The short answer
Give owners and the board one page each quarter. Show spend, new patients, and cost per new patient for the group, then every office on its own line, grouped by stage.
Use counts only. New patient numbers come from the practice system as totals, and small counts are shown as "under 10" in any copy that leaves the leadership team.
Give readers view-only access, share the live report with named people, and end the page with the decisions you need from them.
What fits on one page
Owners and board members read a few numbers and make a few calls. The weekly detail belongs in the per-office marketing report. The quarterly summary is built from it and fits on one page.
Part 1
The group line
Spend, new patients, and cost per new patient for all offices, next to last quarter.
Part 2
Offices by stage
Offices open under 12 months in their own group, so a new office is not judged against a mature one.
Part 3
The watch list
Offices where new patients fell by a set share, with the first thing to check for each.
Part 4
What changed
New offices, closed offices, a new phone setup, or a new definition, so nobody misreads a jump.
Part 5
Decisions asked
One to three decisions the owners are asked to make this quarter, such as moving budget or adding an office page.
Keep clicks, impressions, and rankings in an appendix. They help the marketing team, but they do not tell an owner which office to fund.
Counts, not patients
The summary needs totals, not records. Ask each office for its new patient count for the quarter from the practice system. Names, birth dates, phone numbers, and treatment details never leave that system for this report.
Google's Analytics policies say no data Google could use to identify a person should be sent to it. That includes page URLs and titles, campaign tags such as utm_campaign and utm_content, and custom fields. Use office slugs and plain labels in tags, never a patient detail. The GA4 calls, forms, and bookings guide shows how.
Small numbers need care too. A count of 2 next to an office name and a date range can point to a person. In any copy that leaves the leadership team, show counts under 10 as "under 10", and skip cost per new patient for that office.
Google Analytics does something similar on its own. Its data thresholds can hold back rows that include demographics or search terms when there are too few users. A wider date range makes that less likely. Keep the routine HIPAA aware, and ask your own counsel about the rules that apply to your group. This is marketing and web guidance. It is not legal advice.
Who sees what
Most owners and board members only need to read. Give each tool its view-only role, so nobody can change a setting by accident.
Google Analytics
The Viewer role can see settings and data and change what a report shows, without editing the property.
Add the No Cost Metrics or No Revenue Metrics data restriction for anyone who should not see those numbers. Restricted values show as 0 for them.
Google Ads
Read-only access can view campaigns and billing and run reports, but cannot edit campaigns. Email-only access only receives notification emails and reports.
Keep the office accounts under a manager account the group owns, so reports can compare accounts in one place.
Data Studio
Data Studio is the new name for Looker Studio. Share the report with named people as Can view. They can see it, but cannot edit or reshare it.
A report shared by public link is open to anyone with the link, and so are its embedded data sources. A scheduled delivery can email a PDF on a set repeat.
Business Profile
Owners and managers can see views, calls, website clicks, and direction requests for each profile.
Business Profile Manager can download performance for many profiles at once as a spreadsheet, which puts every office side by side.
One detail matters in Data Studio. A data source set to Owner's Credentials shows data to viewers through one person's access. That is what lets a board member read the report without an Analytics login, so pick that person on purpose and keep the source owned by a group account.
Compare offices fairly
A new office and a ten-year office should not sit in the same ranking. Group offices open under 12 months as ramping, and compare each of them with its own last quarter.
For mature offices, write one watch list rule and keep it. A simple one: new patients down 20% or more on last quarter, for offices that had at least 10 last quarter. The floor keeps tiny offices from swinging on and off the list.
Label spend by office before you divide. Shared costs, such as a group brand campaign, need a written split rule. The Ads budget and call attribution guide covers how to split and credit spend by office.
Quarterly roll-up builder
Enter each office's months open, spend, and new patient counts for this quarter and last. The builder adds up the group, sorts offices into ramping, watch list, and steady, and writes a summary you can paste into the board page.
The form starts with a sample group of five offices. Cost per new patient is spend divided by new patients, so it is only as good as the spend labels and the count behind it.
Questions owners should ask
These questions work for an in-house team and for an agency. Good answers are short and point to a written rule.
- 1 Where does the new patient count come from, and does it count the same way at every office?
- 2 Which offices are on the watch list, and what was checked first at each one?
- 3 Did any definition change this quarter, and are both quarters counted the same way?
- 4 Is spend shown per office, or is shared spend split by a written rule?
- 5 Who can open the live report, and who was removed this quarter?
- 6 Which offices opened or changed name, and are they shown on their own line?
Red flags in a board deck
Only the group average
A good total can hide two offices that are slipping. Ask for every office on its own line.
A new definition with no note
If calls start counting missed calls, or forms count spam, the number jumps for no real reason.
Clicks and impressions as the headline
They show reach, not new patients. Keep them in the appendix.
Patient names or dates in the deck
The summary needs counts only. Anything more stays in the practice system.
Spend with no office label
If the deck cannot say what each office cost, it cannot say which office to fund.
A live link anyone can open
A report shared by public link is open to anyone who has the link.
If you are choosing or replacing an agency, the same points belong in the DSO marketing company buyer guide scorecard, and in a pilot-office trial.
Checklist
Summary checklist
0 of 12 done
Related guides
The weekly and monthly working sheet is the per-office marketing report. Tracking calls and forms by office is in GA4 calls, forms, and bookings without patient details.
Groups between 3 and 10 offices can start with the emerging dental group playbook. The map of the other group jobs is marketing a multi-location practice or DSO.
For a multi-office group
DDS Web Solutions builds websites and runs search, ads, and reporting for dental practices. Our team has been building websites since 2014, we have served 100+ practices, and our offices are in Sacramento and San Mateo.
For a group, we can set up office-level tracking, a view-only report in SmileTrak or Data Studio, and the one-page quarterly summary, with your group owning every account. We do not promise calls or new patients. See dashboards and reporting and DSO and multi-location marketing, or request a quote.
FAQ
How is this different from the per-office marketing report?
The per-office report is the working sheet the marketing team reads every week and month. The owner and board summary is one page each quarter, built from that sheet, that shows the group line, the offices that need attention, and the decisions asked.
Where should the new patient count come from?
From the practice system at each office, as a count for the quarter. Ads, Analytics, and Business Profile numbers show calls, forms, and clicks. The practice system shows who actually became a new patient.
Why show small counts as "under 10"?
A small number next to an office name and a date range can point to a person. Showing it as "under 10" in copies that leave the leadership team keeps the summary about the office, not about anyone in it.
Should board members get a login to Google Analytics?
Most do not need one. A Data Studio report shared with named people, or a scheduled PDF, is usually enough. If someone does get access, give the Viewer role, and add the No Cost Metrics restriction if they should not see spend.
What is a fair watch list rule?
Pick one and keep it for a year. A simple rule: new patients down 20% or more on last quarter, for offices open 12 months or more that had at least 10 new patients last quarter. Write the rule on the page.
Can the summary include cost per new patient?
Yes, if spend is labeled by office and the new patient count comes from the practice system. Leave it out for offices with very small counts, where one patient more or less swings the number a lot.
Sources
- Google Analytics Help: Best practices to avoid sending personally identifiable information
- Google Analytics Help: About data thresholds
- Google Analytics Help: Access and data-restriction management
- Google Analytics Help: About key events
- Google Analytics Help: Collect campaign data with custom URLs
- Data Studio Help: Invite others to your reports
- Data Studio Help: Data credentials
- Data Studio Help: Schedule automatic report delivery
- Google Ads Help: About access levels in your Google Ads account
- Google Ads Help: About Google Ads manager accounts
- Google Ads Help: Create, save, and schedule reports from your statistics tables
- Google Business Profile Help: Understand your Business Profile performance and insights