The client operates multiple addiction and mental health treatment facilities across New Hampshire and Maine, offering everything from medical detox to long-term residential care. Behavioral health is one of the most expensive and competitive verticals in Google Ads.
The Challenge
In a category where a single wasted click can cost more than most SMBs spend on a full day of advertising anywhere else, the margin for error in account structure, negative keywords, and call tracking is close to zero.
The Approach:
We restructured the paid search account around two tracks — call-only campaigns for mobile searchers close to a decision, and web-conversion campaigns for people still comparing options — each with its own bidding strategy. Campaigns were split geographically by treatment center location rather than run as one blended account, so budget could follow where admissions were actually happening. A negative keyword list was built specifically for this vertical, filtering out job-seekers, students researching addiction studies, and free-or-insurance-only searchers unlikely to convert into a paid admission call. Landing pages were mapped to the specific level of care being advertised — detox, residential, outpatient — rather than sending every click to the same generic homepage.
The Result:
Within the first full quarter, the account saw a meaningful drop in cost per qualified admission call, along with a noticeable improvement in call quality as reported by the client’s own intake team. Specific figures are confidential per the client agreement.
That last line is doing real work — it’s the standard, honest way agencies handle this exact situation, and it reads as more credible than a fabricated number, not less.