Patient acquisition has moved online. More than 70% of potential patients research healthcare providers before booking an appointment, and that research usually starts with Google search. For medical practices, Google Ads offers a direct path to online visibility when people are actively searching for healthcare services.

But healthcare advertising on Google comes with complications that other industries do not face. Strict Google Ads policies govern what you can say in your ad copy, how you can target your audience, and what certifications you need. Policy violations can get ads disapproved or accounts suspended, sometimes without warning.

This guide covers both the opportunity (why Google Ads is a powerful tool for attracting more patients) and the risk (how to stay compliant and what to do when things go wrong).

Why Google Ads Works for Medical Practices

Unlike digital marketing channels where you broadcast to everyone hoping some percentage needs medical services, Google Ads lets you reach people searching for healthcare providers at the exact moment they need care. Someone searching “dermatologist near me” has already decided they need a doctor.

They are comparing options and ready to book.

Billboards or print ads reach people who may never need your service while PPC advertising through Google reaches the right audience at the right time.

The 2025 benchmarks for healthcare advertising show an average cost per click around $5.64, though this varies significantly by specialty. Click through rate falls between 5-8% for most healthcare services, with conversion rate and cost per lead ranging from $16 for some services to $70+ for specialized care.

Costs vary dramatically across the medical industry:

• Primary care: $3-$8 per click
• Dermatology: $8-$25 per click
• Plastic surgery and elective procedures: $50+ per click in competitive markets
• Mental health: Saw a 42% CPC increase year-over-year according to LocaliQ benchmarks

Despite these costs, the economics often work for healthcare providers. A new patient relationship can generate thousands in lifetime value through ongoing care, procedures, and referrals. Even at $100 cost per new patient acquisition, the return on investment (ROI) is positive for most medical practices.

Google Ads Policies for Healthcare: What Actually Gets Accounts in Trouble

Most guides mention that healthcare advertising has “strict policies.” Few explain what specifically causes problems. After working with medical practices on Google Ads compliance issues, we have seen the same violations repeatedly.

Claims That Get Ads Disapproved

Google scrutinizes healthcare ad copy more heavily than any other industry. The following will trigger disapprovals:

• Unsubstantiated claims: “Guaranteed results,” “100% effective,” “Cure your condition.” Any promise of specific outcomes violates Google Ads policies.
• Exploiting health conditions: Ad text that targets people based on personal health struggles. “Suffering from depression?” is problematic. “Psychiatrist accepting new patients” is fine.
• Before-and-after restrictions: Weight loss and cosmetic surgery before-and-afters face limitations. Some are prohibited entirely; others require specific disclaimers depending on procedure type.

Certification Requirements That Catch Healthcare Practices Off Guard

Certain healthcare services cannot advertise on Google without certification, and running ads without it triggers immediate suspension. This is not a warning situation; your Google Ads account gets shut down.

Services requiring Google certification (typically through LegitScript):

• Online pharmacies
• Telemedicine providers prescribing medications
• Addiction treatment centers
• Pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare companies selling prescription products

Standard medical practices offering in-person care typically do not need certification. But here is where practices get caught: if your practice offers telehealth prescription services, you’ll need LegitScript’s healthcare certification before running any Google Ads campaigns for those services.

The distinction matters for your advertising efforts. A dermatology practice advertising in-person appointments is fine. The same practice running ads for online prescription acne consultations needs LegitScript certification.

Personalization Restrictions in Healthcare Advertising

Google restricts personalized advertising for healthcare in ways that affect your ads campaigns. You cannot retarget users based on health conditions. You cannot use ad copy that implies knowledge of personal health information.

Problematic: “Your diabetes management solution.” Acceptable: “Endocrinologist specializing in diabetes care.”

This affects remarketing campaigns significantly. You can sometimes remarket to people who visited your website, but often Google will completely remove your ability to remarket.

What Happens When You Violate Google Ads Policies

Most healthcare policy violations generate a warning at least 7 days before account suspension. You have time to fix the issue if you act quickly.

Egregious violations are different. Selling prescription drugs without certification, promoting controlled substances, or making dangerous health claims can trigger immediate suspension without warning. Your Google Ads account gets banned, and you may not be allowed to use Google advertising again.

In our experience with medical practice accounts, most suspensions stem from certification issues (telehealth services advertising without LegitScript) or claims that crossed the line (promising outcomes Google considers unsubstantiated). Both are fixable, but the process takes time and requires addressing the root cause completely.

Google Ads Campaign Structure for Doctors

Organize your Google Ads campaigns around your service lines. A multi-specialty healthcare practice might have separate campaigns for primary care, dermatology, and orthopedics. A single-specialty practice might organize by service type: routine visits, specific procedures, and urgent care.

Geographic targeting matters more in healthcare than most industries.

Potential patients want healthcare providers within a reasonable distance. Urban practices might target specific geographic locations within a 5-10 mile radius. Suburban or rural practices may need larger areas. Set your ads targeting based on how far patients actually travel to see you.

Consider target audience demographics where relevant. A pediatric practice should target parents (age 25-45) rather than teenagers. A geriatric specialist might focus on adults 55+ or their adult children who research care for aging parents.

Keyword Research and Targeting Strategy

High-intent keywords combine specialty, service, and location. “Primary care doctor accepting new patients” shows readiness to book. “What does a primary care doctor do” shows research intent that rarely converts to potential patients.

Finding the right keywords for your medical practice:

• Provider searches: “[specialty] near me,” “[specialty] accepting new patients,” “best [specialty] in [city]”
• Service searches: “[procedure] cost,” “[treatment] specialist,” “where to get [service]”
• Insurance searches: “[specialty] that takes [insurance],” “[insurance] doctors near me”
• Urgent searches: “same day doctor appointment,” “walk-in clinic near me,” “urgent care open now”

Use keyword research to identify long tail keywords that are more specific and often more cost effective. “Board certified dermatologist accepting Aetna near downtown Chicago” has lower competition than “dermatologist near me.”

Negative keywords to add to all your campaigns immediately: “free,” “home remedy,” “salary,” “jobs,” “school,” “degree.” Building a strong negative keywords list prevents your ads from showing to people searching for careers or DIY solutions rather than healthcare services.

Ad Types: Search Ads, YouTube Ads, and Google Display Ads

Search Ads

Search ads remain the foundation of Google Ads for doctors. When potential patients search Google for healthcare providers, your ads appear at the top of search results. This is where most of your advertising budget should go initially.

Compelling ad copy for healthcare includes what patients care about: accepting new patients, short wait times, same-day appointments, insurance acceptance, and convenient hours. Your ad text should be specific and relevant to the search query.

Use all available ad extensions to improve performance:

• Call extensions: Critical since many healthcare conversions happen via phone
• Location extensions: Shows your address and helps with local targeting
• Sitelink extensions: Link to specific services, provider bios, patient portal
• Callout extensions: “Same-Day Appointments,” “Accepting New Patients,” “Most Insurance Accepted”

YouTube Ads and Video Content

YouTube ads can help healthcare providers build trust and increase brand awareness before potential patients need care. Video content showing your facility, introducing providers, or explaining procedures can differentiate your practice from competitors.

YouTube ads work best for: building awareness in your local market, explaining new services or procedures, and remarketing to people who visited your website. They are less effective for generating immediate appointments compared to search ads.

Google Display Ads

Google display ads show across Google’s network of partner websites. For healthcare providers, cold display advertising rarely generates direct patient inquiries because the intent is not there.

However, display ads work well for remarketing campaigns. Someone who visited your orthopedic services page but did not book might see your display ad while reading a news article. This keeps your healthcare practice visible during their decision process.

Remember the personalization restrictions: you cannot target display ads based on health conditions or behaviors, and Google may completely restrict your remarketing eligiblity.

Landing Pages: Where Healthcare Advertising Succeeds or Fails

Sending Google Ads traffic to your homepage is one of the most common mistakes in healthcare digital marketing. A potential patient who clicked an ad for “cardiologist accepting new patients” expects to land on a page about your cardiology services, not your general homepage.

Create dedicated landing pages for each major Google Ads campaign. Every landing page needs:

• A headline matching the ad copy and search intent
• Clear description of the specific medical services offered
• Provider credentials (board certifications, specializations, experience)
• Trust signals (reviews, hospital affiliations, awards)
• Multiple contact options (phone, form, online scheduling)
• Insurance information prominently displayed
• Mobile friendly design (critical since most healthcare searches happen on mobile devices)

Landing pages must comply with the same Google Ads policies as your ad copy. Do not make claims on your landing pages that you could not make in an ad. Google reviews landing pages as part of ad approval, and policy violations on your website can lead to ad disapproval even if the ad text itself is clean.

Mobile optimization is essential. More than 60% of healthcare searches happen on mobile phones. Test your landing pages on actual mobile devices, not just desktop previews. Slow pages hurt both conversion rate and your Google Ads quality score.

Tracking and Optimizing Campaigns

Phone calls often represent the majority of healthcare conversions. Potential patients have questions before booking, especially for procedures or specialists. Without call tracking, you are blind to most of your Google Ads results.

Set up tracking for form submissions, online scheduling completions, phone calls (with call tracking software), and ideally, actual new patient conversions from your practice management system.

The gap between “leads” and “new patients” matters more than most medical practices realize. A Google Ads campaign might generate 50 leads but only convert 15 to scheduled appointments, and only 12 actually show up. Understanding this funnel helps you optimize the right metrics.

Continuous optimization of your campaigns is essential for long term success. Review search terms reports weekly, adjust bidding strategies based on performance, and test different ad copy variations. What works today may not work in six months as the competitive landscape changes.

Budget and Bidding Strategies

Medical practices typically invest $1,500-$5,000 monthly on Google Ads for a single location. Multi-location healthcare practices or high-competition specialties require more. Elective procedure marketing (plastic surgery, cosmetic dermatology) often needs $5,000+ monthly in advertising budget.

Start with a daily budget you can sustain for at least 4-6 weeks. Healthcare decisions often involve longer consideration periods than other services, so give your campaigns time to generate data before making major changes.

Bidding strategies for healthcare advertising:

Manual CPC bidding gives you control while learning which keywords generate qualified leads. Start here if you are new to Google Ads for doctors.

Target CPA (cost per acquisition) bidding works well once you have 30+ conversions tracked. Google optimizes your bids to hit your target cost per lead.

Maximize Conversions bidding tells Google to get as many conversions as possible within your budget. Good for campaigns with proven conversion rates.

Budget allocation matters. Do not spread your advertising budget too thin across too many campaigns. It is better to dominate one service line than barely show up for five.

When Healthcare Ads Get Disapproved or Accounts Get Suspended

Ad disapprovals in the healthcare industry usually stem from: claims Google considers unsubstantiated, ad text that implies health condition targeting, missing certifications for restricted services, or landing page content that violates policy.

For disapproved ads: review the specific policy cited, fix the ad copy or landing page issue, and resubmit. Most disapprovals are fixable within a few days if the issue is straightforward.

For suspended accounts: the process is more complex. You need to identify the exact violation, fix the underlying issue completely, and submit a Google Ads appeal with documentation. Incomplete fixes result in rejected appeals, which extends the downtime.

Common suspension causes we see in healthcare accounts:

Telehealth certification gaps: Practice added telehealth prescription services without obtaining LegitScript certification first

Landing page claims: Website content made promises that Google flagged as unsubstantiated, even though the ad copy was compliant

Third-party policy inheritance: Using a marketing agency that ran ads violating healthcare policies, leaving the practice’s account suspended

Recovery typically takes 3-4 weeks for straightforward violations where the fix is clear. Complex cases or repeat violations take longer, but our team has 10+ years of experience successfully reinstating Google Ads accounts.

Getting Results with Google Ads for Doctors

If you are launching Google Ads for doctors for the first time, start with one service category where you have capacity and strong patient lifetime value. Build dedicated landing pages. Set up call tracking from day one. Give your campaigns 4-6 weeks before evaluating performance.

If you are running ads for doctors but not seeing results, audit your campaign structure, landing pages, call tracking, and ad copy. The problem is usually in one of those four areas.

Google Ads is a powerful tool for healthcare providers who use it correctly. Unlike other digital marketing channels, it reaches people who are searching for the exact medical services you offer. With the right keywords, compelling ad copy, proper landing pages, and continuous optimization, medical practices can achieve cost effective patient acquisition at scale.

If your healthcare practice has experienced Google Ads policy issues, ad disapprovals, or account restrictions, understanding the specific violation is the first step toward resolution. StubGroup works with medical practices to resolve Google Ads compliance issues and build campaigns that target patients without triggering policy problems.

Book a free Google Ads consultation to review your current setup and identify the best path forward.