Which Google Ads Keywords Can a Psychiatry Practice Use?

What this means for you

• Provider, service, coverage and location keywords are open: "psychiatrist near me", "psychiatric evaluation", "medication management" plus a city.
• In the US, drug names can appear in ads and on landing pages without certification. Keyword-targeting them needs certification.
• Telepsychiatry that facilitates prescribing is a prescription drug service. It needs LegitScript and Google certification before those ads serve.
• Stimulants such as amphetamine and methylphenidate are Schedule II, and alprazolam, clonazepam and zolpidem are Schedule IV. MedScale keeps those names out of keyword lists.
• Health and prescription drug terms are both sensitive categories, so customer match, remarketing lists and lookalike segments are off.

MedScale Health, a paid acquisition agency for telehealth brands and clinics, builds Google Ads accounts for psychiatry practices and telepsychiatry groups. This page sets out keyword themes by intent and the three Google rules that decide which of them you can use. It quotes no cost-per-click figures, because those vary by metro and month. This page is marketing guidance, not medical or legal advice. Platform policies change, so check the sources listed at the end before acting on a specific rule.

Keyword themes by intent

• Provider: "psychiatrist near me", "psychiatrist" plus a city, "psychiatric nurse practitioner", "child and adolescent psychiatrist".
• Service: "psychiatric evaluation", "medication management", "adult ADHD evaluation", "second opinion psychiatrist".
• Coverage and access: "psychiatrist that takes" plus a plan you accept, "psychiatrist accepting new patients", "evening psychiatry appointments".
• Care by condition: "anxiety psychiatrist", "depression treatment" plus a city, "bipolar disorder psychiatrist". The ad still describes the service, not the reader.
• Telepsychiatry: "online psychiatrist" plus a state where your clinicians are licensed, once the certification question below is settled.
• Negatives: jobs, salary, residency, school, definitions, and prescription drug names.

Prescription drug terms: the US rule

Google's restricted drug terms policy for campaigns targeting the United States, Canada or New Zealand says: "While you don't need to be certified in order to use prescription drug terms in ads and landing pages, you must be certified in order to keyword-target these terms." Certification is also required for certain business types, including online pharmacies and telemedicine providers. So an in-person practice can mention a medication on its landing page, but a keyword list built on drug names needs certification first.

Telepsychiatry sits under a second policy. Google restricts services related to the online prescribing, dispensing and sale of prescription drugs, names telemedicine providers among the businesses covered, and says it errs on the side of caution with landing pages that appear to facilitate online prescribing. A page that offers an online evaluation followed by a prescription is in scope even if the keyword is only "online psychiatrist".

Controlled substances: why drug-name keywords are the wrong bet

Much of psychiatric prescribing involves controlled substances. Amphetamine, methylphenidate and lisdexamfetamine are listed in Schedule II (21 CFR 1308.12). Alprazolam, clonazepam, lorazepam and zolpidem are listed in Schedule IV (21 CFR 1308.14). Prescribing them by telemedicine without an in-person evaluation relies on DEA flexibilities that the fourth extension (Federal Register document 2025-24123) keeps in effect through December 31, 2026.

Even with certification, keywords built on these names tend to draw people looking for a specific prescription rather than an evaluation, and every promise a prescription-led ad makes depends on a temporary federal rule. MedScale adds them as negatives and builds the account on the evaluation and the clinician. Medication detail stays informational, below the fold on the landing page.

The personalized ads restriction

Google treats health as a sensitive interest category, including counseling for depression, anxiety and addiction, and treats prescription medications as a second sensitive category under restricted drug terms. Advertisers promoting in either can't use advertiser-curated audiences: customer match, your data segments (remarketing) and lookalike segments. Predefined Google audiences such as in-market and affinity remain available, and users under 18 are not eligible for personalized ads. Demand Gen campaigns use advertiser-curated audiences by default and may be restricted. For a psychiatry practice, the keyword list is the targeting.

Measuring keywords by booked evaluations

Judge each keyword theme on booked evaluations, not clicks, and count phone bookings as well as forms, with call tracking numbers per campaign. Google bars sharing personally identifiable information through data segment tags, so conversions carry neutral names such as Lead or Booked, never a diagnosis or a drug. MedScale tracks server-side under a BAA with neutral event names, and no names, emails, phone numbers, IP addresses or browser IDs go to any ad platform.

What MedScale does

MedScale Health builds psychiatry accounts on provider, service, coverage and location intent, with controlled-substance names as negatives, landing pages built around the first evaluation, and call and form tracking of booked appointments. Where a telepsychiatry model needs LegitScript and Google certification, MedScale's certification help runs the filing. No approval or result is guaranteed. Start with the free growth audit at medscale.health/audit for a written keyword plan.