Paid search can generate an abundance of qualified leads or a slow financial leak, depending entirely on how it’s configured. In the context of ABA therapy, where margins are tight and the patient journey is impacted by many outside factors (insurance, assessments, and personal factors, Google Ads requires a different level of precision. Our target audience are often comprised of anxious parents making clinical decisions that affect their child’s development. Everything about your campaign, from the bid strategy to the post-click journey, has to account for that.
This ABA Marketing Guide breaks down the backbone of what it takes to run high-performing ABA Google Ads campaigns that generate qualified leads.
Before a single ad is created, research should already be in motion with keyword research being just one part of the equation. Understanding how families search for help, what they expect to find, and how local competitors position themselves is your first step. A your competitors addressing teens, bilingual therapy, or insurance FAQs in their ad copy or landing pages?
If not that may be your opening.
The best campaigns don’t start with “what are people searching?” but rather “where is the gap in expectation vs. experience?” From there, your keyword targeting becomes sharper, more long-tail, and more aligned with user intent.
Message-Matched Landing Pages
Most ABA therapy ads fail in the same place: post-click.
Clinics run an ad promising “book a free ABA intake,” and then direct people to a homepage with seven tabs, a phone number buried in the footer, and no clear path to schedule.
The ad and landing page should read like they were written by the same person, in the same session. Same offer. Same phrasing. Same tone. This alignment doesn’t just increase conversions, it helps to reduce cost per click through higher quality scores.
Tools like Unbounce make it easier to clone message-matched landing pages at scale, especially when you’re running location-specific campaigns or targeting different age groups or conditions (early signs, teen support, behavioral challenges, etc.).
Don’t overlook form friction either: Too many fields, unclear buttons, or clunky mobile formatting will destroy even the best message-matched journey.
Tracking Tools
ABA clinics are often data-driven and have invested in a solid CRM, but when it comes to therapy, but surprisingly lax when it comes to marketing analytics. Without granular tracking, there’s no way to know which ads actually lead to assessments or evaluations.
Here’s what should be in place before launching:
CallRail: Dynamic number insertion + session-based call tracking tied to keywords.
Google Tag Manager: Used to fire event-based triggers on clicks, scroll depth, and form submissions.
Zapier: Pushes lead data directly into your CRM, and optionally back into Google Ads as an offline conversion event.
Consent Management: Especially for HIPAA compliance. If you’re using analytics or retargeting tools, consent and anonymization tools are not optional.
The goal is attribution and campaign learning. Without data, your bid strategy is based on a wish and a prayer and little more.
Bidding for Behavior
There’s no universal best bidding strategy. It depends entirely on volume, competition, and available conversion data. But here’s what works most consistently in autism therapy campaigns:
1. Maximize Conversions with Target CPA
If you’ve got consistent conversion data flowing in, 30+ per month minimum, Google’s machine learning can work in your favor. Use historical intake cost to set your CPA. Example: If it costs $180 to get a new assessment booked and your LTV can support a $250 acquisition cost, don’t try to game the system by setting it to $100. You’ll restrict delivery and lose momentum.
2. Manual CPC with Enhanced CPC
More control, better for clinics in smaller markets or early-stage campaigns. Use manual bidding to test match types, segment performance by zip codes, and isolate keyword winners.
3. Broad Match + Smart Bidding ( with Guardrails)
Broad match is dangerous in autism therapy; without a negative keyword list, you’ll show up for unrelated queries. But when paired with strict location targeting, a strong negative keyword set, and Target CPA bidding, it can find untapped opportunities.
Avoid “maximize clicks”, you’ll simply bleed budget.
4. Bid Locally
Parents are not searching nationally. They’re looking for help near them. Geo-targeted campaigns should reflect that. Build ad groups and landing pages by region, down to the neighborhood if you’re in a dense urban area.
Consider:
“ABA therapy Brooklyn toddlers”
“Autism diagnosis help Toronto teens”
“Early intervention Vaughan autism”
Also, account for insurance-specific and culturally specific queries, especially in diverse communities. Don’t underestimate the volume in those niche segments.
Budget Realities: What You Should Expect to Spend
Spend depends on your market, but here’s a data-driven starting point:
Low competition markets: $1,500/month to test POC
Urban/suburban mix: $2,500–$5,000/month for single-location clinics
Multi-site clinics or aggressive scale: $7,500–$15,000/month including landing page infrastructure, A/B testing, and call tracking
What matters is not what you spend, it’s what you recover. A campaign with a $250 cost per lead and a 20% consultation-to-client conversion rate might sound expensive until you calculate client LTV at $6,000–$12,000+ per year.
Common ABA Google Ad Mistakes That Burn Budget
Most of the waste in ABA paid campaigns stems from avoidable errors. The big ones:
Homepage routing: Sending paid traffic to your homepage is the fastest way to kill conversions. Instead, opt for unique, message-matched landing pages using a tool like Unbounce.
No negative keyword list: Expect to pay for clicks from ABA job seekers, students researching autism, and general education traffic unless you explicitly block negative it out.
Too many steps to convert: “Call us,” “Fill out this 10-field form,” then wait for a callback from an admin who’s double-booked. This is how you lose leads. Ensure that you have a phone number that immediately directs to a human. Ensure form leads are responded to within an hour of landing in your inbox.
Non-HIPAA-compliant ad retargeting: If you’re running remarketing on pages that involve health conditions or PHI, you’re at risk of getting your account suspended.
Why ABA Clinics Choose SunHouse Marketing
At SunHouse our goal isn’t to simply drive leads but to work with you through the entire conversion funnel to ensure we drive revenue. Whether you’re looking to fill open slots, launch a new location, or fine-tune your funnel, we can help.
Book a free discovery call with our ABA marketing team and see how we can build a smarter digital engine for your clinic.
