"How much should I actually spend on marketing?" is one of the first questions clinic owners ask me. It's a fair question, and the honest answer is that there's no single right percentage. There are published benchmarks, and I'll show you the real ones with their sources. But the most useful number comes from your own clinic: how many new patients you need and what each one costs you to win.
This guide covers both. It looks at what dental practices typically spend on marketing and on everything else (the "dental office expenses percentages" people search for), why the advice varies so much, and a simple way to set a dental marketing budget you can defend.
The short answer
Published guidance for dental practices ranges from about 1–3% of revenue in overhead benchmarks used by dental accountants and practice advisors, up to 15% or more in advice aimed at practices that want to grow fast or are just opening. Both numbers are real. They describe different situations:
- A full, established practice that mostly needs to replace patients who move away can sit at the low end.
- A practice that wants clear growth, has empty chair time or is launching a high-value treatment like implants usually needs more.
- A brand-new practice with no patient base sits at the top of the range until it builds one.
A percentage of revenue is a sanity check, not a strategy. Further down I'll show you how to work out the number from the patients you need.
What the benchmarks actually say
Here's what three articles in Dental Economics, a long-running US practice management publication, recommend. I've kept each figure exactly as published, with the source.
- Overhead view: advertising and marketing at 1–2% of collections. Dental CPA Allen Schiff suggests budgeting "other business expenses" at 11% of collections, of which advertising and marketing are 1–2%. He suggests total overhead of around 60% of collections for a general practice. (Dental Economics, Schiff)
- Valuation view: marketing at 1–3% of net revenue. In a 2024 article on maximising practice value, sell-side advisor Brannon Moncrief lists marketing at 1–3% of net revenue among the industry benchmarks to review monthly. He also suggests analysing the ROI of marketing on an ongoing basis. (Dental Economics, Moncrief, June 2024)
- Growth view: 15% for established practices that want to keep growing, and 20–30% for new practices. Joy Gendusa, founder of the marketing company PostcardMania, recommends 15% of gross revenue for established practices that want to continue growing and 20–30% for a new practice launch. Bear in mind that this comes from a marketing supplier. (Dental Economics, Gendusa, 2015)
Why is the spread so wide? The low figures come from people whose job is to protect profit margins and practice value. The high figures come from people focused on growth, and in one case from someone who sells marketing. None of them is wrong. They're answering different questions. Your job is to decide which question you're asking: "How do I keep things steady?" or "How do I grow?"
Dental office expenses percentages: where the rest of the money goes
Marketing is one line on a long P&L. It helps to see it next to the others. The table below uses only the two sourced benchmark sets above. The figures are targets suggested by advisors, not averages of real practices, and they come from the US market. Treat them as a reference point, not a rule.
| Expense category | Schiff (Dental Economics), % of collections [1] | Moncrief (Dental Economics, 2024), % of net revenue [2] |
|---|---|---|
| Staff (salaries, payroll taxes, benefits) | Up to 28%, goal 24–26% | 20–28% |
| Dental supplies | 6% | 5–7% |
| Lab fees | 8% (2–3% with in-house CAD/CAM) | 6–8% |
| Facility and equipment | About 10% (rent alone 5–6%) | Occupancy (rent/utilities) 5–8% |
| Advertising and marketing | 1–2% (within 11% "other business expenses") | 1–3% |
| Office supplies | 1% (within the 11%) | 1–2% |
| Other business expenses in total (incl. marketing, bank charges, professional fees, insurance, CE, phone) | 11% | not listed |
| Discretionary (car, meals, travel, gifts) | No more than 2% | not listed |
| Owner's compensation | 35–40% | not listed |
| Total overhead | About 60% of collections | not listed (EBITDA margin target 20–25% of revenue) |
Sources: [1] Schiff, "Tracking dental practice overhead and what the results mean", Dental Economics. [2] Moncrief, "Keys to maximizing your EBITDA and dental practice valuation", Dental Economics, June 2024. Checked 22 October 2026.
Two things stand out. First, marketing is small next to staff, lab and rent. Second, your own numbers will differ, especially outside the US. Wages, rent and lab costs in Sofia, Madrid, Dublin or Munich don't follow American ratios, so compare against your own P&L from last year before anyone else's table.
For scale, the ADA Health Policy Institute reports that average gross billings per dentist in US private practice in 2025 were $965,660 for general practitioners and $1,213,040 for specialists (ADA HPI). At those billings, the difference between 2% and 5% of revenue is tens of thousands of dollars a year. That's why it's worth deciding on purpose rather than by habit.
A better way: budget from the patients you need
Percentages tell you what others do. They don't tell you what you need. I prefer to work backwards from a goal:
- Decide how many extra new patients you want each month, and for which treatments. "More patients" isn't a goal. "Eight more implant consultations a month" is.
- Check that you have capacity. There's no point paying for patients you can't see. Look at free chair time, hygiene slots and surgeon days.
- Find your cost per attended new patient from your own data: last quarter's marketing spend for that treatment, divided by the new patients who actually turned up. Not leads, not clicks.
- Multiply. Patients needed × cost per attended patient = the media and marketing budget for that goal. Add management, content and tools on top.
- Compare with the value of those patients. The ADA suggests a simple ROI formula: the annual value of a patient, times the number of new patients from that marketing, minus what you invested. The ADA treats a return of 3:1 to 5:1 as a successful campaign and recommends allowing at least three months before judging one (ADA, Calculating ROI).
Here's a made-up example, just to show the maths. A clinic wants 10 more attended implant consultations a month. Its own tracking says each attended consultation currently costs €200 in advertising. That's €2,000 a month in ad spend for that goal, plus management. If its own records show a typical implant patient is worth many times that, the budget makes sense. If the numbers don't work, the fix may be lowering the cost per attended patient (faster replies, better follow-up, a clearer landing page) rather than spending more.
If you don't have this data yet, start modestly with a clear test budget, track it properly for three months and then decide. Guessing from someone else's percentage is how budgets get wasted.
How to split the budget: core, growth and flex
Once you know the total, think of it like an investment portfolio with three parts.
- Core: what reliably works. Usually the largest part. Google Search ads for high-intent treatments, retargeting, your Google Business Profile and reviews, and the follow-up system that turns inquiries into appointments. Keep it stable and optimise it.
- Growth: what you're scaling. Campaigns that show early promise, for example Meta video ads for a treatment that started bringing good inquiries, or a campaign for international patients. Push them while watching closely.
- Flex: what you're testing. A small slice for experiments such as new ad formats, new audiences or seasonal offers. Most tests won't become big winners, and that's fine.
Move campaigns between the three parts based on results, not habits. I wrote more about this in Core, Growth and Flex: How to Split a Dental Ad Budget.
Which channels belong where?
There's no universal split, so I won't give you made-up percentages per channel. As a rule of thumb:
- Google Search catches people already looking ("dental implants near me", "emergency dentist Saturday"). For most clinics it's core. See Google Ads for dentists.
- Facebook and Instagram reach people who need treatment but keep putting it off. They often move from growth to core for implants, aligners and cosmetic work. See Facebook and Instagram ads for dentists, and for implants specifically, our approach to dental implant marketing.
- Reviews, Google Business Profile and local SEO cost little, last a long time and support every other channel.
- Email, SMS and WhatsApp for recalls, reactivation and reminders. They're cheap and often overlooked.
- Tools and people: a CRM, call tracking, design, video and an AI agent to reply to messages after hours. Budget for these, because an ad that brings an inquiry nobody answers is wasted.
Don't forget what happens after the click
The cheapest way to "increase" your marketing budget is to waste less of it. If inquiries wait hours for a reply, if nobody follows up with people who go quiet, or if booked patients don't get reminders, part of every euro or dollar you spend leaks away. Before raising the budget, check:
- How fast is the first reply, including evenings and weekends?
- What share of inquiries become booked appointments?
- What share of booked patients actually attend?
Fixing these often does more than a bigger ad budget. Clinics I've worked with have typically grown new patient numbers by 30% or more, mostly from getting the basics right.
Common budgeting mistakes
- Cutting marketing in a slow month. It saves money now and creates an empty diary in two or three months. Adjust what you spend on, not whether you show up.
- Putting everything into one channel because it worked once. If costs rise there, new patients dry up.
- Spreading tiny amounts everywhere. No channel gets enough to work, and nothing can be measured.
- Judging by clicks or leads instead of attended patients and accepted treatment.
- Forgetting tools and follow-up in the budget.
- Judging too early. Give a campaign enough time and data before you decide.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a dental practice spend on marketing?
Published guidance ranges from about 1–3% of revenue in dental overhead benchmarks to 15% or more for practices focused on growth or just opening (sources above). The right number for you depends on how many new patients you need, your capacity and your own cost per attended patient.
What percentage of dental office expenses is marketing?
In the two Dental Economics overhead benchmarks above, advertising and marketing are 1–2% of collections and 1–3% of net revenue. Staff costs (about 20–28%), lab fees (about 6–8%) and dental supplies (about 5–7%) are much bigger lines.
Should a new dental practice spend more on marketing?
Usually, yes. A new practice has no patient base, referrals or reviews yet. One Dental Economics article suggests 20–30% of gross revenue for a launch, though that advice comes from a marketing supplier. Plan a higher budget for the first period and expect it to come down as word of mouth grows.
Is the ad budget included in an agency's fee?
Usually not. At G-Media, the ad budget for Google and Meta is paid directly to the platforms, separately from our monthly package. We quote our packages in EUR or USD after a call.
How do I know if my marketing budget is working?
Track cost per attended new patient and compare it with what those patients are worth to your clinic over time. The ADA's simple ROI formula, linked above, is a good place to start.
Want help setting your number?
If you'd like to work out a budget from your own patient numbers rather than someone else's percentage, I'm happy to go through it with you. Book a free 30-minute call, and we'll look at where your money goes today and where it would do more. You can also see what we do on our dental marketing services page.