You’re running a Google Ads campaign, and you got the dreaded “ads disapproved” message:
Health in personalized advertising.
The good news? You can still run effective Google Ads for your practice without violating HIPAA or getting flagged by Google’s policies.
In this article, I’ll explain exactly what this disapproval means, why it happens, and how you can fix it without putting your practice or agency at risk. You’ll learn what types of campaigns are still allowed, what to avoid, and how to stay compliant while attracting new patients.
At Sagapixel, healthcare digital marketing is our specialty. Since 2017, we’ve helped hundreds of practices across the U.S. run compliant, results-driven Google and Meta ad campaigns, even in highly regulated industries like endocrinology, plastic surgery, and mental health.
Want to grow your practice while protecting your patients’ privacy and staying on the right side of Google’s ad policies? Schedule a call with us today. We’re a healthcare PPC agency that can help you attract the right patients, strengthen your online presence, and build a paid search strategy that supports your long-term growth.
So, What Is Personalized Advertising?
Personalized advertising is when an advertiser like Google or Meta is tailoring ads to a specific user on the internet.
This includes those creepy advertisements you see when you’re on a website looking at something, and then you start seeing ads for all kinds of related products.
Health in Personalized Advertising: What Does It Mean?
“Health in personalized advertising” means you’re delivering that kind of personalized ad about something related to a user’s health.
If you’re a covered entity under HIPAA, that means you’re potentially violating HIPAA, and could be subject to massive fines and potential lawsuits.
Why Is This a Problem?
In order to deliver personalized advertising, you are sending information from your website to Google or Meta. That data tells them:
“This specific person was looking at information related to this specific health condition.”
That implies they may be suffering from that health condition. Neither Google nor Meta will sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), which means they are not responsible for protecting any of the PHI (Protected Health Information) of the people who visit your website.
Legally, it’s no different than a plastic surgeon showing up at a soccer game and telling one of the other dads:
“Hey, you know who came into my office the other day looking to get a facelift?”
Only now, you’re telling Google.
Why Google Disapproves These Ads
In an attempt to avoid potential lawsuits for you and for themselves, Google limits personalized advertising when they see anything related to health or other sensitive categories that could get them into legal trouble.
Can You Still Run Ads?
Yes, it is possible to still run ads. They just can’t be personalized ads.
That means:
- No banner ads that follow people around the web after they visit your website.
- No tailoring ads based on a user’s actions on your site.
Use Standard Google Search Ads Instead
A regular paid search campaign, like bidding on a keyword like “Endocrinologist near me,” doesn’t use any form of personalized advertising.
It’s just placing ads in front of people who have searched that term (or whatever keywords you’re bidding on). You should be okay there, as far as Google is concerned.
Why This Violates HIPAA Regulations
Here’s where it gets tricky.
Google Ads, Google Analytics, Meta—none of them will sign a BAA. That means you are entirely on the hook for how these platforms handle your patient data.
Let’s say you’re an endocrinologist bidding on “endocrinologist near me.”
If someone clicks on your ad, lands on your website, fills out a contact form, and your contact form sends conversion information back to Google Ads, then Google now knows:
- This person is looking for an endocrinologist
- Their specific IP address
- Possibly a unique user ID
- And in particular, if they’re logged into their Gmail account.
You’ve just given patient health information to Google, and they haven’t signed a BAA.
This is a HIPAA violation.
The Legal Risk of Violating HIPAA
As far as the risk of fines or lawsuits, that’s more of a discussion for an attorney, not a marketer.
I am going to shoot a video and write an article to share some tips on minimizing your HIPAA risk when running Google Ads and Facebook Ads. There are steps you can take.
Grow Your Practice with HIPAA-Compliant Ads from Sagapixel
At Sagapixel, we help healthcare providers like you run ads that actually work without breaking HIPAA rules. We handle everything from Google Ads and paid social to landing pages and tracking, helping you bring in the right patients and support your long-term growth.
We are a Facebook Ads agency for healthcare providers and we can get them to run while maintaining HIPAA compliance. Reach out.
