Pay-Per-Call Lead Generation for Dentists

Pay-per-call lead generation can be a perfect choice for dental practices looking to connect with new patients.

As the leading provider of pay-per-call leads for dentists, we’re experts on the ins and outs of this form of lead generation. Below, we answer some of the most common questions dental practices have about pay-per-call marketing. 

What is pay-per-call lead generation? 

Pay-per-call lead generation is a performance marketing model in which a business pays an advertiser, often known as an affiliate or publisher, for incoming calls from leads. The business pays for each call generated on their behalf in a ‘pay-per’ model. 

Is pay-per-call marketing good for dental practices? 

Pay-per-call marketing works best for businesses whose conversions happen on the phone, which includes a booked appointment for a new patient. So, yes, pay-per-call marketing is a great lead generation method to include in a dental practice’s promotional strategy. 

With a clear conversion, such as an appointment booked, it’s also easy to measure ROI for pay-per-call marketing. With an outdoor sign or even an improvement to your website, quantifying the return on your efforts can be tough, and often lead to estimating. With the pay-per-call method, you know exactly how much a particular call/new patient costs to obtain, making it easy to measure against production. 

*More on calculating how much you should spend to connect with a new patient below. 

Finally, pay-per-call marketing can be beneficial for a dental practice because it takes the entire top half of your marketing funnel and outsources it. Your affiliate or publisher will take on the task of advertising for new patients and connecting them with your office. If you don’t have the budget to employ full-time marketing staff, this could be the best solution for you. 

Is pay-per-call marketing all I need to get new patients into my practice? 

It’s tempting to think of pay-per-call marketing as a standalone tactic for a dental practice. And certainly, if your budget only allows for one type of marketing, it’s true that pay per call may be the best. However, just like with most marketing tactics, you’ll see the most bang for your pay-per-call buck if you couple pay-per-call with other forms of marketing. There are many ways to do so, but we’d recommend using other marketing tactics to look at the remainder of your customer funnel and ensure (1) that your patient shows up, and (2) that your patient comes back. 

Once a patient books an appointment via pay-per-call, their journey to your dental chair is not complete. You can help a patient show up by ensuring they can easily find positive and complete information about your practice online. It’s likely they’ll Google your practice before visiting, perhaps to double-check your address or see what types of reviews other patients have left you. These stats can help give you an idea of how likely that is to happen: 

• 84% of people say reviews play an important part in their decisions about healthcare. 
• 98% of people at least ‘occasionally’ read online reviews for local businesses 
• 86% of people will hesitate to use a business that has a negative online review 

See more here.

If a potential patient sees clear contact information that’s consistent across listing sites as well as positive reviews from other clients, they’re more likely to show up for their appointment. 

Not sure how your practice looks online? Click here for a checkup.

Additionally, a proper messaging campaign can ensure your patient both shows up and returns to your practice after their initial visit. Patients should be reminded about appointments via phone call, text or email in a friendly and helpful tone. Positive and reinforcing communication should continue after the patients’ appointment to ensure they’ll visit you again. This could include scheduling their next checkup or follow-up visits in their treatment plan or even sending them a brief and friendly message on their birthday. 

How much should pay-per-call leads cost? 

The price of a pay-per-call patient lead is going to vary depending on a couple of factors. First of all, your location. In areas where there is more competition amongst dental practices, this service will certainly cost a bit more per call. The quality of the lead will also impact the cost. Some affiliates will vet incoming calls more than others, and those with a more thorough process tend to cost more.  

A good place to start when strategizing your marketing spend is to perform some simple calculations to understand the long-term value of a patient. A mistake dental practices often make when measuring marketing ROI is looking only at what a new patient spends during their first visit. This article walks through the process of calculating the lifetime value of a patient.

Then, of course, we recommend reaching out to us so we can provide pricing for pay-per-call leads in your area. We focus on quality with our pay-per-call service, for both patients and dental practices. Each 1-800-DENTIST lead is fully vetted by a trained agent who matches callers with their perfect dental practice.  

What about pay-per-click? 

Pay-per-click (PPC) lead generation is an advertising model in which ads are placed on a platform such as Google or Facebook, and the advertiser is charged each time the ad is clicked. The goal of PPC is to generate a click-through to the advertiser’s website where a potential patient can convert, say by calling the practice or filling out a form to indicate interest. 

The unfortunate aspect of pay-per-click is that the advertiser also pays for leads that don’t convert. However, just because pay-per-click doesn’t guarantee an appointment is made doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. It simply means you should adjust your budget to reflect what you get from each method. If you tend to get one appointment booked for every ten clicks, you should aim to spend about one-tenth of your pay-per-call budget on a single click.  

More questions about pay-per-call? Let us know! We pride ourselves on being the experts at pay-per-call marketing since we’ve been doing it for 36 years. We’d be happy to help you understand if this is the right marketing tool for you.