How We Cut Cost Per Acquisition by 45% While Quadrupling Conversions for a Private Dental Practice
The Challenge
- SituationA well-established private dental practice was running Google Ads across multiple high-value services including dental implants, cosmetic treatments, and emergency dentistry, spending approximately £24,000 over two years with modest results.
- ProblemThe account generated just over 1,000 conversions at a cost per acquisition of £23.79, but campaign structure was inconsistent and several high-intent services weren't being targeted at all. Emergency dentist searches—one of the highest-intent query types in dental marketing—had no dedicated campaign, and teeth whitening was severely underutilised despite strong commercial intent.
- StakesWith patient acquisition costs eating into margins and competitors dominating key search terms, the practice needed a more efficient paid search engine that could scale profitably while capturing demand across their full service range.
The Results
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversions | 1,017 | 4,234 | +316% |
| Cost Per Acquisition | £23.79 | £12.98 | -45% |
| Ad Spend | £24,198 | £54,977 | +127% |
| Total Clicks | 24,260 | 70,716 | +191% |
| Impressions | 213,700 | 438,762 | +105% |
The Approach
Bark Media implemented a complete account restructure built around Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) and Single Theme Ad Groups (STAGs), creating service-specific campaigns with exact and phrase match variants to maximise relevance and quality scores while controlling costs.
Launched dedicated campaigns for previously untapped high-intent services including emergency dentist, veneers, and dental hygienist searches
Restructured the flagship dental implants campaign into exact and phrase match variants, allowing granular bid control and ad copy optimisation for different search behaviours
Expanded teeth whitening coverage significantly, recognising it as a high-volume, lower-cost conversion driver that could improve overall account efficiency
Scaled investment strategically—more than doubling total spend—but directing budget toward campaigns with proven conversion efficiency
Reduced or eliminated spend on underperforming services like orthodontics and lip fillers to concentrate resources on core dental offerings
The practice generated 4,234 patient enquiries in the 24-month period—a 316% increase—while reducing cost per acquisition by 45%
The restructured account delivered transformational efficiency gains. Teeth whitening conversions surged by 1,082%, while the new emergency dentist campaign alone generated 965 enquiries. The dental implants campaigns—the practice's highest-value service—nearly tripled conversions from 515 to 1,532. Daily conversion rates more than doubled over the period, climbing from 1.9 per day in the first week to 4.7 per day by the end, demonstrating sustained momentum and account maturity.
Granular campaign structure with exact and phrase match variants allows for precise control over high-value service lines in competitive healthcare markets
Launching campaigns for previously untapped high-intent services (emergency dentist, veneers) can unlock significant new patient volume without cannibalising existing performance
Scaling spend strategically—more than doubling investment—can be highly profitable when directed toward campaigns with proven conversion efficiency and lower CPAs
Service-specific campaign segmentation in multi-service practices enables better budget allocation, with high-volume/lower-cost services like teeth whitening subsidising more expensive implant and cosmetic procedure campaigns