Most marketing advice written for doctors is either generic small-business advice with the word "patient" swapped in, or a pitch. This guide is the short version of what we actually do: which channels earn their place in a physician practice, the rules that apply to health advertising, and the numbers worth watching.
If you run a therapy or mental health practice, our mental health marketing pages cover the same ground with the tighter rules that apply there.
Start with what you want more of
"More patients" is not a plan. Before any channel, write down four things:
- How many new patients each physician can see per week, and on which days.
- Which services you want more of, and which you would rather not grow.
- What each of those services is worth to the practice, and how payment works.
- Where the demand has to come from: your own city, a referral network, or telehealth across the state.
Marketing that fills the wrong slot is a cost, not a win. This list is what decides which of the channels below is worth your money at all.
The channels that do the work
- Your Google Business Profile. For a practice that sees people in person, the map result is often the first thing a patient sees. It needs the right primary category, real hours, and a booking link that works. Google requires in-person contact with customers during stated hours to qualify, per its eligibility guidelines, so a telehealth-only practice should put that effort into its website and directory profiles instead.
- A page for each service. One "Services" page listing twelve things rarely ranks for any of them. See our guide to SEO for doctors and medical practices.
- Search ads on ready-to-book terms. A service plus a place beats a broad term every time: "endocrinologist Scottsdale" rather than "hormone doctor". Our medical PPC page covers how we run these, and our guide to Google Ads for doctors walks through the setup.
- A website built to take a booking. The fee or payment model, one obvious way to book, and a page that loads fast on a phone.
- Reviews. What patients compare when two practices look alike, and part of what AI assistants read about you.
- Follow-up. Most inquiries do not book on the first contact. See patient follow-up.
- Referring physicians. For specialists this is often the largest channel, and the most neglected. More on that below.
The rules physicians market under
Health advertising is restricted in ways most businesses never encounter. The four that shape campaigns:
- No targeting by health condition. Google treats health as a sensitive interest category in its personalized advertising policy, so health advertisers can't use audiences they build themselves, such as remarketing or customer lists. Meta removed detailed targeting options for health causes in January 2022.
- Ads can't imply they know the reader's health. Meta's personal attributes policy gives its own example: "Depression getting you down?" is not allowed, while "Depression counseling" is.
- Some services need certification. Google's healthcare and medicines policy limits prescription drug promotion in the US and requires certification for services such as addiction treatment.
- Claims need evidence. The FTC's health products compliance guidance says health claims need competent and reliable scientific evidence, and that individual experiences are never enough on their own.
Your state medical board's advertising rules sit on top of all of these, and they govern titles, credentials and testimonials. Check them before anything runs, not after.
Referral marketing, done as a channel
Specialists usually say referrals are their main source of patients, and then leave the channel to chance. Treat it like any other:
- One page written for referring clinicians: what you take, what you don't, how fast you can see someone, and how to send a patient.
- One named contact, reachable by a human, not a general inbox or a phone tree.
- A note back to the referring physician after the visit. That single habit is what keeps referrals coming.
- A record of who refers, so you can tell which relationships are real.
What to measure
Judge everything on booked appointments and what each one cost. Clicks, impressions and form views all rise without a single extra patient on the schedule.
Three numbers are worth a monthly look: booked appointments by source, the share of inquiries that turn into appointments, and how many calls go unanswered. The third is usually the cheapest thing to fix and the most expensive to ignore. Our guide to getting more patients works through the order to fix them in.
Agency, in-house or yourself?
A consultant advises and leaves you the work. An agency runs the campaigns. An in-house hire does both for one practice, and costs more than either until you are large enough to keep them busy. Whoever you pick, ask the same four questions before signing:
- Who owns the ad account, the website and the data if we part ways?
- What is reported each week, and does the report end at booked appointments?
- Will you sign a business associate agreement if you touch patient information?
- How do you keep ads and pages inside my board's advertising rules?
Fill The Lobby is a done-for-you healthcare marketing agency: we build the system and run it. The Proof Pilot page sets out how the first 30 days work.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help — Business eligibility and ownership guidelines, checked 18 September 2026
- Google Ads Help — Restricted targeting in personalized advertising, checked 18 September 2026
- Meta — Removing certain ad targeting options and expanding our ad controls (9 November 2021), checked 18 September 2026
- Meta Transparency Center — Privacy violations and personal attributes, checked 18 September 2026
- Google Ads Help — Healthcare and medicines policy, checked 18 September 2026
- FTC — Health Products Compliance Guidance, checked 18 September 2026