Advertisers have to go through seven circles of hell to get medical ads to start showing up on Google and Yandex.
Certification, sending documents every time you launch an advertisement, strict content
requirements, high rates, limited targeting – this is far from a complete list of difficulties when launching an advertisement for a medical center.
In this article, we will tell you what you may encounter when launching an advertisement for a
medical center, how to set it up, and how to go through this process as painlessly as possible.
Requirements for advertising medical services
Before launching an advertisement on a medical topic, you need to find out the requirements of
advertising systems and the legislation of the countries in which the advertisement will be shown.
In Russia, this is the law “On Advertising”. Until 2014, its provisions completely prohibited the display of advertisements for medical services on the Internet. In 2014, this ban was lifted. Now, it is possible
to advertise medical centers and medical services, but with restrictions. And these restrictions are taken into account by advertising platforms.
Requirements for medical ads in Google Ads
In Google Ads policies, medical topics, like pharmaceuticals, are included in the section “Content and
features with restrictions” . Google allows advertising of medical products and services, but the ads must comply with “all applicable laws and industry standards”. Therefore, the advertiser should be
aware of the laws of the regions in which he wants to advertise.
List of medical services that are prohibited from being advertised on Google in the Russian
Federation:
- Unproven/experimental treatments . This includes stem cell treatments, gene therapy,
- cell therapy, etc. Advertisements for experimental treatments may be shown in, for example,
- Israel, Belgium, Vietnam, Germany (full list of countries here ).
Interes
tingly, there is an advert for the Google search ebay database query “gene therapy Moscow”. But this is not an advert
for a medical service, but for a scientific conference:
- Recruitment of people willing to participate in medical experiments and
- research . In Russia, such advertising is prohibited. But in Belgium, Australia, Singapore,
- Korea and a number of other European and Asian countries, it can be shown with certain
- restrictions. For example, it is forbidden to keep in mind that content provide information about prescription drugs or mislead people about the expected results of research.
- Abortions . If you run an ad for abortion services, Google will assign the ad the status
- “Approved with restrictions”. Abortions are prohibited by law in Russia. Therefore, when
- targeting Russia, the ad will not be shown. But when targeting a country where they are
- allowed, the ad will be shown.
But no
t everything is so clear. For example, Ukraine belgium numbers is also on the list of countries where abortion
advertising is prohibited. But in the example below, the clinic found a way to bypass moderation by
simply writing in the ad title “Two stripes at the wrong time?” The target audience will immediately
understand this message.