The Starting Point: A Google Ads Account With Zero History
This dental clinic in Marrickville, in Sydney's Inner West, had built a loyal patient base over the years through word of mouth and a few local referral partners. The dentists were experienced, the clinic was modern, and the reviews were strong. But they had never run a real Google Ads account. No conversion tracking, no campaign structure, no history to learn from — just a blank account and a practice they wanted to grow through paid search.
The brief was simple but not easy: build a Google Ads presence from the ground up that could compete for high-intent local terms like "emergency dentist Marrickville" or "dentist near me" without burning budget while the account had zero data to optimise against.
When the practice owner first called us, the goal was clear — "we have the chairs open, we have the dentists, we just need the phone to start ringing from Google Ads." That was the starting point. From account creation to conversion tracking to the first qualified lead, we built the entire paid search engine from scratch and kept refining it as real performance data came in.
What Made Growing This Account From Zero Difficult
Starting a Google Ads account with no history means every early decision is a guess until real data comes in. Here's what we were working against.
No Conversion Tracking In Place
There was no way to tell a real lead from a bounce. Before a single dollar of budget could go toward ads, we had to build out call tracking, form tracking and online booking tracking so every conversion was actually measurable.
Zero Account History For Google's Algorithm
Smart Bidding needs conversion data to work well, and a fresh account has none. Early campaigns had to run on manual and enhanced CPC just to feed the system enough signal before we could safely switch to automated bidding.
Expensive, Competitive Keywords
Dental search terms in Sydney are some of the most expensive in local services, with corporate dental chains and larger clinics bidding aggressively across the Inner West. A new account had to compete for clicks without the Quality Score history that lowers cost per click over time.
No Landing Pages Built For Ads Traffic
The website had a services page, but nothing designed to convert paid search clicks specifically — no clear CTAs, no booking forms matched to ad intent, no click-to-call for urgent enquiries. Every extra step between the ad and the enquiry was costing conversions.
The Google Ads Strategy Behind 143+ New Patient Leads
We split the work into three buckets — how the account and campaigns were structured, how bidding and budget were managed as data came in, and the ad creative plus landing pages that actually converted the clicks.
Building The Account From Scratch
- Full keyword research for 50+ local dental search terms
- Campaigns split by intent — emergency, general, cosmetic, area-specific
- Tight ad groups with single-theme keywords for higher Quality Score
- Conversion tracking set up for calls, forms and online bookings
- Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets and call extensions added
- Geo-targeting narrowed to a tight radius around Marrickville, not all of Sydney
Managing Spend With No Prior Data
- Started on manual CPC to control cost while the account had zero history
- Daily bid and budget checks in the early stage to avoid overspend
- Switched to Maximise Conversions once enough conversion data existed
- Budget reallocated weekly toward the highest-converting campaigns
- Negative keyword list built continuously to cut wasted spend
- Dayparting applied so spend favoured clinic opening hours
Turning Clicks Into Actual Enquiries
- Ad copy tested around price, urgency and emergency-care angles
- Dedicated landing pages built per campaign instead of the homepage
- Clear single-CTA forms matched to what each ad promised
- Click-to-call added as a low-friction option for urgent enquiries
- Trust signals — AHPRA registration, Google reviews, before/after photos — added above the fold
- Ongoing A/B testing on headlines, CTAs and form length
How We Grew This Google Ads Account From Zero
No history to lean on, so we built the account in a deliberate order — tracking first, structure second, spend control third, and scale only once the data earned it.
Conversion Tracking Before Anything Else
Set up call tracking, form fill tracking and online booking tracking before spending a single dollar on ads. Without this, none of the optimisation later would have meant anything — you can't improve what you can't measure.
Keyword Research & Campaign Build
Ran competitor gap analysis on the top dental clinics across the Inner West and built a master list of 130+ search terms. Structured the account into tightly themed campaigns split by intent — emergency, general check-ups, cosmetic, area-specific — instead of one broad campaign.
Manual Bidding To Control Early Spend
With zero conversion history, Smart Bidding had nothing to learn from. Ran the first stretch on manual CPC with tight daily budget caps, watching search terms daily and killing anything irrelevant before it drained the budget.
Landing Pages Built For Ads Traffic
Built dedicated landing pages matched to each campaign instead of sending clicks to the homepage. Added click-to-call, simplified booking forms, and trust signals like AHPRA registration and reviews front and centre.
Negative Keyword & Search Term Cleanup
Reviewed search term reports on a rolling basis and kept building out the negative keyword list. Cut spend going to job seekers, students and irrelevant "cheap" or "free" searches that were never going to convert.
Switching To Automated Bidding
Once the account had a healthy volume of real conversions logged, migrated the top-performing campaigns to Maximise Conversions and later target CPA, letting Google's algorithm optimise with actual data instead of guesswork.
Scaling What Worked
Reallocated budget away from underperforming campaigns and into the ones producing the cheapest, most qualified leads. Expanded winning ad groups into nearby suburbs once the formula proved itself.
Google Ads Results: Account Growth From Zero
Pulled straight from the clinic's own Google Ads account. The early stage was all setup and control, the later stage was where the leads started compounding. Side-by-side numbers don't lie.
