Google Ads & Meta for mental health practices

Psychiatry and therapy practice advertising

MedScale Health runs paid ads for therapy groups, psychiatry, ADHD and medication management, IOP and outpatient programs. Every patient attribute is sensitive, so the tracking has to be right before the first dollar is spent.

Person at home on the phone, looking out a window on an overcast day

Where this category loses

Mental health advertisers leak PHI through ordinary pixels (a form field, a URL with a condition in it) and get flagged on Meta for personal-attribute language ("feeling anxious?"). Google requires certification for addiction-treatment services and restricts some medication terms.

Creative and page rules

What clears review for mental health & psychiatry.

Do

  • "Care for anxiety is available" phrasing
  • Separate campaigns and landing pages per service line
  • Server-side events with generic names and no personal identifiers
  • Insurance and self-pay handled before the booking

Don't

  • "Do you have anxiety?" or any diagnosis of the viewer
  • Medication names in ads
  • A form field or URL that carries a condition into a pixel
  • Addiction-treatment ads on Google without certification

Policy reality

What each platform allows for mental health & psychiatry.

Each platform's position for this category, with how we run it underneath. Where a cell names a certification it is LegitScript, the third-party certification Meta and Google require before a pharmacy or telehealth provider can advertise prescription drugs, unless the cell says otherwise.

Checked 2026-10-23How the platforms compare

Meta

Restricted
Rejects the ad
  • "Do you have anxiety?" personal-attribute framing
  • Medication names
  • Implying a diagnosis of the viewer
Risks the account
  • Sensitive-category data sent through the pixel
  • Controlled-substance promotion
Requires
None for therapy and psychiatry services. Conversion-event optimization limited for sensitive categories.
How we run it
Personal-attributes policy is the main rejection trigger. "Care for anxiety is available" passes; "Do you have anxiety?" does not. Sensitive-category data restrictions limit which conversion events can be optimized against.

Google Ads

Restricted
Rejects the ad
  • Controlled-substance and some ADHD-medication terms
  • Addiction-treatment ads without certification
Risks the account
Addiction-treatment services without LegitScript in the US
Requires
LegitScript Addiction Treatment Certification for recovery-oriented addiction services in the US. Therapy and psychiatry intent is open without it.
How we run it
Therapy and psychiatry intent is open. Addiction-treatment services require LegitScript certification in the US. Controlled-substance and some ADHD-medication terms are restricted.

TikTok

Open
Rejects the ad
  • Medication content
  • Claims of cure
Risks the account
Prescription promotion
Requires
No certification. Standard account and creative review.
How we run it
Open for provider and practice awareness; medication content is restricted.

What we run

The playbook for mental health & psychiatry.

PHI fields forwarded, ever
0
To a custom roadmap
5 days
Report on cost per booked intake by service line
Monday

Set at kickoff, reported against weekly, measured by the tracking we install in week one.

Tracking that forwards nothing sensitive
Server-side events with generic names, under a BAA. No name, email, phone number, IP address, browser ID, condition, diagnosis or form content ever reaches an ad platform. Full audit trail for your compliance officer.
Search on care intent, by service line
Therapy, psychiatry, ADHD evaluation, IOP: separate campaigns, separate landing pages, separate intake paths, with insurance and self-pay handled up front. The Google rules for each service line are in Google Ads for psychiatry and mental health clinics.
Landing pages built around the booking
Fewer fields before the booking, insurance and self-pay answered up front, and attribution on the completed first session, not the form. Reminders stay with your team or your scheduling platform. The full paid plan is on the page for mental health and behavioral health marketing.
Live by Day 14
MedScale starts with a free growth audit; campaigns are live by Day 14 from access when certifications are in place.

Mental health & psychiatry questions

What clinics ask us first.

Is it HIPAA-compliant to run Meta ads for a mental health practice?

Running ads is not the exposure; the tracking is. A standard Meta pixel can send page URLs, form content and identifiers to Meta, which OCR guidance treats as a potential PHI disclosure. Server-side tracking under a BAA that sends generic event names, and no names, emails, phone numbers, IP addresses or browser IDs, is the configuration every MedScale engagement runs on.

Can we advertise ketamine or psychedelic-assisted therapy?

Ketamine clinics can advertise the clinic and treatment consultation; naming ketamine as a product runs into prescription-drug rules on Google and Meta. Psilocybin and other scheduled substances cannot be advertised. See the ketamine page for the channel mix that works.

Go deeper on mental health & psychiatry

From the answers library

Platform rules Mental health & psychiatry clinics run into.

More answers on this

Other clinic verticals

Growth audit

See where your growth is leaking.

We audit the ads, the landing pages, the tracking and the compliance posture, then hand you the roadmap. The people writing it have run the same funnel from the inside. You keep it whether or not we work together.

Book the audit
Account already restricted? Start a rescueLaunching a new brand? Plan your telehealth launch
Reviewed
Funnel, tracking, and compliance posture
Discussed
One 30-minute call with the operator on your account
Delivered
A written roadmap within 5 business days