- Rejects the ad
- Controlled-substance and stimulant medication terms (ADHD stimulant brand names, benzodiazepines) in keywords or ad text
- Addiction or recovery services without certification in the US
- Cure claims and guaranteed outcomes
- Risks the account
- Recovery-oriented addiction services running without LegitScript certification
- Remarketing or customer-match audiences built on a mental health condition
- Circumventing a disapproval by rewording the same claim
- Requires
- LegitScript Addiction Treatment Certification, then Google's certification, for recovery-oriented drug and alcohol services in the US
- Therapy, psychiatry, assessment and medication management intent is open without any certification
- How we run it
- Search on practice and service intent by metro: psychiatrist near me, ADHD evaluation, therapy for anxiety, medication management clinic. No condition-based audiences, no drug-term keywords, landing pages built around the first appointment.
Mental health PPC management
Google Ads for psychiatry and mental health clinics
Short answer
As of October 2026, therapy and psychiatry services are open on Google Ads without certification, with three exceptions that cause most of the trouble: addiction treatment needs LegitScript certification in the US, controlled-substance and some ADHD medication terms are restricted, and Google's personalized advertising policy prohibits audiences built on a mental health condition. MedScale Health runs mental health PPC inside those lines, on service intent, with landing pages about the first appointment and tracking that never sends a diagnosis to Google. That covers Google Ads for psychiatry clinics, TMS clinics, therapy practices and behavioral health programs, each with booked intakes tracked to the campaign that produced it.
Checked against the platform policy pages on October 5, 2026. By Michael Borgia, MedScale Health.
What this means for you
- Psychiatrist near me, therapy for anxiety and ADHD assessment clinic are open keywords. Stimulant brand names and controlled-substance terms are not.
- You cannot build a remarketing list of people who visited your depression page. Condition-based audiences are prohibited, so campaigns are search-led.
- If the practice offers substance-use treatment, that campaign needs LegitScript's addiction treatment certification before it can run in the US.
- Landing pages should describe the practice, the clinicians and what happens at the first visit. Medication content belongs below the fold and off the ad's keywords.
- A booked intake is the conversion, not a click on a phone number. Call tracking and intake attribution decide whether the budget is working.
Policy reality
What each platform allows for mental health and psychiatry practices.
Positions are read from each platform's own policy pages, with the source linked on every row and the date we last checked it. Where a row names a certification it is LegitScript unless the row says Google. LegitScript is the third-party certification Meta and Google require before a pharmacy or telehealth provider can promote prescription drugs.
Checked 2026-10-05How the platforms compare
- Rejects the ad
- Remarketing lists, similar audiences or customer match built on visits to condition pages or on a diagnosis
- Interest targeting that implies a mental health condition
- Risks the account
- Repeated use of sensitive-category audiences after a warning
- Requires
- Google's personalized advertising policy prohibits targeting based on health conditions, including mental health, in remarketing and audience products
- How we run it
- Audiences are geography, search intent and broad demographic only. Site visitors are never segmented by the page they read. Conversion events carry generic names so nothing about the visitor's condition reaches Google.
- Rejects the ad
- "Do you have anxiety?" and other 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
- No certification needed for therapy and psychiatry services; conversion optimisation is limited for sensitive categories
- How we run it
- Provider-led creative about the practice and the first visit, no second-person copy about the viewer's state of mind, generic event names.
Which mental health keywords are open and which are not
Google's healthcare and medicines policy leaves most of the mental health category open. Psychiatrist, therapist, counselling, ADHD evaluation, medication management, TMS clinic and telepsychiatry are all keywords a practice can bid on without certification. The closed or restricted terms cluster in three places. Controlled-substance and stimulant terms, including the ADHD medication brand names patients search for, are restricted drug terms that need Google's certification to keyword-target and are still a poor idea for a practice, because they attract people shopping for a prescription rather than for care. Addiction and recovery services are a certified category in the US, requiring LegitScript's addiction treatment track before the ads serve. And any keyword paired with a cure claim or a guaranteed outcome is disapproved on the claim, not the keyword. A practice that stays on service intent and describes care rather than promising relief runs cleanly.
Why condition-based remarketing is off the table
The rule that catches most mental health PPC accounts is not in the healthcare policy at all. Google's personalized advertising policy prohibits targeting users based on sensitive interests and health conditions, and mental health is named. That means no remarketing list of people who visited the depression treatment page, no similar audience seeded from intake completions, no customer match upload of current patients. The practical consequence is that mental health campaigns are search-led: the intent comes from the query, and the audience layer stays at geography and broad demographics. It also shapes the tracking. Conversion events are named generically (lead, booked, contact) so the practice never transmits a diagnosis in an event name, which matters both for Google's rules and for the practice's own privacy obligations.
Campaign structure for a psychiatry practice
The structure MedScale Health runs separates services into their own campaigns so budget and messaging can differ: general psychiatry and medication management, ADHD assessment, therapy and counselling, specialised programs such as TMS or perinatal care, and telepsychiatry by state where the practice is licensed. Each campaign has its own landing page describing that service, the clinicians who provide it, insurance and self-pay options, and what the first appointment involves. Ad copy is about the practice: licensed psychiatrists, same-week appointments, in-network with named plans, evening availability. Nothing about the reader's state of mind. Call extensions and call tracking are essential because a large share of mental health bookings happen by phone, and the phone call has to be attributed to the keyword that produced it.
Keyword groups by practice type
Each practice type gets its own keyword groups, ad group and landing page, and certification only comes in for addiction treatment and for telepsychiatry that prescribes online. Psychiatry: psychiatrist near me, psychiatrist plus a city, psychiatric evaluation, medication management, adult ADHD evaluation, psychiatrist accepting new patients. Open for an in-person practice; telepsychiatry that prescribes online needs LegitScript Healthcare Merchant Certification and then Google's certification. TMS: TMS clinic, TMS therapy near me, TMS for depression, TMS covered by insurance plus a plan the clinic accepts. Open, because TMS is a device-based treatment. Therapy: therapist near me, couples counselling, therapy for anxiety, online therapy plus a state where the clinicians are licensed. Open. Behavioral health programs: intensive outpatient program, partial hospitalization program, eating disorder treatment center, eating disorder IOP plus a city. Open, because Google's addiction services policy covers recovery-oriented drug and alcohol services only. Addiction treatment: drug rehab, alcohol treatment, detox, medication-assisted treatment. These need LegitScript's Addiction Treatment Certification, then Google's certification, before they serve in the US. Every group shares one negative list: jobs, salary, training, definitions, free, and prescription drug names. The ad in every group describes the service and the clinicians, never the reader.
TMS clinics
TMS is a device-based treatment, not a drug, so TMS clinic, TMS therapy near me and TMS for depression are open keywords without certification. The rules that bite are claims and audiences: no cure language or promised response rates, and no remarketing to people who read the depression page. Campaigns run on the treatment and the metro, landing on a page that explains the course of sessions, candidacy, insurance coverage and the medical director.
How do Google Ads work for therapists?
Google Ads work for a therapy or psychiatry practice when every campaign is built around a service the practice offers and the area it serves, so the ad answers a search for care rather than a symptom. MedScale Health runs Google Ads for US therapists, psychiatry practices and mental health clinics, with search built by service line and the intake counted as the result. For a therapy group that means a campaign and a landing page per service, as the psychotherapy section below sets out, and no remarketing to people who read a condition page. The keywords a psychiatry practice can use are in MedScale's psychiatry keyword guide, and the free Growth Audit reads a practice's current account first.
Psychotherapy and counselling practices
Therapy is the most open part of the category. Therapist near me, couples counselling, therapy for anxiety and online therapy plus state are all biddable without certification. Ad copy is about the practice: licensed clinicians, availability, which plans it accepts. Group practices split campaigns by modality or clinician specialty so each search lands on a page that matches it, with clinician profiles and insurance answered before the booking button.
Behavioral health programs
Intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs for mental health run on service intent like any other line. Programs that treat substance use are different: recovery-oriented drug and alcohol services need LegitScript's Addiction Treatment Certification and then Google's certification before ads serve in the US. A behavioral health group with both runs them as separate campaigns on separate pages, so the mental health line runs today and the addiction line follows certification.
Landing pages that convert and pass review
A mental health landing page has two audiences: a person in some distress deciding whether to call, and a policy reviewer deciding whether the page makes claims or promotes a drug. Both are served by the same structure. Open with who the practice is and who the clinicians are, with credentials and photos. State plainly what the first appointment involves, how long it takes and what it costs or which plans it accepts. Give two ways to book, a form and a phone number, above the fold. Keep medication detail informational and below the fold, and never list drugs as products. Testimonials, where used, describe the experience of care and carry no outcome claim. The page carries a crisis line for anyone in immediate danger, which is both the right thing to do and a signal reviewers look for.
Measurement, and how MedScale Health runs mental health PPC
The conversion is a booked intake, attributed to the keyword and campaign that produced it, whether it came through the form, a tracked call or the practice's scheduling platform. We report cost per booked intake weekly by service line, alongside show rate where the practice can share it, so budget moves toward the services that actually fill the calendar. Week one is a policy read of the account, the pages and the pixel, including a check for any condition-based audiences that need to be removed before Google removes them for you. Week two puts server-side tracking live with generic event names and call tracking. The service-line campaigns launch by Day 14. If the practice has an addiction services line, the LegitScript application runs alongside so that campaign can follow when certification lands.
From the answers library
Guides for mental health practices.
What Can Paid Ads Do for Behavioral Health Marketing?
As of November 2026, paid ads can reach people looking for therapy, psychiatry, TMS and mental health programs on Google and Meta without certification, while US drug and alcohol addiction treatment needs LegitScript first, then Google's certification and Meta's written permission. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, builds the paid side one service line at a time. Neither platform lets health advertisers build audiences from health data, so search intent does the work.
Reviewed November 9, 2026
How Do You Market a TMS Clinic on Google and Meta?
As of November 2026, a TMS clinic can advertise on Google Search and Meta without LegitScript, because TMS is a device treatment, not a prescription drug service or an addiction service. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, runs TMS campaigns on treatment and location intent and checks every ad against the device's cleared uses. The limits are claims and audiences: no response-rate, cure or timeline promises, no copy about the viewer's condition, and no condition-based audiences.
Reviewed November 9, 2026
How Do Google Ads Rules Apply to Eating Disorder Treatment?
As of November 2026, Google does not treat eating disorder treatment as an addiction service, so an eating disorder program needs no certification for Search ads unless it also promotes drug and alcohol treatment or prescribes online. MedScale Health, a fractional growth team for US telehealth brands and clinics, runs these accounts on search intent, because eating disorders count as health content and remarketing, customer match and lookalikes are off. Google's addiction services policy covers recovery-oriented drug and alcohol addiction services only.
Reviewed November 9, 2026
What Certification Do You Need to Advertise Addiction Treatment?
As of October 2026, US addiction treatment advertisers need LegitScript Addiction Treatment Certification first, then Google's own addiction services certification and Meta's written permission for ads that target people in the United States. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, files the Google and Meta requests once LegitScript approves and runs the mental health lines meanwhile. Canada follows the same LegitScript route on Google, while Australia, France, Ireland and New Zealand allow these ads from government entities only.
Reviewed October 24, 2026
Which Google Ads Keywords Can a Psychiatry Practice Use?
As of October 2026, a psychiatry practice can bid on provider, service, coverage and location keywords on Google without certification, but keyword-targeting prescription drug names needs Google certification, and telepsychiatry that prescribes online needs LegitScript and Google certification. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, builds psychiatry accounts on that split, with controlled-substance names as negatives. Health is a sensitive category, so remarketing and customer match are off.
Reviewed October 24, 2026
How Do You Run Meta Ads for a Therapy Practice?
As of October 2026, a therapy practice can run Meta ads without authorization or LegitScript, as long as every ad targets people 18 and over, describes the service rather than the viewer, and uses no audiences built from health information. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, sets up therapy practices' Meta campaigns on location and age and pre-checks every ad against the personal attributes rule before it runs. Meta may also restrict the event data a counseling website can share, which shapes the campaign objective.
Reviewed November 3, 2026
Can You Advertise Mental Health Services on Meta?
As of October 2026, therapy, counseling and telehealth mental health services can advertise on Meta without authorization, because Meta exempts ads that promote telehealth services generally, and health service ads must target people 18 and over. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, builds these accounts around the service and checks every hook against Meta's rule that no ad may imply the viewer's mental health. Naming a medication needs LegitScript and Meta's authorization, and addiction treatment needs LegitScript plus Meta's permission.
Reviewed October 24, 2026
What Mental Health Ad Copy Gets Approved, and What Gets Rejected?
As of October 2026, mental health ad copy gets approved when it describes the service and rejected when it describes the reader. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, writes behavioral health ads that way and pre-checks each line against Meta's and Google's rules before it ships. Meta bars ads that assert or imply a viewer's mental health, both platforms reject promised outcomes, and condition-based targeting is largely closed on both. The ten example pairs on this page are fictional.
Reviewed October 24, 2026
Google Ads for Psychiatry & Mental Health questions
What buyers ask before they book.
Which agency runs Google Ads for psychiatry clinics?
MedScale Health is a paid ads agency for US psychiatry and mental health clinics: it builds service-line search campaigns, writes the landing page for the first appointment and launches by Day 14. Any agency on the shortlist should know which mental health keywords are open without certification, never build audiences on a condition, and report cost per booked intake. MedScale's free Growth Audit reviews your current account first.
Does MedScale run Google Ads for TMS clinics?
Yes. MedScale Health runs Google Ads for TMS clinics on treatment and consultation intent, with each booked consult tracked to the campaign that produced it. TMS is a device-based treatment, so TMS clinic and TMS therapy near me are open keywords without certification, and cure language and promised response rates stay out of the ads.
Does a psychiatry practice need LegitScript to run Google Ads?
Not for psychiatry, therapy, assessment or medication management. Google's certification requirement in this category attaches to recovery-oriented drug and alcohol addiction services in the US, which need LegitScript's addiction treatment certification before ads serve. A practice that also offers substance-use treatment runs that service line under certification and everything else without it.
Can we run remarketing to people who visited our anxiety treatment page?
No. Google's personalized advertising policy prohibits targeting based on health conditions, including mental health, and a list built from visits to a condition page is exactly that. Customer match uploads of patients and similar audiences seeded from them are covered the same way. Campaigns in this category are search-led, with audiences limited to geography and broad demographics.
Why are our ADHD ads disapproved when competitors seem to run them?
Usually the ads or keywords name a stimulant medication or a brand, which are restricted drug terms, or the copy promises a diagnosis or a prescription. ADHD evaluation and ADHD clinic are open terms. Competitors running drug names either hold prescription-drug certification or are running on borrowed time. The approach that lasts is to advertise the assessment and the clinicians, and to keep medication content informational on the page.
How do you track a booking that happens by phone?
With call tracking numbers that swap in per campaign and keyword, so the call is attributed to the search that produced it, and with the practice's own booking outcome fed back where it can share it. Form and scheduling-platform bookings are tracked server-side with a bridge token that carries the click ID through the intake platform. No diagnosis or condition detail is sent to Google in any event.
What should a mental health practice budget for Google Ads?
It depends on the metro, the service lines and whether the practice is in-network, so the honest answer comes out of the Growth Audit, which reviews your current account and pages and returns a written ninety-day plan in five business days. Pricing for management is scoped on that call. The pricing page describes the three tiers and what each includes.
Can therapists run Google Ads without certification?
Yes. Therapist near me, couples counselling, therapy for anxiety and online therapy plus a state are open keywords, and therapy services need no LegitScript or Google certification. Two limits apply. Health is a sensitive category, so remarketing lists, customer match and lookalike segments are off and the keyword list does the targeting. And the copy describes the practice and the clinicians, never the reader's state of mind. A therapy practice that adds online prescribing or addiction treatment needs certification for that line.
Do eating disorder programs need certification for Google Ads?
No, unless the program also treats drug or alcohol addiction or prescribes online. Google's addiction services policy covers recovery-oriented drug and alcohol addiction services only, and eating disorder care sits outside it. Eating disorders are still health content, so remarketing, customer match and lookalike segments are off, and users under 18 are not eligible for personalized ads at all. Adolescent programs reach parents through search on treatment, level of care and place.
Can a telepsychiatry practice run Google Ads?
Yes, once it is certified, if it prescribes online. Google treats telemedicine providers as prescription drug services, which need LegitScript Healthcare Merchant Certification and then Google's own certification before those ads serve. The Google application is filed at the child account, not the manager account, with the customer ID and the certified domain. Google decides who is covered from the ads, the site and the app, so leaving drug names out of the ad does not avoid certification.
Do Google Ads work for therapists?
Yes, when each campaign sells a service the practice offers in the area it serves. MedScale Health runs Google Ads for US therapy practices on searches such as therapist near me, couples counseling and online therapy plus a state, with a landing page per service and booked first sessions tracked to the campaign. Therapy services need no certification, remarketing on health interests is off, and the copy describes the practice, never the reader.
Which Google Ads keywords can a psychiatry practice use?
Psychiatrist near me, psychiatrist plus a city, psychiatric evaluation, medication management, adult ADHD evaluation and psychiatrist accepting new patients are open for an in-person practice without certification. Stimulant and controlled-substance names are restricted drug terms that need Google's certification to keyword-target, and MedScale Health keeps them out of keyword lists anyway. Telepsychiatry that prescribes online needs certification first.
How do I start with MedScale?
A mental health practice starts with MedScale Health's free Growth Audit, a written ninety-day plan delivered within five business days that reviews the current Google Ads account, the landing pages and the tracking. Service-line campaigns launch by Day 14 from access when certifications are in place, and engagements run month to month.
From the answers library
The answers behind this page.
Can You Advertise Mental Health Services on Google?
As of October 2026, therapy and psychiatry practices can run Google Search ads without certification, but remarketing, customer match and lookalike audiences are off, online prescribing needs LegitScript plus Google certification, and drug and alcohol addiction treatment needs its own certification. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, builds mental health accounts around search intent, with broad and predefined audiences only.
Reviewed October 24, 2026
Which Google Ads Keywords Can a Psychiatry Practice Use?
As of October 2026, a psychiatry practice can bid on provider, service, coverage and location keywords on Google without certification, but keyword-targeting prescription drug names needs Google certification, and telepsychiatry that prescribes online needs LegitScript and Google certification. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, builds psychiatry accounts on that split, with controlled-substance names as negatives. Health is a sensitive category, so remarketing and customer match are off.
Reviewed October 24, 2026
How Do Google Ads Rules Apply to Eating Disorder Treatment?
As of November 2026, Google does not treat eating disorder treatment as an addiction service, so an eating disorder program needs no certification for Search ads unless it also promotes drug and alcohol treatment or prescribes online. MedScale Health, a fractional growth team for US telehealth brands and clinics, runs these accounts on search intent, because eating disorders count as health content and remarketing, customer match and lookalikes are off. Google's addiction services policy covers recovery-oriented drug and alcohol addiction services only.
Reviewed November 9, 2026
How Do You Market a TMS Clinic on Google and Meta?
As of November 2026, a TMS clinic can advertise on Google Search and Meta without LegitScript, because TMS is a device treatment, not a prescription drug service or an addiction service. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, runs TMS campaigns on treatment and location intent and checks every ad against the device's cleared uses. The limits are claims and audiences: no response-rate, cure or timeline promises, no copy about the viewer's condition, and no condition-based audiences.
Reviewed November 9, 2026
Next step
Start with the audit.
We read your live ads, landing pages and tracking against the rules on this page and send back the flags and a written ninety-day plan in five business days.
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.
- 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