Google Ads · Speech Pathology
Google Ads forSpeech PathologyClinics.
Built by clinic owners who understand healthcare. Speaking to the right buyer for every campaign. Measured in real bookings, not clicks.
Speech pathology clinics across Australia are walking into the hardest market they've ever had. NDIS changes in 2026 are tightening the funding pipeline that quietly delivered most of the new patients for the past decade. Clinics that learned to grow without marketing are about to learn how. Most that try Google Ads first end up paying for the wrong searches: generic keywords, paediatric and adult traffic mixed together, and ad copy that's written for the therapist instead of the parent or carer who's actually searching.
google.com
speech therapist for kids near me
Sydney Speech Pathology · Kids and Adults
Late talkers, stuttering, autism support. Paediatric and adult speech pathology.
another-speech.com.au
Another Speech Pathology Practice
Welcome to our practice. Comprehensive speech and language services.
kids-speech-clinic.com.au
Kids Speech Clinic
When patients search, you win the click.
What speech patients actually search
Speech patients don't always do their own searching. The parent does. The carer does. The family does.
Speech pathology has the most unusual buyer pattern in healthcare. The patient is rarely the searcher. For paediatric speech, it's almost always a parent. For adult speech (post stroke, voice, cognitive), it's often a carer or an adult child. Your campaign has to talk to the searcher, not the patient.
The first three queries are parent searches. The fourth and fifth are parent or paeds-specific. The last is almost always an adult child or carer. Each of these searchers needs a different page tone, a different ad copy, and a different landing message. We segment them from day one.
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 know who's actually doing the searching.
Pull apart enough speech-pathology Google Ads accounts and the same handful of mistakes show up almost every time.
The campaign treats the patient and the searcher as the same person. They almost never are. A four year old isn't searching 'late talker therapy'. Their mother is. A 70-year-old recovering from a stroke isn't typing 'adult speech-pathology'. Their daughter is. Your ad copy needs to talk to the searcher.
There's also a market shift most agencies haven't caught up with. Speech pathology has lived on NDIS volume for years, particularly in paediatric early intervention. Many clinics built their entire pipeline around plan managed referrals and never had to market. With the NDIS changes coming through in 2026, that volume is contracting. The clinics that win the next decade are the ones that build a real Google presence now, not after their NDIS pipeline tightens.
The third mistake is broad keywords. 'Speech therapy.' 'Speech pathologist.' 'Therapy for kids.' These look attractive on a search planner. They convert poorly. The patients who actually book search with sharper intent: a specific concern (late talker, stuttering, autism support, swallowing), and usually a suburb.
The clients are the kids. The buyers are the parents. Your campaign needs to know which one is searching.
How we run it
How we run Google Ads for speech-pathology clinics.
Same four steps every clinic gets, sharpened for speech-pathology.
Audit your ideal client list against Google reality.
Speech clinics see a wide spread: paediatric early intervention, school-age communication support, autism therapy, adult voice, post stroke rehab. Some of those clients arrive through GP referrals, paediatricians, schools or NDIS plan managers. Some search Google directly. We sort the list. The Google-reachable clients get the budget. The others get a different strategy.
Build keyword groups by who's searching, not what you treat.
Parents looking for paediatric speech support are a different searcher to adult children looking for help for an older parent. Each group gets its own ad copy, its own landing message, and its own keyword bundle. The parent sees a parent's language. The carer sees a carer's language. The conversion rate of each group goes up because the searcher feels seen.
Filter out the searches that don't pay.
Generic 'speech therapy degree' searches. NDIS funding queries that lead to government sites. Free-clinic searches. Speech and language pathology research queries. We negative keyword them out before launch and keep stripping them out every week.
We report on bookings. Not clicks.
The dashboard tells you what each new patient costs you, broken down by searcher type. Paeds bookings are tracked separately from adult speech. Self funded separately from NDIS. That's how you see which segment to scale and which to pause. Click through rate doesn't pay your rent. Bookings do.
Patient vs searcher
The patient is rarely the one typing.
Speech pathology has the most unusual buyer pattern in allied health. The patient and the searcher are almost never the same person. Most ad copy speaks to the patient. The campaign that converts speaks to whoever is actually doing the searching.
The patient
Who actually searches
What they type
4-year-old not yet talking
Parent
"late talker therapy [suburb]"
8-year-old who stutters
Parent
"speech therapist for stutter"
Child with autism
Parent
"speech therapy for autism"
Teenager, school-age communication
Parent (sometimes patient)
"speech pathologist near me"
70-year-old post-stroke
Adult child or carer
"adult speech pathology after stroke"
Adult voice or professional speaker
Patient
"voice therapy [city]"
Each searcher needs their own ad copy and their own landing message. Parents see parent-language. Carers see carer-language. The patient often sees neither, because they aren't the one in the search bar.
What good looks like
What a healthy speech-pathology Google Ads account looks like.
A healthy speech-pathology Google Ads account in Australia costs $80 to $150 per new patient booking. The range is wider than most specialties because NDIS clients sit at the higher end (more competitive, longer conversion cycle) and self funded private clients usually sit at the lower end. The number on the screen matters less than the lifetime value. NDIS speech clients stay for months or years. The cost per booking pays back many times over. We segment the reporting so you can see exactly what each type of client is costing and contributing.
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 the patient pays you per visit
Average number of visits per patient
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).
Read more about Pete →Common questions
The questions clinic owners ask us.
How will the NDIS changes in 2026 affect Google Ads for speech-pathology?
Should my speech clinic run separate campaigns for paediatric and adult work?
How fast will I see results?
I'm already running ads. Can I keep them?
What's a realistic monthly ad budget?
Do you lock me in?
Why are you better than a generic marketing agency?
Will Pete actually run my ads, or a junior?
Ready when you are
We'll show you exactly which speech-pathology patients you can win on Google.
Tell us about your speech clinic. Which age groups, which presenting concerns, which funding pathways. We'll come back with a one page plan: which segments 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.
Related
We work with healthcare clinics across Australia.
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Other services for Speech Pathology 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.
Related reading
- Google Ads don't just go live. They learn. Here's what that looks like.
- Conversion vs conversion action in clinic Google Ads
- What you can afford to spend on a new patient
- Your Google Ads will only be as good as the website behind them
- The tap that doesn't quite turn off
- Doing your own marketing isn't free
- Paid marketing is a microphone: what it can't fix
