Google Ads for dentists only works when automated bidding learns from real patient enquiries. When we took over the account of a dental tourism clinic in Türkiye in December 2025, 99.4% of its reported conversions in the previous 11 months were page views. We made enquiries the only primary conversion. In our first 11 months, real enquiries per 1,000 ad clicks rose from 11.3 to 26.0.
Sources: Google Ads (account data). 11 months before we started vs our first 11 months. Enquiries: WhatsApp, form, call, e-mail. Cost results are not claimed.
The client is a dental tourism clinic in Türkiye, for patients from the UK, Ireland and other European countries. When we took over its Google Ads in December 2025, our first check found a page-view conversion. It had been set up during a call with a Google Ads representative. Every campaign's automated bidding was learning from page views.
Maximize conversions and similar strategies spend toward whatever is set as a primary conversion. Here that was a page view, so bidding bought visits.
The easiest page views come from people who look and leave. Each one counted as a success, so bidding learned to find more of them.
In the last months before we started, page-view conversions grew about fourfold while real enquiries fell 87%. Cost per conversion looked excellent.
Page views were far more frequent than enquiries. In the data bidding learned from, the few signals of a patient who wants to talk were lost.
The chart starts the month the page-view conversion was set up. Values are enquiries per 1,000 ad clicks, so they do not depend on budget.
34.8
Source: Google Ads, one account, Aug 2025 – Oct 2026.
The order mattered. Bidding learns from conversions, so any other change would have been judged against the wrong goal. We fixed the goal first, then where ads show and who sees them.
Ratios from Google Ads: 11 months before vs our first 11 months.
OutcomeBidding now learns only from people who get in touch.
OutcomeAds match searches about dental treatment.
OutcomeResults can be read market by market.
OutcomeReal enquiries per 1,000 ad clicks: 11.3 before, 26.0 after (2.3×).
OutcomeBidding now learns only from people who get in touch.
OutcomeAds match searches about dental treatment.
OutcomeResults can be read market by market.
OutcomeReal enquiries per 1,000 ad clicks: 11.3 before, 26.0 after (2.3×).
Automated bidding, such as Maximize conversions, spends toward whatever is set as a primary conversion. Set a page view as primary and it will find page views, not patients.
If cost per conversion looks excellent while enquiries fall, check what is being counted. An action that costs almost nothing to get often means almost nothing.
For a clinic, primary conversions are actions that start a conversation: WhatsApp, form, call or e-mail, counted once per enquiry. Page views can stay as secondary data for reports.
Search terms, targeting and structure are all judged by the conversions bidding sees. Fix the goal first, and every later change is measured against real enquiries.
Questions clinics ask us about Google Ads conversions.
Count only actions that mean a patient wants to talk: a WhatsApp chat start, a form, a call or an e-mail. Make these the primary conversions and count each once per enquiry. Automated bidding then looks for more people who get in touch, not more visitors.
A page view is cheap, frequent and shows little intent. As a primary conversion, it teaches bidding to buy visits from people who look and leave. Reported results look excellent while real enquiries fall. Before we started, the clinic's page-view conversions grew about fourfold as real enquiries fell 87%.
Primary conversions are the ones automated bidding optimizes for, and they fill the Conversions column. Secondary conversions are recorded for observation, but bidding does not use them. Set real enquiries as primary. Page views can stay secondary, so you still see them without training bidding on them.
Track actions that start a conversation: WhatsApp chat starts, enquiry forms, calls and e-mails, each counted once. After the clinic made these its only primary conversions, real enquiries per 1,000 ad clicks rose from 11.3 to 26.0. That compares the 11 months before we started with our first 11.
Yes, if it optimizes for the right action. Maximize conversions spends to get as many primary conversions as it can. With real enquiries as the only primary conversion, it looks for people likely to get in touch. With page views as primary, it finds visitors instead, and enquiries can fall.
Tell us which markets you advertise in. We will check what your account counts as a conversion and show you what to fix first.
