fertility clinics / Ads
Google Search Ads for fertility clinics.
Google Search Ads for a fertility clinic are constrained before you write a single headline. Google's healthcare policy prohibits the promotion of speculative or experimental medical treatments outright, which is the clause most add-on services fall under, and it restricts prescription drug terms in ads, landing pages and keywords alike. Running paid search here starts with deciding what you are permitted to advertise, not with a keyword list.
The clause that disapproves most fertility ads
Google's healthcare and medicines policy prohibits the promotion of speculative or experimental medical treatments. It is a short sentence and it does a lot of work, because a meaningful share of what fertility clinics would most like to advertise sits on the wrong side of it.
The restriction is not limited to the ad text. The policy states that prescription drug terms are restricted in ads, landing pages and keywords, so a compliant headline pointing at a non-compliant landing page still fails. Clinics are often surprised by this, because the disapproval names the ad while the actual problem is the page it goes to.
The workable approach is to advertise the consultation rather than the treatment. What you are selling at the ad stage is a conversation with someone who will explain the options honestly, and that is both permitted and closer to what the patient is actually ready for.
Success rates are where the regulators meet the ad platform
In the United Kingdom, the ASA, the Competition and Markets Authority and the HFEA have enforced jointly on how fertility success rates, pricing and add-ons are presented. The issue is rarely an invented figure. It is a real figure quoted on a denominator the reader will misread.
In Australia, National Law section 133 makes the use of clinical testimonials in advertising a statutory offence, with a maximum of AUD 60,000 for an individual and AUD 120,000 for a body corporate. That reaches ad copy, sitelinks and the landing page equally.
So a fertility ad account has two independent approval layers: Google's, and your regulator's. Passing one does not protect you from the other, and the regulator is the one with the larger penalty.
A decision measured in months changes the maths
Most paid search assumes a short path from click to conversion. Fertility does not work that way. A patient researches for months, sees your clinic repeatedly, and converts long after the click you paid for.
That makes last-click attribution actively misleading here, and it makes patience part of the strategy rather than a failure of it. We treat the first month as buying information rather than buying patients, and we measure enquiries and consultations rather than form fills.
It also means the landing page carries more weight than the ad. Someone three months into a decision does not need a stronger headline. They need the question they have not asked out loud answered clearly, which is the same work that makes the page rank organically.
What about ChatGPT Ads for a fertility clinic?
OpenAI approves healthcare advertisers case by case with manual review, and the policy has changed repeatedly since the channel opened. Fertility sits at the more heavily scrutinised end of that, and the markets where ChatGPT Ads are available do not currently include every market we work in.
We check eligibility before you spend anything, and if the answer is no we say so rather than running it and hoping. Verify the current position at OpenAI's ad policies page before any campaign, because it has moved four times in five months.
What we do on a fertility ads account
- A policy review of what you may advertise before any campaign is built
- Landing pages checked against the prescription drug term restriction, not just the ads
- Success rate and pricing claims checked against your market's presentation rules
- Campaigns built around the consultation rather than the treatment
- Conversion tracking set to enquiries and consultations, not form fills alone
- A deliberately modest first month, treated as buying information
- Monthly reporting that accounts for a months-long decision rather than last click
Questions
Why do our fertility ads keep getting disapproved?
Most often the speculative or experimental treatment clause, which Google's healthcare policy prohibits outright. The second most common cause is the prescription drug term restriction, which applies to your landing page and keywords as well as the ad text, so a clean headline pointing at a non-compliant page still fails.
Can we advertise our success rates?
Usually, but how you present them is what gets enforced. In the UK the ASA, the CMA and the HFEA have acted jointly on success-rate and add-on presentation. State the denominator plainly and date the figure.
Can we use patient stories in the ads?
In Australia, no. Section 133 makes clinical testimonials in advertising a statutory offence, with a maximum of AUD 60,000 for an individual and AUD 120,000 for a body corporate. Other markets differ, and the UAE requires advertising approval before it runs.
How long before paid search pays back for a fertility clinic?
Longer than in most categories, because the decision takes months. Clicks arrive within hours, but treat the first month as buying information about which searches produce real enquiries rather than expecting bookings from it.
Sources
Guides for fertility clinics
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