What should a dental practice check in a marketing agency contract?
A dental practice should check nine things in a marketing agency contract: term and notice, scope and deliverables, fees, how ad spend is billed, who owns the accounts and website, the Business Associate Agreement, reporting, performance terms, and termination and handover. The ownership and handover clauses matter most, because they decide whether you can leave without losing your rankings, reviews or phone numbers.
- Ownership first: the contract should say the practice owns its domain, website, Google Business Profile, ad accounts, analytics, call-tracking numbers and content.
- Ad spend should be billed to your card or shown as a separate line, so you can see exactly what reached Google or Meta.
- A signed BAA is required if the agency will create, receive, maintain or transmit protected health information for you.
- Short notice periods and a written handover list protect the practice far more than any promise made in a sales call.
- Every practice welcome — retainers from $499/mo, Goals-Driven engagements, Performance-Linked Payout Models available.
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“They were able to get all my ideas and work with me over a period of three to four months and create this amazing website. It's super customized, very modern, and it incorporates all the elements that I had wanted — the patient portal, nice pictures, a very interactive website, patient reviews. I would highly recommend their company to anyone who wants to make an excellent website.”
Which clauses in a dental marketing contract matter most?
Nine clauses decide how much risk a dental practice takes on: term and notice, scope, fees, ad-spend billing, ownership, the BAA, reporting, performance terms and termination. Read each one against the table below before you sign. If a clause is missing, ask for it in writing. Silence in a contract usually favors whoever drafted it.
This page is a buyer's checklist, not legal advice. Have a healthcare attorney review the final contract and the BAA, especially if you run several locations or belong to a DSO.
| Clause | What good looks like | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Term and notice | Month-to-month, or a short initial term with a clear written notice period (for example 30 days) | Long lock-in that auto-renews unless you cancel inside a narrow window |
| Scope and deliverables | A named list per month: pages written, profile posts, campaigns managed, review requests, reports | "Full-service digital marketing" with no list of outputs |
| Fees | Fixed management fee, setup fee (if any) and what triggers a price change, all in writing | Fees that rise with ad spend without a cap, or unexplained "platform" charges |
| Ad-spend billing | Spend charged to the practice's card inside its own ad account, or invoiced as a separate pass-through line | One blended invoice where you cannot see what reached Google or Meta |
| Ownership of assets | Practice owns domain, website, content, Google Business Profile, ad and analytics accounts, call-tracking numbers and data | Agency registers the domain or ad account in its own name, or "licenses" the website to you |
| BAA and data handling | Signed BAA before any patient data is touched; named tools; no tracking pixels on booking or intake pages | "We don't need a BAA" while handling call recordings, forms or patient lists |
| Reporting | Set cadence, named metrics (calls, booked appointments, cost per booked appointment), and live access to raw data | Reports limited to impressions, clicks and "rankings" |
| Performance terms | Agreed goals, how they are measured, and what happens if they are missed | Guaranteed rankings or guaranteed patient numbers |
| Termination and handover | Written handover list, a fixed handover period, admin access transferred, files exported | Handover "on request" for a fee, or the website taken down at exit |
Who should own the website, ad accounts and phone numbers?
The practice should own every marketing asset it pays for. That means the domain, hosting account, website files, Google Business Profile, Google Ads and Meta ad accounts, analytics properties, tag manager, call-tracking numbers and all written content. The agency should be added as a user or manager, never as the sole owner.
Ownership clauses are the most common source of pain when a practice changes agencies. A profile, ad account or tracking number held by the agency can take weeks to recover, or may be lost. Years of ad history and conversion data can go with it. Our guide to switching dental marketing agencies covers that recovery process.
Wording to look for
- "All accounts, domains, content, creative, data and phone numbers created for the Client are the property of the Client."
- "Agency will hold administrative access as a user, not as the owner."
- "Call-tracking numbers will be ported or transferred to the Client on request at no additional charge."
- "On termination, Agency will transfer admin access and export all files within an agreed number of days."
Website licensing
Some agencies build sites on their own proprietary platform and license them to the practice. That is not automatically wrong, but you need to know it before signing. Ask what you can take with you: the content, images and page structure, or nothing. If the answer is nothing, factor a rebuild into the real cost of the contract.
How should fees and ad spend be written into the contract?
Fees should be split into three visible parts: a fixed management fee, any one-time setup fee, and the ad budget itself. Ad spend should be charged directly to the practice inside its own ad account, or invoiced as a separate pass-through line. You should always be able to check spend against the platform's own billing.
Agency retainers in the US commonly range widely, from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars a month, depending on scope and ad spend. The price matters less than whether the contract makes each dollar traceable.
Questions to settle in writing
- Is the management fee fixed, or a percentage of ad spend? If a percentage, is there a minimum and a cap?
- Are there extra charges for landing pages, call tracking, review tools or software seats?
- What happens to unused ad budget at the end of a month?
- When can the agency raise fees, and how much notice must it give?
- Are there fees for ending the contract or for the handover itself?
For a fuller view of pricing models, read how much a dental marketing agency costs. At Ichelon Consulting US, retainers start from $499/month and are custom-scoped, with ad spend billed separately in accounts the practice owns.
When does a dental practice need a BAA with its marketing agency?
A practice needs a Business Associate Agreement when the agency will create, receive, maintain or transmit protected health information on its behalf. In dental marketing that often includes call recordings, web form submissions, patient lists for recall emails and review requests, and CRM data. If in doubt, sign one. Confirm the details with your counsel.
HIPAA sets what a business associate contract must contain. Under 45 CFR § 164.504(e), it must, among other things, require the agency to report uses or disclosures not allowed by the contract, flow the same restrictions down to its subcontractors, and return or destroy protected health information at termination where feasible. It must also let the practice end the contract if the agency materially breaches it.
Data-handling points to add beside the BAA
- A list of the tools and subcontractors that will touch patient data.
- No advertising pixels on appointment request, intake or patient portal pages.
- A plan that follows the HHS guidance on online tracking technologies. A federal court vacated part of that guidance in June 2024 for unauthenticated public pages, but tracking on authenticated pages such as portals is still covered.
- Documented consent and opt-out handling for any marketing texts.
- Breach notification steps and a named contact on both sides.
Ichelon Consulting US signs a BAA with every US client, and builds tracking to be HIPAA-safe. The glossary entry on the business associate agreement explains the terms in plain English.
What we found when we studied 2,318 US dental practices on Google
Patients praise the care and the people. Where they push back is the treatment-plan conversation: upselling is the one review theme where complaints dominate.
2,318 US dental practices across 20 metros · review themes, pace and replies from a 120-practice subsample · every headline figure re-derived from raw data.
What should reporting and performance terms say?
Reporting terms should name the cadence, the metrics and your access to raw data. For a dental practice the core metrics are new-patient calls, booked appointments, cost per booked appointment and show rate, not just clicks. Performance terms should state goals, how they are measured and what happens if they are missed.
Reporting clause checklist
- Report frequency (weekly or monthly) and the date it arrives.
- Metrics defined in writing, including what counts as a "lead" and a "booked appointment".
- Live read access to ad accounts, analytics and call tracking, not just PDF summaries.
- A monthly review call with someone who works on the account.
Performance terms
No honest agency can guarantee a map-pack position or a fixed number of new patients. Google decides rankings, and your front desk decides how many calls become appointments. A better structure is agreed monthly goals, tracked openly, with a defined response when a goal is missed. That might be a revised plan, a fee credit, or the right to exit early.
We run Goals-Driven engagements: monthly goals agreed with the practice, tracked live on Ichelon Agency OS, with a report every Monday. Performance-Linked Payout Models are also available. See which KPIs a dental practice owner should track before you agree on goals.
One more term belongs here. If the agency manages reviews, the contract should forbid fake, bought or insider reviews and any suppression of negative ones. The FTC rule on consumer reviews and testimonials (16 CFR Part 465) took effect in October 2024 and allows civil penalties.
What termination, handover and IP terms protect the practice?
The exit clause should let the practice leave on reasonable notice and get everything back. That means a written handover list, admin access transferred within a set period, exported files and reports, ported phone numbers, and no fee to release assets you already paid for. A fair non-solicit clause and clear IP terms complete the picture.
Handover list to attach as a schedule
- Domain registrar and hosting logins, with the practice as owner.
- Website files, database export and image library.
- Google Business Profile ownership for every location.
- Ad accounts, analytics, tag manager and conversion settings.
- Call-tracking numbers ported to the practice.
- All content, creative, keyword research and reports produced.
Non-solicit and IP
A mutual non-solicit of staff is normal. It should be limited in time and should not stop the practice hiring an in-house coordinator. On IP, the practice should own all deliverables on payment. The agency may keep its own templates, software and methods, but not your content or data.
Before you sign
- Compare the draft against the table at the top of this page.
- Ask for every missing clause in writing.
- Check the agency against our list of dental marketing agency red flags.
- Send the final draft and the BAA to your attorney.
If you want a second opinion on a contract in front of you, book a call with the US team. Our pillar page on dental marketing agency services in the USA shows how we structure our own agreements.
Related pages from the US team
Dental marketing agency USA
How Ichelon Consulting US scopes, contracts and runs dental accounts.
Dental agency red flags
Warning signs to check before you sign anything.
Switching dental agencies
Recover accounts and keep rankings when you change agencies.
Dental agency RFP template
Ask agencies for these terms before the contract stage.
Every practice welcome — Goals-Driven engagements from $499/mo
We benchmark your last 90 days, agree monthly goals with you, and track them live on Ichelon Agency OS with a report every Monday. Performance-Linked Payout Models are available. Our US leadership is based in Dallas, and strategy calls run in US business hours.
Common questions
Should a dental marketing contract be month-to-month?
Month-to-month or a short initial term with a clear notice period is the safest structure for a dental practice. It keeps the agency accountable to results every month. Some setup-heavy work, such as a website build, can justify a fixed project fee, but the ongoing management retainer should not lock the practice in for long periods or auto-renew silently.
Who should own a dental practice's Google Ads account?
The dental practice should own its Google Ads account, with the agency added as a manager or user. Owning the account keeps the ad history, conversion data and billing in the practice's name. If the agency owns it, that history can be lost when the relationship ends, and the practice may have to rebuild campaigns from nothing.
Does a dental marketing agency need to sign a BAA?
A dental marketing agency needs to sign a Business Associate Agreement if it creates, receives, maintains or transmits protected health information for the practice. That often covers call recordings, form submissions, patient lists for recall or review campaigns, and CRM records. The practice should get the BAA signed before sharing any data and confirm the details with counsel.
Is it normal for a dental marketing agency to guarantee rankings?
No. Guaranteed rankings or guaranteed patient numbers are a warning sign, because Google controls search results and the practice controls how calls are answered. A trustworthy contract sets agreed goals, explains how they are measured, and states what happens if they are missed, such as a revised plan, a fee credit or an early exit right.
What should happen when a dental practice ends its agency contract?
When the contract ends, the agency should transfer admin access to every account, export website files and reports, port call-tracking numbers and hand over all content within an agreed period. None of this should carry an extra fee. Attaching a written handover list to the contract before signing is the simplest way to make sure it happens.
A note on this guide: it explains marketing practice, not legal advice. Rules on privacy, advertising and insurance change and vary by state, so confirm anything compliance-related with your own counsel.
Reviewing a dental marketing contract?
Book a 30-minute call with the US team. We'll walk through the ownership, billing, BAA and exit clauses in the draft you have, and show you how we write our own.