"Dentist near me" gets 246,000 searches a month in the UK, rising to 301,000 in January and March 2026. "Dentists in London", the biggest city search in the country, gets 5,400. Forty-five times fewer. A click on the first costs £3.97, against £6.57 for "out of hours dentist", which gets 3,600 (DataForSEO, Google Ads UK, September 2026; CPC converted from USD at £1 = $1.3242).
Marketing a dental practice comes down to three numbers: what it costs to acquire a patient, what that patient is worth over the next five years and how many reviews you have compared with the practices above you on the map. Everything else follows from them.
Below are the sums, what the rules allow you to say and where the patients who don't reach you end up.
The urgent patient costs more and is worth more
The price Google puts on each search tells you how the market values that patient. "Dentist near me" costs £3.97 a click. "Out of hours dentist" costs £6.57, about 65% more.
Someone looking for an out-of-hours dentist is in pain, not comparing quotes: they book with the first practice that answers and often stay. Next to it sit "dentist open sunday" with 720 searches a month (£6.07 a click) and "dentist open saturday" with 260 (£5.58). Few searches, each with a much higher chance of converting than the average.
A practice that opens on Saturdays and doesn't say so in a way Google understands (opening hours on the Business Profile, a dedicated page) is giving up the easiest demand to close in the whole sector.
The sum hardly any practice does
With a click at £3.97 and one visitor in thirty converting, a new patient examination costs about £120 in advertising. That looks like a lot for an appointment that is often cheap or free.
It looks very different if you follow the patient over five years, with hygiene visits, fillings and any major treatment. Over that horizon £120 is a small fraction, and the practice could afford to pay much more to win the patient. The reason almost nobody does is that the cost shows up in the bank account straight away while the revenue is spread over years.
It also points to the opposite priority from the usual one: before spending on new patients, call back the ones who haven't been in for eighteen months. They cost a phone call and their records are already open.
January, March and the autumn
UK dental demand has clear peaks: "dentist near me" goes from 201,000 searches in December 2025 to 301,000 in January 2026, drops back to 246,000 and returns to 301,000 in March. September and October 2025 were also at 301,000. "Dental implants cost" follows a similar pattern, from 6,600 searches in July 2026 to 14,800 in September and October 2025.
December and the summer months are the weakest. A practice that spreads its budget evenly pays in July for the same patients who would cost less per booking in January, and has no voice in the months when demand is highest.
What you can say, and what everyone gets wrong
In the UK, dental advertising answers to two sets of rules. The General Dental Council's guidance on advertising requires information to be accurate and not misleading, rules out claims likely to create an unjustified expectation, asks dentists to show their GDC number and qualifications and reserves "specialist" for those on the GDC specialist list. The CAP Code, enforced by the ASA, adds that claims must be backed by evidence.
That leaves out the lines seen most often in the sector: "best dentist in London" and other superlatives nobody can prove, promises of results, before-and-after photos that suggest every patient will get the same outcome, "implant specialist" used by a dentist who is not on the list. It leaves in everything patients actually search for: what an implant costs, how many appointments it takes, which materials are used, who carries out the treatment and with what qualifications.
Price in particular is information, and patients look for it. "Dental implants cost" gets 9,900 searches a month, more than "dentists in London": after proximity searches it is one of the largest demands in the sector. It is also the one that pushes patients towards chains and clinics abroad, which do publish their prices: "dental implants turkey" gets 5,400 searches a month, at £11.72 a click.
Recommended reading: SEO for dentists and Google Ads for dentists.
Reviews are the real price list
In the local pack for "dentist london" the three practices shown have between 212 and 903 reviews, with ratings of 4.8 and 4.9 (DataForSEO, Google UK, September 2026). Above them sit directories (mydentist, Top Doctors, WhatClinic, Yell), and the organic results below are led by Bupa Dental Care.
A practice that sees twenty patients a day and persuades one in twenty to leave a review collects about 250 in a year. One that doesn't ask stays at forty and never gets into the pack, whatever it does on its website.
Frequently asked questions
Can I advertise a free first consultation?
Yes, provided it really is free and any conditions are stated clearly. It becomes a problem when "free" hides a charge that comes later, or when the offer is used to create an expectation about the outcome of treatment.
Should I compete on price with the chains?
No, because they have different volumes and cost structures. It pays to publish your prices with what they include, so anyone comparing sees the difference instead of guessing it. Silence on price sends patients to whoever states it.
How much budget do I need?
Start from the patient's value over three to five years and work out how much you can spend to acquire one. At the sector's CPCs, a few hundred pounds a month concentrated in January, March and the autumn is worth more than the same amount spread over twelve months.
Do I need a blog?
Only in the form "treatment, price and town", not as general health content. An article on how to brush your teeth competes with thousands of pages and with AI assistants; a page on dental implants in your town, with costs and timescales, competes only with the practices nearby.
How do I ask for reviews without pushing?
At the end of a treatment that went well, once, with no incentives and without filtering in advance so only happy patients are asked, which Google's policies prohibit. Consistency matters more than insistence.
Where to start
Pull from your practice software the patients who haven't been in for more than eighteen months and count them. In most practices that number is bigger than a whole year of new patients, and winning back some of them costs a few hours of reception time. Then count your reviews and compare them with the three practices above you on the map: the gap between those numbers is the second job. If you'd like a view on the rest, get in touch.
