Attracting new dental patients is what every dental office needs. But the patients you already have, and the people who have already visited your website, are often your best opportunity.
According to Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer can cost anywhere from five to 25 times more than keeping an existing one. That’s why remarketing, or reaching back out to people who already know your practice, is one of the most cost-effective tools you have.
Most people won’t book a dental appointment the first time they find you. They check your hours, see how close you are, and keep looking. These dental remarketing ideas will help you stay in front of them until they’re ready to book, and bring past patients back through your doors.
Table of Contents
- Bring Back Lapsed Patients With Recall Reminders
- Send a Patient Email Newsletter
- Retarget Social Media Engagers on Facebook and Instagram
- Run Lead Ads for New Patient Offers
- Show Up Again When They Search
- Reach Active Dental Shoppers With Google’s Audiences
- Win the Second Search With Local SEO
- Let Reviews Do the Reminding
- Post Consistently on Social Media
What Is Dental Remarketing?
Remarketing means reaching out again to people who have already interacted with your business. For a dental practice, that could be someone who visited your website, watched one of your videos, followed you on social media or came in for a cleaning two years ago and never rebooked.
Here’s how it usually plays out. Someone searches for their town’s name plus the word “dentist.” They click your website to check your hours and location. Then they leave and keep comparing other dentists. Remarketing is how you remind them you’re there, so your practice is the one they think of when they’re ready to book.
People rarely act after seeing a business once. They need to see you several times, in several places, before they pick up the phone. Remarketing makes those repeat touches happen on purpose.
Before You Start: Health Ad Rules Have Changed
Dental remarketing isn’t as simple as it is for a restaurant or a retail store. Ad platforms treat health care as a sensitive category, and the rules affect what dental practices can do.
- Google Ads: Google’s health in personalized advertising policy treats health as a sensitive interest category. Advertisers promoting health products and services can’t use advertiser-curated audiences like Customer Match, your data segments (formerly called remarketing lists) or lookalike segments. Google’s own audiences, such as in-market and custom segments, are still allowed.
- Meta (Facebook and Instagram): Since early 2025, Meta has limited what health advertisers can track from their websites, which restricts pixel-based retargeting and conversion tracking. Lead form campaigns and audiences built from engagement on Meta itself still work.
- HIPAA: Tracking pixels on pages that handle patient information, like patient portals or appointment request forms, can create HIPAA problems. Talk with your compliance advisor or a HIPAA-savvy web team before adding any tracking code to your site.
The good news? Remarketing is bigger than retargeting ads. The ideas below focus on what dental practices can do today, and many of them don’t cost a thing.
9 Dental Remarketing Ideas
Here are nine ways to stay in front of past patients and website visitors, and turn more of them into booked appointments.
1. Bring Back Lapsed Patients With Recall Reminders
Your patient list is your most valuable remarketing audience. Patients who haven’t been in for a cleaning in a year or more already know you. Sometimes all they need is a reminder.
Set up automated recall reminders by email and text through your practice management software. Send them when patients are due for a cleaning, and follow up with patients who haven’t booked in 12 months or more. Keep the message short and make booking easy with a direct link or phone number. Get patient consent before texting, and keep the content general rather than mentioning specific treatments.
2. Send a Patient Email Newsletter
Not every touchpoint needs to ask for an appointment. A monthly or quarterly email newsletter keeps your practice top of mind between visits.
Share oral health tips, office news, new team members, community events and new services. Add a clear “book your next visit” button to every email. When a patient’s tooth starts bothering them or a friend asks for a dentist recommendation, your name will be the first one they think of.
3. Retarget Social Media Engagers on Facebook and Instagram
Even with Meta’s health restrictions, you can still build audiences from activity that happens on Meta itself. That includes people who watched your videos, engaged with your Facebook page or Instagram profile, or opened one of your lead forms.
Show these warm audiences follow-up ads with a friendly reminder and a clear call to action, like a new patient special or a link to book online. Give your audiences neutral names, like “Video Viewers 30 Days,” and avoid names that imply a health condition.
4. Run Lead Ads for New Patient Offers
Meta lead ads let people request an appointment or claim an offer without ever leaving Facebook or Instagram. Because the form lives on Meta, it isn’t affected by the website tracking limits.
Pair lead ads with an offer worth acting on, such as a new patient exam special, and target people who live within driving distance of your office. Then follow up quickly. A lead that gets a call back within minutes is far more likely to book than one that waits until tomorrow.
5. Show Up Again When They Search
Many people who leave your website will search again, often with your practice name or with something like “dentist near me.” Make sure you show up every time.
Run Google search ads on your practice name and on local keywords like “[your city] dentist” and “family dentist near me.” Write ads that reinforce why someone should choose you: extended hours, insurance accepted, same-day appointments or a new patient offer. Branded search ads are usually inexpensive, and they keep competitors from grabbing a patient who was already looking for you.
6. Reach Active Dental Shoppers With Google’s Audiences
Even if your account can’t use your own remarketing lists, Google’s health policy still allows its predefined audiences. In-market segments reach people Google sees actively researching a service, and custom segments let you reach people based on the kinds of terms they search for.
Use these audiences with location targeting on YouTube, Display and Demand Gen campaigns. You won’t be targeting your exact website visitors, but you will reach local people who are shopping for a dentist right now, which often includes the same people who checked out your site.
7. Win the Second Search With Local SEO
Ads aren’t the only way to show up again. When a potential patient goes back to Google to compare dentists, strong local SEO puts your practice in the map results and organic listings without paying for every click.
Start with your Google Business Profile. Claim and optimize it with accurate hours, services, photos and regular posts. Then build out helpful content on your website, like service pages and blog posts that answer common patient questions. People who aren’t ready to book today will keep finding you until they are.
8. Let Reviews Do the Reminding
Many new patients are hesitant to try a dentist without knowing how things are handled, from how the dentist treats patients to billing and insurance. Reviews answer those questions, and they’re often what tips a second-time visitor into booking. BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, and 68% will only use a business with four or more stars.
Ratings affect revenue too. A Harvard Business School study of restaurants found that each additional star on Yelp was tied to a 5% to 9% increase in revenue.
Ask every patient for a Google review after their visit. Our guide on how to get more positive reviews walks through how to ask. On Yelp, don’t ask for reviews, since Yelp’s rules prohibit it, but do respond to the ones you get. Reply to happy and unhappy patients alike. BrightLocal found that 80% of consumers are likely to use a business that responds to all of its reviews. For more, see our guide to improving your reputation score.
9. Post Consistently on Social Media
Social media is one of the easiest ways for people to get in touch with a practice. Many people would rather send a quick message on Facebook or Instagram than call during work hours.
Posting regularly keeps your practice in front of followers, and it builds the warm audiences you can retarget in idea #3. For most dental practices, the best platforms are:
- TikTok
- YouTube
Share team introductions, office tours, patient education videos and community involvement. Respond to comments and messages quickly. Try different types of posts and see what gets the most engagement from your audience. For more ideas, check out our social media strategies.
Put These Dental Remarketing Ideas to Work
You don’t need to try all nine at once. Start with the ideas that use what you already have, like your patient list, your Google Business Profile and your reviews. Then layer in paid options like search ads, lead ads and Google’s audiences as your budget allows.
The goal is simple: when someone is ready to book a dentist, your practice should be the one they remember.
If you’d like help getting more patients through PPC, local SEO, social media and online reviews, take a look at what our clients say about us, then book a call with our team.
Robert & Liz, RebelFish Local CoFounders, doing local volunteer work.We are RebelFish Local and are here to help you with all your SEO needs. Download our free resource for 5 Hacks That Will Get You On Page 1 Of Google today, and start climbing to the top of Google!