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Sample report · Dental & Medical
What a King St Ads Co. audit looks like: Illawarra Terrace Dental
- Business
- Illawarra Terrace Dental (fictional)
- Location
- Marrickville Rd, Marrickville NSW
- Size
- 3-chair general practice, owner-led
- Period reviewed
- 1 July to 30 September 2026 (invented data)
- Spend in period
- $7,200 Google Ads · $1,800 Meta Ads
- Prepared by
- King St Ads Co.
1. Summary
The short version
The ads are bringing in patients, but the account's own numbers hide how well, and where money leaks. Google Ads reports 372 conversions; we can verify 122 real enquiries, so the true cost per enquiry is about $59, not $19. Fixing tracking, removing about $1,656 of irrelevant search spend and tightening the catchment could add roughly 50 enquiries a quarter on the same budget, in our base case. Three compliance items need attention first.
122372Verified enquiries in the quarter (58 forms, 64 calls), against 372 reported
$59$19True cost per enquiry on Google Ads, against the reported figure
23%Of search spend ($1,656) on searches that cannot become patients
41%Of clicks from beyond 10 km, at $155 per enquiry against $40 in the core catchment
Left figure is verified; the greyed figure is what the dashboard reports. Invented data.
Eight findings follow, ranked by priority. Three are high, three medium and two low. Together they sit in a 90-day plan, starting with changes that take under an hour. The full PDF adds the account detail, local market context, a risk register, the impact model and working appendices.
2. Scorecard
Each area is graded from A (sound) to E (broken) against what we would expect from a well-run Inner West account of this size. Overall: 47 out of 100. Scores are invented for the sample.
D Conversion tracking35
C- Search terms and keywords48
B- Account structure68
C Location and schedule52
C Landing pages and speed55
C Google Business Profile55
D+ Meta Ads40
! Compliance and privacy20
| Area | Grade | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion tracking | D | Counts page views and button loads as conversions; real enquiries are a third of the reported total. |
| Search terms and keywords | C- | 23% of spend on searches that cannot become patients; 4 negative keywords set. |
| Account structure | B- | Sensible campaign split; brand and general are separated. PMax runs without brand exclusions. |
| Location and schedule | C | 41% of clicks from beyond 10 km; ads run around the clock while the phone is answered 8:30am to 5pm. |
| Landing pages and speed | C | Good message match on emergency; whitening page is slow and carries clinical testimonials. |
| Google Business Profile | C | Phone number and category disagree with the website; booking link redirects to the homepage. |
| Meta Ads | D+ | Campaigns optimise for clicks; no lead event recorded; the pixel loads on health booking pages. |
| Compliance and privacy | ! | Specialist wording, clinical testimonials, an offer without terms and pixel use need review. |
3. How this compares with Inner West practices
In our September 2026 review of 108 Inner West and Alexandria businesses, the 16 Dental & Medical practices looked like this. A practice like Illawarra Terrace Dental would sit in the 56% carrying a live audit issue.
| Measure (real data) | Dental & Medical, Inner West |
|---|---|
| Practices reviewed | 16 |
| Independent, owner-led | 62% |
| Carrying a live audit issue | 56% |
| Broken public record (dead domain, wrong suburb, no confirmed business) | 8 of 16 |
| Modelled ad budget per practice, per month | $2.3K–$5K |
4. Where the money went, and what came back
$7,200 on Google Ads and $1,800 on Meta over 92 days. Google brought 122 verifiable enquiries and about 52 new patients; Meta brought clicks and nothing the practice can measure.
| Google Ads campaign | Spend | Clicks | Reported conv. | Verified enq. | Cost / enquiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search | Brand | $360 | 410 | 118 | 34 | $11 |
| Search | General dentist | $2,640 | 640 | 142 | 41 | $64 |
| Search | Emergency dentist | $1,680 | 290 | 61 | 30 | $56 |
| Search | Cosmetic & whitening | $1,320 | 240 | 34 | 11 | $120 |
| Performance Max | All services | $1,200 | 220 | 17 | 6 | $200 |
| Total | $7,200 | 1,800 | 372 | 122 | $59 |
Reported conversions against verified enquiries, by month
July · reported96
July · verified36
August · reported124
August · verified41
September · reported152
September · verified45
The gap widened after a page change in August made the confirmation page easier to refresh. Invented data.
From click to new patient (Google Ads only)
Ad clicks1,800
Reported conversions372
Verified enquiries122
Booked consults96
Attended84
New patients accepted52
Booked, attended and accepted counts come from the practice management system. At an assumed $780 first-year billings per new patient (invented), Google-sourced patients represent about $40,560, or 5.6 times spend.
5. Findings
F1High priority
Reported conversions are about three times the real number of enquiries
- What we found
- Google Ads reports 372 conversions over the quarter, a reported cost of $19.35 each. Cross-checking GA4, call logs and the booking system, we can verify 122 real enquiries: 58 form submissions and 64 phone calls of 30 seconds or longer. The true cost is about $59 per enquiry ($7,200 / 122). The gap comes from two actions that count a page view or a button load as a conversion, so refreshing the confirmation page scores a sale.
- Why it matters
- Automated bidding learns from whatever you call a conversion. Here it is being taught to find people who load a page, not people who book, and the monthly report looks three times better than the business feels.
- The fix
- Mark the confirmation-page view and button-load actions as secondary (observation only). Count form submissions once per click. Keep call-length-based call conversions as the second primary action. Test with a real enquiry before and after. Effort: about 1 hour.
F2High priority
Almost a quarter of search spend goes to searches that cannot become patients
- What we found
- The search terms report shows $1,656 of $7,200 (23%) spent on terms such as "dental assistant course sydney", "dentist jobs sydney", "free dentist near me" and "dentist parramatta". Only 4 negative keywords are set on the account.
- Why it matters
- These clicks are cheap one at a time and expensive in total. They also feed bad signals back into bidding.
- The fix
- Add a shared negative keyword list (jobs, courses, free, do-it-yourself and other-suburb terms), switch the two broad-match ad groups to phrase match, add brand exclusions to Performance Max, and review the search terms report weekly for the first month. Effort: about 2 hours, then 15 minutes a week.
F3High priority
Advertising rules: wording, offers and reviews need review before anything else is published
- What we found
- Six items need a closer look: a headline using "Specialist Invisalign", clinical patient testimonials on the whitening page, before-and-after images in a carousel, a "free whitening" offer with no terms, clinical reviews visible on the practice's Facebook page, and a front-desk card that asks for reviews in return for a discount.
- Why it matters
- The National Law restricts testimonials, misleading claims and gifts or discounts that induce reviews, and the Dental Board sets expectations about titles such as "specialist". Penalties exist, so the practice should check the current version. The guidelines we reviewed are dated 14 December 2020. This is general information, not legal advice.
- The fix
- Pause the ads and pages that carry the items, rewrite them with factual wording, withdraw the review card, and have the practice's professional adviser or the Dental Board's guidance confirm each change. See our guide to Google Ads for dentists. Effort: about 1 hour, plus adviser time.
F4Medium priority
Ads show to people who will never visit the practice
- What we found
- Location targeting is set to people "in or regularly in" all of Greater Sydney. 41% of clicks came from suburbs more than 10 km from the practice on Marrickville Rd, at $155 per enquiry. Clicks within 5 km cost $40 per enquiry.
- Why it matters
- A patient 25 km away is very unlikely to book a check-up. Those clicks inflate costs and dilute the data.
- The fix
- Target a catchment of about 8 km around the practice, set "people in or regularly in", and exclude suburbs you do not serve. Check the location report after four weeks and adjust. Effort: about 30 minutes.
F5Medium priority
Google Business Profile disagrees with the website
- What we found
- The profile lists a different phone number from the website footer, uses the primary category "Health" rather than "Dentist", and shows no special hours for public holidays. The booking link on the profile redirects to the homepage.
- Why it matters
- The profile is often the first thing a patient sees, before any ad or web page. A wrong number or a dead booking link loses the enquiry at the last step.
- The fix
- Match name, address and phone to the website, switch to the most specific primary category, add holiday hours and repair the booking link. See our Google Business Profile guide. Effort: about 45 minutes.
F6Medium priority
Meta: clicks optimised, no lead event recorded, and a privacy exposure
- What we found
- The Facebook and Instagram campaigns spent $1,800 over the quarter with the objective set to Traffic. The Meta Pixel loads on the booking pages, but no lead or booking event is recorded, so there is no way to tell which clicks became patients. The pixel also loads on pages where patients enter health details.
- Why it matters
- Meta optimises for the objective you give it. Told to find clicks, it finds people who click. Separately, sending health-related page data to an ad platform is a privacy risk the practice should take advice on.
- The fix
- Remove the pixel from booking and health-detail pages, add a Lead event on the enquiry form, test it in Events Manager, then switch the objective to Leads. Add the Conversions API with deduplication once events fire. See why Meta clicks do not become customers. Effort: about 2 hours, plus developer time.
F7Low priority
Homepage is slow on mobile
- What we found
- On a simulated mid-range phone connection the homepage's largest content element takes about 4.8 seconds to appear. Google's published "good" threshold for Largest Contentful Paint is 2.5 seconds or less. The whitening page is slower still, at 5.6 seconds.
- Why it matters
- Most local searches happen on phones, and a slow first screen means visitors leave before the phone number or booking button appears.
- The fix
- Compress the hero image, defer non-essential scripts, reserve space for the cookie banner and check the result in PageSpeed Insights on mobile. Effort: about half a day for a web developer.
F8Low priority
Ads run around the clock; the phone is answered 8:30am to 5pm
- What we found
- Ads are scheduled 24 hours a day, and 38% of tracked calls (24 of 64) arrived outside opening hours with no booking option. About 59% of clicks arrive while the practice is closed. Google Trends data for Sydney shows search interest in "dentist" peaking on Mondays (69.5 on a 0 to 100 relative scale, 5 September to 4 October 2026) and falling on Saturdays (13.6).
- Why it matters
- Paying for calls nobody can answer is the easiest waste to remove.
- The fix
- Add an after-hours online booking path and a voicemail that gives the emergency number, set the call asset schedule to opening hours, and trim late-evening budget. Effort: about 1 hour.
Evidence behind findings 2, 4 and 8
F2. Irrelevant search spend by type
Jobs, courses and careers$612
"Free" and public dental$398
Other suburbs$286
Do-it-yourself and products$214
Information only$146
| Search term (as typed) | Clicks | Cost | Why it cannot convert |
|---|---|---|---|
| dental assistant course sydney | 41 | $168 | Jobs and courses |
| dentist jobs sydney | 33 | $139 | Jobs and courses |
| free dentist near me | 29 | $121 | "Free" and public |
| dentist parramatta | 27 | $112 | Other suburbs |
| teeth whitening kit | 24 | $98 | DIY and products |
| public dental waiting list nsw | 22 | $91 | "Free" and public |
| dentist penrith | 19 | $79 | Other suburbs |
| what is a dental crown | 18 | $74 | Information only |
F4. Cost per enquiry by distance from the practice
Core catchment · 0 to 3 km$38 / enquiry
Near catchment · 3 to 5 km$44 / enquiry
Wider Inner West · 5 to 10 km$47 / enquiry
Beyond 10 km$155 / enquiry
F4. Share of clicks by distance band
Core catchment31% of clicks
Near catchment17% of clicks
Wider Inner West11% of clicks
Beyond 10 km41% of clicks
Bands are measured from the practice on Marrickville Rd. Invented data.
F8. Tracked calls by time of day
Before 8:30am2 calls
8:30am to 12pm18 calls
12pm to 2pm10 calls
2pm to 5pm12 calls
5pm to 8pm13 calls
8pm to 6am9 calls
Calls of 30 seconds or longer. Brown bars are outside opening hours (invented data).
6. Local context: Marrickville is not the average Sydney suburb
A practice on Marrickville Road serves a renter-heavy, linguistically varied, fast-changing neighbourhood. Census 2021 shows 46.6% of Marrickville (suburb) households renting, against 43.8% across the Inner West, and a large share speaking a language other than English at home. Sydney Metro's Sydenham to Bankstown conversion has closed the old train line since September 2024, with no confirmed reopening date at the time of writing. And Marrickville North and Marrickville Town Centre are among six new Special Entertainment Precincts joining Enmore Road, which may change evening and weekend foot traffic around the practice.
What it means for the ads: speak plainly, say what is available in other languages only if it is true, plan around the Metro reopening once a date is announced, and check that opening hours and noise expectations suit the new evening trade. The full PDF sets out each local fact with its source and implication. See also our Sydney Metro guide.
7. The 90-day plan
This week
- Reclassify the page-view and button-load conversions as secondary (F1)
- Add the shared negative keyword list (F2)
- Pause ads and pages carrying "Specialist" and "Free"; start the compliance review (F3)
- Fix the profile phone number and booking link (F5)
This month
- Tighten location targeting to an 8 km catchment (F4)
- Remove the Meta pixel from booking pages; add a Lead event and switch to the Leads objective (F6)
- Build separate landing pages for emergency, whitening and check-ups
- Set an after-hours booking path and schedule (F8)
This quarter
- Compress and speed-test the mobile homepage (F7)
- Add the Conversions API with deduplication to Meta
- Set up a monthly report that counts real enquiries only
- Re-run this audit to confirm the fixes held
8. What the fixes could mean (illustrative)
We model three cases and show every assumption in the PDF so a sceptical owner can change one and watch the answer move. These are illustrations on invented numbers, not forecasts, and we do not promise results for any business.
| Per quarter | Today | Conservative | Base case | Upside |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search terms redeployed | – | +22 | +29 | +36 |
| Location shifted to the core catchment | – | +7 | +11 | +15 |
| After-hours callers recovered | – | +2 | +4 | +6 |
| Better bidding from honest tracking | – | +0 | +6 | +12 |
| Verified enquiries | 122 | 153 | 172 | 191 |
| True cost per enquiry | $59.02 | $47.06 | $41.86 | $37.70 |
| New patients (today's funnel rates) | 52 | 65 | 73 | 81 |
9. What is in the full PDF
The 30-page report adds the pages a busy owner skips and the person making the changes needs.
- Executive summary and scorecard with an Inner West benchmark.
- Account overview with campaign, funnel and monthly charts.
- Eight findings, each with evidence, a numbered fix, how to check it worked and sources.
- Competitive snapshot from the public ad libraries, and how to repeat it yourself.
- Local market context, a risk register and a plain-English summary of what the regulators say.
- 90-day roadmap, impact model and measurement plan, with a dashboard in six tiles.
- Appendices: negative keyword list, tracking specification, UTM convention, landing page brief, ad copy rewrites, glossary and sources.
10. How a real audit works
- You send a short form. We reply with read-only access instructions for Google Ads, Meta Business Manager and GA4. We never ask for a login or password.
- AI agents read your accounts, your website's tracking and your public records, including the Google Ads Transparency Center and the Meta Ad Library. A strategist reviews every finding.
- You receive a written PDF like this one, in 7 business days (The Audit, $449) or 14 business days with a 30-minute session (Audit + Session, $549).
- You decide what to do next. There is no contract.
Want this for your business?
Same format, your real accounts, benchmarked against Inner West businesses like yours.