Advertising addiction treatment on Google
LegitScript, Google’s certification, and how targeting works once you’re approved.
Paid search
Paid search measured in admissions, not clicks.
Google Ads management built only for treatment providers. Campaigns are optimized toward qualified calls and judged on what an admission costs you.
72% lower cost per admission. Admissions more than tripled.
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−72%
Cost per admission
At a two-facility New England addiction treatment network: $19,472 to $5,322, the prior agency’s last 30 days (Jul 2025) vs. TDI’s Sep 2025–May 2026 average. Ad spend only.
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3.3×
Admissions a month
Same account and window: 7 to 23.3 a month, on 9% less spend ($136,302 to $124,173 a month).
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43
Admissions in one month, a record
Same account, August 2026: $5,238 per admission on $225K of ad spend.
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2.3×
Monthly budget
Same network: the client raised its budget four times, $100K to $230K a month, Aug 2025–Jun 2026.
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−19%
Cost per admission, all paid search accounts combined
$6,516 to $5,282, Jan–Sep 2025 vs. Jan–Sep 2026, ad spend only. −21% excluding the largest account.
One client’s results. Yours depend on your program, market, budget and admissions team.
We’d rather show you a higher cost per lead and a lower cost per admission.
Your admissions team steers the bidding.
Google Ads optimizes toward whatever you tell it counts. Without call scores, it chases call volume. With them, it learns which searches lead to admissions.
A family searches and calls.
Every call is tracked to the keyword that produced it.
Your team scores the call.
1 to 5 stars in CallTrackingMetrics, the next day, against one shared definition.
Google Ads gets the score.
As a conversion, with the click and the time. Never caller details.
Bidding follows admissions.
Bids favor the searches whose calls your team scores highest.
Every day. Your paid search team checks scoring daily, checks the scoring rate and the Google Ads sync weekly, and reconciles at month end.
What the machines learn
- Google Ads learns from your team’s scores, not from how often the phone rings.
What the people see
- Your team sees which searches produce the calls that turn into admissions.
What you get
- Search and Performance Max campaigns built around your levels of care, programs and service area
- LegitScript applications and renewals prepared with your team
- Calls scored 1 to 5 stars by your admissions team in CallTrackingMetrics, against one shared definition, and fed back into bidding
- Monthly reporting on calls, qualified calls and the admission counts your team provides
- Weekly calls with written recaps
How we work
- Optimized toward qualified calls. Campaigns are tuned toward the call types your admissions team qualifies.
- Within healthcare ad rules. Google restricts personalized advertising for addiction and mental health, and we build campaigns to its policies.
- Call quality goes back to Google. Bidding favors the calls your admissions team qualifies, not just the calls that ring.
- Tracked to the keyword. We see which searches produce the calls that turn into admissions. Form contents never reach analytics or ad platforms.
- Behavioral health only. We know levels of care and admissions workflows because it’s the only industry we serve.
Who leads this work
Faith CollinsPaid Ads Manager
Faith has run large paid search lead generation campaigns since 2022. She studied business and marketing at Central Washington University and came to paid search from social media and account management.
The technology on your account
The Client Intellect Hub
One view of your account across nine data sources: GA4, Search Console, CallTrackingMetrics, Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Business Profile, reviews, admissions and published content.
Call scoring
Your admissions team scores each call 1 to 5 stars in CallTrackingMetrics against one shared definition. Scores reach Google Ads as conversions.
Run the math we report every month
Enter one month of your own numbers. It runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. Cost per lead can rise while cost per admission falls, which is why we report all of them.
Are we the right fit?
We do our best work with programs that want the same thing we measure: admissions, at a cost that makes sense for your business.
A strong fit if
- You run an addiction or mental health treatment program.
- You want marketing judged by what an admission costs you, not by clicks or lead volume.
- Your admissions team will score calls against one shared definition.
- You’ll share monthly admission counts, so we can report what each one cost. Share collected revenue too, and we’ll take the reporting all the way to revenue: what each channel brought in against what it cost.
- For paid search in addiction treatment: you’re LegitScript certified, or ready to apply with our help.
Probably not a fit if
- You’re outside behavioral healthcare. It’s the only industry we serve.
- You want a guaranteed number of admissions or rankings. No agency can honestly promise one.
- You want the cheapest leads, whatever they turn into. We’d rather show you a higher cost per lead and a lower cost per admission.
- You’d rather not share admission counts. Without them, nobody can tell you which marketing is working.
Compliance built into the back end.
Treatment marketing touches patients and families at a hard moment. These safeguards are part of how our systems are built, not a checklist we run at the end.
Forms stay private.
Our tracking records which form was sent and from which page. Never what anyone typed into it.
Calls become scores, not records.
Google Ads receives the click, the conversion and the time. Never a caller’s name, number or details, and no ad audiences are built from callers.
Tags only where they belong.
On sites we build, analytics and call tracking run on the live site only, never on test copies or for your logged-in staff. Session recording stays off unless you approve it in writing.
Paperwork before patient data.
TDI staff listen to call recordings only with your signed BAA or Part 2 agreement (QSOA) on file, and only if authorized.
Vortex takes the identifiers out.
Before AI reads a call transcript, Google Cloud’s Sensitive Data Protection removes names, numbers, addresses and dates; if it can’t, the call is skipped. Patient data never goes into general-purpose AI tools.
Advertising inside the rules.
LegitScript and Google certification before any addiction treatment ad runs, and no ad targeting built on health conditions.
Questions we hear
What do you report on?
The numbers your admissions team cares about: calls, qualified calls and admission counts every month, split branded vs. non-branded so you can see which new demand is worth scaling. Plus a weekly call with written recaps.
What counts as a lead, a qualified call and an admission?
We agree those definitions with you in writing before launch, including edge cases like evaluation-only visits, and report against them every month. If a definition changes, we note the date so the numbers stay comparable.
Can you help with LegitScript?
Yes. We prepare your applications and renewals with your team, so you’re not doing it alone. Approval decisions belong to LegitScript and Google.
We’re not open yet. Can you help?
Yes, with the website, the clinical content your team approves, the LegitScript application and your Business Profile. Paid search for addiction treatment can’t run until LegitScript and Google approve you, so we plan around that timeline.
Can you guarantee results?
We commit to something more useful than a promise: the same account data we report from, every month, measured against a baseline we agree before launch, including the soft months.
Related
Cost per admission
Why it’s the number your marketing should be judged on.
Addiction treatment
Campaigns by level of care, from detox to outpatient.
What is call tracking?
How calls are tied to the ad or search that drove them.