John was working as a marketing manager for a large network of clinics. One day he was tasked with building a new dental implant ad campaign to get more patients in the door.
Being stuck for ideas, he went to the internet to look for inspiration. He found a number of ads run by other clinics that he decided to copy and test out for his campaign.
Fast forward a week later…
A hot healthtech startup was about to launch its dental services. Jill, their performance marketer, was looking for inspiration when she saw the ads John’s company was running. She figured they must work since someone else had put money behind them.
A month went by.
Both concluded that the performance of their dental implant ads was subpar and were wondering what had gone wrong since these campaigns seemed to work for other clinics.
This is a fictional story, but it illustrates a scenario all too common in the marketing world…
Getting inspiration is an effective way to beat getting stuck staring at a blank page, but isn’t a guarantee for well-performing ads.
In order to build winning campaigns, we need to tap into the feelings and emotions of the patients we are trying to reach so they’ll feel understood.
With implants, that means the embarrassment they might feel when socializing, eating, laughing, and smiling around other people as it reveals the missing gap where teeth would normally be.
Then there are all the common concerns with going to a dentist such as: Will they do a good job? Am I overpaying? Is there another clinic that’s a better fit?
In this article, I’ll first dive into how you can find your competitor’s ads. Then real-world ad examples I’ve found in the wild along with specific insights we can use in our own ads.
Table of Contents
Get implant advertising ideas by “spying” on your competitors
Let’s look at a few techniques to find ads from other clinics that are running right now or have been running recently.
There are a few different ways to do this, some cheaper than others.
The easiest way to get started is simply collecting a list of relevant keywords for Google search and manually searching for each one to see which ads show up.
You can also use a VPN to change your location to a different country or city to get more ideas. There are free options out there like ProtonVPN or PlanetVPN, but they tend to come with tons of ads and limitations. If you’re in the market to buy one, I’ve had a good experience with NordVPN.
If you’re looking to run social media ads, there’s also Facebook’s ad library and Tiktok’s ad library where you can see ads that have been running. I’m not aware of any ad libraries for Youtube ads or the remaining social media platforms.
Another approach is to use a tool like SEMrush that gathers digital ads. I find SEMrush to be useful for search-based ads, but they seem to have changed their solution to display ads. There are lots of other tools out there like BigSpy and AdSpy, but the quality tends to vary and I haven’t tested them lately.
The third option is to continue reading this article. I’ve done the work for you and found some examples in the wild.
Let’s look at those next.
29 dental implant ad examples
Let’s look at search ads first.
Dental implant search ad examples
Dental implant Facebook ad examples
Tiktok ad examples
I was struggling to embed the Tiktok video ads here directly, so you’ll have to open each link in order to see the ads.
- https://library.tiktok.com/ads/detail/?ad_id=1766697911907361
- https://library.tiktok.com/ads/detail/?ad_id=1763736597097505
- https://library.tiktok.com/ads/detail/?ad_id=1763736597097489
- https://library.tiktok.com/ads/detail/?ad_id=1766697521899538
- https://library.tiktok.com/ads/detail/?ad_id=1768221919097970
After seeing these ads, I noticed certain similarities. I’m sure you did too – let’s explore those next.
Dental implant ad insights from the wild
One thing is to look at ads for inspiration. Another is to take the ideas, tweak them to your clinic, and improve the performance of your dental implant ad campaigns.
There are certain elements that tend to be effective across all ads as they encompass persuasive psychological elements that help the user take action now. They can sometimes feel clickbaity, but they are effective because we are communicating through a screen where we don’t have the tone of voice, body language, or the ability to see how the potential patient reacts to the message.
I took the liberty of doing the dirty work for you and gathered the most important insights from the ads above. We can break it down into the following categories:
- Benefits
- Tactics to act now
- Credibility
- Standing out from the crowd
- CTAs
Many ads begin with hooking the potential patient by focusing on the smile rather than the implants themselves, or by comparing implants with dentures (i.e. dentures can feel bulky and make it difficult to speak or eat, while implants feel more natural).
Those are the benefits that the patient gets (not the features of the implants). I noticed the following examples:
- Ability to smile, laugh, socialize, and chew with confidence again (higher quality of life)
- Improve the taste and texture of food
- Increased bite force (50% compared to the usual 20%)
- Eliminate bone loss
Then there are the tactics to get them to act on the ad right as they see it. Here, I noticed these examples:
- Limited offer (i.e. to only 20 people. Often the ads don’t say WHY the offer is limited which can make them lose credibility)
- Free implant (VIP) consultation
- Free OPG 2D x-rays
- Free oral cancer screening
- Free dental report
- Discount
- Payment plans
- 3D CT scan
The dental implant ads also mention the credibility of their specific clinic:
- Their experience (i.e. in the number of years or how many implants they’ve done)
- The number of patients they’ve seen
- Which school the dentist trained at
- The technology used
- Details (and photo) of the dentist(s) rather than stock photos
Some ads also give examples of how they stand out from other dental offices in their area through for example:
- Financing options
- No hidden extra fees
- Open in the evening
Some ads recommend next steps (CTAs) like:
- 30-sec quiz (so the potential patient can see if they quality)
- Call now
Takeaways
- Getting inspiration from other dental implant ads is an effective way to get over being stuck with a blank page, but don’t copy others’ work. Use it as inspiration
- There are loads of tools out there to help you find real-world ads – the ads are the least secret in an ad campaign
- There are certain persuasive elements that are effective to include in most ads as they help get potential patients to act on the spot instead of continuing to scroll
At the moment, the most cost-effective ways to promote implants tend to be with digital ads.
Facebook ads and Google search ads are among the two types that are the most cost-effective if you are looking for more appointment bookings as their targeting configurations allow us to reach potential patients when they are looking for help.
There are so many ads for dental implants because it’s an effective way to promote them and because there are loads of patients having problems with their teeth and looking for help.
The most effective way to promote dental products tends to be by reaching potential patients as they are looking for help, whether that’s with implants, teeth whitening, or something else.
That’s because one of the most difficult things in dental marketing and advertising is getting patients to act now instead of putting it off again.