Advertising Your GP Clinic as a ​​COVID-19 Vaccination Provider On Google

General practices play a crucial role in Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategy. More than 5,000 general practices now engage in the national COVID-19 vaccination program, providing vaccines in the local community to increase immunisation coverage, making them a critical part of Australia’s road to recovery. The Therapeutic Goods and Administration (TGA) indicates on their latest update that “an approved COVID-19 vaccination provider” is allowed to promote the vaccines registered on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods and they are also authorised to communicate the availability of the relevant vaccine brands to the eligible patients. 

Eligibility Criteria to Promote on Google

• In order to be eligible for covid vaccination advertising on Google, you must be an authorised vaccination provider. 

• It is necessary to get your Google ads account whitelisted by Google for covid vaccination advertising.

Lawful Advertising of COVID-19 Vaccines – TGA Policies

Advertising content regarding the COVID-19 vaccination program is strictly regulated and the guidelines are constantly changing depending on the government policy. Current regulations of Therapeutic Goods and Administration (TGA) states that any advertising content should be consistent with current Commonwealth health messaging.

The content should not contain:

• Vaccine trade name, sponsor name or active ingredient, unless the advertisement is created by an approved COVID-19 vaccination provider.

• Any statement or implication comparing different COVID-19 vaccines or treatments (eg: comparing vaccines with medicines).

• Any statements that imply that COVID-19 vaccines cannot cause harm or have no side effects.

• Any statements about COVID-19 vaccines that is false and/or misleading.

Promoting unregistered vaccine products is forbidden, along with the promotion of any other registered or unregistered medicine for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19. Please visit the TGA website for more information on covid vaccination advertising.

Whitelisting Your Google Ads Account

In order to run covid vaccination ads on Google, you should be a registered medical practice and also “an approved COVID-19 vaccination provider” in your local area. Google will take this into consideration when approving your ad account. Also, a major factor considered by Google is the authenticity of your Google ads account.

Therefore, your account history may affect whether Google will authorise your account to run ads related to the COVID vaccine. This is because keywords around COVID are considered highly sensitive by Google. This is a manual process that we need to initiate with Google and it will take up to 3-5 days.

Complying With the Current Guidelines 

TGA guidelines state that any party can create their own advertising content to promote COVID-19 vaccines as long as the content is in alignment with the Commonwealth health messaging in regards to the safety and use of the vaccine. This means that as long as your advertising provides the information previously published on Australian Government websites it can be considered as compliant with the guidelines in this aspect. 

However, the material published by the Commonwealth is constantly being updated in accordance with changes to new research and Government policy. It is important to keep updated so that the message conveyed by advertising material is current and compliant. Furthermore, health professionals must also comply with the requirements of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. 

How Will the Covid Vaccination Google Ads Look?

Where Will Your Covid Vaccination Google Ads Appear?

The Covid vaccination Google Ads will appear within a defined radius around your medical practice. Our team of digital marketing specialists will help you to create an effective local area marketing strategy to target individuals who are actively searching for the most common keywords such as “covid-19 vaccination providers near me”. The covid vaccination Google Ads can also be promoted within the surrounding suburbs to increase bookings.

How to Track Conversions?

If you are using a practice management booking platform, you can start tracking how many people came through your Covid vaccination Google ads and booked an appointment online. You can also track any calls from your campaign by enabling call tracking on Google Ads. 

If you would like to advertise your GP Clinic as a ​​COVID-19 vaccination provider and encourage your local community to get vaccinated, please get in touch with SearchMax – a Google Premier Partner that offers digital marketing services in Australia.