Google Ads for Oncologists: Keywords, Exclusions and Landing Pages

Many oncology searches happen late at night. A daughter types "breast cancer surgeon" and the city name at one in the morning, after a long day at the hospital with her mother. A son searches "second opinion for cancer treatment" because the first plan frightened him. These are not impulse clicks. They are some of the most serious searches anyone ever makes. Google Ads can put your centre in front of those families, but only if every part of the account, from keywords to landing page, is built with the honesty the moment demands.

How should an oncology practice structure Google Ads?

Create one campaign per cancer type or service you lead with, each with its own budget, plus a campaign for second opinions. Inside each, split keywords into treatment, cost, near-me and condition searches. Use exact and phrase match at the start.

Condition searches deserve special care. Someone searching about a lump or a non-healing ulcer is worried, not diagnosed. Send them to a calm evaluation page that explains what an examination involves, with a small budget, and never use language that frightens.

Add a small campaign on your own name and your centre's name. Families often search a doctor after a referral, and they should find you first.

Set the location with your real catchment in mind. Oncology families travel further than most, often from neighbouring districts and states, so the radius is usually wider than for other specialities. Add the specific towns that already send you patients, and the towns where you run outreach clinics, as their own locations so you can see how each performs.

Which searches should an oncology account exclude?

Build the negative list before launch:

• Drug names. Chemotherapy, immunotherapy and other prescription medicines. Google does not allow prescription drug promotion for India, and those searches are usually about buying medicines.
• Unproven cures. Herbal cure, cure without surgery, natural cure, home remedy. Google bans ads for unproven medical techniques, and no ethical centre wants to appear next to them.
• Careers and courses: oncology nursing course, fellowship admission, job, salary.
• Insurance products: cancer insurance policy, cancer cover plan. These are people buying insurance, not seeking care.
• Free and government: free treatment, government hospital, unless you are empanelled for a government scheme. If you are, give that its own campaign and page.
• Pets: dog cancer, cat tumour. More common than you would think.

Review the search terms report every week. Add each irrelevant search as a negative, and turn each useful one into a keyword.

What should an oncology landing page say?

Never send an oncology ad to the homepage. A family searching for breast cancer treatment should land on a breast cancer page written for them.

That page should explain who the team is: the surgical, medical and radiation oncologists who plan care together. It should explain what happens at the first visit, which reports to bring and how soon a new patient can be seen. It should describe the kinds of treatment you offer in plain language, without promising outcomes. It should explain how estimates work, which insurers and schemes you accept, and what support exists for nutrition, counselling and side effects. And it should make contact easy: click-to-call, WhatsApp and a short form.

The second-opinion page needs its own process: how to share reports securely, who reviews them, the turnaround you can honestly keep, and what the written opinion contains.

Three things never appear on any page: the word "cure" used as a promise, survival figures used as advertising, and anything designed to frighten. Google reviews where your ad sends people, and families can tell the difference between information and pressure. Check the current NMC regulations as well.

What should a new oncology patient cost you on Google?

Use the same benchmark as every speciality: a cost per new patient of roughly 10 to 20% of first-year value, worked out per campaign.

Here is an example. Say the first-year value of a breast cancer treatment plan at your centre averages ₹4 lakh. Ten to twenty per cent is ₹40,000 to ₹80,000. Now say the campaign spends ₹1,20,000 in a month and brings 80 enquiries at ₹1,500 each. If half book a first visit, that is 40. If 34 attend and 12 begin treatment with you, each new patient cost ₹10,000. That is well inside the range.

The figure that matters most is not the cost, though. It is how many families who enquired started care with you, and how quickly. Track every enquiry to treatment start in your CRM, count calls, forms and WhatsApp clicks as conversions, and send back which enquiries became patients. Health is a restricted category for personalised ads on Google, so you cannot follow visitors with remarketing. Our CRM and WhatsApp setup handles this tracking.

Where do oncology Google Ads go wrong?

1. Fear in the copy. Ads that frighten families break the rules and destroy trust.
2. "Best cancer hospital" claims that can't be shown to be true.
3. Drug names in ads or keywords, which breaks Google's policy for India.
4. Ads running at night with nobody to respond. Caregivers search late. Have an instant, compassionate WhatsApp reply and a call first thing in the morning.
5. Judging by clicks. In oncology, a click means nothing until a family is seen and supported.

If you would like us to review your account, our patient acquisition team works with oncology practices, and you can begin with a growth call.

The short version

• Run a campaign for each cancer type or service you lead with, plus one for second opinions.
• Exclude drug names, unproven cures, courses, insurance products and pet searches.
• Send each ad to a calm, honest page that explains the team, the first visit, estimates and support.
• Never use fear, cure promises or survival figures in ads or on pages.
• Judge every campaign by families who start care, and how quickly.