Opportunity
Ideal Dental had the scale many PE-backed healthcare platforms target – 161 locations nationwide with strong density in high-growth markets like Dallas/Fort Worth – but that scale introduced complexity.
Each location operated within different market dynamics, capacity utilization levels, and competitive pressures. Marketing efforts spanned multiple channels but lacked a unified attribution model, consistent measurement, and clear visibility into performance.
The challenge wasn’t just increasing booked appointments. It was doing so efficiently and consistently, improving capacity utilization, maximizing provider output, and driving EBITDA expansion across the portfolio. Baseline performance made the opportunity clear: high blended CAC, wide location-level variance, and limited insight into which channels, markets, and patient segments were driving value.
Ideal Dental didn’t need more marketing. It needed a connected, scalable system that could align acquisition with capacity, improve unit economics, and turn growth into a predictable driver of EBITDA and enterprise value.
Strategy
We built a centralized strategy with localized execution – designed to function as a capital allocation engine across the portfolio. At the core was the measurement infrastructure: a unified attribution model that connected media spend to appointments, care plan acceptance, and contribution margin. This created visibility into CAC by location and channel, and enabled disciplined budget allocation.
Around that time, we deployed a coordinated multi-channel mix, including Paid Social, Programmatic Display, SEM, SEO, SMS, email, direct mail, and localized media, engaging patients across the full funnel.
Campaigns were continuously optimized by reallocating spend toward the highest-performing channels and markets, refining SEM efficiency, expanding remarketing efforts, and aligning investment with demand cycles.
Importantly, optimization focused on value – not just volume – shifting demand toward higher-margin services and improving care plan acceptance to increase revenue per patient.
In parallel, we developed a repeatable De Novo playbook – combining pre-opening demand generation, hyper-local targeting, and conversion-focused experiences – to compress ramp timelines and accelerate new-location performance. This created a system where centralized strategy drove efficiency and local execution drove production – without tradeoffs.
Impact
The result was a scalable, performance-driven growth engine across the portfolio.
- Patient acquisition became more efficient and predictable, lowering blended CAC while increasing overall production
- Marketing performance became measurable across locations, improving visibility into what drives yield and where capital should be allocated
- Demand shifted toward higher-value services, improving care plan acceptance and increasing revenue per patient
- New locations ramped faster and more consistently, supporting earlier contribution to portfolio performance
- Multi-channel coordination improved conversion rates and reduced friction across the patient journey
Most importantly, Ideal Dental established a repeatable system that links marketing investment to patient value, supporting continued growth while improving unit economics across the platform.
Key Takeaway
When managing a multi-location healthcare platform, growth isn’t about choosing between scale and efficiency.
It’s about building a system where centralized strategy and localized execution work together – improving CAC, increasing revenue per patient, and driving predictable EBITDA contribution.
