# Mental Health & Behavioral Health Marketing | Fill The Lobby > Mental health marketing for private-pay therapy, psychiatry, ketamine and IOP/PHP practices: ads, booking and follow-up run for you, inside the ad rules. *Source: https://fillthelobby.com/mental-health-marketing* ## Mental health & behavioral health marketing Four kinds of practice. Four different problems. A therapist fills a caseload, a psychiatrist fills an evaluation slot, a ketamine clinic answers weeks of research, and a program fills its next start date. We run each one differently — and count all of them in booked appointments. Mental health marketing is how a therapy, psychiatry, ketamine or intensive outpatient practice gets found and booked, inside rules that treat mental health as a sensitive category: no targeting by condition, no patient lists in ad platforms, and no testimonials solicited from current clients. Fill The Lobby is a patient acquisition and retention agency for cash-pay and private-pay practices in the US that runs the ads, the booking path and the follow-up itself, after running the same work on its founders’ own platforms. ## Which kind of practice are you? ### Therapy & counseling A private-pay caseload fills one presenting problem at a time: an ad per niche, your fee on the page before the consult call, and booking that works at 9pm. [Therapy practice marketing](https://fillthelobby.com/therapy-practice-marketing) ### Psychiatry New evaluations booked around the med-management block, with the phones and the follow-up run as one system instead of three vendors. [Psychiatry practice marketing](https://fillthelobby.com/psychiatry-practice-marketing) ### Ketamine & Spravato The most researched decision in mental health. Education first, follow-up that lasts weeks, and ads that describe the service without the prescription drug terms Google restricts. [Ketamine & Spravato clinic marketing](https://fillthelobby.com/ketamine-spravato-marketing) ### IOP & PHP Inquiries sorted by level of care and paced to your start dates, in the right advertising category from day one — addiction treatment and mental health programs sit under different rules. [IOP & PHP marketing](https://fillthelobby.com/iop-php-marketing) The rules come first. We sign a BAA before any patient data moves. No PHI in ad platforms, no patient lists used for targeting, and no testimonials or outcome claims. ## The rules that shape mental health marketing. ### No targeting by condition Google treats health as a sensitive category in its [personalized advertising policy](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/143465), so health advertisers can’t use audiences they build themselves. Meta removed detailed targeting for health causes in January 2022. What’s left is intent: what someone typed into a search box. ### Copy that doesn’t diagnose the reader Meta’s [personal attributes policy](https://transparency.meta.com/policies/ad-standards/objectionable-content/privacy-violations-personal-attributes/) doesn’t allow ads that imply knowledge of someone’s health. Its own example: “Depression getting you down?” is out; “Depression counseling” is fine. We write every ad to that line. ### No solicited testimonials Standard 5.05 of the APA Ethics Code says psychologists don’t solicit testimonials from current therapy clients, and counseling and social work codes and state boards set their own limits. We don’t publish patient stories or outcome claims for anyone. ### Certification where it applies Google requires third-party certification before US addiction-treatment ads can run, and restricts prescription drug terms in ads and landing pages. We settle which rules apply to you in week one, before any ad is written. ## Mental health marketing strategies that book. ### Say the fee before the call “Do you take my insurance?” ends a lot of first calls. Your rate, your session length and whether you give a superbill belong on the page someone lands on, not four minutes into a consult. ### Answer at 9pm People look for help after work and after the kids are down, and they often contact more than one practice. Online booking and a fast reply keep you in the conversation. See [patient follow-up](https://fillthelobby.com/services/patient-follow-up). ### One ad per problem, not one ad for “therapy” Broad terms are expensive and bring everyone. The modality, the population or the presenting problem, plus your city, brings the people you can help. Our [Google Ads guide for therapists](https://fillthelobby.com/blog/google-ads-for-therapists) shows the setup. ### Be the page that gets cited More people ask an AI assistant before they search. Clear pages that answer one question each, with the same details everywhere, are the ones search and assistants use. See our guide to [SEO for therapists](https://fillthelobby.com/blog/seo-for-therapists). ### Directories are one channel, not the plan Psychology Today and the insurance platforms have their place. Treat them as one source of several, and keep the pipeline you own. We compared the options in [is Psychology Today worth it?](https://fillthelobby.com/blog/psychology-today-for-therapists) and [Grow Therapy vs Headway and Alma](https://fillthelobby.com/blog/grow-therapy-vs-headway). ### Where people search for it Therapist and psychiatrist searches that name a city add up to the most in [California](https://fillthelobby.com/states/california), [Texas](https://fillthelobby.com/states/texas) and [New York](https://fillthelobby.com/states/new-york): “psychiatrist nyc” gets about 2,850 a month and “therapist houston” about 1,300 (Ahrefs, US, September 2026). Each state page also covers the licensure compacts that decide where telehealth can be advertised. Our [state pages](https://fillthelobby.com/states) list the searches and click costs for every city where they can be measured, so you can see the demand before you choose where to advertise. ## The only agency that is also the customer. We built and run our own clinical platforms — 165+ clinicians, patients in 20+ countries — and we spend our own money on these exact ads every day. Fill The Lobby is that engine, pointed at your practice. ## Go deeper by specialty. ## What owners ask about mental health marketing. **Q: What is mental health marketing?** It is the work of helping people find and book a therapist, psychiatrist, clinic or program: search, ads, a website that takes bookings, reviews and follow-up. What sets it apart is the rules. Ad platforms treat mental health as a sensitive category and professional codes limit testimonials, so the marketing has to work without targeting anyone by condition or leaning on patient stories. **Q: What does a mental health marketing agency do?** It builds and runs the pieces between a search and a booked appointment: the ads, the pages they point to, answering calls, following up with people who did not book, and asking for reviews inside your code. We run all of it ourselves and report booked appointments by source, not clicks. **Q: Is behavioral health marketing different from mental health marketing?** Mostly in who is searching and which rules apply. Behavioral health usually includes substance use treatment and higher levels of care such as IOP and PHP, where a family member often makes the first call and Google requires third-party certification before US addiction-treatment ads can run. Therapy and psychiatry are more often one adult booking for themselves. **Q: Can you target people with anxiety or depression on Google or Facebook?** No. Google treats health as a sensitive category and does not let health advertisers use audiences they build themselves, and Meta removed health-cause targeting in January 2022. Campaigns reach people through what they search for, with copy that names the service without implying the reader has a condition. **Q: Do you work with mental health practices that take insurance?** We work with cash-pay and private-pay practices, including those that give superbills for out-of-network claims. If most of your patients come through insurance panels, paid acquisition works on different numbers, and we will tell you that on the first call rather than after a month of spend. **Q: How much does mental health marketing with Fill The Lobby cost?** Every engagement starts with the Proof Pilot: 30 days at one flat fee of $2,500, with week one spent on an audit rather than a pitch. Ad spend sits on top and goes from your own account straight to the ad platforms. Reviewed September 2026. ## Fill the calendar. Keep the rules. ## Related pages - [Book a 30-minute call](https://fillthelobby.com/book) - [Therapy practice marketing](https://fillthelobby.com/therapy-practice-marketing) - [Psychiatry practice marketing](https://fillthelobby.com/psychiatry-practice-marketing) - [Ketamine & Spravato clinic marketing](https://fillthelobby.com/ketamine-spravato-marketing) - [IOP & PHP marketing](https://fillthelobby.com/iop-php-marketing) - [patient follow-up](https://fillthelobby.com/services/patient-follow-up) - [Google Ads guide for therapists](https://fillthelobby.com/blog/google-ads-for-therapists) - [SEO for therapists](https://fillthelobby.com/blog/seo-for-therapists) - [is Psychology Today worth it?](https://fillthelobby.com/blog/psychology-today-for-therapists) - [Grow Therapy vs Headway and Alma](https://fillthelobby.com/blog/grow-therapy-vs-headway) - [California](https://fillthelobby.com/states/california) - [Texas](https://fillthelobby.com/states/texas)