Private dentistry and private healthcare in the UK have grown fast, and so has the competition for the same searches in the same towns. The practices winning are not the ones spending the most; they are the ones whose Google Business Profile, treatment pages and ads all say the same thing to the same patient. This is how we run local SEO and Google Ads for UK practices.
What a private patient costs
From the UK practices we manage, a booked new private patient from Google Ads costs £40–£120 for hygiene and general dentistry and £120–£300 for implants, Invisalign and aesthetic treatments, where the case value makes it worthwhile. Local SEO, after three to six months of consistent work, brings patients at a small fraction of that. Budget for ads while SEO compounds; then let SEO carry the base load.
Local SEO for UK practices
- Google Business Profile with the right primary category, every treatment listed as a service, fresh photos monthly, opening hours accurate to the bank holiday, and the booking link straight to your scheduler. Most UK practices we audit have half their services missing here.
- Reviews every week. Ask after every visit by text with the direct link. Reply to every review. The GDC allows you to invite reviews; it does not allow incentives, and the CMA treats fake or filtered reviews as a consumer-law issue.
- One treatment page per search intent with the fee band — "Invisalign cost Manchester" is a page, not a paragraph — as laid out in our UK practice website guide.
- NHS listing accuracy. For NHS practices, the nhs.uk profile is a ranking and trust signal; keep it consistent with your website and GBP.
Score your practice with the free local SEO checklist before spending on ads.
Google Ads for UK healthcare
Radius by drive time rather than county; phrase and exact match with a negative list built from day one ("NHS dentist", "dental nurse jobs", "free"); one ad group per treatment landing on that treatment's page; call tracking with calls imported as conversions; and a separate emergency campaign with ad schedules that match when you actually answer the phone. Google's healthcare policy restricts some treatments and requires certification for others; cosmetic procedures generally run, prescription-only medicines do not.
The advertising rules that catch practices out
- Botox and prescription-only medicines cannot be advertised to the public. The MHRA and ASA treat "Botox" as a brand name for a POM; advertise the consultation ("anti-wrinkle treatments consultation"), not the product, and never with prices attached to the drug.
- Claims must be substantiated. "Pain-free", "permanent", "guaranteed results" and "leading" invite ASA rulings; the GDC guidance says the same in dentistry.
- Finance advertising needs the FCA representative example and, where relevant, "credit subject to status".
- Testimonials are allowed in the UK (unlike Australia), but must be genuine and, if a patient is identified, given with consent.
- Cookie consent and pixels. Loading Meta Pixel or Google tags before consent is a PECR breach; the ICO has been fining for it. Tag through a consent-mode setup.
"The ASA does not ask whether your treatment works. It asks whether you can prove what your advert said. Write the advert you can prove."
How we run it
Fixed monthly management, campaigns and negatives built in the first fortnight, GBP and review process set up alongside, and the same monthly performance report every client sees: spend, calls, bookings, cost per booked patient. Use the growth planner for a budget recommendation from your treatment values, or talk to the UK team.