Google Ads for physical therapists that fill evaluation slots
Direct access changed physical therapy marketing: most states let patients book without a referral, and they search for PT the way they search for a dentist. A new patient completing a plan of care is worth $1,000 to $2,000, and specialty programs (pelvic health, vestibular, sports performance) are worth more. Most clinics still market only to physicians. We build PT accounts around direct-access searches, track evaluations and completed plans, and give each specialty its own page. with patients who complete their plan of care.
LEADSTACK™ Five layers. One account that keeps growing.
Most Google Ads accounts are one campaign wearing five hats. LEADSTACK is how we build a lead-gen account instead: the campaign types stacked in the order that pays, each layer fed by the booked jobs the layer below it produced. Below, the stack as we build it for physical therapists.
Remarketing · videoNot here
Remarketing · displayNot here
Performance MaxScale
Local Services AdsScale
SearchCore
One campaign, five jobs
Booked jobs → Google
0:00 · The leak
You are paying for clicks. You need booked jobs.
Most accounts we audit have one campaign doing five jobs, broad match with no negative list, and Google optimizing toward form fills it never sees close. That is where the budget goes.
0:38 · Layer 1 · Search
Capture the demand that already exists.
Exact and phrase match, split by service value and urgency, with call ads while someone answers the phone. The base of the stack and usually 55 to 70 percent of the budget.
1:12 · Layer 2 · Local Services Ads
Pay per lead, above the ads.
Where the category qualifies, the Google Screened or Guaranteed badge sits above every search ad. We run it beside search, dispute junk leads weekly and compare cost per booked job each month.
1:40 · Layer 3 · Performance Max
Scale, but only on real data.
Performance Max finds more of the people who already book with you, if it is fed booked-job conversions and fenced with brand exclusions and search themes. Switched on in month two or three, never on day one.
2:10 · Layer 4 · Remarketing on display
Bring back the 95 percent who left.
Most visitors do not call on the first visit. A small display budget, 30-day windows and one message per service keeps the quote request alive for a few dollars a day.
2:35 · Layer 5 · Remarketing on YouTube
Be the name they remember.
For long decisions like a roof, an implant or an injury case, six-second bumpers to past visitors cost cents per view and lift branded search and close rate.
3:05 · The loop
Booked jobs flow back to Google. Bids follow revenue.
Offline conversion imports tell Google which clicks became customers, so every layer bids toward the cases that pay. By month three the target is hit, or our fee drops to zero until it is.
Film in production · storyboard preview0:00 / 3:40
The film is being shot with Hamid this quarter. Until it is live, the storyboard above walks the same chapters.
Google Ads works for physical therapists who can answer the phone.
We keep the roster short on purpose. These are the physical therapy clinic practices we do the most for, and the ones we turn away.
Good fit
Front desk answering during ad hours and online booking in place
EMR or scheduler you can export evaluations and completed plans from
At least one specialty program worth promoting
Direct access allowed in your state
Not yet
No online booking and voicemail during business hours
Relying only on physician referrals
Budgets under $100 a day
Where physical therapists lose money
Three leaks in most physical therapy clinic accounts
We see the same three problems in almost every physical therapy clinic account we take over. Each one is fixable in the first month.
01
Marketing only to doctors while patients search directly
Direct-access patients are searching "physical therapy near me" and booking with whoever makes it easy. A clinic with no direct-access campaign leaves them to the corporate chains.
02
Specialty programs hidden inside general PT
Pelvic floor, vestibular, TMJ, sports performance and post-surgical rehab are distinct patients with distinct searches and higher value. They need their own pages and bids.
03
Evaluations not tracked to completed care
Google counts calls. Your EMR knows who evaluated and who finished. We connect WebPT, Prompt, Jane or your scheduler so completed plans drive the bidding.
The audit checklist: mistakes we fix in most physical therapy clinic accounts
No direct-access campaign at all
General PT, post-surgical and specialty in one campaign
Every call counted as a conversion
No EMR or scheduler connection, so Google optimizes for calls
Homepage as the landing page
No online booking on the page
Ads running when the front desk is closed
How new patients search
Four moments. Four different campaigns.
The same person searches differently at each stage. Treating them as one keyword list is how physical therapy clinic accounts pay big-ticket click prices for small-ticket searches.
01 · Pain or injury"physical therapy near me", "knee pain treatment", "pt without referral"
Hurting and wants an appointment this week. Online booking and same-week availability win.
02 · Post-surgery"physical therapy after knee replacement", "acl rehab near me"
Referred but choosing the clinic. Post-surgical pages and therapist credentials decide.
Searching for a specific program. Dedicated pages with the therapist's specialty training convert.
04 · Return"[clinic] reviews", "physical therapy open Saturday"
Past patients and referrals. Branded campaign kept separate.
Benchmarks
What good looks like for physical therapists
From our physical therapy clinic accounts across US metros, 2025–2026. "Typical" is what we see when we take an account over. "Good" is where a rebuilt account lands within 90 days.
Metric
Typical account
Good, after the rebuild
Cost per click (search)
$3–$12
$2.50–$8
Cost per lead
$45–$100
$35–$75 after the rebuild
Lead to booked evaluation
40–55%
60%+ with online booking
Cost per booked evaluation
$100–$200
$65–$135
Plan-of-care completion
55–70%
75%+ with scheduling follow-through
Value of a completed plan
$1,100
$1,800+ for specialty programs
Local Services Ads cost per lead
$25–$60
Run alongside search where available
Campaign blueprint
How we structure a physical therapy clinic account.
Campaigns are split by intent and treatment value so budget follows the new patients worth the most.
Direct access (general)Book an evaluation
physical therapy near me · physical therapist [area] · pt without referral
Specialist pelvic health therapists in a private setting. Free phone consultation, most insurance accepted. Book your evaluation online.
Offers that move the close rate
Free phone consultation with a therapist
Same-week evaluation guarantee
Direct access: no referral needed (where allowed)
Self-pay packages with transparent pricing
Free movement screening for athletes and runners
Campaign types
Which Google Ads campaign types we run for physical therapists, and which we skip.
Every campaign type Google offers has a job. Most accounts we audit run the wrong ones, or run the right ones in the wrong order. This is the mix for physical therapists, in the order it is switched on.
CoreRuns from day one and carries most of the budget.
ScaleAdded once booked-job tracking is proven, usually month two or three.
SupportA small budget with one specific job.
Not hereWe would not run it for this account, and we say why.
SearchLSAPMax
Starting split of the monthly budget, rebalanced every month by cost per booked job. Shares are the midpoint of each range.
Core55%of budget
Search
Responsive search ads · exact and phrase match
Why it is core
Direct-access searches, specialty programs (sports, pelvic, vestibular) and post-surgical rehab each get a campaign, because their value per patient and their landing page differ.
How we set it up
One campaign per intent tier, never one campaign for everything
Exact and phrase match with a shared negative list from day one
Ad schedule and bid adjustments around open hours
Location targeting by service area, not a city-wide radius
Scale10%of budget
Local Services Ads
Google Screened / Google Guaranteed · pay per lead
Why it is a scale layer
Physical therapy is eligible for Google Screened in a growing list of metros. We check your area at onboarding and add LSAs once the profile and reviews are verified.
How we set it up
License, insurance and background checks submitted and kept current
Junk leads disputed every week
Reviews synced from Google Business Profile
Cost per booked job compared with search every month
Scale10%of budget
Performance Max
Asset groups across Search, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Maps
Why it is a scale layer
Works for specialty programs and post-surgical rehab once booked-evaluation imports are flowing, with a lead form that captures the referring surgeon and insurance. Added in month two or three.
How we set it up
Never switched on before offline conversions are flowing
Brand exclusions and search themes on every asset group
One asset group per service, with real photos rather than stock
Lead form questions that filter price shoppers
SupportInside search
Call ads
Call-only ads and call assets on mobile
Why it is a support layer
Patients in pain call; others book online or ask about insurance first. Call ads run during front-desk hours and are scored on booked evaluations.
How we set it up
Runs only while the phone is staffed
Calls under 60 seconds left out of the conversion count
Recordings scored weekly so the ad group learns from booked calls
Not here0%of budget
Remarketing (display)
Display ads to past visitors and past callers
Why we skip it
Google's personalized advertising policy bars remarketing built on health treatment interest, which covers physical therapy pages. We do not run it.
What would change our mind
Audiences by page visited at 7, 30 and 90 days. Frequency capped at three a day. One message per service, with the offer in the headline. Customers who already booked are excluded.
Not here0%of budget
Remarketing (video)
YouTube bumpers and skippable in-stream to past visitors
Why we skip it
Same policy limits. A clinic walkthrough video on the landing page does the persuading without personalized targeting.
What would change our mind
Six-second bumper cut from a phone-shot founder video. Audiences shared from the search and display campaigns. Measured on branded search lift and assisted bookings, not views.
Not here0%of budget
Demand Gen
Visual prospecting across YouTube, Discover and Gmail
Why we skip it
Prospecting with treatment creative falls inside the same policy limits and produces low-intent visits. Budget stays in search.
What would change our mind
Lookalikes built from booked customers, not site visitors. Job-site or before-and-after creative. Capped at ten percent of budget until cost per booked job matches search.
How a $5,000 month is split for a physical therapy clinic.
A starting split we adjust every month as the cost per new patient comes in by campaign. The highest-value campaign gets the biggest share because one high-value treatment plan can pay for the month.
Minimum we recommend: $3,000 a month, at least $100 a day.
Direct access (search)
40% Evaluation bookings
Specialty programs
30% Higher-value patients with dedicated pages
Post-surgical
15% Referred patients choosing a clinic
Remarketing & conditions
10% Bring back researchers
Brand
5% Protect the name
Tracking, Local Services Ads and compliance
Measure new patients, not clicks
The account can only be optimized toward what it can see. For physical therapists that means calls with duration, form and booking events, and new patients imported back to Google with a value.
01
What we connect
Call tracking with recording and duration (HIPAA-safe setup)
Evaluations and completed plans from WebPT, Prompt, Jane or your scheduler imported as offline conversions
Online booking events with duplicate removal
GA4 + Google Tag Manager with no PHI captured
Plan-of-care completion as the quality signal
02
Local Services Ads for physical therapists
Available · $25–$60 per lead where available
Physical therapy availability in Local Services Ads varies by market. Where available we run LSAs with search; elsewhere search and remarketing carry the account. We compare cost per booked evaluation by channel.
03
Compliance notes
No patient data in URLs, forms or analytics (HIPAA-safe tracking)
Direct-access rules vary by state; do not claim referral-free care where limits apply
No guaranteed-outcome claims; testimonials with required disclaimers
Insurance-accepted claims must be current
Seasonality
The physical therapy clinic calendar
Budgets that stay flat all year waste money in quiet weeks and starve the account in busy ones. We plan by week around these moves.
January
Insurance resets and resolutions; direct-access searches rise.
Spring
Running, golf and spring sports injuries; marathon season.
Summer
Youth sports and outdoor injuries; ACL and shoulder rehab.
Q4
Use-it-or-lose-it benefits; post-surgical rehab after elective surgeries scheduled before year end.
What the first 90 days look like for a physical therapy clinic
With DGENCY—leads / month—new patients / month—revenue / month
Assumes cost per lead $70 → −30% and lead-to-customer rate 45% → +25% after tracking and structure are fixed, at $1,100 per new patient. Open the full projector to use your own numbers.
Proof
The proof is in the booked jobs
Numbers our clients get paid on, from accounts in healthcare.
Dental
Bright Smile Dental
Austin, TX · $6,500/mo ad budget
$6.40Revenue per $1 of ad spend (from $2.10)
+240%New patient bookings in 4 months
Treatment-specific landing pages (implants, Invisalign, emergency), online booking tracked as a conversion, and Local Services Ads added once reviews passed 100.
8 client stories
★★★★★
“Three agencies before DGENCY. Every one of them sent me a report with a bunch of graphs. Hamid sent me a spreadsheet of booked jobs and what each one cost. That was the whole difference.”
Rick MorenoOwner, Canyon Air Conditioning
★★★★★
“They told me in the first call that my landing page was the problem, not the ads. I did not want to hear it. They were right, and signed cases went from four a month to fourteen.”
Danielle HarperManaging Partner, Harbor Injury Law
★★★★★
“We are a small practice. I was worried we would be too small for a real agency. Hamid looks at our account personally and my front desk knows exactly which new patients came from ads.”
Dr. Sana PatelOwner, Bright Smile Dental
★★★★★
“Our old agency reported clicks. DGENCY reports booked jobs, and the number went from 61 to 140 a month on the same budget once the tracking was honest.”
ME
Marcus EllisonOwner, Summit Air & Heat
★★★★★
“Hamid called our office as a customer before we signed and told us we missed a 4pm call. That is the level of detail. Cost per booked job is down 38 percent.”
LO
Lena OrtizGeneral Manager, TrueLine Plumbing
★★★★★
“Three quotes a week became eleven. The difference was the search terms they cut and the financing line they put in the ad. Nothing fancy, just correct.”
GW
Grant WhitakerOwner, Bluegrass Roofing
★★★★★
“We are a two-attorney firm. They gave us a plan for $5,000 a month and did not try to sell us $20,000. Consults are up 70 percent and the fee is flat.”
PN
Meera NairPartner, Keystone Estate Law
★★★★★
“Quarterly plans at $41 each from Local Services Ads and search together. Our previous agency never turned LSAs on. They did it in week two.”
The same process on every account. Management from $999 a month, never a percentage of spend; your ad budget is paid to Google in your own account. Three-month minimum, then month to month, with the fee dropping to zero if we miss the written target.
01
Weeks 1–2
Audit and tracking rebuild
We audit the account line by line and rebuild the measurement so that only real leads count.
02
Week 2
Blueprint
A written plan that maps your budget to the services and areas that make you the most money.
03
Weeks 3–4
Build
New campaign structure, ad copy and landing pages, built in your account, owned by you.
04
Month 2 onward
Run, learn, scale
Weekly hands-on optimization with AI doing the heavy lifting and Hamid making the calls that matter.
One-time
$299
Account audit
A line-by-line review of your existing Google Ads account, tracking and landing pages, with a written list of what to fix and what it is costing you. Credited toward setup if you continue.
Full hands-on management by Hamid and an experienced Google Ads strategist. Fee scales with the complexity of the account (service lines, locations, campaign types), not with your ad spend.
Everything in phases one to three: tracking rebuild, blueprint, campaign build and the first landing pages. Priced by the number of service lines and locations.
More on the FAQ page, or send your numbers with the growth plan request.
How much should a PT clinic spend on Google Ads?
At least $100 a day and $3,000 or more a month. Multi-therapist clinics with specialty programs often run $4,000 to $8,000 profitably.
What does a physical therapy lead cost?
$45 to $100 per evaluation lead in most metros; specialty program leads $70 to $140. A booked evaluation typically costs $100 to $200.
Does direct access work in our state?
Most states allow some form of direct access; limits vary. We build the campaign within your state's rules and state them plainly on the page.
Can you connect our EMR or scheduler?
Yes. Booked evaluations and completed plans from WebPT, Prompt, Jane or your scheduling widget are imported as offline conversions with a value.
Do Local Services Ads work for PT?
Availability varies by market. Where available we run LSAs with search; where not, search and remarketing carry the account.
Should we advertise specialty programs?
Yes, in their own campaigns. Pelvic health, vestibular and sports programs have less competition, higher value and patients who search specifically for them.
How fast will we see results?
Tracking fixed in two weeks; most PT accounts show a clear drop in cost per booked evaluation by the end of the first full month.
Do you work with single-therapist clinics?
Yes, if you can spend $100 a day and the front desk answers during ad hours.
Ask Hamid directly
Send your numbers and get straight answers in the written plan.
Send your details and Hamid reviews your account, your market and your competitors before the call, then walks you through the five changes that would move your cost per new patient the most. Twenty minutes, a written plan, no obligation.
Step 01
Tell us about your business
Two minutes on the form.
Step 02
We do our homework
Website, landing pages, market and, with read access, your account.
Step 03
You get the plan in writing
A one-page plan you keep either way, and a call to walk through it if you want one.
