How Do You Market a TMS Clinic on Google and Meta?

What this means for you

• TMS is a device treatment, not a prescription drug or addiction service, so its ads run on Google and Meta without LegitScript.
• Claims must match what the FDA cleared. The FDA permitted TMS for major depression in 2008 and a deep TMS system for obsessive compulsive disorder in 2018.
• Leave response rates, remission figures, cure language and timed promises out of every ad.
• Copy describes the treatment, not the viewer. "TMS therapy for depression" passes on Meta. "Tired of depression that won't lift?" fails.
• Remarketing and customer lists are off on Google, and Meta doesn't allow custom audiences based on health information.

MedScale Health, a paid acquisition agency for telehealth brands and clinics, runs Google and Meta campaigns for TMS clinics and the psychiatry practices that offer TMS. This page covers what TMS is in the eyes of the ad platforms, the claims that keep ads running, and how to structure the account. 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.

What TMS is, for advertising purposes

Transcranial magnetic stimulation uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain. The FDA regulates it as a medical device, not a drug. The federal classification for repetitive TMS systems (21 CFR 882.5805) describes a device that treats the symptoms of major depressive disorder in patients who have failed at least one antidepressant medication.

The FDA's August 2018 announcement gives the history: TMS was permitted for major depression in 2008, for pain from certain migraine headaches in 2013, and a deep TMS system for obsessive compulsive disorder in 2018, for patients who have not responded to traditional treatments. Each device carries its own cleared uses. The ad should match the cleared use of the device the clinic actually runs.

Google: open keywords, closed audiences

Google's Healthcare and Medicines policy has no certification category for TMS. Searches such as "TMS therapy near me", "TMS clinic" plus a city and "transcranial magnetic stimulation for depression" can be bid on without applying for anything. Two parts of the policy still matter. Google doesn't allow the promotion of speculative or experimental medical treatments, so marketing TMS for conditions outside the device's cleared uses invites that reading. And if the clinic also offers ketamine or esketamine, those lines bring in Google's prescription drug rules and run in separate campaigns.

Audiences are the hard limit. Google's health category explicitly covers medical devices used to manage chronic conditions and counseling for depression, so TMS ads can't use customer match, remarketing lists or lookalike segments. Predefined in-market and affinity audiences remain available, and nobody under 18 sees personalized ads.

• Brand: the clinic's name, for people who heard about it from a provider or a friend.
• TMS for depression: treatment and location terms, landing on the depression page.
• TMS for OCD: only if the clinic's device is cleared for it, on its own page.
• Coverage and consultation: "TMS consultation" and insurance coverage searches, landing on the candidacy and coverage page.
• Negatives: jobs, technician training, device sales and at-home device searches.

Meta: the treatment is the subject

TMS ads need no authorization on Meta, but two rules shape the copy. Meta's Health and Wellness policy requires health ads to target people 18 and over and bars promises of specific outcomes within a set timeframe without qualifiers. Its personal attributes policy bars ads that assert or imply a viewer's mental health or medical condition. The pairs below are written for this page.

• Fails: "Tried two antidepressants and still feel stuck?" Passes: "TMS therapy for depression, delivered in our clinic by a trained team."
• Fails: "Your depression could lift in six weeks." Passes: "Learn how a course of TMS sessions works and who it may suit."
• Fails: "Is OCD running your life?" Passes: "TMS for OCD, with a consultation to check candidacy."

The second failing line breaks both rules: it tells the viewer they have depression and promises a result by a date. Making the treatment the subject of the sentence fixes most rejections in one pass.

Landing pages that answer the candidacy question

A TMS page does two jobs. It helps a person decide whether to book a consultation, and it shows reviewers a clinic, not a claim. Explain what TMS is and what the clinic's device is cleared for, how a course of sessions runs, who decides candidacy, and how insurance and self-pay work. Say who should not have TMS: the FDA's 2018 announcement names contraindications such as metallic objects or implanted stimulators in or near the head, and says patients with a history of seizures should discuss it with their provider. Name the medical director, and give a form and a phone number above the fold.

Tracking a consultation, not a condition

Meta lists medical procedures, treatments and places of treatment among the information advertisers must not share through its business tools. It also says the names and criteria of events, conversions and custom audiences must not reflect or be based on that information. An event called tms_depression_consult, or a URL path that names a condition, breaks the rule. 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 TMS accounts in this order: a policy read of every live ad, page and pixel event; Google Search campaigns by cleared indication and location; provider-led Meta creative that makes the treatment the subject; and server-side tracking of booked consultations and tracked calls. Every ad is checked against the device's cleared uses before it ships. No approval or result is guaranteed. Start with the free growth audit at medscale.health/audit for a written plan for your clinic.