Dental marketingHome / Services / Groups & franchises
Multi-site & franchise · AI-run, human-approved
One brand. Twelve towns. Twelve different fights.
A group can't be marketed as one big practice or as twelve small ones. It needs a national layer that builds the brand, a regional layer that fills high-value chairs, and a hyperlocal layer per site — running at the same time, without any of them bidding against each other.
What goes wrong at scale
Groups don't fail at marketing. They fail at coordination.
Every problem below comes from sites being treated as copies of each other, or from head office and the practices pulling in different directions.
A franchise adds one more: the sites aren't yours. Franchisees each have their own opinion, their own budget, and their own cousin who "does a bit of marketing".
- Two of your own sites bidding on the same search term, doubling your click cost
- One website with a thin page per location, so none of them rank locally
- Twelve Google Business Profiles, four of them unclaimed and two with the wrong hours
- Each practice posting its own social content at wildly different quality
- Head office reporting on group totals that hide two sites carrying the rest
- A new site opening with no marketing until month three
- Implant enquiries sent to the nearest site rather than the one with the surgeon
The architecture
Three layers, running at once.
Each layer buys something different. Skip the local layer and your sites are invisible in their own towns. Skip the national layer and you're just twelve unconnected practices sharing a logo.
Layer 1 — Local, 0–5 miles. The map pack, "dentist near me", routine and emergency work. Volume, low value per patient, and the layer that keeps each site's diary full.
Layer 2 — Regional, 5–40 miles. Implants, full-arch, aligners, sedation. People travel for these, so the radius widens and the budget follows the treatment rather than the postcode.
Layer 3 — National. Brand search, treatment authority content, and the pages that make the group credible before anyone's heard of the local practice. Slowest to build, cheapest to run once built.
In detail
What runs in each layer.
Hyperlocal SEO and ads, per site
KPI: new patient registrations & map callsGoogle Maps
- One Google Business Profile per site, claimed, verified and owned by head office
- Photos, hours, holiday hours, services and Q&A maintained monthly per site
- A full location page per practice — team, prices, parking, transport, not a template with the town swapped
- Local campaign pages for nearby villages and suburbs each site draws from
- Citations and directory listings consistent across all sites
- Review generation running continuously at each practice, replies within 48 hours
Local paid
- Google Search per site on a tight radius, geo-fenced to that catchment only
- Cross-site negative geo-targeting so two practices never bid on the same postcode
- Search ads with call assets during opening hours for emergency and same-day work
- Meta local awareness for new patient offers, hygiene and check-ups
- Separate budget line per site so a strong site never quietly funds a weak one
What good looks like
Every site in the top three of its own map pack for "dentist Location pending" within six months, with its own tracked phone number and its own line in the report. No site invisible, no site cannibalising another.
Wide-radius paid for high-value treatments
KPI: cost per accepted caseGoogle Ads
- Implant, full-arch and sedation campaigns at 20–40 mile radius, not 5
- Campaigns built around the treatment and the clinician, not the branch
- Enquiries routed to the site that has the surgeon, with travel time shown up front
- Separate campaigns and budgets from Layer 1 so local work never eats implant spend
- Bid on your own group name to stop competitors intercepting brand searches
Meta ads
- Patient story video, targeted by region rather than by branch postcode
- Before-and-after creative for aligners and cosmetic work, within GDC guidance
- Retargeting pooled across the group — a bigger audience means cheaper reach
- Open evenings and assessment events promoted per region
- Creative refreshed monthly, because regional audiences burn out fast
What good looks like
High-value enquiries costed and reported by treatment, not by branch — so you can see that implants are profitable in the North West and not yet in the Midlands, and move budget accordingly.
National SEO and brand authority
KPI: non-branded organic enquiries & brand search volumeContent & structure
- A hub page per high-value treatment, written to compete nationally, not locally
- Cost, process, alternatives, risks and finance pages for each treatment
- Every hub linking down to the location pages that offer it — the hub-and-spoke structure
- Clinician profile pages with real credentials, GDC numbers and case work
- Digital PR and trade coverage that a single practice could never earn alone
Brand
- Consistent identity, tone and photography standards across every site
- Brand search defended on Google so franchisees' own leads aren't poached
- Group-level YouTube and social presence feeding every location
- New-site launch kit so a practice opens with marketing live on day one
What good looks like
Someone searching "how much are dental implants" finds your group's guide, then gets routed to their nearest site. This layer takes 9–12 months to pay off and then costs almost nothing to hold.
Execution
Twelve months, with milestones you can hold us to.
Nothing here depends on a good month. Each phase produces something specific, and if a milestone slips you'll hear it from us before you notice it yourself.
We do
- Audit every site: rankings, listings, website, ad accounts, reviews
- Claim and consolidate all Google Business Profiles under group ownership
- Map the catchments and agree the postcode split between sites
- Install tracking, call recording and one CRM pipeline per site
- Set the brand and photography standards every site will work to
You do
- Give us admin access to everything, including old agency accounts
- Confirm price lists and finance options per site
- Name one contact per practice and one decision-maker at group
- Tell us which sites have which specialists
We do
- Rebuild location pages properly, one per site, with real content
- Launch Layer 1 local search ads and Google Business Profile improvement
- Launch Layer 2 regional implant and aligner campaigns in the strongest two regions first
- Build the review generation system and get it running at every practice
- First content days at two or three sites — film and photograph
You do
- Host the content days; free up 3 hours per clinician
- Approve the first month of creative within 5 working days
- Start collecting patient consent for before-and-afters, at every site
- Commit reception to answering enquiries within the agreed window
We do
- Roll Layer 2 out to the remaining regions using what worked in the first two
- Begin Layer 3: national treatment hubs, clinician profiles, cost guides
- Local campaign pages for the surrounding towns each site draws from
- Monthly lead quality reviews with each practice's enquiry handlers
- Cut the sites, treatments and creatives that aren't producing
You do
- Second round of content days at the remaining sites
- Send us finished cases monthly for creative
- Attend the monthly group review — 45 minutes
- Decide budget reallocation between sites with us
We do
- National SEO compounding — hubs ranking, spokes feeding local sites
- Digital PR and trade coverage at group level
- Scale spend in the regions with the lowest cost per accepted case
- Build the new-site launch kit so future openings go live on day one
- Quarterly training with treatment coordinators across the group
You do
- Keep the monthly content flowing from every site
- Give us 8 weeks' notice of any new site or acquisition
- Hold franchisees to the brand and response-time standards
What we need from you
The honest list, before you sign anything.
This is the part most agencies leave out of the proposal and then chase for six months. Groups that supply this well outperform groups that don't — by more than any targeting decision we could make.
| What we need | Who from | How often | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & setup — one-off, first 30 days | |||
| Admin access | Group / IT | Once | Website, Google Business Profiles, ad accounts, analytics, social. Including accounts held by a previous agency — get these back before you give notice. |
| Price lists per site | Practice managers | Once, then on change | Prices differ between sites more than head office usually realises. Wrong prices on a campaign page cost you the enquiry and annoy the practice. |
| Clinician list and specialisms | Clinical lead | Once, then quarterly | Determines which site receives implant, sedation and ortho enquiries. Get this wrong and you route a £15,— case to a practice that can't do it. |
| One named contact per site | Each practice | Once | Someone who answers within 48 hours. Sites without a named contact are always the sites that underperform. |
| Content & media — the biggest single lever | |||
| Clinician video | Clinicians | Quarterly content day | 3 hours per clinician, four times a year. Your dentists on camera outperform every other creative you can run — see the section below. |
| Patient stories | Treatment coordinators | 2–3 per site, per quarter | The single best-performing ad format for implants and aligners. Ask happy patients at the review appointment, not by email afterwards. |
| Before-and-after cases | Clinicians | Monthly, per site | With written consent recorded, consistent lighting and no editing. Consent forms need to be signed at the time, not chased later. |
| Team and practice photography | Each site | Annually, plus on staff change | Every location page needs its own team and its own rooms. A stock reception photo on a location page is obvious and it costs bookings. |
| Reviews | Reception, every site | Continuous | Asking at the chair. It's the highest-return two minutes in the building and it directly moves map rankings. |
| Operations — every month, without fail | |||
| Enquiry response | Reception, every site | Within 1 hour, in hours | Response time changes conversion more than any campaign change we can make. This is the standard the whole plan rests on. |
| Outcome recorded in the CRM | Enquiry handlers | Every enquiry | Booked, attended, accepted — and the reason for every no. Without it we're improving blind and you're paying us to guess. |
| Monthly review call | Group + practice contacts | 45 min, monthly | Where budget moves between sites and campaigns change. Groups that skip it drift within two quarters. |
| Creative approval | Group marketing lead | Within 5 working days | One approver, not a committee. Approval delay is the most common reason a group's campaign underperforms its plan. |
| Notice of new sites | Group | 8 weeks ahead | Enough time to have the location page, listing, launch campaign and waiting list running before the doors open. |
Media strategy
Your dentists on camera beat anything we could buy.
This is the one area where the client, not the agency, decides the outcome. A group that gives us real footage will out-perform a better-funded group that gives us a stock library — every time, in every channel.
- A face patients will actually meet, which is what turns an ad into a booking
- Recognisable rooms and streets — local patients spot their own high street
- Passes the "is this practice real?" test in under two seconds
- Before-and-afters you own, with consent, that no competitor can run
- Reusable across ads, website, social, email and brochures
- Builds a library that gets cheaper to draw on every quarter
- The same smiling model appears in three competitors' ads in the same town
- Patients can tell, and they read it as "this practice has something to hide"
- Nothing to say about your clinicians, your prices or your rooms
- Can't be used for before-and-afters at all
- Burns out faster because there's nothing distinctive to remember
- Leaves you competing on price, because that's all that's left to compare
Why clinician video works so well
Dental treatment is bought on trust, not features. A patient watching a dentist explain what happens during an implant placement is doing the first half of the consultation before they've ever contacted you — and arrives warmer, better informed and less likely to price-shop.
It also solves the group problem: one clinician's video can run across every site in the region, so the cost of filming is spread across ten diaries instead of one.
What we do with three hours of your clinician's time
- 6–10 vertical treatment explainers for Meta and YouTube
- 2 longer brand films for the website and location pages
- Stills for location pages, brochures and Google Business Profiles
- Audio pulled for radio or podcast advertising if you run it
- Enough creative to last a quarter across every site in that region
Frequency
How often each thing needs producing.
Creative fatigue is the quiet killer in group advertising — the same audience sees the same ad across every site until it stops working. This is the minimum cadence that keeps a multi-site campaign alive.
| Material | Frequency | Per | Who produces it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clinician video content day | Quarterly | Region | Us, at your practice |
| New ad creative | Monthly | Campaign | Us, from your footage |
| Patient story video | 2–3 per quarter | Site | You identify, we film |
| Before-and-after cases | Monthly | Site | Your clinicians |
| Social posts | 12–20 per month | Site or region | Us, approved by you |
| Google Business Profile photos | Monthly | Site | Us, from your library |
| Team & practice photography | Annually + on staff change | Site | Us, at your practice |
| National treatment content | 2–4 pieces monthly | Group | Us, clinically checked by you |
| Treatment brochures | Reviewed twice yearly | Group | Us |
| Reviews requested | Every day | Site | Your reception |
The technical bit, briefly
Stopping your own sites competing with each other.
In a group, the practice down the road might be yours. If nobody manages the overlap, you pay twice for the same patient and both sites report a worse cost per enquiry than they deserve.
- Catchment split agreed with you, postcode by postcode, before anything launches
- Geo-exclusions applied in both directions between neighbouring sites
- One brand campaign at group level rather than each site bidding on the group name
- Location pages written differently enough that Google doesn't treat them as duplicates
- Separate Google Business Profiles, separate tracked numbers, separate reporting
- Overlapping enquiries routed by treatment and clinician, not by whoever's closest
Reporting
Two views: the group's and each practice's.
One page for the board
Spend, enquiries, cost per new patient and treatment value accepted, with every site ranked so the strong ones don't hide the weak ones.
One page per practice
Their own numbers, their own tracked line, their own rankings. Franchisees get something that's actually about them.
By procedure, across regions
Where implants are profitable and where they aren't yet, so budget follows evidence rather than the loudest practice manager.
The 45-minute call
What changed, what we're changing next, and which site needs attention. Written actions, circulated after.
Strategy review
Budget reallocation across sites, next quarter's content plan, and a look at the sites due to open.
Live dashboard
Enquiries by site and source, updated continuously. No waiting for month end to notice a site has gone quiet.
For franchises specifically
Franchisees aren't employees. Plan for that.
A franchise network can't be run by instruction. It works when the central offer is good enough that franchisees want in, and clear enough that the ones who go their own way don't damage the brand.
What sits at the centre, always. Brand identity, the website, national SEO, the treatment hubs, brand search defence and the photography standard. These can't be optional or the network fragments.
What each franchisee chooses. Local ad budget, which treatments to push, whether they take the content days. Give them a menu with published prices, not a levy they resent.
What has to be enforced. Response times, review handling, use of the brand, and no separate websites or unmanaged Google listings. One rogue listing can undo a year of local SEO.
How we help you sell it internally. Per-site reporting franchisees can see themselves, an onboarding pack for new sites, and a quarterly session where they see which site is doing what and why it's working.
Prices
Priced per layer, so you can start with what matters.
Most groups start with Layer 1 across every site and Layer 2 in one region, then add the rest once the numbers justify it.
| Layer | Price |
|---|---|
| Layer 1 — Local, per siteGoogle Business Profile, location and area pages, local SEO, local search ads and reviews. Per practice, per month. Reduces above 6 sites. | Quoteper site / month |
| Layer 2 — Regional high-value campaignsWide-radius Google and Meta for implants, full-arch and aligners, with campaign pages, monthly creative and routing. Per region. | Quoteper region / month |
| Layer 3 — National SEO & brandTreatment hubs, clinician profiles, digital PR, brand defence and group content. One fee for the whole group. | Quoteper month |
| Lead management across the groupCRM per site, monthly reviews with each practice's enquiry handlers, objection tracking, WhatsApp and email automation. | Quoteper site / month |
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Group audit & strategyEvery site audited, catchments mapped, listings consolidated, 12-month plan written. Credited against your first three months if you go ahead. | Quoteone-off |
| Group website with location pagesOne brand, a full page per site with its own team, prices, hours and booking. Priced from six sites. | Quotefrom |
| Content dayA full day at one of your practices filming clinicians, patients and rooms. Roughly a quarter's creative for that region. | Quoteper day |
| New site launch kitLocation page, listing, launch campaign and pre-opening waiting list. Book it 8 weeks before opening. | Quoteper site |
| Treatment brochureWritten and designed, phone-first PDF plus print-ready. Per guide, used group-wide. | Quoteper brochure |
Case study
Name pending approval — Details awaiting verification. practices, Details awaiting verification..
Where they started. Details awaiting verification.
What we did. Details awaiting verification.
Where they are now. Details awaiting verification.
Straight answers
What groups ask before appointing an agency.
We've got sites in the same city. Won't they compete?
They will if nobody manages it, and most groups are quietly paying for that today. We split catchments by postcode with you before launch, apply exclusions in both directions, and keep a single brand campaign at group level rather than each site bidding on your own name.
Do we need one website or a site per practice?
One website, with a proper page per location — not a template with the town swapped in. Separate websites split your authority and make national SEO nearly impossible. The exception is a distinct sub-brand, like a dedicated full-arch clinic.
Our franchisees each do their own marketing.
Then you have a governance problem, not a marketing one, and it usually shows up as inconsistent brand and rogue Google listings. The workable answer is a strong central offer with published per-site prices, so joining is obviously better value than going alone — plus a short list of things that simply aren't optional.
How long before the national SEO pays off?
Nine to twelve months for treatment hubs in competitive terms. Map rankings move much faster — most sites see map movement inside three months. That's exactly why we run the layers together rather than in sequence.
What if some sites are much weaker than others?
You'll see it clearly in month one, which is uncomfortable but useful. Usually it's response time, reviews or an unclaimed listing rather than demand. We'd fix those before spending more on ads for that site.
Can you work alongside our in-house marketing team?
Yes, and it's often the best setup. They handle brand, internal comms and the relationship with the practices; we handle search, paid, tracking and reporting. We'll agree who owns what in writing at the start so nothing falls between the two.
What happens when we acquire a practice?
Give us eight weeks and we'll have the listing transferred, the old site redirected properly and the location page live for handover day. Acquisitions handled badly lose rankings the previous owner spent years building — the redirects matter more than anything else in that first month.
Next step
We'll audit every site before you commit to anything.
Rankings, listings, ad accounts and websites across the whole group, with the overlaps and the weak sites named. £2,950, credited against your first three months if you go ahead — and yours to keep if you don't.
Running more than one site?
Tell us how many practices and where. Overlapping catchments are the first thing we would look at.
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