Google Ads for dermatologists means showing up in the sponsored results when someone searches for "dermatologist" plus a town, "private dermatologist" or "mole check", and paying only for the click. On 12 November 2026 we checked 14 patient searches in six Italian cities: only 2 results pages showed ads, 5 ads in total, and none of them came from a dermatology practice (Visilay survey with DataForSEO).
In the UK the space is far more crowded. And far more expensive: "dermatologist london" averages $6.49 a click, "dermatologist near me" $3.21 (Google Ads, United Kingdom, last 12 months).
So why do so many practices give up on Google Ads?
Because most of them hit the same three walls:
- the word "Botox" in the ad or on the page, which Google rejects outside the US, Canada and New Zealand;
- remarketing to people who read the acne page, which Google does not allow for health content;
- sending the click to the home page, where the patient finds neither a price nor a calendar and goes back to a booking portal.
The numbers only work when every enquiry is tracked. With Contesini, starting from zero, a new landing page and local campaigns brought in 299 enquiries at €7.20 each, and 68% became sales opportunities. Different sector, same method: one page per service, every contact measured.
In this guide you will find:
- who is buying the clicks on dermatology searches today (spoiler: the portals);
- what a click costs, in Italy and in the UK, for medical and cosmetic searches;
- the words Google refuses and what to write instead;
- how to split the account, which keywords to exclude and how much to budget.
Let's start.
Who buys the clicks on dermatology searches (5 ads on 14 pages, none from a practice)
We ran 14 patient searches on 12 November 2026 between 11:35 and 11:40 UTC (Google desktop, location set to each Italian city). 12 results pages had no ads at all. The two with ads were "dermatologo torino" (dermatologist Turin) and "mappatura nei milano" (mole mapping Milan).
Who was paying?
Doctolib twice on the Turin search, once at the top and once mid-page. Then a private outpatient clinic. On the Milan mole-mapping search, two ads at the bottom of the page: Elty, promising "mole mapping at a clear price, mole check for €100 or less", and MioDottore.
Four ads out of five came from booking portals.
| Search (city) | Ads | Who buys them | AI Overview | Local pack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dermatologist Milan | 0 | - | yes | yes |
| dermatologist Rome | 0 | - | yes | yes |
| dermatologist Turin | 3 | Doctolib (2), outpatient clinic | yes | yes |
| dermatologist Naples | 0 | - | yes | yes |
| dermatologist Bologna | 0 | - | yes | yes |
| dermatologist Palermo | 0 | - | yes | yes |
| mole mapping Milan | 2 | Elty, MioDottore | yes | no (a clinic's profile) |
| mole mapping Rome | 0 | - | yes | yes |
| private dermatology visit (Milan) | 0 | - | yes | yes |
| online dermatologist (Rome) | 0 | - | yes | no |
| mole removal (Milan) | 0 | - | yes | no |
| lip filler Milan | 0 | - | yes | yes |
| botox Milan | 0 | - | yes | yes |
| dermatologist near me (Turin) | 0 | - | yes | yes |
Does that mean Google Ads doesn't work for dermatologists?
No. It means the people buying today sell bookings, they don't see patients. The portal pays for the click on your city and takes the booking.
The same portal is also the source Google's AI Overviews quote most: MioDottore appeared in 10 of the 12 Italian pages where the sources were readable. We measured the organic side in our guide to dermatology SEO. An ad is the fastest way to sit above the portal on the same search.
What a click costs a dermatologist (from $0.39 in Naples to $6.49 in London)
In Italy the average cost of a click on dermatology searches runs from $0.39 to $1.91; in the UK the main searches cost between $3 and $6.50. These are the figures Google Ads returns, pulled with DataForSEO on 12 November 2026.
| Search | Market | Searches a month | Average CPC ($) | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dermatologist near me | UK | 27,100 | 3.21 | medium |
| dermatologist london | UK | 8,100 | 6.49 | high |
| skin clinic near me | UK | 4,400 | 3.17 | medium |
| private dermatologist | UK | 3,600 | 3.04 | high |
| dermatologo (dermatologist) | Italy | 22,200 | 0.77 | low |
| mappatura nei (mole mapping) | Italy | 8,100 | 0.85 | low |
| dermatologo milano | Italy | 3,600 | 1.55 | medium |
| dermatologo roma | Italy | 3,600 | 0.70 | medium |
| dermatologo napoli | Italy | 1,900 | 0.39 | low |
| dermatologo capelli (hair) | Italy | 590 | 1.91 | medium |
| filler labbra (lip filler) | Italy | 18,100 | 0.96 | high |
Three things stand out.
London costs four times Milan, and Milan costs twice Rome: $6.49, $1.55 and $0.70.
Medical searches face low competition, cosmetic ones high. In Italy "mole mapping" scores 19 out of 100 on Google's competition index, "lip filler" 100. In the UK "private dermatologist" already sits at 73.
Peaks are predictable. In the UK "dermatologist near me" climbs to 33,100 searches a month from January to May 2026 and drops to 27,100 for the rest of the year. Raise the budget at the end of winter, not in August.
The words Google won't accept (Botox, isotretinoin, finasteride)
Outside the United States, Canada and New Zealand, a Google ad cannot name a prescription-only medicine, neither in the ad nor on the landing page. The rule sits in Google's policy on restricted drug terms: promotional use is allowed only for campaigns targeting those three countries.
What does that have to do with a dermatologist?
Quite a lot. Google's list of monitored prescription drugs includes "botox", "botulinum toxin" and "dysport", but also isotretinoin (severe acne) and finasteride (hair loss). Three of the things a dermatologist talks about most.
In the UK there is a second layer. The ASA's guidance on cosmetic interventions highlights "the prohibition on advertising prescription-only medicines, such as Botox", and covers before-and-after images and ads targeted at under-18s.
The Italian market shows the effect. "Botox" gets 14,800 searches a month in Italy and "botox prezzo" (Botox price) 480, yet Google Ads returns no cost per click for either. On "botox Milan" our survey found zero ads.
So what can you do? Advertise the consultation, not the drug.
| In the ad or on the page | Allowed? |
|---|---|
| Aesthetic medicine consultation in Manchester | yes |
| Treatment for expression lines, first consultation with the doctor | yes, if the page doesn't name the drug |
| Botox from £199 | no: prescription-only medicine named |
| Acne treatment with isotretinoin | no: same reason |
| Mole check, £150 | yes: a price is information |
| Guaranteed results in 3 sessions | no: promise of results |
| Stem cell therapy for hair loss | no: Google does not allow cell therapy promotion outside the US |
Cell therapies fall under Google's Healthcare and medicines policy, which does not allow their promotion except, under conditions, in the United States.
Remarketing on health is off the table
Then there is the second rule, the one most practices discover after launch.
Google treats health as a sensitive interest category: its policy on health in personalised advertising covers physical conditions, chronic illness and invasive medical procedures, "including cosmetic surgery, surgical procedures or injections".
For a dermatologist that is almost everything: psoriasis, eczema, acne, fillers.
For those promotions you cannot use audience segments you build yourself: no remarketing to visitors of the psoriasis page, no Customer Match with your patient list. Keywords, location and Google's predefined segments remain.
For a practice it is hardly a limit: someone searching "private dermatologist leeds" has already said what they want.
Ads disapproved before they even start?
One drug name on the landing page is enough to get your ads disapproved, and uploading a patient list for remarketing breaks Google's health rules. Let's review your keywords, ads and pages together before the campaign spends a single pound.
Book a strategy callHow to structure a dermatology practice account (medical and cosmetic apart)
A dermatologist's account works best with two Search campaigns: one for medical dermatology and one for cosmetic treatments, each with its own budget. On the first US page for "google ads for dermatologists", both Pravaah Consulting and Tandem Medical Marketing put this first, and the data explains why: the two sides have different competition, costs and rules.
Campaign 1, medical. Ad groups follow the services:
- dermatology consultation + town, "dermatologist" + town, "dermatologist near me";
- mole checks and mole mapping;
- mole removal;
- hair and scalp, the most expensive medical click in Italy at $1.91;
- paediatric dermatology, if you offer it.
Campaign 2, cosmetic. Fillers, skin boosters, chemical peels. No drug names in keywords or on the page. With competition at 100, start with a few phrase-match keywords and a low spending cap.
What about Performance Max?
Not as your first campaign: it decides which searches to show you on, and you lose control over the very clicks you pay for. When it makes sense is in our guide to Performance Max. For a multi-specialty clinic, follow the structure in our guide to Google Ads for doctors.
Location and ad copy
Location is the radius patients will travel: 10-15 km in a city, more in the country. In location options choose "Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations", as Google's help page on out-of-area clicks explains, or you will pay for clicks from people elsewhere searching "dermatologist london" out of curiosity.
In the ads, put what a patient wants to know before calling: service, area, waiting time, price of the first consultation. Add call and location assets linked to your Google Business Profile.
The landing page
Each ad group goes to its own page: mole checks to the mole-check page, with price, duration and calendar. On the home page the patient has to search again for what they just searched on Google. What those pages need is in our guide to the dermatology website.
Count three conversions: call from the ad, call from the site, completed booking. Never send Google the reason for the visit: "psoriasis" or "acne" must not appear in event names or confirmation URLs.
Negative keywords (the most expensive clicks are the ones you don't want)
A private dermatologist's negative keywords are searches from people looking for public care, a free visit or a career. In Italy they are, as it happens, the most expensive.
| Italian search to exclude | Searches a month | Average CPC ($) |
|---|---|---|
| dermatologo asl (public health dermatologist) | 70 | 2.42 |
| dermatologo convenzionato (state-contracted) | 210 | 1.98 |
| come diventare dermatologo (how to become one) | 110 | 1.82 |
| dermatologo gratis (free) | 50 | 1.74 |
| visita dermatologica ssn (state health service) | 170 | 1.12 |
The public-health search costs more than three times the generic "dermatologo" ($2.42 against $0.77). The UK equivalent list writes itself: nhs, free, gp referral, salary, training, jobs, course, university. If you take NHS referrals, keep "nhs" in: the rule is for private practices.
After that, check the search terms report weekly for the first month. Google's guide to negative keywords explains how to add them.
How much budget a dermatologist needs (a worked example)
A sensible minimum for a private practice is the amount that buys around 300 clicks a month on the medical campaign: below that you cannot tell which searches bring patients.
A worked example with stated assumptions, for a practice outside London:
- real cost per click of £3.00, just above the averages above, because you want the top spots;
- £900 a month, so about 300 clicks;
- 6 clicks in 100 become a call or a booking.
Result: about 18 enquiries a month, at roughly £50 each.
Whether that pays depends on your fees: a consultation, a mole check a year later, perhaps a small excision. But do the maths on attended appointments, not enquiries.
Cosmetic treatments need a budget of their own, so they don't eat into the medical campaign in peak months. The method for setting a budget from the value of a patient is in our guide to Google Ads for small businesses.
When Google Ads isn't worth it for a dermatologist (and what to fix first)
Google Ads is not worth it for a practice booked up two months ahead, for a dermatologist working only on NHS referrals, or for one promoting mostly injectables, where the product cannot be named.
It also fails with a site that can't hold the click. If the mole-check page shows no price or waiting time, the patient goes back and books on the portal advertising below you: you paid, someone else got the booking. Page first, campaign second. It is the same pattern we describe for a website that doesn't generate leads.
The reverse holds too: ads pay off most where the organic page belongs to portals and directories. How to keep the cost per enquiry down is covered in our guide to lead generation for dermatologists.
Google Ads and AI answers (what gets quoted when a patient asks for a dermatologist)
Ads do not appear inside ChatGPT answers or AI Overviews: AI tools quote pages, business profiles and portals, not ads. In our Italian survey AI Overviews appeared on 14 pages out of 14, and among readable sources MioDottore showed up in 10, practices' Google profiles in 8.
The pages you build for Google Ads, though, are the same pages AI can quote.
We tested it: asked in Italian how a dermatologist can use Google Ads in Italy (ChatGPT with web search, 12 November 2026, via DataForSEO), ChatGPT cited the Italian Ministry of Health, the Italian medical council, two Google policies and, for click costs, our own article on dermatology SEO. It took the numbers from whoever had put them in a table.
The same goes for a practice: a mole-check page with price, duration, doctor and address is what an AI can pick up when a patient asks "where can I get a mole check in Leeds". No guarantees, but without the page the chance is zero. The method is in our guide to local AI visibility, and our GEO service covers it in depth.
Frequently asked questions about Google Ads for dermatologists
Yes. Google accepts ads from medical practices, with limits on prescription drug names and on personalised audiences. In the UK the ad must also follow the ASA rules on cosmetic interventions.
No. Botox and botulinum toxin are on Google's list of monitored prescription drugs, and outside the US, Canada and New Zealand those terms cannot appear in ads or on landing pages. In the UK the ASA also highlights the prohibition on advertising prescription-only medicines. Advertise the consultation instead.
It depends: on town and service. On 12 November 2026 Google Ads showed $3.21 for "dermatologist near me" and $6.49 for "dermatologist london" in the UK, against $0.39 to $1.91 for Italian dermatology searches.
No. Google treats health as a sensitive category, including conditions, chronic illness and procedures such as injections: for those promotions you cannot use audience segments you build yourself, so no remarketing and no Customer Match.
It depends: a portal brings bookings straight away but they stay on the portal, an ad brings the patient to your own page. In our Italian survey 4 ads out of 5 came from portals: a local campaign lets you sit above them on your own town's search.
Google Ads for dermatologists, in short (and what to check tomorrow morning)
In Italy the ad space is almost empty: 5 ads on 14 searches, none from a practice.
In the UK clicks cost $3 to $6.50, London four times Milan.
No "Botox", isotretinoin or finasteride in the ad or on the page.
No remarketing on health pages.
Two campaigns, medical and cosmetic, with separate budgets.
Exclude public-care searches from day one.
Tomorrow morning, search "dermatologist" plus your town on your phone and look at who sits above you. If it is a portal selling bookings, that portal is paying to reach your patients: the search is worth money, and you are leaving it to them.
If you want us to look at your searches, costs and pages together, see our Google Ads service or get in touch. Speak soon!
