Google Ads · Psychology

Google Ads forPsychologyClinics.

Built by clinic owners who understand healthcare. Targeting the patients specifically searching for psychology. Measured in real bookings, not clicks.

Most psychology clinics that try Google Ads end up paying for the wrong searches. The campaign chases counselling, therapy, mental health and psychology all at once. The traffic comes in. The budget burns out. The bookings don't follow. The fix isn't more keywords. It's fewer, sharper ones. The patients who specifically search for a psychologist convert at a different rate than the ones who search for counselling. Your ads need to know the difference.

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google.com

anxiety psychologist near me

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Sponsoredyourpsychologyclinic.com.au

Sydney Psychology · Anxiety Specialists

Care that meets you where you are. Anxiety, depression, trauma. Medicare rebates available.

4.9 · 312 reviews

another-psychology.com.au

Another Psychology Practice

Welcome to our practice. Comprehensive psychology services.

city-counselling.com.au

City Counselling and Therapy

When patients search, you win the click.

What psychology patients actually search

Patients don't search 'mental health'. They search what's wrong, and where they live.

The big-volume keywords like 'mental health' and 'therapy' look attractive on a search planner. They convert poorly. The patients who actually book search with much sharper intent: a problem, a suburb, or both.

anxiety psychologist near me

psychologist [suburb]

child psychologist [suburb]

depression psychologist [city]

relationship counsellor [city]

trauma psychologist near me

Two patterns matter here. The location pattern. The problem pattern. Patients either know where they want to be seen, or they know what they want help with. Often both. We build campaigns that capture both kinds of search, because the booker lives in both.

See the thinking behind one ad

Pick your specialty and the search a patient runs

You will get one real ad, written the way I write them, and the method I used to get there. No campaign structure, no keyword list, no budgets. That part is the work I do with you.

Where agencies go wrong

Most agencies don't understand the difference between counselling and psychology.

Years of psychology Google Ads audits inside the Clinic Mastery community make a single pattern impossible to miss.

The campaign targets every adjacent term at once. Counselling. Therapy. Mental health. Wellbeing. Self-help. Psychologist. Psychiatrist. The thinking is broader is better. The reality is the budget bleeds across traffic that was never going to book a psychology session.

Counsellor and psychologist are different professions at different price points. The patient searching for a 'counsellor' is often looking for a different service, a different fee, a different pathway. They're not your patient. If your ads chase them, you pay Google to bring them in, then they don't book, then your cost per new patient looks terrible.

Most psychology clinics don't have a budget big enough to afford the broad approach anyway. The budget needs to focus. Capture the patients who specifically search for psychology, by problem, by suburb, or by both. Skip everyone else. The narrower the campaign, the higher the conversion.

Counsellor and psychologist are not the same search. Don't pay Google as if they are.

How we run it

How we run Google Ads for psychology clinics.

Same four steps every clinic gets, sharpened for psychology.

Audit your ideal client list against Google reality.

Most psychology clinics see a wide spread of clients. Anxiety. Depression. Trauma. Relationships. NDIS. Children. Adolescents. We list the avatars you actually want more of, then sort which ones search Google in a way Google can deliver. Some of your best clients come from GP referrals, EAP programs, or word of mouth. Those don't go in the Google Ads campaign. The avatars who do search Google get the budget.

Build keyword groups by problem and by suburb.

Patients search 'anxiety psychologist [suburb]' or 'depression psychologist near me'. They almost never search the bare word 'psychology'. We build separate keyword groups for each problem-area you treat, paired with location modifiers. Each group gets its own ad copy and landing page section that speaks to the patient's specific issue.

Filter out counselling, therapy and broad mental health searches.

Counsellor. Therapist. Coach. Mental health professional. Generic 'therapy' searches. Wellbeing. These look related. They're different searches with different intent at different price points. We negative keyword them out so your budget stays on the patients who specifically want a psychologist.

We report on bookings. Not clicks.

The dashboard tells you what each new psychology patient costs you, broken down by problem-area and suburb. That's the only number that matters. Click through rate doesn't fund your clinic. Bookings do.

Two searches that look the same

Counsellor and psychologist convert nothing alike.

The big-volume keywords look attractive on a search planner. Most of them burn budget on patients who were never going to book a psychologist at a psychologist's fee. The actual money searches are sharper, more specific, and almost always pair a problem with a suburb or a Medicare pathway.

Burns budget

counselling near me
Different profession, different fee.
therapy
Vague intent. Browsers and students.
mental health support
Often points to free services.
wellbeing coach
Coaching is not psychology.
self-help
Information seeker. Not a booker.

Books patients

anxiety psychologist [suburb]
Problem + suburb. Sharp intent.
child psychologist [suburb]
Parent searching. High commit.
depression psychologist [city]
Specific. Often Medicare-aware.
trauma psychologist near me
High urgency, careful chooser.
psychologist with Mental Health Care Plan
Already has GP referral.

Counsellor and psychologist are different professions at different price points. Don't pay Google as if they're the same. Negative-keyword the left column out from the start.

What good looks like

What a healthy psychology Google Ads account looks like.

A healthy psychology Google Ads account in Australia costs $80 to $120 per new patient booking. The range is wider than other specialties because the cost depends heavily on how competitive your suburb is, whether you're competing with NDIS funded providers, and whether your clinic accepts Medicare with a Mental Health Care Plan. We've seen efficient suburb level campaigns book new patients for under $80. We've seen broad keyword campaigns hit $200 plus. The number on the screen doesn't matter on its own. What matters is what each new patient is worth to your clinic over their first 12 sessions. That's the lens we run the account through.

Pricing

Simple, honest pricing.

No hidden fees. No long contracts. Pay for the work, pay for the spend, get the results.

ROI calculator

See your return before you spend a cent.

What is your profession?

Your average appointment fee

What the patient pays you per visit

Your PVA

Average number of visits per patient

Monthly ad spend

Your media budget, separate from management fees

Select your specialty above to see your numbers.

Google Ads

Monthly management

$525/mo

+ GST + 15% of ad spend

One-off setup

$795

+ GST

What's in the setup

Strategy session
A clear, defined Google Ads marketing strategy
Conversion tracking installed
Keyword research
Full campaign build
Everything wired up and working before launch

Ongoing, every week

In your account every 24 to 48 hours
Measuring, refining, optimising
Constant split testing. Always trying to beat our best ad.
Monthly reporting in plain English
Pete in the account, not a junior or overseas VA

Min. ad budget: $500/mo

Get my free Google Ads audit

Written by

Pete Flynn

Co-owner, Clinic Mastery. Co-founder, Physio Fit Adelaide.

Two-time Telstra Business Awards winner (2019, 2022). Five-time Telstra Awards judge. South Australia Top 40 Under 40 (2019).

The questions clinic owners ask us.

Will Google Ads work for a small psychology practice?

In most catchments, yes. The minimum we'd recommend is $500 a month in ad spend. For a psychology clinic, that's typically enough to generate 4 to 8 new patient bookings a month at a healthy cost per booking. The bigger question is whether your booking page is built for the way psychology patients decide. Patients usually want to choose a clinician they connect with, not just book any available slot. If your site doesn't help them make that choice, the campaign suffers. We'll be honest about that before we ask you for a cent.

Should I bid on the keyword 'counselling'?

Almost never. The patient searching for 'counselling' is usually looking for a different service at a different price point. They're not the patient who's going to book and stay with a psychologist. Bidding on 'counselling' burns your budget on traffic that won't convert. If you also offer counselling at a different fee, we can build a separate campaign for that, with separate ads and a separate landing page. They don't share keywords.

How fast will I see results?

Typically, most clinics start seeing results inside the first four to six weeks. We're not promising overnight miracles. Anyone who does is lying. We are promising that your campaign will be live, optimised, and bringing in genuine new patient bookings within that window.

I'm already running ads. Can I keep them?

It depends. Sometimes it makes sense to replace them all and start clean. Sometimes we'll keep one or two of your current ads and run them as a control while we test new creative against them. Either way, we're always split testing. Always trying to beat our current best ad. That's how the numbers compound over the months you work with us.

What's a realistic monthly ad budget?

The minimum we'd recommend is $500/month in ad spend. Above that, it depends on the scale of your clinic and how many new patients you're trying to generate each month. We'll talk through what's right for your situation in your strategy session.

Do you lock me in?

No. We have a 30-day notice period and that's it. We don't believe in 12-month contracts. Clinics work with us because they see value, they get results, and they enjoy working with healthcare professionals who actually understand them. Not because they're trapped. If we're not earning our keep, we don't deserve to keep your business.

Why are you better than a generic marketing agency?

Generic agencies sell ads to every industry: healthcare, real estate, e-commerce, tradies. We only work with healthcare clinics, because we are healthcare clinic owners. We've sat across from patients. We know your margins aren't infinite. We know that every dollar of ad spend has to make the needle move, because we've felt what it costs you when it doesn't. Our promise is simple: we'll spend every dollar of your ad budget as if it was our own. Because we understand what it means to a healthcare clinic owner when it isn't.

Will Pete actually run my ads, or a junior?

Pete will be running your ads. You won't be outsourced to a junior or an overseas VA. The same person you applied to work with is the person managing your account day-to-day.

Ready when you are

We'll show you exactly which psychology patients you can win on Google.

Tell us about your psychology practice. We'll come back with a one page plan: which problem-areas and suburbs we'd target, which we'd skip, and what 90 days of Google Ads should realistically deliver for a clinic your size. No pitch deck. No one hour discovery calls that add no value whatsoever.

Apply Now Get my free Google Ads audit

We work with healthcare clinics across Australia.

Google Ads for other specialties

Other services for Psychology clinics

Looking for our general approach? See how we run Google Ads for healthcare clinics.

Where we work

We run Google Ads for clinics in every major Australian city. Each city guide covers local cost per booking ranges, catchment patterns, and the specialty mix we see there: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Canberra, Hobart. Or browse every city we cover.