2026 BENCHMARK REPORT
Google Ads cost, conversion and seasonality benchmarks for addiction treatment and mental health providers, based on $6.86 million in 2026 ad spend across 50 accounts.
By Ava Garcia, MGMT Digital | Reviewed by Jake Gorman, Partner + COO
Published November 2026 | Last updated: November 2026
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Behavioral health advertisers paid an average of $7.15 per click and $116 per conversion (calls and form fills) on Google Ads from January through September 2026, based on $6.86 million in spend across 50 treatment provider accounts managed by MGMT Digital.
$7.15
Average Google Ads cost per click for behavioral health providers in 2026, across all campaign types
$116
Average cost per conversion (calls and form fills)
$15.33
Average CPC for detox keywords. Residential ($15.41), PHP ($15.51) and IOP ($15.22) cost almost exactly the same.
2.5x
For the typical provider, non-brand clicks cost 2.5 times as much as clicks on their own brand name
4.50% vs. 2.93%
Mobile clicks convert at about 1.5 times the rate of desktop clicks
1.6x
Ad headlines about insurance and cost convert at 1.6 times the rate of standard level-of-care headlines (5.50% vs. 3.41%)
+80%
Cost per click on the same accounts rose 80% in two years ($5.98 to $10.77) as AI Overviews spread, while paid search CTR held steady
17-20% more
Conversions in August and September than in an average month. Search demand for treatment is 21-28% lower in November and December.
This report draws on first-party Google Ads data from 50 addiction treatment and mental health provider accounts, January 1 to September 30, 2026. All figures are anonymized and aggregated.
Accounts are managed by MGMT Digital’s paid advertising team.
| Metric | Value (Jan to Sep 2026) |
|---|---|
| Accounts included | 50 |
| Google Ads spend analyzed | $6.86M |
| Impressions | 23.5M |
| Clicks | 959,789 |
| Average click-through rate (CTR) | 4.09% |
| Average cost per click (CPC) | $7.15 |
| Conversions (calls and form fills) | 59,154 |
| Average cost per conversion | $116 |
What counts as a conversion: phone calls and form fills as tracked in Google Ads, not admissions. Some accounts record more than one conversion per call (for example, separate actions for longer calls), so $116 is a cost per conversion, not a cost per lead.
Source: MGMT Digital Google Ads data. Search keywords, 47 accounts, Jan 1 to Sep 30, 2026. Average CPC = total spend divided by total clicks.
High-intent keywords cost about $15 per click no matter the level of care. Detox ($15.33), residential ($15.41), PHP ($15.51) and IOP ($15.22) are within 30 cents of each other.
Addiction treatment keywords cost more than mental health keywords: $12.54 vs. $9.09 per click across all non-brand searches. Broad terms such as “rehab near me” or “mental health treatment” cost less than searches that name a level of care, and a provider’s own brand name is the cheapest click of all.
These are Search keyword averages. The $7.15 headline CPC is lower because it also includes brand searches and lower-cost campaign types such as Performance Max.
For the typical provider, a non-brand click costs 2.5 times as much as a click on its own brand name. Brand clicks also earn about five times the click-through rate and convert at 10.8%, compared with 3.8% for non-brand.
| Typical provider (median of 38 clients) | Brand keywords | Non-brand keywords |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per click | $3.31 | $10.11 |
| Click-through rate | 30.5% | 6.0% |
| Share of keyword spend | About 4% | About 96% |
| Typical provider (median of 32 clients) | Brand campaigns | Non-brand campaigns |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion rate (calls and form fills) | 10.8% | 3.8% |
| Cost per conversion | $44 | $261 |
| Share of conversions | About 21% | About 79% |
Every one of the 32 providers got cheaper conversions from brand than from non-brand. For the typical provider, a non-brand conversion cost about 5.4 times as much, and brand campaigns delivered about a fifth of all conversions on under 4% of spend.
Brand campaigns are cheap insurance: they keep competitors from capturing people who are already searching for your facility by name. Many of those searchers would have found the facility anyway, so brand results overstate what paid search adds on its own. But most of the budget, and most of the new patient demand, sits in non-brand search, where people look for a level of care, a condition or a location. That is where a provider’s results are won or lost.
Why $261 here and $116 above? The $116 headline figure is total spend divided by total conversions across every campaign type. The brand and non-brand figures are medians for a typical provider, so the two are measured differently and are not directly comparable.
Mobile clicks convert at 4.50%, compared with 2.93% on desktop: about 1.5 times the rate.
People looking for treatment often act in the moment, and a phone puts the call button one tap away. For most providers, that makes the mobile call experience (click-to-call ads, a visible phone number, a fast-loading page and a staffed line) one of the highest-impact parts of a paid search program.
Headlines about insurance and cost convert best: 5.50%, about 1.6 times the rate of standard level-of-care headlines (3.41%), at the lowest cost per conversion of any major theme ($192).
| Headline theme | Example | Accounts | CTR | Conv. rate | Cost per conv. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insurance & cost | “Most Insurance Accepted” | 16 | 4.83% | 5.50% | $192 |
| Social proof & rankings | “Best Rehab Center – Newsweek” | 18 | 3.42% | 4.69% | $252 |
| Luxury & privacy | “Private Rooms & 24/7 Care” | 11 | 4.09% | 3.98% | $297 |
| Brand name | Facility name | 35 | 3.85% | 3.46% | $267 |
| Level of care / condition | “Inpatient Mental Health Care” | 40 | 3.95% | 3.41% | $253 |
| Location | “Rehab Center in [City]” | 23 | 3.75% | 2.44% | $373 |
| Speed & access | “Same Day Admissions” | 15 | 3.65% | 2.16% | $250 |
| Empathy & emotion | “You’re Not Alone Here” | 8 | 2.56% | 1.05% | $529 |
Based on 762 responsive search ad headlines with at least 200 impressions in 2026, across 44 accounts, each grouped into a theme by its message. Responsive search ads show several headlines at once, so these results compare themes directionally rather than isolating any single headline. Cost per conversion here is measured at the headline level, so it runs higher than the $116 account-wide average.
Paid search held its ground as AI Overviews spread across Google, but the price of a click nearly doubled. On the same 12 accounts, cost per click rose 80% in two years, from $5.98 to $10.77, while click-through rate did not fall.
| Search campaigns, Jan to Sep (same 12 accounts) | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid search CTR | 4.22% | 5.16% | 5.13% |
| Average CPC | $5.98 | $7.31 | $10.77 |
| Conversion rate | 5.86% | 4.38% | 6.10% |
Google Ads does not report when an ad appears alongside an AI Overview, so no direct measure exists, and these figures show what changed over the period rather than proving AI Overviews caused it. This comparison tracks the same accounts in the same months before and after AI Overviews rolled out. These figures cover Search campaigns only, so they differ from the all-campaign averages above.
The holiday slump is the strongest seasonal signal: search demand for treatment runs 21-28% below average in November and December, while August and September bring 17-20% more conversions than an average month.
Source: MGMT Digital Google Ads data, Search campaigns, 23 providers with 12 full months in 2024 or 2025. Demand is estimated as impressions divided by search impression share, so budget limits don’t look like drops in demand. US search volume: Ahrefs estimates for six core treatment terms.
Click prices on the same accounts rose 80% in two years, so the providers who win are the ones who turn more of each click into a call.
1. Budget for $15 clicks on high-intent keywords. Detox, residential, PHP and IOP searches all cost about the same, so plan by level-of-care demand, not by assumed price differences.
2. Lead with insurance and cost. Headlines that answer affordability convert at 1.6 times the rate of standard headlines.
3. Build for mobile calls. Mobile converts at about 1.5 times the desktop rate, so call buttons, call tracking and staffed phone lines matter as much as the ads.
4. Protect your brand, then invest in non-brand. Brand clicks are 2.5 times cheaper, but new patient demand lives in non-brand search.
5. Plan around the calendar. Expect softer demand in November and December, and be ready to capture the late-summer conversion peak.
MGMT Digital manages Google Ads for addiction treatment and mental health providers. Get the full report, or talk with our team about how your account stacks up against these benchmarks.
Across all campaign types, behavioral health providers paid an average of $7.15 per click from January through September 2026. Non-brand addiction treatment keywords averaged $12.54, and high-intent searches for detox, residential, PHP and IOP all cost about $15 per click.
The average cost per conversion (calls and form fills) was $116 across 50 accounts. For the typical provider, non-brand campaigns cost $261 per conversion and brand campaigns $44.
For the typical provider, non-brand search campaigns converted at 3.8% and brand campaigns at 10.8%. Mobile clicks converted at 4.50%, compared with 2.93% on desktop.
Headlines about insurance and cost converted best at 5.50%, followed by social proof and rankings at 4.69%. Empathy-led headlines converted lowest, at 1.05%.
August and September bring 17-20% more conversions than an average month, and cost per conversion hits its yearly low. Demand drops 21-28% in November and December, and January has the lowest conversion rate of the year.
Paid search click-through rate held steady as AI Overviews spread, but cost per click on the same 12 accounts rose 80% in two years, from $5.98 to $10.77. Google does not report when ads appear next to AI Overviews, so the effect cannot be measured directly.
This report analyzes anonymized, aggregated Google Ads data from 50 behavioral health client accounts managed by MGMT Digital between January 1 and September 30, 2026, representing $6.86 million in ad spend and 959,789 clicks. Accounts were included if they ran for at least three months during that period, and only months under MGMT Digital management were counted. Year-over-year comparisons use a fixed set of 12 accounts active in every month from January through September of 2024, 2025 and 2026. Conversions include phone calls and form submissions as tracked in Google Ads.
| Section | Data used |
|---|---|
| Headline numbers | All campaign types, 50 accounts, Jan to Sep 2026 |
| CPC by treatment type | Search keywords from 47 accounts, Jan to Sep 2026, each keyword grouped by the level of care and service it names; average CPC = total spend divided by total clicks |
| Brand vs. non-brand | Search keywords, median of 38 accounts with at least 30 clicks in both groups (CPC, CTR); Search campaigns named as brand vs. all others, median of 32 accounts with at least 30 clicks and 5 conversions in both (conversion rate, cost per conversion) |
| Ad copy themes | 762 responsive search ad headlines with at least 200 impressions, 44 accounts |
| AI Overviews | Search campaigns, the same 12 accounts, Jan to Sep of 2024, 2025 and 2026 |
| Seasonality | Search campaigns, 23 accounts with all 12 months of data in 2024 or 2025; demand = impressions divided by search impression share. Also uses Ahrefs US search volume estimates for six core treatment terms. |
MGMT Digital. (2026). 2026 Behavioral Health Google Ads Benchmark Report. https://mgmtdigital.com/google-ads-benchmark-report/
Last updated: November 2026
