Choosing a Dental Advertising Agency in the UK: What to Ask

Ownership questions

Ownership determines whether the work compounds for the practice's long-term benefit or for the agency's book of clients. Everything built during the engagement should live in accounts the practice itself controls and keeps permanently, regardless of who manages day-to-day activity inside them.

• Is the ad account owned by the practice's own Business Manager?
• Who owns the landing pages and the domain they sit on?
• Who holds the pixel and its accumulated conversion history?
• Does the practice keep enquiry data in its own CRM or system, not just the agency's?

Reporting questions and what depth actually looks like

Ask to see an anonymised example report before signing anything. If it stops at impressions, clicks and cost per lead, the agency has no visibility of what actually happens inside the practice once an enquiry arrives — and therefore has no real way to improve the number that matters commercially.

• Does reporting include consultations booked and attended?
• How is treatment value attributed back to specific campaigns?
• What gets reported honestly when a month performs badly?

Compliance responsibility and who checks copy

The registrant remains responsible for what is published in the practice's name, regardless of who wrote it. Any agency working credibly in dentistry should expect the practice to approve copy and imagery before it runs, and should be able to explain GDC and CAP Code considerations without being prompted or reminded.

Typical fees and what they should cover

Management fees for a single-practice Meta or Google campaign vary by scope, but a transparent structure separates the management fee from the ad spend itself, so the practice can see clearly what is being paid for management versus what is being paid to the platform. Be wary of bundled figures that make it hard to judge either component on its own merits.

• Management fee and ad spend shown as separate line items
• Setup or onboarding costs disclosed upfront, not discovered later
• No hidden mark-up on ad spend itself

Promises to treat as warnings

Guaranteed numbers of leads, guaranteed case values, 'we only get paid on results' arrangements that create pressure on clinical decision-making, and exclusive territory claims that cannot realistically be enforced all deserve genuine scepticism during a sales conversation, however confidently they are presented.

Commercial terms and the exit clause

Understand exactly what the fee covers, whether ad spend is billed separately, what the notice period is, and what the practice keeps on exit. Fixed, transparent fees make the economics of a campaign easy to evaluate against the value of a single treatment case, which is ultimately the only comparison that matters.

• Fee and ad spend clearly separated in the contract
• Notice period no longer than genuinely necessary
• Written confirmation that all assets transfer cleanly on exit

Questions specific to dental experience

Ask how many dental clients the agency currently manages, whether they understand typical treatment economics such as implant case value versus a single crown, and whether they can describe a campaign that underperformed and what they changed. Vague, uniformly positive answers are themselves a signal worth noting.

• Number and type of current dental clients
• Understanding of typical UK treatment case values
• A specific, honest example of a campaign that did not work initially

The internal question nobody asks before signing

Before appointing anyone, decide who inside the practice owns enquiries and whether they genuinely have capacity for more of them. Excellent advertising placed into a practice with nobody answering the phone consistently produces an expensive, entirely avoidable disappointment that no agency change will fix.