47 dental practices in one group. The diagnostic surfaced three different problems.
A multi-location dental group came to us with what sounded like a simple ask: run GBP CTR campaigns across their 47 practices.
We pushed back. Single-location CTR optimization is one problem. Multi-location is a different one, and applying the same playbook across all 47 locations is exactly what underperforms.
So we ran a ResolveMap diagnostic on every practice first. 47 separate audits. The data was sorted into three distinct tiers, which we didn't expect.
(Numbers below are representative across this engagement, not a single guaranteed outcome.)
Tier 1 — Clean foundation (~15 practices)
These had been stable for years. Original locations, no acquisitions, no rebrands. Entity coherence scored high across all 5 pillars. They were ranking, but not ranking enough — classic "good foundation, low behavioral signal" situation.
Recommendation: direct GBP CTR campaign at the Advanced tier, no foundation work needed.
Tier 2 — Moderate drift (~22 practices)
These had history. Acquisitions absorbed into the brand, partial rebrands, and GBPs migrated from previous owners. Entity coherence scored mid-range — passable, but Google was seeing inconsistent signals across citation history. Some still had pre-acquisition NAP propagating.
Recommendation: foundation cleanup first (~30 days), then CTR campaign.
Tier 3 — Major issues (~10 practices)
These had structural problems that no one had caught. Two were running shared GBP categories with sister locations that confused Google about which entity to surface. Three had duplicate GBPs from owner transitions. The rest had schema implementations contradicting the current GBP categories.
Recommendation: full foundation rebuild before any CTR work. Driving behavioral signal at these locations would have actively hurt rankings.
The 6-month result
- Tier 1: GBP interactions roughly doubled across the cohort, in line with single-location averages.
- Tier 2: ~75% gain on interactions, ~2 months behind Tier 1 on the curve (foundation work delays the start).
- Tier 3: Foundation work complete, CTR now running. Early signal positive, full results pending another quarter.
The honest caveat
Multi-location attribution is messier than single-location attribution. Some Tier 2 gains overlap with brand-level marketing the client was running in parallel. Dental also has longer consideration windows — phone calls are a noisier metric than for HVAC, where intent is immediate. The strongest signal here is the relative variance across tiers, not the absolute numbers.
What we're confident about: a uniform "run CTR everywhere" plan would have wasted budget on Tier 1, delayed gains on Tier 2, and actively harmed Tier 3. The diagnosis was the leverage.
If you're running multi-location anything, the temptation to package one solution across all locations is real. Curious whether others have built tiered intervention frameworks for this.
—Mars Lin
Building Webido CTR since 2019
https://webidoctr.com/resolvemap (use IHMAP20 for $20 off the diagnostic — $100 → $80)
