Reading Your Ad Results
Once your campaign has been running for a few days, Dental Marketing Tool gives you the numbers you need to know whether your ads are working and how to act on what you see. This article walks you through where to find your results and which metrics actually matter for a dental practice.
Where to Find Your Campaign Results
Open the Launching Ads section from the main menu, then select your active campaign. The campaign detail screen shows a snapshot of performance across however many days the campaign has been live. You can adjust the date range at the top of the page to see results for the last 7 days, 30 days, or a custom window.
The Numbers That Matter
Most of the data your ad platform collects is useful for engineers, not dentists. Focus on these three.
New Patient Inquiries
This is the count of people who filled out your form or messaged through the ad. In Dental Marketing Tool, these show up as new contacts in your ad lead tracking view and flow into your inbox automatically. This number tells you whether your ad is actually generating interest from people who want to book.
Cost Per Inquiry
This is your total ad spend divided by the number of inquiries. If you spent $300 and got 10 inquiries, your cost per inquiry is $30. This is the single most useful benchmark for a dental practice because it translates directly into a question you already know how to answer: is that patient worth $30 to get in the door? For most procedures, the answer is yes.
You can find this figure on the campaign results screen. Dental Marketing Tool calculates it automatically so you do not have to do the math yourself.
Budget Pacing
The results screen shows how much of your daily or monthly budget has been spent. If you are consistently hitting your budget cap early in the day, your ads may be cutting off before the afternoon rush. If you are barely spending your budget, the ad may not be reaching enough people. Both situations are worth adjusting. See Setting Your Ad Budget for guidance on making those changes.
What You Can Mostly Ignore
Your campaign screen may surface a handful of other numbers. Here is how to think about them.
- Impressions: how many times the ad was shown. A high impression count with few inquiries usually means the offer or the creative needs work, not that you need a bigger budget.
- Clicks: how many people tapped on the ad. Clicks without inquiries can mean your landing page or form is losing people. Check that your booking link or form is working correctly.
- Click-through rate: a percentage that compares clicks to impressions. Useful for comparing two versions of an ad against each other, but not a priority metric on its own.
- Reach: the number of unique people who saw your ad. This matters for awareness, but for new patient ads, inquiries and cost per inquiry are what count.
Comparing Results Over Time
Once you have at least two weeks of data, you can start comparing time periods to spot trends. Use the date range selector to pull up last month versus this month. Look for changes in cost per inquiry first. If the number is climbing, the offer or creative may be getting stale and it may be time to refresh your ad creative. If it is dropping, the campaign is improving on its own as the platform learns.
Connecting Results to Booked Appointments
Ad results only tell you part of the story. The other half is what happens after someone fills out your form. Open the Conversations tab to see how quickly your team is following up with new inquiries and whether those conversations are turning into appointments. A campaign that generates 20 inquiries per month is only as good as the follow-up behind it.
Once you are comfortable reading your results, the next logical step is knowing when and how to make adjustments. See Editing or Pausing a Campaign to learn how to change your budget, swap out creative, or pause a campaign that is not performing. If you have not yet set up lead tracking, Tracking Leads from Your Ads shows how to make sure every inquiry is captured and routed to the right place.