Every week, the MSP team breaks down the dental marketing news that actually matters, from Google updates and AI search changes to social media trends, SEO shifts, and reputation management surprises.

• Reddit held its first Health Summit, and the healthcare usage numbers are staggering
• New Facebook ad benchmark data names dental specifically, with a $61.56 average cost per lead
• Google Business Profile adds a “Collected Info” tab so you can see what its automated calls gathered
• Google Ads now shows advertisers how their spend compares to “similar” businesses
• Microsoft Advertising now requires disclosure for AI-generated or AI-altered ad content
• Quick hit: Reddit’s AI search tends to favor formal, popular comments over personal ones

What happened: Reddit held its first-ever Health Summit in New York, presenting data to healthcare and pharmaceutical brand representatives about how people actually use the platform for health-related research. The numbers are hard to ignore. Healthcare conversations on Reddit generated more than 36 billion views over the past year, 46% of doctors in the U.S. are now active on the app, and in 2025 alone, there were 473 million Reddit posts connecting symptoms to a possible condition.

Why dentists should care: We’ve mentioned Reddit’s growing role as a research tool a few times in past roundups, and this event confirms just how far that trend has gone specifically in healthcare. People aren’t just occasionally stumbling onto a dental thread, they’re actively using Reddit as a place to ask questions, compare experiences, and seek reassurance about health decisions, including dental ones. Reddit itself has said the goal for brands should be listening and genuine helpfulness, not inserting sales pitches into conversations.

What to do next:

• Search for dental-related discussions relevant to your patients (specific procedures, common anxieties, cost questions) to understand what people are actually asking
• If you or your team ever engage in a relevant thread, prioritize being genuinely helpful and human over promotional, since that’s explicitly what earns trust on this platform
• Treat Reddit as a real source of patient insight, not just a place to occasionally check on your practice’s reputation

What happened: A new benchmark report analyzing nearly 1,800 Facebook ad campaigns found that advertisers are broadly getting cheaper clicks and stronger engagement in 2026. Average cost per click fell 14.29% year over year to $0.60, while click-through rate rose nearly 13% to 1.93%. Lead campaign costs stayed largely flat overall, but the report broke results down by industry, and Dentists and Dental Services showed an average cost per lead of $61.56.

Why dentists should care: It’s rare to get a data point this specific to our industry. A $61.56 average cost per lead gives you a real benchmark to compare against your own Facebook ad performance, whether you’re running campaigns yourself or working with an agency or dental marketing company. And the broader trend (cheaper clicks, better engagement) is good news if your practice runs any Facebook advertising right now.

What to do next:

• If you run Facebook ads, compare your own cost per lead against the $61.56 benchmark to see where you stand
• Take advantage of generally improving traffic campaign performance if brand awareness or website visits are part of your goals
• Remember that benchmarks are a reference point, not a target. Your specific practice, services, and location will always shift these numbers

What happened: Google officially rolled out “Collected Info,” a new tab inside the Google Business Profile dashboard that shows business owners what information Google’s automated systems have gathered about them, including through automated calls, texts, or WhatsApp messages Google sometimes sends to confirm details like hours or services. Owners can now review this collected information, see its source and collection date, and delete anything inaccurate. The feature is rolling out gradually and isn’t available in every region, language, or business category yet.

Why dentists should care: Google’s automated systems occasionally reach out directly to businesses to confirm details, and that information can get added to your profile without much visibility into where it came from. If a staff member unknowingly confirmed something inaccurate during one of these automated check-ins, this new tab gives you a way to catch and correct it.

What to do next:

• Check whether the Collected Info tab has appeared in your Business Profile dashboard yet
• If it has, review what’s listed and delete anything inaccurate or outdated
• Make sure whoever answers your practice’s phone knows that a call confirming business details could be an automated system from Google, not spam to ignore

What happened: Google Ads is rolling out a new “Spend Benchmarks” report that shows advertisers how their weekly spend and clicks compare to a peer group of similar businesses, based on factors like industry and advertising location. In one early example shared publicly, an advertiser spent slightly more than its peer group but received meaningfully more clicks at a lower average cost per click, a reminder that a simple spend comparison doesn’t tell the whole story.

Why dentists should care: It’s easy to look at a “you’re spending less than similar businesses” notice and feel pressure to increase your budget. But two practices in similar markets can have very different margins, conversion rates, and patient values. Spending more isn’t automatically better, and spending less isn’t automatically a problem.

What to do next:

• If this report appears in your account, use it as general context, not a target to hit
• Base budget decisions on your own results (cost per lead, booked appointments, return on ad spend) rather than what similar businesses are spending
• Ask your ads manager to help interpret this data alongside your actual performance, not in isolation

What happened: Microsoft Advertising published new guidance requiring advertisers to disclose when AI helped create or significantly alter ad content, including images, audio, and video. Advertisers are expected to preserve watermarks and metadata identifying AI involvement, and disclosures must be clear and placed near the relevant content. Microsoft made clear that simply labeling something “AI-generated” doesn’t excuse deceptive content, ads can still be rejected for prohibited deepfakes, unauthorized use of someone’s likeness, or missing required disclosures.

Why dentists should care: This continues a trend we’ve flagged before (Snapchat cracking down on unlabeled AI video a few weeks back). If your practice uses AI tools to help generate or edit images or video for Microsoft/Bing ad campaigns, transparency requirements now apply directly to that content.

What to do next:

• If you run Bing/Microsoft Ads and use AI-generated or AI-edited visuals, review whether disclosure is required and clearly included
• Avoid stripping metadata or watermarks from AI-assisted creative, since Microsoft explicitly prohibits interfering with that provenance information
• Expect similar disclosure requirements to show up on other ad platforms over time, so building this habit now isn’t wasted effort

A new (not yet peer-reviewed) research audit found that Reddit’s AI search feature tends to surface formal, already highly-upvoted comments more often than comments with personal, first-person language, even when both are relevant. Researchers also found the AI-generated answers stripped out most of the original first-person phrasing, turning personal testimony into more generic-sounding advice. This is a nuance worth keeping in mind alongside this week’s Reddit Health Summit story. While Reddit’s raw conversations remain a valuable, human resource, the AI-summarized version of those conversations may not fully capture that same personal voice. It’s a good reminder to read the actual source threads when researching a topic on Reddit, rather than relying solely on the AI summary.

Reddit is clearly positioning itself as a serious healthcare destination both for consumers and in the world of social media marketing, and the data backs that up in a way that’s hard to dismiss. At the same time, this week’s other stories are a good reminder that more visibility into your own data, whether that’s what Google has collected about your business, how your ad spend compares to peers, or what an AI summary is actually including or leaving out, is almost always worth paying attention to. None of these require urgent action, but a little audit-mindset this week (checking your Business Profile’s Collected Info tab, comparing your Facebook ad performance to the new benchmark) is time well spent.

• Reddit offers insights from its Health Summit event – Social Media Today
• Facebook ad costs fall as traffic and lead performance improves: Report – Search Engine Land
• Google Business Profiles rolls out Collected Info – Search Engine Land
• Google Ads is showing advertisers how their spending compares with peers – Search Engine Land
• Microsoft Advertising sets rules for AI-generated ads – Search Engine Land
• Reddit AI Search Picks Already-Popular Comments, Audit Finds – Search Engine Journal

Adrian Lefler is the CEO and Co-Founder of My Social Practice and a recognized dental marketing expert with nearly two decades of experience. He is a trusted voice in dental marketing, AI in dentistry, and emerging technology, and he hosts BYTE SIZED, a podcast focused on dental AI, innovation, and technology.