You have a $5,000 marketing budget and 90 days to spend it. Your schedule isn't where you want it to be, and you need patients in the chair. Where do you start?
In an episode of The Dental Marketer, host Michael Arias puts that exact scenario to Lamar Woods, founder of Adhere Patient Management, a firm built exclusively around dental marketing. His answer might surprise you: here’s what Woods recommends to turn ad spend into patients in the chair.
Step 1. Set up Call Tracking
If a practice handed Woods $5,000 with no call tracking in place, his first move would be setting up CallRail’s Call Tracking before a single ad runs. Without it, Woods notes, you can't tell whether leads are coming in and going unanswered or getting lost at the front desk.
Tracking is only one part of Woods’ pre-launch check. The website needs to be ready too. Patients evaluate your practice before they call — looking for a phone number, real address, doctor photo, and trust signals. If those aren't there, the ad spend is wasted before the phone rings.
You cannot improve what you do not measure.
– Lamar Woods, Founder, Adhere Patient Management
Step 2: Split your budget across three campaigns
With 90 days on the clock, Google Ads puts you in front of people actively searching for a dentist right now, not people you're hoping to reach eventually. So, Woods recommends splitting the budget across three separate campaigns.
- 50% goes toward general new patients searching for a dentist nearby
- 40% toward emergency procedures like tooth pain or same-day appointments
- 10% toward high-value treatments like implants or Invisalign
Don’t lump these into one ‘general’ budget. If you do, Google’s algorithm defaults to high-volume searches, typically general new patient queries, and your emergency and high-value campaigns get far less spend. Keeping budgets separate ensures every campaign type gets the investment it needs to perform.
Step 3: Build landing pages and experiences that match the ad
Each campaign needs its own dedicated landing page. Woods calls it the scent — the thread of consistency that runs from the moment a patient types a search term, to the ad they click, to the page they land on, to the moment they call. Break it at any point, and you lose them.
If a patient searches "dental implants near me," and lands on a generic home page, the scent is gone before they even pick up the phone. And if they do call, a front desk that leads with general dentist credentials rather than implant expertise breaks it at the last moment.
Whisper messages help keep that thread intact. Before the front desk picks up, they hear a short automated message identifying which campaign drove the call, so the conversation starts in the right place every time.
Every single time you're on the call with a patient, you're either selling it or you're not.
– Lamar Woods, Founder, Adhere Patient Management
Step 4: Monitor the right numbers
Google Ads needs a ramp-up period. Month one runs at roughly half efficiency as Google learns who converts and the front desk adjusts to higher call volumes. By month two, you're adding negative keywords to block searches like 'Medicaid' or 'free cleaning' so budget isn't wasted on callers who won't convert. By month three, the numbers should start to stabilize.
Once performance stabilizes, a typical monthly mix looks like this:
- Seven general patients: ~$1,750 in production
- Nine emergency patients: ~$7,200 in production
- One high-value patient (implants/Invisalign): ~$1,500 in production
- Total monthly production: $10,450
But numbers only tell part of the story. By reviewing call recordings or transcripts, practices can pinpoint missed opportunities. The most common issue is staff who answer every question but never actually ask for the appointment. Woods recalls a manager who only realized an offhand comment cost a patient after listening back.
As parting advice, Woods cautions against expecting a 1:1 return from increased spend. Search volume is finite. Before scaling, make sure your team is converting calls into bookings.
You can double the amount of money you put into the account, but you can't double the number of people that live around your practice.
– Lamar Woods, Founder, Adhere Patient Management
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Episode transcript
Michael Arias: We have with us Lamar Woods from Adhere Patient Management. How’s your week been coming along, Lamar?
Lamar Woods: Week’s been going well, Michael. It’s been going well. Yeah, no complaints—been a tad busy, but that’s a good thing. How’s yours been?
Michael Arias: Wonderful, man! Wonderful, now that I’m talking to you. Thank you so much. This is going to be a special episode because the whole episode will be centered around this specific scenario, which is: If a struggling practice invests $5,000 for 90 days, what numbers must be true by Day 90 for us to call it a win? That’s what we’re going to look into. By the end of this, you the listener—the practice owners—are going to know a predictable flow of new patients per month, a known cost per scheduled patient, a 60% or more booking rate, a measurable 20% to 30% production lift, and full visibility into where patients are coming from.
But before we do this, Lamar, why don’t you tell us a bit about who you are and why we can trust your capability to guide us through this scenario?
Lamar Woods: You can trust that I’m capable because I’ve been around the marketing space for some time now. When I jumped into marketing after leaving the corporate world—working for places like World Wide Technology and other large companies—I decided I didn’t want to be a general marketing guy. I wanted to specialize and make sure I knew what I was doing in a specific industry.
That’s exactly why people can trust me. With the work I do, we specifically focus on dentists and these types of marketing campaigns. When we work on a new piece of technology, whether it’s a website or something that connects to a website, we specifically think: How would a dental practice need this to work? That’s exactly why we’re the right people to be talking to about this.
Michael Arias: Nice! Okay, awesome. So let's dive into it. Let's get into the scenario because this is a very real one that many encounter. If I gave you a struggling practice $5,000 just for 90 days, what numbers must be true by Day 90 for us to call it a win? Let’s define what "winning" means first.
Lamar Woods: Right. I would say winning means that, one, you’ve got predictable flow. Two, not only do you have flow in terms of leads reaching out, but you also have bookings. Leads are only so good if you can't actually get them on the schedule.
So you’ve got leads coming through, you’ve got bookings making it onto the schedule, and you’re actually getting those folks to show up. As long as those things are happening in the right quantities, you’ve got a win.
Michael Arias: I like that a lot because you do want them to show up instead of just looking like a lot of impressions. We get that a lot. So, is 25 to 40 new patients per month a realistic goal in that 90-day timeframe?
Lamar Woods: Within the 90-day mark, at a spend of somewhere around $1,600 to $1,700 [per month], 25 could be possible. Shooting up to 40 is a little ambitious. I would say around that spend, you’d probably be getting somewhere between 17 and 25 actual patients inside the practice.
To make these numbers work, you have to have all your systems put together. That means your team has scripts and they understand how to take someone from a phone call or a lead form and actually get them into the practice. These numbers are very important and can't be overlooked. But assuming those systems are working, you can hit the low end of that range at that budget.
Michael Arias: Gotcha. What would be the absolute lowest budget where you’d say, "I can work with that"?
Lamar Woods: I would probably go no lower than $1,000 per month. That doesn't include agency fees, of course, but if you’re a smaller office doing a lot of the setup yourself, you can get something done at about $1,000 a month going directly to Google.
Michael Arias: Interesting. So before spending a dollar—before running a single ad—what do you evaluate inside the practice?
Lamar Woods: Well, we already talked about one thing: Do you have the ability to convert patients when they call? Beyond that, can your website convert? When people click a digital ad, the first thing they see is your website. Is it trustworthy? Is it compliant?
Do you have your phone numbers and address present? Do you have pictures? Can they tell who the doctor is, or is it just a general name and logo? When you wrap these up correctly and add in third-party verification—like an ADA logo or local dental society logos—it adds up to a package that sells for you. You also want to make sure you’re tracking everything as you go along.
Michael Arias: What internal weaknesses have you seen that immediately sabotage a 90-day plan?
Lamar Woods: One of the worst things is when an office is great when there are 5 people calling a day, but as soon as the volume doubles or triples, calls start going to hold. If the front desk receptionist sounds rushed, frustrated, or tired on the phone, it chips away at the ability to get someone on the schedule.
A patient is continuously evaluating you—from your website to the way the receptionist answers to the background noise in the office. Every red flag chips away at the ability to get the actual sale.
Michael Arias: When it comes to calls then, what are some things we should really double down on?
Lamar Woods: You should definitely have confidence on the call. If a patient asks if the doctor can handle a root canal and the receptionist hesitates or stutters saying, "I think he's done a few of those," it kills the trust. You're either selling it or you're not, and that ultimately comes down to money leaving the practice. You want to sound warm and confident before any discomfort or pain the patient is feeling arises.
Michael Arias: If you walked into a practice and they had no call tracking or attribution, what would be your first move?
Lamar Woods: Automatically, the first thing I would have to do is get some tracking in place. You cannot improve what you do not measure. Without numbers, you can't make an educated business decision. You need to know if the receptionist needs training or if the lead flow is just inconsistent.
You can't spend the $5,000 correctly unless you have tracking. You need to review those calls later because humans make mistakes. You need to look at those mistakes regularly and improve. Even 10 years later, you won't hit the mark 100% of the time, so you need to continuously improve to hit that optimal space.
Michael Arias: So first step: call tracking. Now, let’s allocate the money. How do you split that $5,000 over 90 days?
Lamar Woods: I would go directly to Google Ads. I would split it into three different buckets:
- General Patients (50%): People searching for "dentist near me." This is your bread and butter.
- Emergency Procedures (40%): Keywords like "toothache," "cracked tooth," or "dentist open today." These are high-intent people ready to pay right now.
- High-Value Procedures (10%): Things like implants or Invisalign.
I recommend separate campaigns and separate landing pages for each. There’s a term in digital advertising called a "smell." You want the "scent" to be the same from the search query to the ad to the landing page. If they search for implants, they should see implants in the ad and land on an implant-specific page. If the smell is off when they walk in or call, they won't book.
Michael Arias: What would you absolutely not spend on in the first 90 days?
Lamar Woods: I would not spend on anything considered "brand" or long-term awareness. Awareness is good, but for a 90-day turnaround, you need to cut directly into intent. I wouldn't spend on social media advertising (keep the account fresh, but don't pay for ads) and I wouldn't invest in SEO initially. SEO is great ROI, but it can take 6 to 12 months to see results. In 90 days, you’d be sitting there with an empty operatory.
Michael Arias: What should happen in the first 30 days?
Lamar Woods: 1. Set up the ad account.
2. Get tracking in place.
3. Ensure the team is prepared to sell (scripts and training).
4. Launch the ads by Day 10.
By Day 30, you should be getting leads. Initially, you might move at half efficiency while Google’s AI learns your audience, so you might see about 10 patients in that first month.
Michael Arias: And by Day 60?
Lamar Woods: You should see lead flow increase as the account gets "older" and more trusted by Google. You should be optimizing—looking for "negative keywords." For example, if people are clicking your ads searching for "free cleaning" or "Medicaid" and you don't offer those, you add them as negative keywords so your ads don't show for them anymore. This stops you from wasting money.
Michael Arias: And Day 90?
Lamar Woods: It becomes about stabilizing processes. You should have a routine for reviewing calls, checking keywords, and ensuring the booking rate is high. By this point, you can move from a daily "microscope" view to a once-a-week or even once-a-month check-in on the numbers.
Michael Arias: If I double my ad spend tomorrow, do results double?
Lamar Woods: No, it’s very rare. There are diminishing returns. You can double the money, but you can't double the number of people living in a 10-mile radius. At a certain point, you have to switch strategies and move "earlier" in the customer journey rather than just high-intent searches.
Michael Arias: What usually breaks first when traffic increases?
Lamar Woods: Call quality. The front desk gets overwhelmed and starts dropping the ball. They sound rushed, annoyed, and they stop asking for the booking. They expect the patient to just ask for an appointment like they used to, but ad leads often ask more questions. You need to invest in coaching to handle that increased volume.
Michael Arias: What does a practice look like when this is working correctly?
Lamar Woods: You should see a monthly report showing an adequate number of leads, a high percentage of those leads on the schedule, and a high percentage of those actually showing up for work.
Using our $1,600–$1,700 monthly spend example, you could see about $10,450 in production ($1,750 from general cleanings, $7,200 from emergencies, and $1,500 from a high-value case). The value often goes up even more 2 or 3 months later as those patients follow through on larger treatment plans.
Michael Arias: Lamar, thank you so much! Where can people find you?
Lamar Woods: At AdherePatient.com. We’re happy to take a look at your website for free to see if it’s conversion-ready.
Michael Arias: Any final words of advice?
Lamar Woods: Know your numbers and have systems in place. Get call tracking, start measuring, and have scripts ready for when the calls start pouring in.
