Every other chapter in this guide applies, with adjustments, to most medical practices. This one is specific to dermatology, because few specialties advertise prescription drugs by name the way a dermatology practice does. Botox is the obvious example, but the same question comes up with tretinoin for acne, finasteride for hair loss and the biologics used for psoriasis and eczema.
Google's rules on these names are clearer than many practices assume, but they aren't intuitive. In the US you can name Botox in an ad. You can name it on your landing page. What you can't do, without a certification most practices can't get, is bid on it as a keyword. And naming it at all changes what else the ad is allowed to do.
This chapter walks through those rules and how to advertise injectables and prescription treatments inside them, following the AI Max block list from Chapter 13, which kept drug names out of text Google writes for you.
Botox, Tretinoin and Finasteride Are All on Google's Drug List
Google keeps a reference list of prescription drug terms it watches under its healthcare policy. It describes the list as "not an exhaustive list," so it's a starting point, not a boundary.
For a dermatology practice, the list is closer to home than many expect. It includes Botox, botulinum toxin, Dysport and Xeomin. It includes the acne retinoids tretinoin, Retin-A and isotretinoin, and acitretin for psoriasis. It includes the biologics Humira and Stelara, the hair loss drug finasteride and Propecia, spironolactone, doxycycline, Latisse, and the GLP-1 weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy that some cosmetic practices now offer.
Some names aren't on the list. Dupixent, Skyrizi and Accutane are missing, as are the filler brands Juvederm, Restylane and Sculptra, which are devices rather than drugs. The missing drug names shouldn't be read as permission. Since the list is non-exhaustive, our reading is that any prescription drug should be treated as covered, listed or not. Fillers are different, since they aren't prescription drugs, but they carry the health and injection rules from Chapter 9.
The practical first step is an audit. Go through every service page, every ad and the keyword list from Chapter 5, and mark every drug name you find. Most practices find more than they expected, often on pages they haven't looked at in years.
Name the Drug in the Ad, Leave It Out of the Keywords
Google's policy for campaigns aimed at the US draws the line in one sentence. Certification isn't needed to use prescription drug terms in ads or on landing pages. It is needed to target those terms as keywords.
That sentence splits a campaign into three places a drug name can appear, with different answers for each.
In the ad text, a practice can say Botox, in accordance with local laws and regulations, without certification.
On the landing page, the same applies. A Botox page can say Botox.
In the keyword list, "botox," "botox near me," "tretinoin prescription" and every other drug term need certification before Google will let you target them.
This surprises many practices, because the searches are there. The example-market keyword research in Chapter 5 found roughly 13,500 searches a month for listed drug names, with Botox alone at about 12,100. Those are real patients, and the rule keeps an uncertified account from bidding on them directly. Chapter 5 flagged these keywords rather than deleting them for exactly this reason: they need a decision, not a default.
No Certification Box Fits a Dermatology Office
The obvious next question is how to get certified. The answer, for most dermatology practices, is that there doesn't appear to be a way.
Google's application for healthcare advertising asks what kind of organization you are, and offers a short list: prescription drug services providers such as online pharmacies and telemedicine companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, government or well-established nonprofit health organizations, addiction services providers, health insurance advertisers, and companies with an FDA license for a cell or gene therapy. An in-person physician practice isn't on the list, and neither is a med spa.
Our reading is that a brick-and-mortar dermatology practice has no certification path to bid on "botox" as a keyword. That's an interpretation of the application, not a statement Google makes, and it's worth checking your own account's policy manager before assuming it. You will also find forum answers claiming Botox can't be advertised at all. Those conflict with Google's current policy text, which clearly allows the name in ads and on landing pages in the US. Go by the policy page, not the forum.
Some practices bid on drug names anyway and hope. That's a poor trade. At best the keywords are disapproved and do nothing. At worst, repeated policy violations draw attention to an account that's otherwise in good standing.
Bid on "Forehead Lines" and "Lip Flip" Instead
The good news is that patients describe what they want in many ways that never name the drug. Across the US, Google Keyword Planner shows these monthly search volumes:
- lip flip: about 74,000
- forehead wrinkles treatment: about 2,900
- anti wrinkle injections: about 1,900
- crow's feet treatment: about 1,000
- frown lines treatment: about 720
- wrinkle relaxer: about 590
A lip flip is a small neurotoxin treatment for the upper lip, and many of those searches are people researching it, so it needs its own ad group and close watching. The other terms are the patient's own description of the problem, which is the kind of language Chapter 8 showed patients using in reviews. Build the cosmetic ad groups around these searches, and let the landing page do the naming. A patient searching "forehead wrinkles treatment" who lands on a page explaining Botox, with the practice's injectors and a realistic price, has found exactly what they wanted.
Be careful with one tempting term. "Neurotoxin" draws about 14,800 US searches a month, but much of that is people reading about toxins in general, not patients looking for a treatment. It's the kind of keyword Chapter 5 would test cautiously and watch in the search terms report.
The same approach works on the medical side. "Acne treatment," "hair loss treatment for women" and "psoriasis treatment" all bring patients who may end up on tretinoin, spironolactone or a biologic, without the keyword naming any of them.
A Drug Name Turns a Cosmetic Ad Into a Sensitive One
Naming a drug has a second consequence that's easy to miss. Google treats prescription drug terms as their own sensitive category for personalized advertising. The policy covers "prescription medications and information about prescription medications," and for that content it doesn't allow advertiser-curated audiences, Customer Match, your data segments, audience expansion or lookalike segments.
That applies even when the offer is purely cosmetic. A Botox special is, as far as this policy is concerned, a prescription drug ad. So a cosmetic campaign that names Botox loses the same targeting tools Chapter 9 described for medical conditions, even though nobody would call a forehead-line treatment a health condition.
For Search campaigns built on keywords, this rarely matters. It matters much more in the campaign types that lean on audiences. A Performance Max or Demand Gen campaign whose assets or landing pages name Botox has fewer signals to work with, which is one more reason Chapter 10 kept cosmetic Performance Max separate and Chapter 11 started Demand Gen on the medical side. If a cosmetic campaign needs audience signals, consider landing pages and assets that describe the treatment without the brand name.
A Price per Unit Has to Show What the Patient Will Pay
Cosmetic injectables are often advertised by the unit: "Botox $12 a unit." It's a real price, but on its own it doesn't tell a patient what they will actually pay, since a treatment can take anywhere from a handful of units to dozens.
Google's misrepresentation policy is direct about this: advertisers must clearly disclose how a patient will be charged and the full amount they will pay, before and after they buy. Twelve dollars a unit reads like a bargain until the patient learns their forehead and frown lines take 40 units between them. An ad that leaves the total out risks the policy and starts the visit with a surprise.
If you advertise a unit price, put a realistic range beside it on the landing page, such as the typical number of units for common areas and what that usually adds up to. For context, RealSelf reports that "One unit of Botox costs $10 to $15 at most practices in the U.S.," and that its reviewers' average treatment cost was $586. Your own numbers matter more than a national average, and the cost-per-patient math from Chapter 3 depends on them being honest.
The same thinking applies to financing offers and memberships. State the payment model plainly, including what happens after an introductory price ends.
Prescribing Online Takes a Separate Certification
A growing number of dermatology practices treat some patients by video and prescribe online, often for acne, rosacea or hair loss. That changes the rules.
Google treats online prescribing as a prescription drug service. For telemedicine in the US, the policy states that "Google allows telemedicine providers if they're accredited by LegitScript's Healthcare Merchant Certification Program," and that "Advertisers must also be certified with Google." Google also says it "errs on the side of caution" with landing pages that appear to facilitate online prescribing.
In practice, that means an ad or landing page that promotes online prescriptions, such as "get tretinoin prescribed online," needs both LegitScript accreditation and Google certification before it runs. It's also the one route where a dermatology business may be able to get certified for drug-name keywords, since telemedicine prescribers are on Google's list of eligible organization types.
For a practice that offers video visits only as a convenience, with prescribing handled the usual way, the simplest path is to keep online-prescribing language off the pages the ads point to, and advertise the in-person practice as this guide describes.
Next: When the Med Spa Down the Street Bids on Botox
Chapter 15, the last in this guide, turns to the competitors a dermatology practice meets on nearly every cosmetic search: med spas, injectors and plastic surgeons. It covers what the board-certified dermatologist can claim that they can't, and how to use it in ads without crossing the rules on credentials.
The Google Ads for Dermatologists guide home lists every chapter. Under our Google Ads management, every dermatology account gets a drug-name audit of its ads, pages and keywords before launch.
