Google Ads budget allocation and call attribution for dental groups

This page is for a dental group with roughly five offices through fifty or more. Weekly query cleanup and the mechanics of a single location asset sit in search terms, negatives, and location assets. Single-office call setup sits in call tracking for marketing measurement. Profile access and the organic UTM pattern sit in Business Profile governance for dental groups.

Campaign structures

Google lets a campaign target countries, areas inside a country, a radius, or location groups that can include your business locations. That is a targeting choice, not a required org chart. Three structures cover the cases we see groups actually fund:

Location settings and location assets are different controls. Targeting decides who can be shown the ad. The asset decides whether an address can appear on it. Google's advanced location options default to people who are in or regularly in your targeted locations, plus people who have shown interest in those locations. A Presence setting limits delivery to people likely to be in or regularly in the targeted locations. A group that does not want an office's ads shown to someone searching that city from another state can switch that campaign to Presence. Expect fewer impressions when you leave the default. That is a reach choice, not a quality score.

Exclusions win when a place is both included and excluded. Use them to drop towns a regional campaign should not cover. Google's geographic targeting page is the list of location types. Overlapping catchments are normal for neighboring offices. Write down which campaign owns the overlap so two campaigns do not bid on the same search for the same door.

Location assets and affiliate assets

A location asset can show a street address, a map, distance, and on mobile a call button. Google's location assets article now covers two types that used to be separate extensions:

• •Offices you own. Data comes from a Google Business Profile manager, chain locations, or Maps. This is the type for a group's own dental offices.
• •Affiliate locations. For products or services sold in stores you do not own, such as a manufacturer selling through retailers. The sources Google lists are chain stores or global location groups, not your own profiles.

An account chooses one type. Picking the wrong type can leave the assets disapproved. Link the Ads user to the Business Profile manager that already lists the offices, and do not open a second profile because verification takes time. Address and phone corrections are made on Maps and the profile. Those edits flow into the linked Ads account. If a location is marked temporarily or permanently closed, its location asset stops showing.

Account-level assets are eligible on Search, Display, and Video ads in that account after they pass review. To limit which doors a campaign can show, use a location group, a subset of account locations, or "No location asset" on that campaign or ad group. Campaign settings override the account. Removing every location asset also removes store-visit measurement and location-based bidding. Store visits, when an account qualifies, are a visit signal Google turns on. They are not a substitute for a booked appointment. The weekly asset checks in the search terms guide still apply office by office.

Shared budgets and portfolio bidding

A shared budget is one average daily budget used by more than one campaign in the same account. Google describes it as a way for unused budget to move to campaigns that are limited by their budget. It is available on Search, Shopping, Display, and Video. It is not available on Performance Max, on campaigns that use a total budget, or on campaigns that are part of an experiment, and Google also lists App campaigns, Hotel campaigns on a commission strategy, and Smart Shopping as incompatible.

A portfolio bid strategy groups campaigns, ad groups, and keywords under one goal-driven bid strategy stored in the Shared library. The strategies Google lists include Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize clicks, and Target impression share. It is not available for Performance Max. After you create one, you cannot switch its type. You create a different portfolio instead. Google's linking article says that once a portfolio is tied to a shared budget, adding or removing a campaign updates that shared budget.

The tradeoff, stated as a management choice:

• •Separate budgets. Each office campaign stops when its own average daily budget is spent. A quiet office does not fund a busy one. You spend time moving money by hand.
• •One shared budget, no shared bid target. Spend can move. Bids stay on each campaign. You still read cost by campaign to see who used the pool.
• •Shared budget plus one portfolio. One target, one pool, for campaigns that share a goal. Google's note on portfolio limits says this pairing is for Search, Display, and Shopping, and that a Search campaign and a Shopping campaign in the same portfolio do not optimize toward one joint target across those channels.

Offices in separate Ads accounts do not share one of these budgets, because the budget lives inside an account. A manager account is a separate umbrella that can compare performance and edit campaigns across linked accounts. It is not itself the shared budget. The group should remain an owner on each account. Access handoff after a purchase is covered in post-acquisition marketing transition.

Calls by office

Two Google numbers get confused. The office number is yours. The forwarding number is Google's, and only for measurement.

• •Call assets. Call assets put a phone number on the ad. On mobile, a call button can show. On desktop, a call button can reveal the number and a QR code. You can limit the asset to hours the office can answer. A click on the call asset is charged like a headline click. If the ad is also showing a specific location, Google may send the call to that location's number instead of the call-asset number.
• •Call reporting and forwarding numbers. Call reporting assigns a Google forwarding number so Ads can record duration, start time, whether the call connected, and, for calls longer than 15 seconds, the caller number in countries where Google offers that. The number is meant to share your area code when one is available. Google owns it. It can be reassigned. Do not print it on the profile, the sign, or a mailer.
• •Website calls after an ad click. Website call conversion tracking can replace the business number on the site with a forwarding number for someone who arrived from an ad, so the call can be tied to the keyword, ad, ad group, and campaign. The default snippet tracks one number on a page. Put it on the location page that shows that office's number. Do not assume a page that lists every office tracks every number. If another vendor already swaps numbers on the site, Google says its scanner may not verify the number from the source code, and it does not point you at the Tag Manager website-call tag for that setup.

Calls from ads can count as a conversion when the call lasts longer than a minimum you choose, which is how you drop hang-ups. You can also import calls that your own system marked as booked. Call reporting can include caller numbers and, if you enable it, recordings that Google may analyze. That is a product behavior, not a reason to paste a patient name, a chart number, or a clinical note into an ad field. Decide with your own compliance team whether caller-number reporting and call recording fit the group's policy. HIPAA-aware marketing still means the front desk log of "new patient, booked, office slug" stays in your system.

Give each office one number you control that rings that desk. Use that number on the call asset and on the location page. Keep the profile phone on that same controlled number, not on a forwarding number. A central switchboard makes every office look like one line. Our call tracking guide covers the single-office version of this setup.

Forms, UTMs, and key events

A booking is an office event plus a person. Only the office belongs in Google. Analytics prohibits sending information Google could recognize as personally identifiable, including in page URLs, titles, custom dimensions, and the campaign parameters utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, and utm_content. If you are unsure whether a field counts, ask counsel. Do not guess with a patient record.

The URL builder says to set source, medium, and campaign together. Values are case sensitive. They are omitted from the landing page and page path dimensions and show on page location instead. A stable paid pattern:

• •utm_content is the office slug, lowercase, matching the location-page path. It is the only piece that changes by door.
• •The final URL is that office's page, not the home page and not a page that immediately sends everyone to one generic form.
• •The form can store the slug in your scheduler. The Analytics event sends the same slug as an event parameter, nothing else about the person.

A key event is an event you mark because it matters to the business. Reports can show key-event counts by a dimension, and you can create a Google Ads conversion from that key event so Ads and Analytics are counting the same action. Register the office slug as an event-scoped custom dimension. Google warns that a custom dimension with a unique value per user or per session can collapse into an "(other)" row. An office slug for a few dozen locations is a short list. A patient id is not. Data redaction on a web stream can strip email-like text and query parameters you name. Turn that on, and still do not put the identifiers in the URL in the first place.

Organic profile links should keep the group's existing UTM spelling so paid and profile traffic do not split into two sources. That pattern is in the governance guide. Do not invent a third spelling per region.

Office and region rollups

Build one sheet. Each row is an office slug. Columns that can be filled from the tools above, without a patient identifier:

• •Ads account and campaign names, budget type (own or shared), and portfolio name if any.
• •Cost and clicks for the period, from the campaign that owns the office, or marked "region campaign" when the campaign covers several doors.
• •Calls from ads and calls from the website swap, split by the office number, with the duration threshold you set.
• •Key events with that office slug, from GA4.
• •A region subtotal that sums the office rows, plus an unmatched row for calls and forms with no slug.

Do not hide the unmatched row. A shared budget makes the office cost a result of demand inside the pool, not a cap you promised that office. Say that in the note above the table. A manager account report can sit beside this sheet when offices are in more than one account. It does not replace the slug. Comparing agencies on this kind of evidence is part of how to choose a DSO dental marketing company.

Questions for an agency

Ask these in writing. They are due-diligence questions, not a contract and not legal advice.

1. Which location-asset type is on the account, and which Business Profile manager is linked?
2. Which campaigns are per office, which are per region, and who owns overlapping towns?
3. Is the budget a shared budget? If yes, which campaigns draw it, and how will we see cost by office?
4. Is there a portfolio bid strategy? What is the target, and which campaigns are excluded because they do not share that goal?
5. What number rings each office, and where, if anywhere, does a Google forwarding number appear?
6. How does a form or booking receive the office slug without a patient name, email, phone, or chart id reaching Analytics or Ads?
7. What is the minimum call length, and is call recording on? Who approves that with our compliance team?
8. Show a sample month with office rows, region totals, and an unmatched row. Who owns the Ads accounts if we leave?

Red flags

• •Affiliate location assets on offices the group owns, or both asset types forced into one account.
• •A new Business Profile created because the Ads link was inconvenient.
• •One shared budget and no campaign-level cost, so every office is blamed or credited together.
• •A portfolio target shared by campaigns that are not trying to produce the same action.
• •The Google forwarding number printed on the profile, the door, or the location page for every visitor.
• •One website number for every office, with the default call snippet expected to track all of them.
• •Patient names, emails, or phone numbers inside UTM values, page titles, or event parameters.
• •Every click or every ring counted as a booked patient. Unmatched leads deleted so the rollup looks complete.

Attribution checklist

Tick these for the account you are reviewing. The ticks stay in this browser only. Nothing is sent to DDS Web Solutions.

Brand and profile rules for the same offices are in profile governance. The wider planning page is DSO and multi-location marketing.

FAQ

Sources

Google help pages opened November 6, 2026 and returned HTTP 200. Wording changes, so confirm the live page. This is marketing operations guidance, not legal advice and not a HIPAA determination. Ask your counsel and compliance team before you enable call recording or send any identifier to an ad or analytics system. DDS Web Solutions has offices in Sacramento and San Mateo. Our team has been building websites since 2014 and has served 100+ practices. SmileTrak is the analytics platform included with client work. ToothRank is a curated directory for DDS clients and is not a public listings site. Smyly is a consult preview and is separate from ad attribution.

• •Google Ads Help: About shared budgets
• •Google Ads Help: Link shared budgets to portfolio bid strategies
• •Google Ads Help: Portfolio bid strategy, definition
• •Google Ads Help: Create a portfolio bid strategy
• •Google Ads Help: How cross-channel bidding differs from portfolio bidding
• •Google Ads Help: About location assets
• •Google Ads Help: About call assets
• •Google Ads Help: About call reporting
• •Google Ads Help: Measure calls from ads
• •Google Ads Help: Set up tracking for calls to a phone number on a website
• •Google Ads Help: Target ads to geographic locations
• •Google Ads Help: About advanced location options
• •Google Ads Help: Exclude ads from geographic locations
• •Google Ads Help: About manager accounts
• •Google Analytics Help: Collect campaign data with custom URLs
• •Google Analytics Help: Avoid sending personally identifiable information
• •Google Analytics Help: About key events
• •Google Analytics Help: About custom dimensions and metrics
• •Google Analytics Help: Data redaction