Google Ads for doctors
Google reviews your ad against its own commercial policy. AHPRA enforces section 133 of the National Law. Those are two different tests, and passing one tells you nothing about the other.
The exposure
Those maximums sit directly under section 133 in the statute, and they apply per offence. A lot of guidance online still quotes $5,000 and $10,000, which are the pre-2022 figures.
The subsection nobody quotes
A person does not commit the offence merely because, as part of their business, they print or publish an advertisement for another person. Google publishes your ad as part of its business. You wrote it.
Why paid search bites first
A headline gives you 30 characters. The copywriter cuts the qualifier and keeps the promise, and the promise is the part section 133 cares about. Your website has space to be careful. Your ad does not.
Google's Australian rule
Google states that ads targeting Australia cannot use prescription drug terms in the ad or its destination. A compliant headline pointing at a page that names the drug still fails.
The setting nobody reviews
Section 133 bans testimonials and purported testimonials about the service. Rating extensions and automatically created assets are settings rather than sentences, so nobody writes them and nobody signs them off.
The fix
Not the best clinic in Brisbane. A GP clinic in Brisbane CBD, bulk billing for concession card holders. Not pain gone in one session. Assessment and treatment plan on your first visit.
Who wears it
Section 133 reaches the practice, the company that owns it, and the agency writing the copy. It does not reach the platform. The one party protected by the section is the one with the money.
The verdict
You can rewrite every ad in an afternoon. The website takes longer, which is why it is usually the part that has been wrong for years.
Tap through for the five limbs, the account audit and the say-this-not-that table