Healthcare PPC
Healthcare PPC measured in booked appointments, run inside the rules the platforms apply to health advertisers
Healthcare is a crowded auction with its own constraints: restricted remarketing, certification for some categories, claims the FTC and the platforms do not allow, HIPAA, and patients who research for weeks before booking. The accounts that work are the ones where the measurement reaches the appointment book and the campaigns respect the research journey instead of paying for it twice.
What is different about healthcare accounts
- Policy limits the tools. Google restricts personalized advertising for health conditions, so remarketing lists built on condition pages are not available; some categories (prescription drugs, addiction treatment, certain procedures) require certification before ads run; Meta has its own health and wellness data restrictions. The structure has to work without the tools other sectors lean on.
- Claims are regulated. Outcome claims, before-and-after imagery for some procedures, and anything that implies a guarantee fall under the FTC and, for drugs and devices, the FDA. Copy is written inside those rules and your clinical or compliance lead signs it off.
- Research searches dominate. "Symptoms of", "is it normal", "does insurance cover" are expensive, well-meaning and do not book. They are excluded, and the budget goes to the searches that name a treatment, a provider type or a location.
- The conversion is an appointment, not a form. The front desk answers the phone; the scheduling system knows who attended. Until those feed back, Google optimizes toward whoever fills in a form, including the people who never show up.
- HIPAA shapes the measurement. No protected health information goes to the ad platforms. Conversions are outcomes, not diagnoses, and the setup is documented.
What management includes
- Structure by service line and location. A campaign per service (orthopedics, fertility, dermatology, behavioral health, diagnostics, urgent care) with location targeting matched to how far patients travel for each, and the research vocabulary excluded.
- Measurement to the appointment. Call tracking with front-desk outcomes, the scheduling or practice management system feeding booked and attended appointments back as offline conversions, consent handled, and a privacy setup that keeps health data out of the ad platforms. See conversion tracking.
- Pages built for a worried person. One page per service with the provider, the process, insurance and cost answered, the next available appointment and a phone number at the top, loading fast on a phone. See landing pages.
- Meta where it fits. Awareness and remarketing for elective services, within Meta's health restrictions, judged on booked consultations rather than on form fills. Meta Ads →
- Reporting in appointments. Cost per booked and attended appointment by service line, alongside the platform numbers.
Who this fits
US and Canadian clinics and practice groups, specialty practices, diagnostics and imaging, behavioral health providers working within the certification rules, med spas and aesthetics within the claims rules, and health brands selling direct. Typically $3,000 to $60,000 a month across Google and Meta. Healthcare and pharma are among the sectors I have worked in over 14 years; no patient-facing case is published on this site, and none will be invented. For dental practices specifically, see Google Ads for dentists.
Questions people ask before hiring
Can you run Google Ads for a clinic given the health policies?
Yes. The restrictions remove some tools (condition-based remarketing, some audience features) and require certification for certain categories, including addiction treatment and prescription drugs. The account is built to work within that, and the certification process is handled with you where it applies.
How do you handle HIPAA?
No protected health information goes to Google or Meta. Conversions are sent as outcomes (booked, attended) with hashed contact data only where enhanced conversions are used; tags on pages that could reveal a condition are reviewed; and the setup is documented for your compliance officer. Where your counsel prefers server-side tagging with filtering, that is how it is built.
Can you connect Google Ads to our scheduling system?
Usually, through an offline conversion import from the scheduling or practice management system, exporting which inquiries booked and attended without clinical data. Where there is no export, front-desk outcomes from call tracking do most of the job.
Do you work with med spas and aesthetics?
Yes, within the claims rules: no outcome guarantees, before-and-after imagery only where the platform allows it, and copy signed off by your clinical lead.
How much does healthcare PPC management cost?
A flat monthly fee set from the scope: service lines, locations, platforms and how much landing page and tracking work is included. Never a percentage of spend. Quoted in US dollars by email from the form. See pricing.
Related services
Tell me about the account
Spend band, site and what is not working. You get a straight answer on whether I can help, what I would do first and a price range. No proposal deck, no sales follow-up sequence.