Implant campaigns: tracking a qualified enquiry through to paid treatment
Implant journeys take weeks or months. How to define each stage from enquiry to started treatment, where to record it, and what to report back to Google or Meta without sending clinical information.
Why implants need different tracking
An implant enquiry can take weeks or months to become treatment, and many never do. If campaigns are judged on form fills, the ad platforms learn to find people who fill in forms, not people who go ahead. The answer is to define a few stages, record them consistently, and report the later ones back.
The six stages
| Stage | Definition | Recorded in | Report back? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry | A call, form or message about implants from someone who clicked an ad | CRM, with the click identifier | Yes, as the first conversion |
| Qualified | In your catchment, interested in implants, reachable, and not an existing-patient admin query | CRM, by the person who spoke to them | Yes, the most useful early signal |
| Consultation booked | A date in the diary | Diary or CRM | Optional |
| Consultation attended | Seen by a clinician | Practice management system | Yes |
| Plan accepted | Treatment plan agreed, deposit or finance in place | Practice management system | Yes, as a neutral stage |
| Treatment started | First paid appointment completed | Practice management system | Yes, as a neutral stage |
Write the definitions down and use them every time. "Qualified" is the stage that most improves campaigns, because it arrives within days rather than months and is decided by your team, not the platform.
Reporting stages back to the platforms
With auto-tagging on, Google adds a click identifier (GCLID) to each ad click [1]. Store it with the enquiry. When the enquiry reaches a later stage, report it back: Google's enhanced conversions for leads matches imported outcomes to the original click using hashed details such as an email address [2]. Meta accepts similar server-side updates. Report each later stage as its own neutrally named conversion so the platform can tell a started patient from a booked one.
Be careful with values. The GDC treats what treatment a patient is having and how much it costs as confidential patient information [5]. Take privacy advice before attaching any treatment value to an outcome you report to an ad platform.
Website tracking that stores or reads information on a visitor's device needs consent under UK law, beyond narrow exemptions [3]. Some enquiries will therefore never carry a click identifier. Report the ones that do, and judge the campaigns on the full numbers in your own records.
What never to send
- Symptoms, diagnoses, treatment notes or anything from the clinical record.
- Conversion names that describe a person's treatment. A neutral name such as "Stage 4" is enough.
- The value of an individual patient's treatment, unless privacy advice has confirmed it is appropriate.
- Anything about a patient who did not come through an ad.
The ads themselves must also follow GDC guidance, including making clear on social media that treatment may not suit everyone and depends on a satisfactory assessment [4]. Take privacy advice on what your practice reports back and how your privacy notice describes it.
Reading the numbers
Look at cost per qualified enquiry weekly, cost per attended consultation monthly, and cost per started patient quarterly. Implant numbers are small: a handful of starts either way changes the picture, so avoid decisions based on one month. For the platform choice and budgets behind these campaigns, see the Google versus Meta guide.
Sources
- Google Ads Help, About auto-tagging. Accessed 1 November 2026.
- Google Ads Help, About enhanced conversions for leads. Accessed 1 November 2026.
- legislation.gov.uk, Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, Schedule A1. Accessed 1 November 2026.
- General Dental Council, Guidance on advertising. Accessed 1 November 2026.
- General Dental Council, Standards for the Dental Team, Principle 4: Maintain and protect patients' information. Accessed 1 November 2026.