Industry Guide · 1 of 16 chapters published
Google Ads for Therapists: The Complete Guide to Getting More Therapy Clients
A therapy practice is chosen on trust and fit, and most first contacts are a request that waits for a callback. Clients search a specialty or a therapist near them, weigh insurance and session fees, and many find Psychology Today before they find a practice's own site. Google treats mental health as healthcare too: no booking goal, no enhanced conversions, and no remarketing or client lists from a therapy site. These sixteen chapters build a Google Ads account in the order we build them, using real searches, websites, ads and reviews from therapy and counseling practices in one example market, the Louisville area: solo therapists, group practices, couples and child specialists, and in-network and private-pay offices. Your numbers will differ. The method works for a therapist anywhere in the US.
Therapy Clients Search by Specialty and by Distance. Build the Account Around the Searches That Book a First Session.
New account? Chapter 1 comes first. Each chapter uses the setup from the ones before it.
Measure
Count every call and request, send back the first sessions that happen, and price a click against what a client is worth
A Therapy Contact Form Is a Request, Not a Client. Conversion Tracking Should Count the First Session.
Therapist Searches First
What a Client Is Worth
Build
One ad group and page per specialty, keyword ideas sorted by hand, exact match first, bids set by hand, and ads in clients' own words
One Specialty per Ad Group
Sort the Keyword Ideas
Specialty Searches on Broad Match
Manual Bids for Pricey Searches
Safe and Heard, in the Ad
Launch
The Google defaults to change, and ad locations that match where you are licensed, before the first click
Ads Where You're Licensed
Scale
Performance Max without client lists, YouTube for people not searching yet, your Google Maps listing, and AI Max last
Performance Max Without Client Lists
YouTube Before the Search
Your Google Maps Listing
AI Max Comes Last
Therapy
Bonus chapters: Psychology Today and the directories, insurance and fees in your ads, and calling back fast
Bonus: Psychology Today vs Your Site
Bonus: Insurance and Fees in Ads
Bonus: The First Callback
The Rollout, Month by Month
The order matters as much as the campaigns. Each step waits until the one before it has taught Google something.
Isolation and brand
Exact match on searches like "therapist near me" and your main specialties, bids set by hand, and your practice and clinician names in a campaign of their own.
Exploration
Broad match with a target CPA once the account logs about 30 quality conversions a month. Larger group practices get there sooner.
Performance Max
The usual pace, not the rule. It waits until about 30 quality conversions a month hold steady, with attended first sessions flowing back to Google.
Demand Gen and AI Max
Video on YouTube once the budget can carry at least 10 times your target CPA, and AI Max last. Google has no Local Services Ads category for therapists.
How to Use This Guide
Starting a new account?
Start at Chapter 1. Counting attended first sessions comes before choosing a single keyword.
Chapter 01 →Offering telehealth?
Read the settings chapter before your first ad. Your ads should reach only clients in states where you are licensed to see them.
Chapter 09 →One example market
Examples come from practices around Louisville, from solo therapists to large group practices, described as we found them. Your numbers will differ; the method is the same.
Chapter 05 →Running more than one specialty under one roof? Google Ads for Healthcare shows how to run them as one account without one service line starving the rest.
Google Ads for Therapists
A Therapy Inquiry Isn't a Client Until Someone Calls It Back.
We've run paid ads for 25+ years and seen just about every way a budget goes sideways. Get on the phone with someone who does this every day. Bring your questions, your numbers and your skepticism. You'll hang up knowing what we'd do, whether you hire us or not.
Or see how our Google Ads management works.