The intake forms that say “none”
It's the last Thursday of the month. The owner dentist has three marketing bills open: the website and SEO company, the ad manager and Google itself. Twenty-two new patients came in. Fourteen of their intake forms say “none” under “How did you find us?”
The ads ran a new patient special all month. Nobody can say which of the twenty-two it brought in, or whether any will be back. That's the question this post answers: is the exam-and-cleaning offer worth running, and how would you know?
Does the new patient special still work?
Yes, when three things are true. The price covers the chair time. Each booking carries the name of the ad behind it. And the first visit ends with the second one on the schedule.
Owners who've run free exams tell the same story. The bookings come, the no-shows come with them, and the patients who stay are few. A special with no tracking can't be judged at all, so it runs for years on habit.
Think of a dental new patient special as the door, not the profit. It earns its money on the second visit and the treatment after it.
What a special costs, worked out
Start with your own figures. If you don't track them yet, these are a fair place to begin.
Industry figures put Google Ads for dentists at about $7.85 a click and $84 for each person who asks. Owners who share their own numbers land in the same $80 to $90 range. So a $1,500 monthly ad budget brings roughly 18 people asking about the special.
Now follow those 18 through the month:
- 18 people call, text or fill in the form.
- The front desk books 12 of them, two in three.
- 10 show up for the visit.
- That's $150 in ads for each new patient who sat in the chair.
Each of those ten pays $79 for an exam and cleaning your fee schedule might list at $250. On paper, each special patient costs about $320: the ad money plus the discount.
That only comes back on the next visit. Say six of the ten book their next cleaning and two accept a $1,200 crown. The special did its job. If none of them return, it was the most expensive cleaning of the month.
Free, $49, $79 or $99
Free gets the most bookings and the weakest show rate. A patient with nothing at stake has little reason to keep a 9 a.m. slot. Free also tells people your exam is worth nothing.
Many practices price the visit between $59 and $99. At that price, the people who book have decided to come. A deposit at booking, even $25 that comes off the visit, makes the slot feel real.
Say what the special includes, and say what it doesn't. A patient who needs a deep cleaning should hear its separate price before sitting down, not at checkout.
Cap the special, too: a few slots a week, so recall patients keep their hygiene hours.
Offers worth trying instead
If the exam special has run for years with little to show, try a different door:
- An emergency visit at a set price. A $49 or $59 visit for a toothache brings patients who need treatment now. Hold two same-day slots for it.
- The first month of a membership plan. The special becomes month one of an in-house membership plan: exams, cleanings and a treatment discount for a monthly fee. The patient is a member before the second visit.
- Whitening trays after the first cleaning. Offered to patients who finish the exam, cleaning and any treatment the dentist found.
- A free consult for implants or aligners. This is a separate offer for a separate patient, with its own page and its own follow-up. Our implant and Invisalign funnels are built for it.
Where to run it
Run the special in the four places nearby patients see first:
- Google search ads on searches for a dentist in your town. The ad opens a page about the special, never your home page. That page carries the price, what's included and a booking button.
- Google Maps. Post the special as an offer on your Google profile, with a Book online button that opens the same page.
- Facebook and Instagram, shown to adults who live near the office. Use a real photo of your own front desk and dentist.
- Your own website, as a banner across your home page and new patient page.
Whoever runs the ads, keep the ad accounts in your practice's name. If you change agencies, the history and the tracking stay with you.
Scripts for the front desk
The special is won or lost on the first reply. People asking about a special are often asking two or three offices that same evening.
When someone calls about the special:
“Thanks for calling about our new patient visit. It's $79 for your exam and cleaning with Dr. Patel, and it takes about an hour. Dr. Patel has an opening Tuesday morning, and another Thursday after lunch. Which one suits you?”
When a form or ad message comes in after hours, text back within minutes:
“Hi Priya, it's Riverside Family Dental. Thanks for asking about the $79 new patient visit. You can pick a time here: [link]. Reply with any question and our front desk will answer first thing tomorrow.”
Asking where they heard about you. Plenty of desks find this question awkward, so build it into booking:
“So I can note it on your visit, did you find us on Google, Facebook or through someone you know?”
Getting the second visit booked
Here is where the special pays for itself. Three moments decide it.
In the chair, the hygienist books the next cleaning before the patient stands up. “Your next cleaning is due in March. Shall I keep you at this time of day?” A patient with no date on the books is much harder to bring back.
At checkout, anything the dentist found goes home as a written treatment plan with the price and a monthly option. “Here's the plan Dr. Patel went over, with the monthly payment. Can I hold a time for the first visit?” Our post on financing at the chair has the wording for the payment part.
For patients without insurance, the front desk offers the membership plan at the counter. Two cleanings, two exams and a treatment discount for a monthly fee keep that patient coming back.
Anyone who goes home without a second date goes on a short list. The front desk works that list within the week.
How to tell if it paid off
Give the special ninety days, then judge it on five numbers:
- The special's ad spend.
- Bookings from it, by ad.
- How many of those bookings showed up.
- Second visits booked within 90 days.
- Production from those patients, pulled from your practice software.
Divide ad spend by shows to get your cost per new patient seen. If it's more than that patient's first year is worth to you, change the price, the page or the ad. If fewer than seven in ten show up, add a deposit. If second visits are low, the fix is at checkout, not in the ads.
The intake form can't be your tracking. Every booking needs its source attached: which ad, which listing, which page.
Where FlossBooked fits
FlossBooked gives US dental practices their front desk software, their website and their new-patient marketing for one monthly price, with our team doing the setup and the running. For a special, our team builds the landing page and the ads, then runs the campaigns in ad accounts under your practice's name.
Patients book from that page through online scheduling, with a deposit and slots capped by the rules you set. After hours, the AI receptionist for dental offices takes calls about the special and offers open times. Reporting shows each booking by the ad it came from. Our team emails a two-minute summary when each month closes.
Every plan carries the whole thing, starting at $97 a month. See every plan.
FlossBooked
FlossBooked gives dental practices their front desk software, website and new-patient marketing. We write these posts from what owners, office managers and front desks tell us about their week.
