The monthly report looks calm. Nothing in it is actually being managed. I see that when exams, implants, and Invisalign share one campaign, one landing page, and one cost per lead.
An exam and an implant consult are not worth the same lead to the practice. Invisalign is a slower yes than a cleaning. People compare, they ask about cost, and they wait. Average all three and the owner meeting gets a number that describes no treatment you offer. You will add budget to the average and starve the case you actually wanted.
The same mistake shows up outside dentistry. A med spa that blends a single treatment with a membership gets the same muddy report. If that is you, the consult version is in what med spas pay per consult. The rest of this is written for a dental practice.
There is no universal split
People ask for the percentages. Sixty percent to exams, thirty to implants, ten to Invisalign. I do not have that number. Anyone who gives it to you without asking how many cases you can start is inventing it.
Set the split from the chair. How many new exams you can take. How many implant consults you actually want. Whether Invisalign is a real offer this quarter or a leftover on the website. Then give each one enough budget to learn. A few dollars sprinkled across everything teaches you nothing. A campaign with its own page, run long enough to see who books and who shows up, teaches you something.
A general practice that wants a small number of implant cases can keep most of the money on exams and still give implants their own campaign, with a higher cost you are willing to pay. A practice whose growth plan is mostly elective can put more of the money there. The point is that you chose it. Last year’s mix is not a strategy.
Three offers, three pages
At minimum, separate these.
New-patient exams. Search, the map listing, and a page that says you see new patients and how to book. The US reference I use for a general dentistry lead is about $73 in one 2026 search set and about $85 in another. Both are medians, not your city. The detail is in what US dental practices pay per new patient. If exams are coming in and nobody is booking, fix the page and the front desk before you add budget.
Implants or other specialty care. Its own ads, its own page, its own cost. Judge it on consults that showed up, not on the blended account average. I do not publish an implant median. Orthodontics and oral surgery in the public healthcare data are not your cases, and a competitive implant market will not behave like a cleaning campaign.
Invisalign and other cosmetic treatment. Treat this like a longer decision. The page should explain the treatment and the next step. Do not send this traffic to the general dentistry homepage. People comparing aligners will not hunt for the answer.
What to write down for each slice
For every campaign, record spend, leads, booked appointments, and patients who showed up. The illustration I use elsewhere is $3,000, 50 leads, a $60 cost per lead, 20 bookings, 14 shows, and $214 per patient who arrived. Run that kind of math per treatment. An exam campaign and an implant campaign will not share an acceptable cost, and they should not be averaged into one number for the meeting.
Pause a treatment campaign that has no landing page. Pause spend you cannot connect to a booking. Keep referrals on the list when you review the quarter. Paid ads add patients you can see coming. They do not replace a hygienist mentioning Invisalign to someone already in the chair.
If the practice does not have a written split yet, bring the treatments you want more of, and last quarter’s spend, to a consult. The deliverable after that, if you want it on paper, is a marketing strategy. If an agency is already blending everything into one line, say so. The first job is then oversight, so the next report shows the split.
