Your new Google Ads and landing pages: a second look

Nine decisions worth a second look

These are the checks we run on every orthodontic account we manage, ordered by impact. The first four decide whether the campaigns can produce patients at all, and whether anyone can measure it.

Google cannot see a single lead from the new campaigns

Fix first

OPPORTUNITY 01

What we found: The new landing pages load no Google Ads conversion tag. Google Analytics only loads after a visitor clicks Accept on the cookie banner, and the three new campaigns are set to count only a new goal called “Consult booked”, which fills only when someone uploads booked consults by hand. Since launch on Nov 5 the campaigns have spent $69 on 33 clicks and recorded 0 conversions.
Why it matters: Every decision about these campaigns depends on lead counts. Without them, Google has nothing to learn from, and in 30 days neither of us will be able to say what worked. Whether Google is paying off can only be answered with data Google can see.
Better decision: Fire a Google Ads conversion on a completed form (a thank-you page or Jotform’s Google Ads integration) and on landing-page phone taps. Keep the “Consult booked” upload as a second layer. The click ID is already being passed into the form, which is the right foundation for that.

The campaigns bid for clicks, not patients

Fix first

OPPORTUNITY 02

What we found: All three campaigns use Maximize Clicks with a $15 cap per click. The old Performance Max campaign bid on leads.
Why it matters: In October you asked that bidding be based on real patients rather than form fills. Maximize Clicks goes the other way: it buys the cheapest clicks it can find, whether or not those people ever book.
Better decision: Fix the tracking in Opportunity 01, then let the campaigns run for about two weeks and switch to Maximize Conversions. Later, once booked-consult uploads are steady, bid on those.

The form asks for too much before someone is ready

Biggest conversion lever

OPPORTUNITY 03

What we found: On a phone, the form starts about 3,250 pixels down, roughly four screens of scrolling. It sits inside a box with its own scrollbar. An adult has to fill in 8 required fields and a parent booking for a child has to fill in 11, including date of birth and a policy acknowledgement, and there are two upload boxes for an insurance card and a photo ID. The heading says “choose your preferred date/time” but the form has no date or time field. The page says the form “takes about two minutes”.
Why it matters: Most visitors to these pages are on phones and only browsing. Every screen of scrolling and every extra field loses some of them before they ever become a lead. The old landing page put a one-question opener above the fold.
Better decision: Put a short form near the top: name, phone, email, office. Collect date of birth, insurance and ID afterwards, through the new-patient forms the office already sends.

Old landing page (phone)484 px

New Invisalign page (phone)3,256 px

New Braces page (phone)3,273 px

New Adults page (phone)3,317 px

How far down the page the form starts, measured on a 390 x 844 phone screen · Nov 6, 2026

Old landing page on a phone — Old page: offer and form on the first screen

New Invisalign landing page on a phone — New page: cookie banner first, form about four screens down

Leads land in a Jotform inbox, not in PracticeBeacon

Speed to lead

OPPORTUNITY 04

What we found: Form requests from the new pages go to a HIPAA Jotform account. They don’t create a PracticeBeacon lead, so there is no instant text back, no automated follow-up sequence and no source tag. The site has one main number, (757) 224-3004, on every page, so a call from an ad can’t be told apart from any other call.
Why it matters: Orthodontic leads go cold within minutes. From Sep 13 to Oct 12, PracticeBeacon logged 200 consult requests from Google, and 16 were marked scheduled. Status updates were incomplete, so the true number may be higher. The biggest gains are in what happens after the form, and this setup takes away the tools that handle that step.
Better decision: Send the form into PracticeBeacon (or keep Jotform and push each submission into it), and give the landing pages their own tracking number. Then every Google lead gets an instant reply and can be counted.

No negative keywords

Wasted spend

OPPORTUNITY 05

What we found: None of the three new campaigns has a single negative keyword, and they don’t use a shared negative list either. In the first day and a half, money already went to searches like “bethel orthodontist” and “how expensive is invisalign”.
Why it matters: Without negatives, the budget pays for job seekers, people researching, searches for competitors and people who live out of the area. On every ortho account we take over, this is one of the first places budget leaks.
Better decision: Add the standard ortho negative list we use (jobs, schools, DIY, competitor names, free/cheap) before the budget scales.

Some ads send people to the wrong page

Message match

OPPORTUNITY 06

What we found: Searches like “braces for teens” and “invisalign for teens” land on a page about free check-ups at age 7. The Cost, TRICARE and Brand ads land on regular website pages that have no form. The /lp/free-consult/ page is open to Google search, even though the plan said ad pages would be kept out of search. The /lp/video/ page was built, but no ad sends traffic to it.
Why it matters: A parent looking for teen braces and a 40-year-old comparing prices are paying-intent visitors. If the page doesn’t match what they searched for, or has no form, they leave.
Better decision: Point teen terms at the braces or Invisalign page. Give the Cost and TRICARE ad groups their own landing pages with a form. Set /lp/free-consult/ to noindex.

The pediatric campaign was switched off with nothing replacing it

Lost volume

OPPORTUNITY 07

What we found: “HIP - Pediatric Dentistry - Performance Max” was paused on Nov 5. Over the previous 90 days it spent $6,876 and produced 144 conversions: 87 calls and 54 forms. The new build has no pediatric dentistry campaign. Kids’ ortho keywords now sit in the orthodontic campaigns.
Why it matters: Pediatric dentistry is a separate stream of patients, and it also feeds future ortho starts. Pausing it with no replacement means losing those patients, not testing a better way to get them.
Better decision: Turn pediatric back on now, so ICON Pediatric keeps getting new patients. Move it only once a replacement is live and tracking.

Switching from Performance Max to Search only gives up reach

Strategy

OPPORTUNITY 08

What we found: Performance Max ran on Search, Maps, YouTube and Display. In the last 90 days it spent $23,508 and recorded 707 conversions. The new build runs on Google Search only, with 114 exact and phrase keywords. Each keyword appears twice, once as exact match and once as phrase match.
Why it matters: Search-only gives more control over keywords, but it removes Maps and YouTube, where many local patients find a practice. Duplicating every keyword in both match types splits the data without reaching anyone new.
Better decision: Run both. Keep Search for high-intent terms and run Performance Max alongside it, with brand terms excluded, so the two don’t overlap. Then compare cost per booked consult across the two.

A few ad claims need wording or proof

Compliance

OPPORTUNITY 09

What we found: The ads say “2,000+ Five-Star Reviews”. The website says “4.8 average across 2,319 Google reviews at all 7 offices”, which isn’t the same claim. The ads also say “TRICARE In Network”, “Spanish-Speaking Staff” at every office and “Invisalign Diamond Provider (2026)”.
Why it matters: Google and dental advertising rules expect every claim to be exact and provable. A claim that’s close but not exact can get ads limited, and it’s the easiest thing for a competitor to report.
Better decision: Change it to “4.8 stars from 2,300+ Google reviews”. Keep proof on file for the TRICARE, staffing and Diamond claims.

Decision	Previous setup	New build	Our recommendation
Bidding	Bid on leads	Bid on clicks ($15 cap)	Bid on leads now, booked consults later
Lead tracking	Forms and calls tracked	None visible to Google	Forms, calls and booked consults
Form	Above the fold, one question to start	About 4 screens down, 8 to 11 required fields	Above the fold, 4 fields
Where leads go	PracticeBeacon, instant follow-up	Jotform inbox	PracticeBeacon
Offer	$500 off plus free whitening	Free consultation	Test the offer against no offer
Channels	Search, Maps, YouTube, Display	Search only	Search plus Performance Max
Pediatric	Own campaign, 144 conversions in 90 days	Paused	Keep it running
Negative keywords	Maintained lists	None	Standard list on day one

Measure	Where it comes from	Baseline window
Consult requests (forms and calls)	Google Ads conversions plus PracticeBeacon	Sep 13 to Oct 12, 2026
Booked consults	PracticeBeacon status, updated weekly	Same window
Treatment starts	Practice records	Same window
Cost per booked consult	Spend divided by booked consults	Same window

The new build is a good starting point. As it stands, it can’t produce or prove new patients.

What we’d keep