Case Study:
Grove City Smiles

The challenge?

Grow a dental startup from $0 to $3 million in one year.

Our answer:

Achieving this goal would require mutual trust between Dr. Pappas’s team and ours, and a strong brand foundation. With that foundation in place, we could layer on a digital ads strategy built to dominate the market from day one.

Brand AS
Foundational

Meet the owner

Dr. Mike Pappas owned two dental practices, which he’d acquired from previous owners. For his third practice, he wanted the opportunity to build a brand from the ground up, centered around his own philosophy of care. This meant taking on the challenge, and the risk, of a dental startup—and Dr. Pappas was determined to do everything possible to make it a success.

GROVE CITY SMILES INTERIOR
shot by sTUDIO EIGHTYEIGHT

Finding clarity through a startup

Why do a startup if you don’t have a vision? Dr. Pappas came to us with his philosophy as a dental provider and practice owner, and we helped him define it with phrases like “Smiles for Everyone” and “Making Dentistry Easy.”


With the lofty goal of $3 million, it was crucial that everything we created digitally—the website, the ads strategy—had everything tangible to back it up. Dr. Pappas made our jobs a lot easier by working with an interior designer to create the most beautiful dental practice in Grove City.

When every element, from interior design to photography to web presence, is aligned with a clear vision, marketing strategies benefit. There’s no need for gimmicks, it just clicks.

webinar highlights

Establishing a
Marketing Budget

What’s a
War Chest?

Knowing he would eventually open a third practice, Dr. Pappas used his first two practices to create a “war chest,” a strategic reserve of funds. Years of careful saving gave him the freedom to invest boldly in Grove City Smiles from the start.

“You’ve got to understand that marketing is an investment. Understanding you're gonna have losses at the start. But it's an investment. It's not an expense.”

-Dr. Pappas

$1,172

AVERAGE RETURN ON INVESTMENT

$215

ACQUISITION COST PER NEW PATIENT

Harnessing
Lightening

With a bold monthly budget, we created a dynamic game plan that scaled with the practice’s rapid growth. Google Ads spearheaded the strategy, but diversifying into paid social media advertising played a crucial role.

Thanks to a bold budget and targeted strategy, Grove City Smiles saw its new patient acquisition cost dip below $200 within the first year. Coupled with an average revenue of $1,400 per patient, the return on investment became crystal clear.

$1,500

investment

90

clicks

30

Calls

7

new patients

$8,200

production

Google Ads Results

With a carefully thought-out budget of $40,000 to $50,000 per month in digital ads, Grove City saw total new patient counts soaring past 225 each month.

Total Google Ad Spend

total new patients per month

the $3 Million
Start up

In the course of a year, Grove City Smiles saw a rise in patient numbers, team members, and even their space. We were able to keep our strategies flexible to accommodate their growth, making our partnership an all-around success.

+200

new patients
per month

+3k

fb/ig clicks
per month

+19

new team members
first 12 months

+3m

first 12 months
apr 22’ - mar 23’

+5m

first calendar year
jan 23’ - dec 23’

$3M is
not the point

Don’t get lost in the numbers. Whether you’re a startup looking to break $1M in year one or an existing practice bringing on an associate and needing to increase new patients, we create marketing strategies that scale to suit your goals.

Schedule a Discovery Call

Your Story Is Worth It.

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