In this article
First, know what you are buying
Before any call, decide what problem you have. A quiet phone is a visibility problem — Maps, reviews, search. Enquiries that do not book is a follow-up problem — reply time, the front desk, the WhatsApp. Ad spend you cannot measure is a tracking problem. An agency that proposes the same package for all three has not asked which one you have. Most clinics have the second, and it is the cheapest to fix.
The seven questions
1. What will exist at the end of month three that does not exist now? Listen for things — a Google profile completed, a page per treatment, a review process at reception, a follow-up sequence — not activities.
2. Which named person does the work on my account, and what else are they on? “A dedicated team” usually means an account manager and a rota.
3. What is not included? A proposal with no exclusions has not been thought about.
4. Split the fee into three: your time, my ad spend, and production. An agency that cannot split them has not planned the work.
5. Who owns the Google Ads account, the analytics, the website and the content on the day I leave? The answer should be you, in writing.
6. What does your report look like in a month where nothing improved? If it would still be full of green arrows, the report is a product, not a measurement.
7. Give me one client who left, and let me call them. How an agency talks about work that ended tells you more than any testimonial.
What experience in dentistry actually buys you
It is worth something — an agency that has run campaigns for clinics knows which treatments pay for their own ads, what a booked implant patient costs in your city, and that patients choose from the map and the reviews. It is not worth as much as the seven answers above. A dental-only agency that will not split the fee or name the person doing the work is a worse choice than a general one that will.
The contract, and the honest alternative
Three to six months with a defined first deliverable, not a twelve-month lock with a monthly report. A baseline recorded before the work starts, so the report can say what changed. A written fee.
And the alternative: a clinic that completes its Google profile, asks every patient for a review at the moment of relief, and answers the phone in minutes has done most of what an agency would do in its first quarter, for nothing. If an agency does not tell you that in the first meeting, ask why.