One dental marketing proposal promises new patients. Another promises leads. A third includes video, a website, and a monthly dashboard. The prices are different, but the bigger problem is that you may be comparing three different jobs.
Before you sign, ask each agency the same nine questions. Keep its answers beside the proposal, and ask for the important commitments in writing. This worksheet is useful whether you are hiring your first agency or replacing one that has stopped giving you clear answers.
Start with one sentence about your practice
Write down the treatment you want to grow, the location you want to grow it at, and the appointment capacity you can realistically offer. For example: Our orthodontic office wants more local adult consultation requests, and our treatment coordinator has confirmed room in the schedule. That is a planning example, not a forecast.
Give the same brief to every agency. Otherwise, one may price a focused campaign while another assumes a full website replacement and multiple advertising channels. Neither price tells you much until the work is comparable.
The agency comparison worksheet
| Question | A useful answer includes | Evidence to request |
|---|---|---|
| 1. What exactly am I paying for? | Separate production, setup, management, platform ad spend, travel, and optional work. Identify what triggers another charge. | An itemized scope and billing schedule, including exclusions. |
| 2. Who owns the accounts and assets? | Who controls the ad account, domain, pages, tracking, footage, edits, and reporting access during and after the engagement. | An ownership and access list, plus the relevant agreement language. |
| 3. What counts as a result? | Distinct definitions for an inquiry, a booked appointment, an attended visit, and a treatment start. Duplicate and existing-patient rules. | A redacted sample report with definitions and a measurement window. |
| 4. What creative will you actually produce? | Named deliverables, a filming plan, revision limits, approval steps, and a method for deciding what to test next. | A sample shoot brief and examples of the specific deliverable types. |
| 5. What will my front desk need to do? | Who receives inquiries, who responds, who covers absences, and how appointment outcomes reach the person managing the campaign. | A one-page responsibility checklist that your office manager can review. |
| 6. What will the report help us decide? | Results tied to the agreed treatment and location, known tracking gaps, and an explanation of the next proposed change. | A redacted report that includes decisions, not only charts. |
| 7. How do you check whether we can handle more demand? | A conversation about staffed appointment slots, follow-up coverage, and treatment capacity before setting a campaign target. | The launch-readiness checklist and the person responsible for reviewing it. |
| 8. What happens if we pause or leave? | Notice requirements, remaining charges, campaign shutdown, file delivery, account access, and responsibility for ongoing hosting. | The exit and handover terms. Have your adviser review unclear obligations. |
| 9. What are you promising, and what is outside your control? | A clear distinction between work commitments and uncertain patient outcomes, with assumptions and any guarantee conditions spelled out. | The full written terms behind any guarantee or headline result. |
Do not let the word patient do three different jobs
The American Dental Association's marketing measurement guidance distinguishes prospective-patient interest and inquiries from people who actually visit the practice. That distinction belongs in your agreement and report, not only in a sales conversation.
Ask a simple follow-up: If someone fills out a form, never answers the phone, and never books, which line of our report do they appear on? A useful answer is specific. They should not quietly become a new patient because the dashboard uses a broad label.
Then ask what happens when one person submits twice, requests the wrong location, or is already a patient. You are not looking for a perfect attribution system. You are checking that the agency can explain what its numbers include and what remains uncertain.
Test the handoff before you buy the campaign
Invite your office manager or treatment coordinator to review the front-desk answer. Ask them to walk through a sample inquiry without using real patient information: where it arrives, who sees it, what the response should explain, and where an appointment outcome is recorded.
This can reveal a scope gap before it becomes a blame game. The agency may be responsible for creating demand while your team handles scheduling. That can be a sensible division of work, but both sides need to agree to it and have a workable handoff.
Use missing answers as your decision list
- Documented: The answer is specific and appears in the scope or supporting material.
- Verbal only: You heard a reasonable answer, but it still needs to be written down.
- Missing: The answer is unclear, changes between conversations, or depends on something nobody has checked.
Do not let eight good answers cancel out one serious problem. If account ownership is unclear, or a patient guarantee has unreadable conditions, resolve that item before signing. A polished creative portfolio cannot answer a contract or reporting question for you.
The right comparison ends with a short, understandable plan: this is the work, this is the cost, these are our responsibilities, and this is how we will judge progress. If you cannot explain those four things to your office manager, the proposal needs another conversation.