Google Ads for Dermatologists: The Complete Guide to Filling Medical and Cosmetic Appointments

Most dermatology bookings finish inside scheduling software, and existing patients use the same website for the portal, refills and bill pay. Count only what a new patient does:

• A completed new-patient booking
• A new-patient form
• A call of 30 seconds or more

Google needs to know a new patient booked, never why. Then value the patient over a year: a $7 click on “dermatologist near me” is only cheap or expensive next to 12 months of that patient's visits, and your billing system already has the number.

The first campaign, which we call Isolation, buys the searches from people who want a dermatologist and nothing more specific: “dermatologist near me,” your town, “skin check,” “mole removal.” Exact match, tight ad groups, and a page for each: an eczema search deserves an eczema page, and a skin check, a mole and Mohs need three.

Eight competitor websites through Keyword Planner returned 10,498 searches, and most of the work is sorting: about 58,000 a month named another practice and 11,600 were creams and at-home products. Bids are set condition by condition, and headlines use the patient's words, “freeze it off,” not “cryotherapy.”

Google names chronic conditions, surgical procedures and injections as sensitive health topics, so ads can't follow people based on their health. The location is set to Presence and drawn from patient ZIP codes, wider for Mohs. AI Max and search partners go off, the budget starts low for two weeks, and medical, cosmetic and the practice name each get a campaign.

An Exploration campaign (also our name) takes the skin problems to broad match once Isolation books about 30 patients a month, usually in months two or three and sooner for bigger accounts. Performance Max waits for about six months of Search bookings, split into medical and cosmetic, with your own name excluded. Demand Gen leads with hope rather than fear and needs a budget of about ten times its target cost per booking. Local Services Ads and AI Max come last, if at all.

In the US, naming Botox in an ad needs no certification, but bidding on drug names does, and there doesn't appear to be one a dermatology office can get. So the account bids on what patients want fixed: “lip flip” draws about 74,000 US searches a month. Med spas grew from about 1,600 locations in 2010 to more than 10,000 in 2023 (American Medical Association) and win on price and speed. The dermatologist wins on the credential, used only when it's exactly true.