in’ for general dentists
Before-and-after smile photos	Images must be genuine, and match in angle, lighting, framing and background	Note any alteration, and show only the treatment as the visible change
Anti-wrinkle or filler promotions	The TGA bans advertising prescription-only medicines to the public, including substitute terms	Advertise consultations, such as ‘consultations about facial concerns’

Implants and cosmetic dentistry aren’t among the Dental Board’s 13 recognised specialties, which run from endodontics and orthodontics to periodontics, prosthodontics and paediatric dentistry. That makes ‘implant specialist’ a common breach on general practice sites.

Practices offering facial aesthetics have two extra layers. Ahpra’s Guidelines for practitioners who advertise higher risk non-surgical cosmetic procedures took effect on 2 September 2025 and apply to all registered health practitioners, dentists included. They require ads to identify the practitioner performing the procedure, strengthen the ban on influencer testimonials, ban advertising aimed at under-18s, and target ads that trivialise or sexualise procedures. Separately, the TGA’s FAQ (updated July 2026) says it no longer permits terms like ‘wrinkle reducing injections’ or ‘dermal fillers’ where a reasonable consumer would read them as promoting a prescription-only medicine, and that price information for those medicines is itself unlawful advertising.

This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. Check the guidelines directly or ask your indemnity insurer.

Should you rely on health funds, HotDoc or HealthEngine for new patients?

Use them as one source of patients, not the only one. Health fund networks and booking platforms reach people who are already choosing a dentist, but you don’t control the listing, the ranking or the terms, and the patient’s loyalty often sits with the fund or the app rather than your practice.

Fund searches are bigger than most practices expect. Google’s Australian data shows around 33,100 monthly searches for ‘bupa dentist’, 12,100 for ‘hcf dentist’ and 1,900 for ‘medibank dentist’. Some of that is people looking for the funds’ own clinics, but much of it is members looking for a practice where their extras cover goes further. Most major funds run preferred-provider programs, and practice sites commonly display names like Bupa Members First, HCF More For Teeth, nib First Choice and Medibank Members’ Choice.

The trade-off is margin. A preferred-provider agreement usually means working within the fund’s fee arrangements for covered items. That can suit a practice with empty chairs and a strong recall system, because a member who joins for check-ups may later need crowns or implants. It suits a booked-out practice far less.

Booking platforms like HotDoc and HealthEngine let patients book online, often from search results. Before relying on them, check three things: what you pay per booking or per month, whether new patients are reported separately from existing ones, and whether the platform’s listing appears above your own website when people search your practice name.

The Child Dental Benefits Schedule is worth marketing to directly if you bulk bill it. For children whose two-year period starts in 2026, the cap is $1,158 over two calendar years, for children aged 0–17 who are eligible for Medicare and whose family receives an eligible Australian Government payment. It doesn’t cover orthodontics or cosmetic work. A clear CDBS page answers the questions parents ask before they book.

How do you keep patients coming back and referring?

Recall and referrals are the cheapest patients you’ll get, because the trust is already there. A working recall system, a simple review request after appointments, and an easy way for patients to recommend you will often produce more bookings per dollar than any paid channel.

Recall reminders for overdue check-ups are the base. Promotional messages are a separate category: under the Spam Act 2003, a commercial SMS or email needs consent, must identify your practice with accurate contact details, and must include an unsubscribe option that’s honoured within 5 working days, according to the ACMA. A whitening offer sent to your whole patient list is a commercial message.

Referral rewards need care. A gift or discount for referring a friend is an inducement under section 133, so its terms must be stated, and it mustn’t encourage treatment people don’t need. Many practices skip rewards and simply make referring easy, with a shareable booking link and a thank-you note.

Reviews feed Maps rankings and new-patient trust. Ask every patient, not only the happy ones, because selectively published reviews can mislead. Your own site and social pages can’t republish clinical reviews, but patients posting on Google is outside your control and allowed.

How much should a dental practice spend on marketing?

Spend in proportion to what a new patient is worth for the treatments you’re targeting. Typical Australian market ranges are $1,500–$3,000 a month for SEO for a single practice in a competitive area, and $3,000–$6,000+ for cosmetic-focused or multi-location groups, with Google Ads management and ad spend on top. These are market ranges, not quotes.

Item	Typical Australian market range
SEO, single-location practice, competitive area	$1,500–$3,000 per month
SEO, cosmetic focus or multi-location group	$3,000–$6,000+ per month
Google Ads management (ad spend separate)	$500–$1,500 per month, or 10–20% of spend
One-off paid audit	$500–$2,500
Custom small-business website	Roughly $5,000–$15,000, depending on pages and features

Worked maths keeps it honest. Take a hypothetical practice in Geelong: if an implant case brings in several thousand dollars in fees, one or two extra implant patients a month cover a mid-range retainer. A family who joins for check-ups is worth less in month one but far more over ten years of recalls and treatment. Compare each channel’s cost per new patient, not its cost per click or follower.

For how these ranges compare across industries, see our SEO pricing guide. Work is month-to-month, with no lock-in.

Want to see where your new patients come from today, and whether your ads or website carry any AHPRA risk? Get a free dental marketing audit.