Google Ads or Facebook ads? How to choose for a medical practice

When a practice decides to try online ads, the first question is usually where. The short answer: Google Ads reaches people who are already looking for care, and Facebook and Instagram reach people who aren't looking yet. Most specialty practices should start with Google, then add Facebook once they know what a new patient is worth to them.

How the two platforms differ

Google Ads shows your ad when someone types a search, like "knee pain doctor" or "hand surgeon near me." The person has a problem and is looking for help right now. You pay when they click.

Facebook and Instagram ads (both run through Meta) show your ad in someone's feed while they scroll. They weren't searching. You're choosing an audience by location, age range, and broad interests, and hoping the message lands for the people who need it.

That difference shapes everything else:

• Google clicks usually cost more, but the people clicking are closer to booking.
• Meta ads are cheaper per view and click, and better for awareness: a new location, a new physician, a seasonal program, or a service people don't know you offer.
• Google ads are mostly text built around what people search. Meta ads are visual, so the image or video matters as much as the words.

Start with Google if...

• Patients search for what you treat by name ("carpal tunnel," "rotator cuff," "sports physical").
• You want calls and appointment requests soon, not someday.
• You have a modest budget and want every dollar going to people already looking.

Begin with a small set of tightly focused campaigns: one per main service line, limited to the area your patients actually come from. Check the search terms report every week and add negative keywords for searches that aren't patients ("jobs," "salary," "free," "school").

Add Facebook and Instagram when...

• You're opening a location or adding a physician and need the neighborhood to know.
• You offer something people don't search for because they don't know it exists, such as a same-day injury clinic or a program for a specific sport.
• You have real photos and short videos of your office and team to use. They outperform generic images, and they're honest.

Meta has rules for health-related ads. You can't imply you know something about the viewer's health ("Is your knee pain keeping you up at night?"), and targeting based on health conditions isn't available. Speak to the general audience instead ("Sports injury care in Naples, same-week visits").

How much to spend

There's no universal number, but you can reason about it:

1. Estimate what a new patient is worth to the practice over their first year of care.
2. Decide what share of that you'd pay to acquire one.
3. Start with a monthly budget that gives you enough clicks to learn from. For many local practices that means a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars a month on Google, per service line.

Give a new campaign at least four to six weeks before judging it. The first two weeks are mostly the platform learning.

What to measure

Clicks and impressions tell you an ad is running, not that it's working. Track the things that end with a patient:

• Calls from the ad (a call extension or tracked number)
• Appointment requests from the page the ad sends people to
• Cost per call and cost per request, by campaign

Then, once a month, ask the front desk how many of those calls became visits. That last step is the one most practices skip, and it's the one that tells you whether to spend more.

Keep the accounts in your name

Whoever runs your ads, the Google Ads and Meta ad accounts should belong to the practice, with your billing and your login. If you ever change vendors, the campaigns, history, and audiences stay with you instead of starting over from zero.

How AdLivo approaches it

AdLivo writes Google and Facebook ads from your own website, gives each ad an Ad Score, and flags the ones worth fixing. Campaigns run in your own accounts, and nothing new goes out under your name until you approve it.