7 Marketing Tactics for Enhancing Your Cosmetic Dentistry Ads

For cosmetic dentistry brands looking to jump into the world of advertising, Team TEGNA is here to help you get answers, grow brand visibility, and increase in-person visits. Here is our complete guide to cosmetic dentistry advertising.

What is Cosmetic Dentistry Marketing? 

For example, TEGNA’s e-book, Checking the Pulse of the Healthcare Consumer,​ expects a 13% increase in dental visits in 2023, thanks to an eagerness to pursue wellness. Improving the quality of life is the top motivator for 52% of consumers, and 12% are motivated by wanting to change their appearance. Unsurprisingly, massages and teeth whitening were the most popular wellness activities completed last year. 

What do these insights mean? Now is the time to ramp up marketing and advertising, create cosmetic dentistry ads to attract new patients, and position your business as the vital choice in quality care.

7 Marketing Tactics for Cosmetic Dentistry

With so many ways to market and advertise your cosmetic dentistry brand, which tactic will be most effective? Based on the findings of Checking the Pulse of Today’s Healthcare Consumer, a dental brand’s marketing and advertising messages should do the following:

1. Use Television Ads

TV advertising remains one of the top ways dental brands can generate business and should always be considered when creating a great media plan. TV ads are visual mediums, usually 15 to 30 seconds long, that tell a brand’s story and show off its products or services with the goal of getting the viewer to take action. 

TV ads also allow dental brands to build brand awareness among a national audience or connect to live and local audiences. By creating emotional connections, leveraging the power of celebrity, or leaning on nostalgia, TV ads can help a brand get the phones ringing and get people visiting the brand website or brick-and-mortar location.

2. Partner with Local News Organizations

Local news channels are a vital way for communities to receive patient education, and 60% of consumers who get health information from local news trust brands that advertise in their content. These stations have earned the trust of their viewers to amplify​ your message at scale.

In fact, TVB recently found that local broadcast news is the most trusted platform for viewers – and that trust halo extends to brands, as consumers are more likely to buy from brands that advertise alongside sources of information they trust.

3. Combine Linear TV with Streaming and Digital

TV advertising is extremely effective, and as viewing habits continually change, brands that thrive combine linear broadcast and streaming platforms. While broadcast has unmatched reach, streaming adds advanced targeting layers to reach additional areas and specific audiences. Combining a cross-platform strategy for your cosmetic dentistry TV advertising will enable you to reach a wider audience demographic with diverse viewing preferences.

4. Identify Key Metrics For Success

Gartner reveals that only 53% of decisions are influenced by marketing analytics. Although marketers strive to be data-driven, cognitive bias and data management prevent obstacles. A marketing attribution tool – such as TEGNA Attribution – can help companies overcome some of these hurdles by providing information related to campaigns in a clear and digestible format. With marketing measurement, teams can determine which campaigns were successful and power their cosmetic dentistry advertising campaign using the metrics behind app downloads, website visits, TV and streaming habits, and more.

5. Differentiate Your Cosmetic Dentistry Practice

Did you know that less than half of patients understand what differentiates the hospitals in their area? Applying this insight to all healthcare brands, you can highlight competitive differentiation using cross-platform video storytelling and cross-channel marketing. 

This could include addressing consumer pain points found in Checking the Pulse of the Healthcare Consumer, such as long wait times and inconvenient appointment times.  

Or, your creative assets could focus on the 52% of consumers who get elected procedures and choose to do so to improve their quality of life.

6. Be Transparent Around Pricing

Since cosmetic dentistry isn’t generally covered through insurance, it’s important to be transparent about payment plans and financing options. Increase transparency around costs to help avoid sticker shock. Explore payment plan options to help consumers better afford costly procedures or highlight a sliding scale for those without insurance.

7. Utilize Storytelling

When audiences become captivated and emotionally connected to an ad, it improves brand awareness and ad recall and increases purchase intent. Before the pandemic, creative that performed well told a patient’s story. During the pandemic, the best-performing ads focused on health and wellness – things like how to keep yourself safe.

In 2024, we’re seeing that viewers want to hear a caregiver’s perspective as much as they want to listen to the patient’s. Showing a personal patient-provider experience in cosmetic dentistry advertising resonates with consumers and helps them feel more connected to the practice, building trust.

The Power of Cross-Channel Promotion

Data from the Advertising Research Foundation indicates that using more platforms, rather than attempting to choose one platform over another, is the best way to increase marketing ROI. This is called the “kicker effect,” whereby marketers strategically combine media for up to 60 percent more return. At TEGNA, we recommend a cross-platform campaign that includes the following:

Linear TV

Linear TV can be used to drive interest and awareness that kick off the consumer journey with broad market reach to motivate action and create a spike in search.

OTT Streaming

Use OTT streaming to amplify your linear TV campaign and extend your message across premium networks and providers to ensure dedicated and engaged audiences see your ad.

Digital Elements

Online advertising, such as video ads, display ads, native ads, and high-impact units on TEGNA station websites and apps, can reach an engaged audience within a trusted, local community environment to increase brand awareness and drive conversions.

What Are The Benefits of Using Digital and Streaming Marketing for Cosmetic Dentistry?

Targeting Capabilities

While your brand can reach a large and engaged audience through broadcast, streaming adds an extra layer of targeting and scale to capture audiences that can’t be reached through linear alone—like cord-cutters and cord-nevers, those who watch on gaming consoles or through streaming sticks, on CTVs, or laptops. With streaming, you can narrow your target audiences based on DMA or geography, from regions and states all the way down to ZIP codes, consumer trends such as interests, intenders, in-market shoppers, and more, creating extremely granular targeting options.

Additionally, digital opportunities allow you to extend your dental brand’s reach even further with new audience-targeting capabilities. For example, TEGNA AudienceOne leverages first-party audience data from TEGNA station websites and apps to help advertisers make meaningful connections with high-value customers.

Data Collection & Measurement

Lack of effective measurement is no longer a limitation to TV advertising, as linear and streaming ad campaign results can now be measured with a tool like TEGNA Attribution. This measurement tool allows our partners to measure the effectiveness of their TV and OTT campaigns by connecting viewing behaviors to engagement metrics, such as website visits, app downloads, and more. TEGNA clients will now know who saw an ad and visited their website. This data can then be used to make optimization decisions and maximize the campaign’s effectiveness.

Examples of Successful Cosmetic Dentistry Ads

There are numerous examples of brands using dentistry ads to promote their businesses effectively. Check out the examples below:

Mint Dentistry Uses Insights for Great Creative

Why it works: This ad addresses pain points covered in Checking the Pulse of the Healthcare Consumer by mentioning massages and teeth whitening and communicates key differentiators. What other brands offer Beats Headphones to listen during procedures? It also covers the consumers focused on wellness and appearance by providing a “healthy, sexy smile you know you deserve.” 

FastNewSmile Educate on the Benefits of Dental Implants

Why it Works: “Good Morning Texas; it’s like hitting the jackpot. Our office phones go absolutely insane, which is exactly what we want to hear,” says Riad Almasri, Founder and prosthodontist at FastNewSmile. “During consultations, I’ll ask new patients how they heard about us. They’ll say, “I saw your interview on Good Morning Texas a year ago, and I’ve been following you since.”

Cornerstone Dentistry Communicates Key Differentiators

Why it Works: Tom O’Leary, a Cornerstone patient, says it all in the ad: “You want people to care about you and understand your anxieties. They put your mind at ease. And when you see their equipment, it’s not your normal dentist.”

Boost Your Cosmetic Dentistry Marketing Strategy with TEGNA 

At TEGNA, our ultimate goal is to equip brands with data and insights to inform creative and amplify those marketing messages with cross-platform campaigns, including linear, streaming, and digital elements. With 64 broadcast stations in 51 markets nationwide, our unique content opportunities will connect your business to the audiences that matter most and deliver proven results. Let’s get in touch to see how we can help your brand grow with the power of advertising.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Advertise Cosmetic Dentistry? 

TV advertising remains one of the top ways for a cosmetic dentistry brand to cut through the clutter, reach a large local audience, build credibility and trust, create brand awareness, get phones ringing, and get people visiting your website and making appointments. 

Who is the Target Audience for Cosmetic Dentistry Ads?

Because target audiences are unique to your brand’s specific products and services, you’ll want to conduct market research to identify your target audience correctly. If you’ve been in business for a while, you can use data from existing customers to identify the target audience that would best benefit from your services. If you’re brand new, consider teaming up with your local TV news station’s research director for custom research.

What is the Market Size for Dental Aesthetics?

According to Precedence Research, The US cosmetic dentistry market was valued at USD 3.99 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach around USD 8.14 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2024 to 2033.

Is Aesthetic Dentistry the Same as Cosmetic Dentistry?

In general, cosmetic dentistry uses more invasive techniques to treat dental issues and achieve the perfect smile. Aesthetic dentistry uses less invasive techniques to help patients achieve a healthy and natural smile.