Medical practice marketing for physician groups and multi-location clinics.
Plans from $3,500 a month.
For physician-owned groups, family and internal medicine, pediatrics, concierge and direct primary care, and multi-location practices. Kept appointments as the unit, each location's profile under Google's rules, every ad inside Google's and Meta's health rules.
For practices nationwide, from Newport Beach, California.
AI-generated illustration.
- 0 of 10Medical practice and physician group agency and guide pages we read on October 31, 2026 that quote any Google Business Profile rule
- 32%Medical groups that reported higher patient no-show rates in 2026 than in 2025, in an MGMA Stat poll of August 11, 2026
- 1Business Profile per location at most, in Google's own words, quoted below
- 10 or moreLocations at which Google offers bulk verification of Business Profiles, read October 29, 2026
The 0 of 10 is our own count of the agency and guide pages we opened from a web search index's results for five buyer queries on October 31, 2026. The 32% is MGMA's figure, published August 12, 2026. The rule is from Google's Business Profile guidelines, read October 28 and 29, 2026. The 10 or more is Google's threshold on its bulk verification page, read October 29, 2026. All four are in the sources below.
Medical practice marketing brings new patients to a physician group and keeps every location findable, measured in booked and kept appointments rather than clicks. PELORA runs it for groups, primary care, concierge and DPC practices and multi-location clinics: ads inside Google's and Meta's health rules, search articles patients read, and review replies under Google's own rules. From $3,500 a month.
Last updated . What we checked: Google's Healthcare and medicines policy and its prescription drug pages (our saved reads of October 31, 2026), its Health in personalized advertising page, its Customer data policies (read October 28, 2026), its Business Profile guidelines and bulk verification page (read October 28 and 29, 2026) and its "HIPAA and Google Analytics" page (read October 29, 2026); Meta's Personal attributes and Health and wellness pages (read September 27, 2026, re-read October 26, 2026), its custom audience page (read October 28, 2026) and its Special Ad Categories page (read October 29, 2026); the AMA Code of Medical Ethics, Opinion 9.6.1; California's Business and Professions Code 651 from our saved copy of September 26, 2026; the MGMA Stat poll of August 11, 2026; 45 CFR 164.502 at Cornell (read October 29, 2026); ten medical practice and physician group agency and guide pages; our own Search Console rows; our published prices. Every read October 31, 2026 unless the page says otherwise.
By Preston Durnford, Founder and CEO, PELORA Marketing. He has owned and operated addiction and mental health treatment centers for 12 years.
What does medical practice marketing include?
Medical practice marketing is the work of being the practice a new patient finds, trusts and books, and then keeps the appointment with: a Business Profile for each location kept to Google's rules and a page for each provider, both quoted in writing, ads that name the service and never the reader's condition, and a report in kept visits. A group sells access, a panel with room, and a doctor a patient can see this month. Here is what we run and where it sits in a plan:
| Piece | What it does | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| New-patient campaigns | Google Search ads by service and town ("accepting new patients", the plans you take, same-week visits) and Facebook and Instagram ads that name the service, never the reader's health | One channel, up to 2 campaigns, from $3,500; Google and Meta together, 2 campaigns each, from our Scale plan (every plan is on our pricing page) |
| Ad creative | New ads every month, each checked against the rules below before it runs | 5 a month on the $3,500 plan, 12 on Scale |
| Reviews | Replies to Business Profile reviews that never confirm anyone is a patient; profile work to Google's rules for a practice, a practitioner and a chain | One location's reviews in every plan; Business Profile work, more locations and practitioner profiles quoted in writing before we start |
| Search and AI articles | Plain answers to what patients ask before they book, with structured data | 2 a month on the $3,500 plan, 6 on Scale; provider and location pages quoted in writing before we start |
| Claims review | Every ad, page and review reply read against the AMA opinion, your state board's rule and the platform's rule before it runs | Every plan |
| Monthly report | Calls, forms, and appointments booked and kept, by campaign, from the platforms and your own scheduling counts | Every plan |
A fit
- Physician-owned groups, family and internal medicine, pediatrics
- Concierge medicine and direct primary care practices
- Practices with more than one location, physician-owned, MSO-managed or PE-backed
Not a fit
- Anyone who wants to pay a marketer per patient or per lead
- Anyone who wants remarketing lists or condition-named audiences on health ads
- Anyone who wants a testimonial that promises a result
Which practices is this page for?
Groups and practices where a physician or a physician group is the business: family and internal medicine, pediatrics, concierge medicine and direct primary care, and the multi-location clinic that is physician-owned, run by a management services organization or backed by private equity. A management services organization, in the Medical Group Management Association's words, provides management, administrative and business support services to a medical practice; the group still owns the clinical side, and the marketing has to respect that line.
Three kinds of buyer go elsewhere on this site, with the page that is theirs: urgent care centers (urgent care marketing, with its own Business Profile and hours rules), hospitals and health systems (hospital marketing, by service line), and a specialty with its own page, such as orthopedics, cardiology, fertility or dental. Behavioral health practices start at our treatment program page. A straight answer on experience: a multi-location physician group would be new for us, and so would a concierge medicine or DPC practice. Healthcare is not: our founder has owned and operated addiction and mental health treatment centers for 12 years, and the concierge client we market today is a concierge nursing company, not a physician practice. So the group section below is built on Google's rules and our published plans, not on a case.
How do new patients pick a practice?
By whether you are accepting new patients, whether you take their plan, how soon they can be seen, whether they can book online, and what they can read about the doctor before they call. Each of those is a line on a page or a Business Profile, and an ad that leaves one out is an ad that gets a call it cannot keep.
Keeping the appointment is the second half. An MGMA Stat poll of August 11, 2026 found that 32% of medical groups reported higher patient no-show rates year to date compared with 2025, while 58% reported about the same and 10% reported lower rates.
So we report kept visits by campaign, not bookings alone, and we plan reminders with your scheduling team before the first ad runs.
A page per provider helps, and Google has a rule for the profile that goes with it: The title of the Business Profile for the practitioner should include only the name of the practitioner
. Provider pages, quoted in writing, are written in the doctor's own words (training, what they treat, the plans they take, how to book), and we keep the practitioner profile's name to the doctor's name, with the practice's name on the practice profile.
How do you market every location in a group?
No more than one Business Profile per location, one name and one category across the chain unless the real-world signage differs, a practitioner profile named only for the practitioner, and the rebranding rule read before any acquired practice changes its name. These are Google's own rules, read October 28 and 29, 2026, and none of the ten pages we read quotes one of them:
| Google's rule | In its own words | For your group |
|---|---|---|
| One profile per location | Do not create more than one page for each location of your business | A profile for each clinic, none for a billing office or a telehealth-only line |
| Chains: one name, one category | All locations must have the same name unless the business’s real world representation consistently varies from location to location. All locations must also have the same category if they provide the same service. | The group's name on every profile, with the location only where the sign carries it; one primary category for every clinic that does the same work |
| Practitioners | The title of the Business Profile for the practitioner should include only the name of the practitioner | Each doctor's profile is the doctor's name; the practice name lives on the practice profile |
| Departments | Publicly-facing departments that operate as distinct entities should have their own page. | A lab or an imaging suite with its own entrance and hours may have its own profile; a hallway service does not |
| Acquisitions and renames | Google's guidelines say how a rebrand after an acquisition is handled on an existing profile; we read that section with you before the name changes | An acquired practice can keep its existing profile when the name change meets Google's criteria; one that does not is a new business, and the old profile is marked closed |
| Ten or more locations | Google offers bulk verification at 10 or more locations and business groups to manage them | One owner account for the group, one manager account for ads, so a departing manager never takes a profile with them |
What we deliver for a group is stated in the plan, in counts: every plan covers one location's reviews, and Business Profile work, more locations, practitioner profiles and location pages are quoted in writing before we start. Reporting is by campaign from your own scheduling counts; if you want it rolled up by location, we say what that costs before we promise it. Recruiting ads for physicians and staff are a separate campaign under employment rules, never mixed into a patient campaign.
What do Google and Meta allow for medical practice ads?
Google's own audiences only for health content, a certification before a telehealth practice advertises prescribing, drug names allowed in a US ad but not as keywords without certification, and on Meta copy that never implies the reader's condition and no audience built from one. Each line below is quoted or summarized from the platform's page with the date we read it:
| Rule | In its own words | For your practice |
|---|---|---|
| Google: health audiences (read October 28, 2026) | For treatments for chronic conditions, surgery and injections: You can use predefined Google audiences. You can't use advertiser-curated audiences. | No remarketing lists or uploaded patient lists on chronic-care or procedure ads; search intent and place do the work |
| Google: prescription drug services (saved read, October 31, 2026) | Google restricts the promotion of services related to the online prescribing, dispensing, and sale of prescription drugs. Businesses subject to this policy include but aren't limited to online pharmacies and telemedicine providers.and Advertisers must apply to serve ads for prescription drug services. | A concierge or DPC practice that advertises telehealth visits where a prescription may follow should expect to apply first, at the client account, with its own documentation |
| Google: drug names (saved read, October 31, 2026) | Google restricts the use of prescription drug terms in ads, landing pages, and keywords.and While you don’t need to be certified in order to use prescription drug terms in ads and landing pages, you must be certified in order to keyword-target these terms. | A page may name a drug in the United States; we never bid on one without the certification |
| Google: conversion data (Customer data policies, read October 28, 2026) | Conversions related to sensitive categories can't be used for measurement in enhanced conversions or store sales (uploads). | No upload of a visit or a purchase of medical services as a conversion; we count on the site and in your scheduling system |
| Meta: personal attributes (read September 27, 2026, re-read October 26, 2026) | Meta says ads must not contain content that asserts or implies personal attributes.Meta allows “New diabetes treatment available” and disallows “Do you have diabetes?” | We write the first kind for every service; "Same-week new patient visits" runs, "Struggling with your blood pressure?" never does |
| Meta: custom audiences (read October 28, 2026) | For custom audiences, Meta says references to specific health conditions (e.g., arthritis) or financial status (e.g., credit score) aren't allowed. | No audience built from a condition or a visit type; outcome-neutral event names in the pixel |
| Meta: recruiting ads (read October 29, 2026) | Employment is a Special Ad Category; in the US, limited or unavailable: age, gender, ZIP code or postal code, exclusion targeting, lookalike audiences and saved audiences. | Physician and staff recruiting runs as its own campaign under those limits, never inside a patient campaign |
Platforms change these without notice, so we re-read each rule on its own page the week a campaign launches, never from memory. This is how we route the work, not legal advice; your counsel has the last word.
Can we use patient testimonials and "board certified" in ads?
Testimonials, when they reflect what patients like the one speaking generally get; "board certified", in California, only for a board the statute recognizes and only with that board's full name beside it. The AMA's Code of Medical Ethics, Opinion 9.6.1, says There are no restrictions on advertising by physicians except those that can be specifically justified to protect the public from deceptive practices.
and that Objective claims regarding experience, competence, and the quality of physicians and the services they provide may be made only if they are factually supportable.
On testimonials it says they tend to be deceptive when they do not reflect the results that patients with conditions comparable to the testimoniant’s condition generally receive.
California's Business and Professions Code 651 bars any false, fraudulent, misleading or deceptive statement, claim or image in a physician's public communication, and allows "board certified" only for a board the statute recognizes (an American Board of Medical Specialties member board or one of the equivalents it lists) and only when that board's full name is used and given comparable prominence; Texas has its own "board certified" rule, and we read your state's before the first ad. So a review quoted in an ad is a representative one, a "board certified" badge carries the board's full name, and no ad counts cured cases. The AMA opinion also lets a physician advertise the basis on which fees are determined (including charges for specific services)
, so the AMA code does not stand in the way of publishing a concierge or DPC membership price; state rules still apply.
How does marketing differ for concierge and direct primary care?
The buyer pays a membership, so the page says the fee, what it includes and how to join, and the ad sells access and time rather than a plan accepted. The AMA opinion allows the fee on the page; the rule that bites is Google's. Its prescription drug services policy names telemedicine providers, so a practice that advertises telehealth visits where a prescription may follow should expect to apply for that certification before those ads run.
Someone is already searching for this: our site appeared in Google's results for "concierge practice marketing agency" 22 times (Search Console impressions) in the three months to October 23, 2026, with no page to land on until this one. A concierge medicine or DPC practice would be new for us; the nearest client we market is a concierge nursing company, with 36 recurring monthly patients today. The work we would run is the membership page, the search ads for the town, provider pages that read like the doctor, and reviews asked for the same way from every member, from your own system.
How do practices keep patient data out of ad platforms?
With tracking set up with your counsel, no patient or condition lists in any platform, outcome-neutral event names, and your counsel's sign-off on tracking before anything launches. Our healthcare ad rules guide covers the federal tracking guidance in more depth.
On vendors: a covered entity's assurances from a business associate must be documented through a written contract or other written agreement or arrangement with the business associate
(45 CFR 164.502(e), read at Cornell October 29, 2026). Whether your scope of work needs a business associate agreement is a question for your counsel. Some tools rule themselves out: Google's "HIPAA and Google Analytics" page (read October 29, 2026) says Google makes no representations that Google Analytics satisfies HIPAA requirements and does not offer Business Associate Agreements in connection with this service.
Call tracking, if you add it, is set up with your counsel, never puts a forwarding number on your Business Profile, and goes on your website only if you approve it.
How does PELORA run medical practice marketing?
One location and one channel first, then more once the panel fills.
Access before ads
We check the next open new-patient slot, who answers the phone, the online booking path and which plans the site lists, because an ad that ends in a three-week wait or a closed panel wastes the click.
Demand before budget
We never guess a cost per new patient. Before we suggest a budget, we pull your towns' searches from Keyword Planner and your own new-patient counts; try our ad spend calculator first.
Accounts in your name
Ad accounts, Business Profiles and every creative are yours, billed to you by the platforms and never marked up. No patient or condition list goes into any platform.
A written check before anything goes live
Every ad, page and review reply gets a written check against the AMA opinion, your state board's rule and the platform's rule. A line that fails is cut or rewritten. We never try to slip a rejected ad past review.
Count kept visits, then a day 60 checkpoint
Calls, forms, and appointments booked and kept, by campaign, every month, from your own scheduling counts. Day 60 is a checkpoint in every plan: what to keep, cut or grow.
Example. A three-location family medicine group with one clinic that has room on its panel. We fix that clinic's Business Profile under Google's chain and practitioner rules (Business Profile work quoted in writing), run one Google Search campaign for the town's "accepting new patients" and same-week searches, write five new ads a month that name the service and the plans accepted, and report booked and kept visits for that clinic every month. This is an example, not a client and not a result.
Result. One healthcare client grew to $5 million a year in revenue in under a year, from SEO, AEO and GEO alone.
How does PELORA compare with the pages that come up for medical practice marketing?
| What matters | The 10 pages we read | PELORA |
|---|---|---|
| A Google Business Profile rule quoted | 0 of 10; two assert "each location needs its own profile" with no source | Four of Google's rules quoted and two more named above, read October 28 and 29, 2026 |
| A Google or Meta health ad rule quoted | 0 of 10; two recommend retargeting | Seven rules in the table above; no remarketing list on health ads |
| The AMA opinion, a state "board certified" rule or the FTC named | 0 of 10 | The AMA opinion quoted; California's rule stated |
| The business associate question | 1 of 10 names it | The federal line quoted; your counsel decides |
| An agency price on the page | 0 of 10 | From $3,500 a month, with setup and the minimum in the FAQ |
| A visible date and a "what we checked" line | 3 of 10 show a date, 1 an updated date; none has a what-we-checked line | At the top of this page |
| A client result with a method | 3 of 10 show results, none with a method | Results stated; no method published |
Counted from the ten agency and guide pages we opened from a web search index's results for "primary care marketing agency", "physician group marketing", "medical practice marketing agency", "multi-location medical practice marketing" and "marketing for physician groups", every page read October 31, 2026; three more were blocked to our reader and are not counted. The counts describe those ten pages, not a ranking.
Medical practice marketing, answered.
Does each location need its own Google Business Profile?
Yes, we recommend one for each clinic patients visit in person, and Google allows no more than one: Do not create more than one page for each location of your business
. A chain keeps one name and one category across locations unless the real-world signage differs, each practitioner's profile carries only the practitioner's name, and a department gets its own profile only if it operates as a distinct entity. Every plan covers one location's reviews; Business Profile work and more locations are quoted in writing before we start.
How much does medical practice marketing cost?
Plans start at $3,500 a month (one channel, up to two campaigns, five ad creatives a month), plus a one-time setup fee ($1,500 to $2,000 on the $3,500 plan, $4,500 above it) and a three-month minimum. Ad spend is paid to the platforms directly, never marked up, and we size it to your towns' numbers on the call. Every plan is on our pricing page.
How important is "accepting new patients" in the ads?
It is the first thing a new patient checks, along with the plans you take and how soon they can be seen, so it goes in the headline of the search ad, on the Business Profile and at the top of the location page, and it comes off the day the panel closes. An ad that says it while the panel is closed earns a call you cannot keep.
Can a medical practice use remarketing or patient lists in Google or Meta ads?
Not for services in Google's sensitive health categories. Google allows only its own predefined audiences for health content such as chronic-condition treatment and procedures, and bars sensitive-category conversions from enhanced conversions; Meta bars custom audiences that reference a health condition. Two of the ten pages we read recommend retargeting anyway. We run search intent, place and Google's own audiences, and never a patient list.
How do we know which locations are performing?
From your own scheduling counts, reported by campaign every month: calls, forms, and appointments booked and kept. Reporting rolled up by location is quoted in writing before we promise it, because every plan covers one location's reviews and the extra work has a price.
Can we use patient testimonials and "board certified" in ads?
Testimonials when they reflect what patients with comparable conditions generally receive, which is the AMA's test, and "board certified" in California only for a board the statute recognizes and only with that board's full name given comparable prominence. No ad counts cured cases, and every state's rule is read before your first ad.
Do you work with physician groups run by an MSO or backed by private equity?
Yes, with the same rules and the same counts. The group owns the ad accounts and the profiles, the marketing respects the line between the management company and the clinical side, and a multi-location physician group would be new for us, so we say so and build the plan on Google's rules and our published plans rather than on a case.
Bring your locations and your new-patient counts. We will tell you which one to start with.
Bring the locations and providers you run, which panels have room, the plans you take, last quarter's new-patient bookings and kept visits, and who signs off on marketing and privacy. On the call you get our read of what Google and Meta allow for your ads, which profiles break Google's rules today, and the first three things we would build, whether or not we work together.