Meta and Google for therapy and psychiatry online

Mental Health

Therapy subscriptions, psychiatry and medication management, ADHD evaluation. Therapy is one of the most open categories in telehealth advertising. Controlled substances are one of the most closed. Most brands sell both.

How it is sold

The model, before the rules.

Therapy sells as a weekly or monthly membership with a matched clinician and video or messaging sessions. Psychiatry sells as an evaluation visit plus monthly medication management, with the prescription filled at a retail pharmacy. ADHD and anxiety programs are where the two collide: stimulants are Schedule II and benzodiazepines are Schedule IV, DEA's telemedicine flexibilities for prescribing them have been extended year by year rather than made permanent, and the platforms, the DEA and prosecutors all learned from the Cerebral and Done era what "get Adderall online" looks like.

Two people in a quiet counseling conversation in a bright room

How it gets restricted

Two different problems that get conflated. Therapy ads are rejected for personal-attribute framing ("feeling anxious?"), and therapy accounts get their conversion events cut off when a pixel leaks a condition through a form field or a URL. Controlled-substance ads are a separate matter: any creative or page that reads as a route to a stimulant or a benzodiazepine draws review of the whole account, and no certification makes "ADHD medication online" a safe ad. The therapy problem is solved with structure; the controlled-substance problem is solved by not running the ad.

Paid outlookRestricted

Policy by platform

Where a platform asks for LegitScript, it means LegitScript certification: the third-party check Meta and Google require before a telehealth business can name a prescription drug in an ad. It certifies the business, its prescribers and its pharmacies. It does not change what a drug is.

Meta
Therapy and psychiatry services can run without certification. The personal-attributes rule is the main rejection trigger: "depression counseling available" passes, "depression getting you down?" does not. Naming a prescription medication requires LegitScript certification and written authorization. Conversion-event optimization is limited once an account is classed as sensitive health, which is what a leaky pixel causes.
Google Ads
Therapy and psychiatry intent is open. A telehealth service that prescribes falls under prescription drug services certification. Recovery-oriented drug and alcohol addiction services require certification in the US, which runs through LegitScript. Controlled-substance terms are restricted regardless of certification.
TikTok
Mental-health and therapy services are open for awareness and are a strong organic channel. Prescription medicine is not allowed as an ad subject in the US, and claims of cure are prohibited.

Policy pages read 2026-08-30. Meta: Drugs and pharmaceuticals · Meta: Health and wellness · Meta: Personal attributes · Google: Healthcare and medicines · Google: Prescription drug services certification. Full policy tracker

What we run

The plan for mental health.

Channels
Google Search on care intent by service line: therapy, psychiatry, ADHD evaluation, each its own campaign and page. Meta on clinician-led and "how it works" creative. TikTok for clinician content that builds the brand.
Creative that passes
Care is available, here is the clinician, here is how matching works, here is the first week. Conditions named as things the service treats. Medication mentioned as "medication management with a psychiatric provider", never as a drug.
Landing page
Service-line pages with insurance and self-pay handled up front. ADHD pages describe evaluation and follow-up and say plainly that controlled substances are prescribed only when clinically appropriate and within state and federal rules.
Tracking
Server-side events with generic names and only hashed identifiers, under a BAA. No condition, screener score, form field or URL path reaches an ad platform. The click ID rides into the booking platform so the completed first session, not the form, is what gets attributed.

What we measure

CPQL
Cost per qualified lead: intake completed, in a covered state, insurance or self-pay confirmed.
Consult booked
First session or evaluation scheduled, attributed to the campaign.
Rx issued
For psychiatry, a prescription written after evaluation, reported from the platform.
90-day retention
Members still in care at month three, by service line.

Reported weekly by campaign from the tracking installed in the first two weeks. We publish the definitions, not a benchmark, because the number depends on your price, your states and your pharmacy.

Commitments

What is done by which day.

By day5

Policy read with therapy and controlled-substance exposure listed separately

By day14

Server-side tracking live with a written list of the only fields that leave the server

By day21

Care-intent search and clinician-led Meta campaigns live by service line

By day30

Weekly report on CPQL, first session completed and retention by service line

Days count from kickoff. Certification timelines belong to LegitScript and the platforms, so campaigns that need drug terms start on program intent and add them when approval lands.

Mental health questions

What brands in this category ask first.

Can we advertise ADHD treatment?

Evaluation and ongoing care, yes. An ad that reads as a route to a stimulant, no. Stimulants are Schedule II controlled substances and the platforms review any creative pointing at them as a controlled-substance promotion, which puts the account at risk rather than the ad. We advertise the evaluation and the clinician.

Is it HIPAA-compliant to run Meta ads for a therapy platform?

The ads are not the exposure; the tracking is. A standard pixel can send page URLs, form content and identifiers to Meta. Server-side tracking that forwards only mapped, hashed identifiers under a BAA is the compliant configuration, and it is what every engagement runs on.

Do we need LegitScript for a therapy brand?

Not for therapy. You need it if you prescribe, since Google treats a prescribing telehealth service as prescription drug services and Meta requires it before a prescription drug can be named, and you need it for addiction-treatment services on Google.

Why did our Meta conversions disappear overnight?

The account was classed as a sensitive health category, usually because the pixel was sending a screener result, a condition in a URL, or an event named after a diagnosis. Meta cuts off optimization events for those accounts. Rebuilding delivery server-side with generic names is how the events come back.

Next step

Start with the audit.

We read your live ads, landing pages and pixel against the rules on this page and send back the flags and the plan. If the account is already restricted, the rescue is the faster door.

Other categories

Growth audit

See where your growth is leaking.

We audit the funnel, 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