5 Biggest Google Ads Mistakes Costing You Thousands

If you feel like you are spending more and more on ads without enough new patients walking through the door, you are not alone.

Many practices lose thousands of dollars each month on Google Ads mistakes that can be fixed quickly. The good news is that correcting these issues leads to less waste and more profitable campaigns in days, not months.

At Visible Dental, we help practices turn clicks into booked patients so growth is predictable instead of inconsistent. Below are the five most costly mistakes we see dental practices make with Google Ads, and what you can do to fix them.

Mistake #1: Not Tracking Conversions

Clicks don't matter unless they convert. If you are not tracking conversions, you cannot measure whether your campaign is working. More importantly, Google cannot optimize for results without data.

Why tracking conversions matters:

Without conversion tracking, Google Ads reports only impressions and clicks. That means you might think you are getting results, but you do not know how many patients actually booked.

What's should I be tracking?:

Track calls, form submissions, and online bookings directly from your campaigns. Make sure every Google Ads click can be traced to a call or an appointment request.

Once conversions are tracked, you can safely use bidding strategies like Maximize Conversions after you've hit about 25 - 30 conversions.

Mistake #2: Ignoring Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are terms you do not want your ads to show for. Without them, you waste budget on irrelevant clicks.

Examples of wasted searches:

• “free dental work”
• “dental assistant jobs”
• “training programs”

Google Ads is guaranteed to get you clicks, but not guaranteed to get you new patients. If you do not filter out bad searches and key phrases, you will keep paying for clicks that will never turn into patients.

Build and update a negative keyword list every week. Remove irrelevant searches as soon as they appear. This keeps your budget focused on real patient opportunities and it will continue to improve over time.

Mistake #3: Bidding on Competitor Names

It might sound smart to target your competitors’ practice names, but in reality, it is a waste of money.

• People searching for a specific practice usually want that specific dentist, not you.
• Winning them over takes a lot more work over the phone, and you have no idea what service they're even interested in
• Competitor keywords are expensive because of how competitive they are, and this can lead to a lower quality score on Google Ads.
• You end up paying more per click with little chance of conversion.

Spend your budget on intent-driven keywords like “dentist near me” or “emergency dentist.” These are far more likely to result in booked patients.

Why waste budget going trying to convince patients to go with your practice, when you can spend that budget going after quality patients with specific needs?

Mistake #4: Not Running Your Ads 24/7

Most practices only run their Google Ads campaigns during business hours, which means they miss out on a large audience of potential patients.

• Patients search for a dentist at night, on weekends, and outside typical hours every day.
• Fewer practices run ads at these times, meaning less bidding competition and clicks often costing less.
• Tooth pain does not wait until morning. In fact, it strikes at night very often!

Set your ad schedule to run 24 hours a day, every day. Having a strong online booking system is key to accomplishing this so that patients can conveniently book at any time.

You can also explore AI dental receptionists, though this is an emerging technology. This opens your doors to a pool of untapped patients.

Mistake #5: Not Tracking Actual New Patients

This is the most costly mistake you can make with your advertising and marketing in general. Calls and form fills are useful, but they are not enough.

You need to track patients from the first click all the way to treatment completed and collected.

• Without attribution, you do not know if new patients came from ads or somewhere else.
• Practices often scale ad budgets based on “gut feel” instead of real data.
• You cannot calculate cost per patient without end-to-end tracking.

Connect your Google Ads tracking with your practice management system. Measure how many patients booked, showed, accepted treatment, and paid.

At Visible Dental, we use the VisibleOS Scorecard to track this entire journey and know what parts of your marketing are turning into patients and collected revenue.

Bonus: Do Not Rely Only on Google Ads

Google Ads costs increase every year due to new competitors entering the market and driving up bids.

If it is your primary source of new patients, you risk getting stuck in a cycle of rising costs. We discussed in another article how Google Ads shouldn't be your only new patient strategy.

A balanced strategy also includes Google Maps local SEO optimization, which can account for up to half of your new patients without additional ad spend.

Take Control of Your Google Ads

Fixing these mistakes can mean thousands of dollars saved each month and, more importantly, more new patients on your schedule. Have questions? Reach out to us for a 15-Minute New Patient Flow Check for a quick analysis of your Google Ads and patient acquisition strategy.