• Why Google is shifting from traditional search results to AI mode and what it means for dental advertising
• How zero-click searches are already impacting dental practice website traffic
• The real reason Google Ads costs have increased dramatically over the past two years
• Why starting your Google Ads campaign now gives you a critical advantage over competitors
• What the future of dental practice websites looks like in an AI-driven search landscape

Right now, when someone searches for a dentist, they see the familiar layout: a few sponsored ads at the top, then the map pack, then organic listings. Most people have trained themselves to scroll right past those ads.

Google AI mode changes everything.

Instead of presenting 10 blue links for users to click through, Google’s AI assistant provides a direct, conversational answer. The ads will no longer sit in an obvious block at the top. They will be woven into the AI response itself, integrated so seamlessly that users may not immediately distinguish between organic recommendations and paid placements.

“Google instead of just saying, ‘Hey, these are the guys that paid for placement,’ feels more like, ‘Oh, this is intended to be in this result. It’s natural,'” Alan said. “We’re going to click on the one that feels right, catered to the search we’re doing.”

This is a fundamental shift in how advertising works. For dental practices, it means your Google Ads strategy needs to evolve from fighting for attention in an obvious ad block to becoming part of the trusted answer the AI provides.

If you have talked to anyone running Google Ads for their dental practice lately, you have probably heard the complaints. Costs are up. Way up.

Alan confirmed this is not just perception. Looking at year-over-year data for clients, he has seen dramatic increases in cost per call and cost per click. The competition is fiercer than ever.

But here is what most people miss: the rising costs are actually a signal of where the market is heading.

“Many businesses are getting less transactions or less traffic organically,” Alan explained. “They’ve lost a big chunk of it, so they’re looking to make up for it in the paid zone. So many more are coming to the ad placement and spending more money than has ever been spent.”

At the same time, the valuable ad placements have shrunk. Nobody scrolls to page two anymore. Nobody even scrolls to the bottom of page one. All the competition is concentrated at the very top of the results.

More advertisers fighting for fewer premium positions equals higher costs. This is basic supply and demand, and it is not going away.

Google’s stock price reflects this reality. Investors are betting heavily that the new AI-integrated advertising model will drive even more revenue. They are pricing in a future where ads become more effective, more clicked, and more valuable.

One strategic reality to keep in mind is that Google Ads campaigns get better over time.

When you first launch a campaign, you are essentially making educated guesses. You do not know your actual cost per click. You do not know which keywords convert. You do not know what your cost per new patient will be.

“The first few days and weeks, we’re educatedly guessing,” Alan admitted. “We turn on the ad campaign and we just kind of wait and see. We don’t know what the cost per call is actually going to be.”

But once you have data, everything changes. You can identify which keywords waste money and eliminate them. You can optimize your landing pages based on actual behavior. You can refine your targeting to reach the exact patients you want.

Alan’s team typically aims to shave 20 to 30% off initial costs through optimization. Click-through rates that start at 3 to 4% can double to 6 or 7% with proper refinement.

If Google AI mode launches in mid-2026 and you start your campaign then, you will spend your first six months figuring out the basics while your competitors who started earlier are already optimized and ready to capitalize on the new format.

“Those that are going to suffer are the ones that are going to say, ‘I don’t know if this is a good thing, a bad thing, is it profitable?'” Alan said. “The ones that are going to really get it are the ones who have been doing ads already. They know their conversions. They know what they want out of an ad.”

One of the most interesting predictions from the conversation involves how Google will blend paid and organic results in AI mode.

Currently, there is a clear separation. Ads are labeled “Sponsored” and appear in distinct blocks. Organic results appear separately below. Users have learned to distinguish between them.

In AI mode, that distinction becomes much blurrier.

“Inside of this AI mode, this new landscape, the paid ads aren’t going to be at the top and the organic at the bottom,” Alan explained. “It’s all going to integrate and you’re going to have some opportunities for it to just all flow cohesively.”

Google will still label sponsored content because hiding that would be disingenuous and likely illegal. But the presentation will be far more subtle. An AI response might say, “Based on your search, here are some recommended dental practices in your area,” and some of those recommendations will be paid placements integrated naturally into the response.

For dental practices, this means the old strategy of hoping patients scroll past ads to find your organic listing is dying. If you want to be in the AI response, you need both strong AI-optimized SEO and an advertising presence.

One of the most common questions dental practices have is simple: how much do I need to spend?

Alan’s answer provides a realistic framework. There is always a budget for everyone, from participation level to domination level.

For practices in suburban markets drawing patients from a three to five mile radius, a starting budget of around $1,000 to $1,500 per month can get you into the game. This is enough to generate data, learn what works, and start building toward optimization.

Local Service Ads, where available, offer a lower barrier to entry because you pay per call rather than per click. You might pay $60 to $150 per qualified call, but at least you know that money went toward an actual patient interaction rather than a click that went nowhere.

For practices in competitive urban markets or those advertising high-value services like implants or full-arch cases, budgets of $5,000 to $15,000 per month are common.

“Every market is different,” Alan noted. “The cost per calls can be daunting. It can be 20, 50, 60, 100. I’ve seen them up at a couple hundred in legal. But it is an opportunity to come in with a very low barrier to entry and try.”

The key is starting somewhere, gathering data, and optimizing over time rather than waiting for the perfect moment that never comes.