PELORA Research · Original study
Which health keywords Google Ads approves, limits or rejects for clinics, 2026
In two clinic Google Ads accounts we manage, all 249 live health keywords read Approved on October 6, 2026; the real filter runs earlier, at save, where Google flags bare treatment names like trt, hrt clinic and medical weight loss under Health in personalized advertising, passes most testing, IV and wellness terms, and approved all 15 flagged keyword pairs we sent through Request an exception.
- 249 of 249live clinic keyword pairs read Approved: 0 disapproved, 0 limited, 0 under reviewGoogle Ads API, read October 6, 2026
- 21 of 29bare treatment or service names flagged at save, against 4 of 17 with a city addedOur build notes, September to October 5, 2026
- 15 of 15flagged keyword pairs sent through Request an exception now read ApprovedGoogle Ads API and our build notes
On this page
What we found
Three findings a clinic owner can act on
1. The keyword report hides the refusals
All 249 keyword and match-type pairs live in the two clinic accounts read Approved through the Google Ads API on October 6, 2026. None read Disapproved, Approved (limited) or Under review. The refusals happened earlier, in the Policy details panel at save, and a refused keyword that is never saved leaves no row behind. If you judge your account by the keyword table, you will never see what Google turned away.
2. Bare treatment names fail; testing, IV and local wording mostly pass
Of 59 verdicts we recorded at save, 32 were flags, all under Health in personalized advertising. 21 of 29 keywords that name only a service or treatment were flagged, and 4 of 4 drug names. With a city added, 4 of 17 were flagged; with near me, 3 of 9. 0 of 8 IV therapy keywords were flagged.
3. Request an exception worked every time we used it
15 of the 249 live pairs were flagged when first saved and approved only after we ticked Request an exception: 9 TRT and men's hormone pairs and 6 hormone replacement pairs. All 15 read Approved on October 6, 2026.
Method
How we read the verdicts
Three Google Ads accounts managed by PELORA: two clinic advertisers, each an in-person practice with licensed providers (one focused on men's health, one on women's hormone care), and PELORA's own agency account as a control. No client is named, and no cost, conversion or patient figure from any client appears here.
- The live verdict, from the API. On October 6, 2026 we read every keyword in the three accounts through the Google Ads API, read only: keyword text, match type, approval status, disapproval reasons, serving status and the date the campaign started. Negative keywords are excluded. Each live pair is one advertiser, one keyword exactly as entered, one match type and one campaign build year: the same keyword and match type in two ad groups of campaigns built the same year counts once, and the same keyword in a 2024 campaign and a 2026 campaign counts twice. City names are replaced with [city] only after that count, for display, so two different cities stay two pairs. The clinic accounts hold 249 pairs: 66 in one account and 183 in the other; 102 are in campaigns built in 2024 and 147 in campaigns built in September and October 2026.
- The save-time verdict, from our build notes. Google shows its first verdict in the Policy details panel when a keyword is saved. A keyword refused there is never created, so the API cannot see it. We recorded 59 of these verdicts in our build notes between September and October 5, 2026. 5 of them, from one account, are dated only September 2026 in our notes; the rest carry the exact day, September 15 to October 5. Our notes do not record the match type for these, and on one build day they name only 3 of the 14 terms Google flagged.
- Exceptions. Where a flagged keyword was filed with Request an exception, our notes record the date and outcome; the API confirms the keyword's status today.
- Ads and assets. We read the policy status of every ad and every sitelink, callout, structured snippet and call asset in the two clinic accounts. Their text is not published, because it would identify the clinics.
- Privacy. City and neighborhood names in keywords are replaced with [city]. One keyword that could identify a clinic even after that was dropped.
- Categories. Each keyword is placed in one treatment category by its wording, in the order shown in the table; testing words (panel, test, blood work, lab) win over hormone words, so hormone panel counts as testing.
What this does not show. Two clinic accounts and one agency account are a small sample, read over a few weeks. Approved is not serving. Google reviews case by case and changes what it flags without notice; check the live panel before you spend.
Findings by treatment category
Every live keyword is approved; the flags sit at save
| Category | Live pairs | Approved | Approved (limited) | Disapproved | Under review | Approved after exception | Flagged at save |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TRT, testosterone and men's hormone | 13 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 19 of 22 |
| Hormone therapy and menopause | 112 | 112 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 of 12 |
| Weight loss and GLP-1 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 of 4 |
| Peptides (no clinic keywords; see notes) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | not checked |
| Regenerative, stem cell and PRP (no clinic keywords; see notes) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | not checked |
| IV therapy | 17 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 of 8 |
| Lab, blood and hormone testing | 43 | 43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 of 12 |
| General clinic, wellness and functional medicine | 26 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 of 1 |
| Aesthetics and body contouring | 28 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | not checked |
| Total, two clinic accounts | 249 | 249 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 32 of 59 |
| Agency control (keywords aimed at clinic owners) | 66 | 66 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | not checked |
TRT, testosterone and men's hormone. The most refused category: 19 of 22 save-time checks were flagged, including trt, low t, testosterone, mens clinic and trt clinic. 9 of the 13 live pairs got there through Request an exception. trt near me and testosterone blood test passed clean.
Hormone therapy and menopause. 7 of 12 checks flagged (hormone, hrt clinic, hrt therapy, menopause treatment, hormone replacement therapy); hrt near me, bhrt near me, hormone therapy [city], menopause [city] and perimenopause treatment passed. One account still holds a campaign built in 2024 whose keywords include hormone replacement therapy near me and menopause treatment; both read Approved there, and both were flagged when entered for a new campaign in the same account on September 21, 2026.
Weight loss and GLP-1. medical weight loss, medically supervised weight loss and medical weight loss [city] were flagged; weight loss clinic [city] passed. One word, medical, made the difference. No GLP-1 drug name was ever entered as a keyword.
Lab, blood and hormone testing. 3 of 12 checks flagged: hormone test, hormone testing [city] and hormone blood test for women. hormone panel, hormone blood test and blood work [city] passed.
IV therapy, wellness and aesthetics. No flags in 8 IV checks; all 71 live IV, wellness, functional medicine and body contouring pairs read Approved.
Peptides and regenerative medicine. Neither clinic account carries peptide, stem cell or PRP keywords, so this study has no clinic verdicts for them. Google's policy text on these is quoted below. As a control, all 66 keywords in our own agency account read Approved, including 18 that name regenerative medicine, stem cell clinics or peptide clinics, written for clinic owners, not patients.
Wording that passes and fails
The word pattern matters more than the treatment
| How the keyword is worded | Flagged | Checked | Examples flagged | Examples passed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service or treatment name only | 21 | 29 | trt hrt clinic medical weight loss menopause treatment | hormone panel iv hydration therapy perimenopause treatment |
| Drug name | 4 | 4 | testosterone testosterone therapy | none |
| Service plus near me | 3 | 9 | low t clinic near me trt clinic near me | trt near me hrt near me hormone testing near me |
| Service plus [city] | 4 | 17 | trt clinic [city] medical weight loss [city] | weight loss clinic [city] hormone therapy [city] wellness clinic [city] |
Local wording passes more often, but it costs reach: 23 of 72 live city-named pairs were marked Rarely served for low search volume, against 1 of the other 177. Never reword a keyword Google has already flagged to get it through; Google treats that as circumventing its systems. Choose the local wording at the build, or file the exception.
Request an exception
15 flagged pairs filed, 15 approved
When a keyword is flagged only under Health in personalized advertising, the Policy details panel offers a Request an exception checkbox. There was no reason field. In one account, hormone replacement therapy near me, hormone replacement therapy [city] and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, phrase and exact, were approved within about three hours on October 1, 2026. In the other, trt clinic, trt clinic near me, trt clinic [city] and hormone therapy for men were approved within minutes on October 5. The same day the first account's men's campaign got trt clinic near me and hormone therapy for men approved the same way.
What both accounts had in place: location targeting set to people in or regularly in the area, no audience segments, Search only, an in-person licensed provider, and a landing page that states what the clinic offers. We did not file exceptions for drug names, and we stop if a flag names any policy other than Health in personalized advertising.
Ads and assets
Assets get limited even when keywords are clean
22 of the 62 sitelink, callout, structured snippet and call assets in the two clinic accounts read Approved (limited): 17 under Health in personalized advertising and 5 under Restricted drug terms, where Google's evidence was the word semaglutide. Sitelinks were hit hardest, 17 of 24. Of 25 ads, 1 read Approved (limited), again under Restricted drug terms for semaglutide. Limited assets and ads still serve.
What Google's policy says
Google's own words, read the day this was published
The flags in this study cite Health in personalized advertising. Google's page for that policy is written about audience targeting; the flags still fire on individual keyword text. Plan against what the account shows, and cite the policy page.
"Some types of healthcare-related content can’t be advertised at all, while others can only be advertised in certain locations by advertisers who have applied and been approved to advertise those products or services using Google Ads."
Google, Healthcare and medicines, read October 6, 2026, 10:56 a.m. Pacific.
"Content related to Health is a sensitive interest category and includes personal health content like:"
Google, Health in personalized advertising, read October 6, 2026, 10:56 a.m. Pacific.
"Advertisers promoting products and services that fall within sensitive interest categories are unable to use advertiser-curated audiences."
Google, Restricted targeting in Personalized advertising, read October 6, 2026, 10:56 a.m. Pacific.
"Google restricts the use of prescription drug terms in ads, landing pages, and keywords."
Google, Healthcare and medicines, Restricted drug terms, read October 6, 2026, 10:56 a.m. Pacific.
"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."
Google, Prescription drug services, read October 6, 2026, 10:56 a.m. Pacific.
"Google allows ads for cell or gene therapies that are exclusively educational or informational in nature, regardless of regulatory approval status."
Google, Speculative and experimental medical treatment, cell therapies, and gene therapies, read October 6, 2026, 10:56 a.m. Pacific. The same page lists stem cell therapy and platelet rich plasma (PRP) as examples of cell or gene therapies whose promotion is not allowed, except FDA licensed or approved therapies marketed in the United States by the license holder.
"This strike-based system applies to the following policies: Enabling dishonest behavior, Unapproved substances, Guns, gun parts and related products, Explosives, Other Weapons, Tobacco, Compensated sexual acts, Mail-order brides, Clickbait, Misleading ad design, Bail bond services, Call directories, forwarding, and recording services, Credit repair services, Binary options, and Personal loans."
Google, About enforcement procedures for repeat violations, read October 6, 2026, 10:56 a.m. Pacific.
"Individual ads will not be disapproved."
Google, Limited ad serving, read October 6, 2026, 10:56 a.m. Pacific. Google weighs history of policy compliance among the signals that decide limited ad serving.
Plain-English rules
Eight rules for clinic owners running Google Ads
- Test five keywords before you build. One safe, one risky, three in between. Read the Policy details panel at save and write down the line before you write a headline.
- Read the panel, not the keyword table. Refused keywords never appear in the table, so a clean table proves nothing.
- Lead with the service and the place. weight loss clinic [city] passed where medical weight loss failed; trt near me passed where trt failed.
- Never use a drug name as a keyword. All 4 drug-name keywords we checked were flagged at save. Keywords containing testosterone were flagged 4 of 5 times; testosterone blood test passed. Semaglutide appeared only in ads and assets, where it drew Approved (limited).
- File Request an exception for a flag that names only Health in personalized advertising. Do it on a clean account, with location targeting, no audience segments and a page that states the service.
- Never reword a flagged keyword to sneak it through. File the exception or drop it.
- Check assets separately. Plain wording in sitelinks and callouts avoids limits that clinical words attract.
- Approved is not serving. Watch impressions and Rarely served status after launch, especially on city keywords.
Questions
9 questions clinic owners ask about Google Ads health keywords
Why did Google flag my TRT or hormone keywords?
In our two clinic accounts, Google flagged keywords that name a treatment on its own, such as trt, testosterone, hrt clinic, hormone replacement therapy and medical weight loss, under its Health in personalized advertising policy at the moment the keyword was saved. 21 of 29 bare service or treatment names we recorded were flagged. The flag appears in the Policy details panel when you save, not later in the keyword table.
Does a flagged keyword hurt my Google Ads account?
A flag at save means the keyword is not approved; it is not a strike. Google's strike system lists 15 policies by name, and Personalized advertising is not among them; Unapproved substances, part of Google's healthcare rules, is (read October 6, 2026). Google's Limited ad serving page does list history of policy compliance among the signals it weighs, so do not leave refused keywords sitting in the account, and do not re-enter reworded versions of them.
What is Request an exception, and does it work for clinics?
It is a checkbox in the Policy details panel that asks Google to review a flagged keyword. There was no reason field when we used it. All 15 flagged keyword and match-type pairs we filed it for, across both clinic accounts, read Approved on October 6, 2026, after minutes to about three hours. Both clinics are in-person, licensed providers using location targeting with no audience segments, and each landing page states the service.
Will adding a city or near me get a health keyword approved?
In our records, the same service with a city attached was flagged 4 times in 17 checks, and with near me 3 times in 9, against 21 of 29 for the bare name. That is a pattern, not a rule. Do not reword a keyword Google has already flagged to get it through: Google treats that as circumventing its systems. Build with local wording from the start, or file the exception.
Can I use testosterone or semaglutide as a keyword?
All 4 drug-name keywords we checked were flagged at save, and we do not file exceptions for them. Keywords containing testosterone were flagged 4 of 5 times; testosterone blood test passed. Google's Healthcare and medicines policy says it restricts the use of prescription drug terms in ads, landing pages and keywords. We never used semaglutide as a keyword; in one account it appeared in sitelink and ad text, and that drew Approved (limited) under Restricted drug terms.
Can a clinic advertise stem cell therapy, PRP or regenerative medicine on Google?
Not as a treatment. Google's policy lists stem cell therapy and platelet rich plasma (PRP) among cell or gene therapies it does not allow to be promoted, with an exception in the United States only for FDA licensed or approved therapies marketed by the license holder. None of our clinic accounts carries these keywords, so this study has no clinic verdicts for them. Our own agency account's 18 keywords that name regenerative medicine, stem cell clinics or peptide clinics, aimed at clinic owners rather than patients, all read Approved.
Do I need LegitScript or Google healthcare certification to run clinic ads?
Not for the approvals in this study: neither clinic needed LegitScript or a Google healthcare certification to get them. Google's Prescription drug services policy names online pharmacies and telemedicine providers as the businesses it covers; an in-person clinic that does not prescribe or sell online sits outside that list.
My keyword says Approved but gets no impressions. Why?
Approved is not the same as serving. 23 of the 72 city-named pairs in our two clinic accounts were marked Rarely served for low search volume, against 1 of the other 177. A city keyword is often clean on policy and thin on searches.
Why are my sitelinks Approved (limited) when my keywords are approved?
Assets are read separately. 17 of 24 sitelinks across the two clinic accounts read Approved (limited), most under Health in personalized advertising. In our experience clinical words such as medical, patients and bloodwork draw the limit; that is our reading, not a measurement. Limited assets still serve; on a Search campaign with no audiences the practical cost is small, though we have not measured it.
How to cite this page
Citation: Durnford, P., PELORA Research (2026). Which health keywords Google Ads approves, limits or rejects for clinics, 2026. PELORA Marketing, updated October 6, 2026. https://peloramarketing.com/research/google-ads-health-keyword-study-2026
Data: google-ads-health-keyword-study-2026.csv, one row per keyword pair, save-time verdict, asset or ad, with its source and date. Related: Study 01, Google refuses health keywords one at a time and why Google rejected your hormone keywords.
Corrections: write to hello@peloramarketing.com. Corrections are made on the page and logged below.
Update log
- October 6, 2026. First published. Updated October 6, 2026; refreshed quarterly.
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