Ask who will own your accounts, how new patients get counted, what the contract locks you into and who actually does the work. How an agency answers those four tells you more than any case study. Here are the questions we would ask, and what a good answer sounds like. They work for chiropractors and other practices too.
Who will own my domain, website and Google Ads account?
You should. Your domain belongs in your practice's name, at a registrar you can log in to. Your Google Ads account should be yours too, with the agency added as a manager, so that if you part ways you keep the account, its history and its data.
Ask the same about the website. If you leave, do you get the site, or does it stay on the agency's platform and disappear when you stop paying?
How will you track new patients?
Clicks and impressions don't fill chairs. Ask how the agency counts phone calls from the website and from ads, form submissions and online bookings. Ask whether a call has to last long enough to be a real conversation before it counts. Then ask to see a sample monthly report.
What does the contract lock me into?
Look for three things: the minimum term, the notice you have to give to cancel, and what happens to your site and accounts when you do. SEO and ads usually need a few months to show what they can do, so a short commitment can be reasonable. A 12-month lock-in with your website held back at the end is a different thing.
Who actually does the work?
Some agencies sell the account and hand the work to someone else. Ask who builds the site, who manages the ads, where they are based, and whether you can talk to them directly when something needs to change.
Have you worked with dental practices?
Dental marketing has its own details. Insurance questions, new-patient offers, same-day and emergency appointments, and procedures worth very different amounts (a cleaning is not an implant case) all change how a site and an ad account should be built. Ask how patient information from your forms is handled, too. And ask for live sites you can open yourself, not just screenshots.
What results can you promise?
Be careful with anyone who guarantees a first-place ranking. Google's own guide to hiring an SEO is blunt about it: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." (Google Search Central). A good agency will tell you what it expects to change, how it will measure it, and roughly how long it should take.
How will we stay in touch?
A monthly report, a regular call, a named person who answers email within a day. Ask what a normal month looks like and who you call when the phones go quiet.
Our answers
You own your accounts, every call and form is tracked, our team is in the U.S., and there is no long-term contract. If you want to talk it through, book a free website audit. Our dental marketing page shows how we work with practices.