How Absolute Dental Uses Sponsored Results to Drive High-Value Patient Growth
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Talk to SalesHow Absolute Dental Reached the Right Patients in a Competitive Dental Market
As the largest Dental Service Organization (DSO) in Nevada, Absolute Dental is a pillar of the state’s healthcare community. While their footprint was massive, their patient mix didn’t always align with the business they planned to build. The front desk was often stuck in a cycle of manual outreach, spending hours on confirmation calls and filling the gaps an inefficient schedule left.
“We had a great reputation and the largest footprint in Las Vegas — but we weren’t attracting the right patients to grow the way we needed to,” Shaun Schweitzer, Director of Marketing, says. The team needed a way to reach high-intent, PPO patients who could become long-term relationships, but the cycle kept them stuck with unpredictable results.
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Talk to SalesThe volatility of our schedule really impacted the patient experience, while the strains on reimbursements put pressure on revenue per visit and dragged down our profitability.
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Talk to SalesA Surgical Approach to Booking
Absolute Dental was already looking for an easier booking process for their patients and staffing. Zocdoc gave each location control over which insurance plans and visit reasons they accept. Combined with Zocdoc’s ability to help patients find providers who fit their needs, this enabled Absolute Dental to attract and book patients who align with their practice goals — supporting a more intentional patient mix.
With Zocdoc Marketplace, Absolute Dental could finally zero in on a patient mix that aligned with their organizational goals, effectively balancing their patient mix without a manual overhaul of front-desk workflows.
“What really appealed to us was the guardrails that the software puts in place to book the right kinds of patients,” Schweitzer explains. “It gave us the ability to zero in on that initiative.”
The strategy extended past who was booking — it also addressed how they were booked. To win over leadership and ensure a seamless rollout, the team spent the upfront time building out a deep integration with their practice management system. This automation allowed new appointments to flow directly into their schedule with minimal human intervention.
“What got it across the finish line was that automation,” Schweitzer says. “Setting up that structure to minimize intervention at the practice level was good upfront work that really helped with efficiency.”
Once the foundation solidified, Schweitzer says it was time to pour gasoline on the fire. He turned to Sponsored Results, a paid advertising product on Zocdoc that boosts a provider’s visibility by placing their listing higher in patient search, to amplify their reach. To explore, he ran a month-long test on a provider who had already earned a Patient Choice badge. By aggressively elevating that provider’s visibility, bookings for that single provider quickly jumped from an average of 10 per month to nearly 40. Sponsored Results helped drive reliable, high-intent growth exactly where the business needed it most.
31%
quarter-over-quarter increase in visit volume (Q3)
66%
of new patients returned for a second visit
~40%
year-over-year gain in commercially insured new patients at Zocdoc locations
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Talk to SalesWhere we see immediate need at a practice, Sponsored Results is a lever for me to drive real impact — quickly and effectively.
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Talk to SalesConverting First Visits into 66% Retention
The results showed up fast and held. Since going live on Zocdoc, Absolute Dental has seen commercially insured new patient growth every single month since June 2025. This success stems from meeting patients on a platform they already recognize. “Zocdoc is the Google of medical bookings,” Schweitzer says.
In Q3, the numbers told a clear success story:
- 31% increase in visits, quarter over quarter
- 20–40% year-over-year gain in commercially insured new patients
- 63% increase in revenue per visit
- 66% of all new first-visit patients returned for a second visit
- 28% returned for a third visit or more
To Schweitzer, the patient retention numbers stood out most. They indicated the beginnings of long-term patient relationships — exactly the kind of growth Absolute Dental’s investors wanted to see.
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Talk to SalesI would put the lifetime value of a Zocdoc patient up against any other sourcing there is out there. It’s not just first-visit revenue — it’s the recurring revenue. That’s Zocdoc’s true value.
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