Funding and professional status change by discipline
Private payment, private health, GP Chronic Condition Management Plans, DVA, NDIS and compensable schemes are different pathways. Do not put every funding logo on every service page. Check the practitioner, service and referral requirements, then explain what the reception team needs to confirm before booking. Medicare eligibility for one profession does not extend automatically to everyone in the building.
Physiotherapists, occupational therapists and psychologists are Ahpra-regulated; speech pathologists, dietitians and exercise physiologists have different professional accreditation arrangements. Use accurate titles and credentials. A self-regulated profession is not free to make unsupported claims: consumer law and relevant professional codes still matter. Joint campaigns need wording appropriate to the services they actually advertise.
How we would structure the search account
Create a capacity map before an account structure. Identify which disciplines, age groups, locations and appointment formats need enquiries. Separate a private physio booking from an OT assessment or speech pathology referral where the landing page and intake process differ. Avoid splitting every clinician into a separate campaign when the same service and location can be managed together.
Give each funded pathway an accurate destination. A DVA search, an NDIS therapy enquiry and a private health query need different information. Review search terms with reception so the account does not keep buying work the practice cannot accept. Keep a record of full services and paused appointment types, then revisit campaigns as staff availability changes.
Search themes to assess against your service scope
- physiotherapy [suburb]
- occupational therapy assessment [area]
- speech pathology [area]
- psychologist [area]
- dietitian appointment [area]
- exercise physiology [area]
- NDIS therapy [discipline] [area]
- DVA allied health [discipline]
We tailor these ideas to your services, audience and advertising requirements.
A starter negative-keyword review
Starter negatives include jobs, salary, university, degree, course and equipment. Review report-writing, mobile visits, age groups and funding searches against actual scope before excluding them; some are valuable referral intent for the right discipline.
What the landing page needs to answer
Use discipline-specific pages with clinician availability, appointment setting, referral requirements and accepted funding arrangements. A generic list of professions is insufficient when the booking team needs to triage the enquiry.
Capacity is more precise than a practice-wide waitlist
Record availability by discipline, clinician, age group, location and appointment format. A paediatric referral may need an assessment pathway rather than the next generic slot. A mobile visit needs travel coverage and a suitable setting. A psychology enquiry may need a different referral document from a private physiotherapy booking. These details should guide both the landing page and the intake team.
Referral development also needs useful information. Give GPs and other referrers an accurate service summary and secure handover route. Do not promise reciprocal referrals or promote care simply to fill a diary. Reports should show which discipline gained an appropriate enquiry and whether the team had capacity to accept it.
What the available search-cost data can tell you
There is no single allied health CPC. In the Q3 2026 Australian dataset, the only physiotherapy term with a published average CPC is "dry needling near me" at $6.03. The only priced chiropractic term is "chiropractor near me" at $8.11. Your own campaign data sets the real cost per lead for each discipline.
We set a test around the services and locations you can take on, forecast clicks conservatively and review real enquiries before expanding. Ad spend sits separately from management.
Advertising and communication boundaries
Check advertising claims against the profession delivering the service. Use Ahpra requirements for regulated health services and the applicable professional and consumer obligations for others. Avoid patient testimonials about regulated clinical care, blanket rebate claims and guaranteed outcomes. Sensitive client information must stay out of advertising audience lists and event data unless a proposed use is both lawful and platform-permitted.
Use: "Occupational therapy appointments for the age groups our team supports." Avoid: "NDIS covers every service in our clinic." Funding and eligibility need individual checks.
Understand which enquiries become appointments
Agree which actions count before changing bids. A call-button click, an answered call, a submitted form and a confirmed appointment are different events. Check booking completion data against the actual system and deduplicate enquiries across phone and form. We report confirmed bookings separately from calls and form enquiries, and explain any gaps in tracking.
We track calls without recording every conversation, and any recording runs through a consent process. Clinical notes, diagnoses and referral documents stay out of analytics and advertising audiences.
How we would judge the work
Report cost and appropriate enquiries by discipline and location. Reconcile duplicates across phone and referral forms. Keep booking and attendance distinct, and explain where missing system data prevents a reliable cost-per-appointment figure.
Five mistakes to check in an audit
- One campaign for every profession. Shared budgets can fill the busiest discipline while leaving a new clinician invisible. Separate meaningful service and location decisions.
- All practitioners described as Ahpra registered. Use each profession's actual registration or accreditation status rather than a blanket clinic claim.
- Funding logos replace eligibility information. State the referral and eligibility checks for the specific service. Do not imply that a logo guarantees payment.
- A waitlist blocks all enquiry paths. Show availability by discipline and location so one full service does not obscure another with capacity.
- Referrals and enquiries counted twice. Deduplicate phone, form and referral records before judging acquisition. Keep clinical information in the practice system.
Related service information and reading
See our marketing approach for allied health practices and healthcare Google Ads service information. Related services: Meta Ads for allied health practices, Website design for allied health practices, SEO for allied health practices.
Compare the separate physiotherapy search benchmarks and speech pathology data and its limits before assuming one cost applies to every discipline.
Further reading: Allied Health Google Ads; Allied Health Referrals; DVA Scraps the $5,000 Allied Health Cap: What Providers Need to Know.
Check the applicable rules: Ahpra advertising guidance; Google Ads healthcare policy guidance.
Get a free Google Ads audit to discuss the services, capacity and enquiry pathways that matter for your organisation.
Updated 4 October 2026.
