Keep census full with admissions your team can verify and admit within 24 hours.
High-intent search, LegitScript-ready campaigns, verification-of-benefits routing and a 15-minute clock on every inquiry. Every admission tracked from first click to census, by program, in a portal your executive director can open on their phone.
Where admissions leak out
- ×The call came in at 11pm. Voicemail. The family called the next program on the list, and that one answered.
- ×Medicaid and out-of-network. Admissions spends the morning on calls you can’t take because the form never asked about the payer.
- ×Google disapproved the campaign. No LegitScript, wrong policy category, or a landing page that mentions a substance. Three weeks of zero ads.
- ×Twelve leads, two admissions, no idea why. The agency reports conversions. Nobody can say which ten were lost, or where.
- ×Referral sources drifting. The hospital discharge planner who used to send you three a month hasn’t in a while, and nobody noticed.
What a family in crisis actually does.
Nobody searches “partial hospitalization program” on a good day. The search happens after a hospital discharge, after a relapse, after a therapist says “you need more than I can give you.” It’s a parent, a spouse or the person themselves, usually on a phone, usually at night, typing “IOP near me,” “mental health treatment that takes Blue Cross,” “detox [city]” or asking an AI assistant what the difference is between PHP and IOP and who offers it nearby.
They open two or three programs. They read the reviews, and they read the one-star reviews first. They call. Whoever answers, confirms the insurance on that call, and offers an assessment tomorrow gets the admission. The window is hours. A program that returns calls “first thing in the morning” is not in the running.
So the behavioral health work is built around three facts: the search is high intent and policy constrained (so the campaigns have to be clean and certified before they can serve), the first call has to do benefits verification and book an assessment (so the routing has to land on someone who can), and the family is comparing you to two other programs in real time (so the reviews and the site have to answer their fears before they call). The ad is the smallest part of it.
What we build for a treatment program.
Every piece reports into the portal by program and by referral source, so admissions, clinical leadership and ownership are looking at the same numbers.
Verification-of-benefits routing
A HIPAA-compliant inquiry form captures payer and member ID, routes to your admissions line with the 15-minute clock running, and logs when VOB was completed and what it found. In-network commercial goes to the front of the line.
- Payer-aware routing and after-hours on-call
- SMS and portal alerts the moment a form lands
- VOB outcome and assessment date tracked per inquiry
LegitScript-ready Google Ads
We prepare the LegitScript application with you where it’s required, structure campaigns under Google’s healthcare and addiction policies, and write landing pages that pass review and still convert. Program-level campaigns: PHP, IOP, residential, detox, adolescent, each with its own budget.
- Certification handled, typically 4 to 8 weeks
- Policy-safe copy and landing pages
- Conversion tracking without PHI
A profile and a page for every program and level of care
One Google Business Profile per facility, categorized correctly (mental health service vs. addiction treatment center matters). A page per level of care and per condition you treat, written in the language families and clinicians use, with insurance, hours and what the first day looks like.
- GBP cleanup and weekly posting
- Level-of-care and condition pages
- AI search optimization so assistants cite you for “PHP vs IOP” questions
Referral-source tracking and outreach
Hospitals, EAPs, therapists, schools and primary care send a large share of census. We build the referral landing pages, track which sources actually produce admissions, and run the LinkedIn and email programs that keep your outreach team in front of them.
- Referral-source tagging in the portal
- Discharge-planner and clinician landing pages
- Outreach sequences your BD team can run
The review engine, written for this industry
Review requests after discharge and at alumni milestones, routed to the right facility profile, with response drafts that stay clinical and never confirm a patient’s status. Families read the one-star reviews first. We make sure the five-star ones are recent and real.
- Discharge and alumni request sequences
- HIPAA-aware response templates
- Per-facility rating tracked in the portal
Census by source, in the portal
Inquiries, VOB results, assessments booked, admissions, and cost per admission, by program, by payer and by source. Health flips to yellow when speed to lead slips on a shift, so the admissions director sees it the same day.
- Cost per admission by program and payer
- Speed to lead per coordinator and per shift
- Digital and referral census side by side
What one admission is worth, and what it should cost to add one.
Episode value depends on level of care and payer mix. The numbers below are typical commercial in-network ranges; yours go in the calculator.
| Level of care | Typical episode | Revenue / episode | Full continuum |
|---|---|---|---|
| IOP, 3 days / week | 8 to 12 weeks | $8k to $18k | |
| PHP, 5 days / week | 3 to 5 weeks | $12k to $25k | |
| Residential or detox | 14 to 30 days | $20k to $45k+ | |
| Step-down continuum | PHP → IOP → OP | $25k to $45k |
Ranges reflect commercial in-network reimbursement and vary widely by state, payer and contract. They are gross revenue, not margin, and not guarantees. We plan to $35,000 per admission for a program running PHP and IOP. At that figure and a Growth plan with $6k a month in ad spend, three admissions a month puts marketing at about 9% of episode revenue, and every additional admission pulls it down. Our target on every account is under 10%.
Four things we ask of every program.
They are written into the agreement. If intake can't meet them yet, we tell you what to fix before we take your money.
Answer the admissions line live, including after hours.
A family in crisis who gets voicemail calls the next program. If you run business hours, an on-call coordinator or an answering service that can book an assessment covers the gap.
Call or text every web inquiry within 15 minutes.
Our routing starts the clock. The portal records first human touch per inquiry, per coordinator, per shift.
Mark every inquiry’s outcome once a month.
Admitted, assessed but not admitted, VOB failed, referred out, or lost. It’s what makes cost per admission a real number instead of an agency claim.
Let the review engine run.
Discharge and alumni review requests go out automatically. Below 4.7 stars, families choose the other program.
From a behavioral health founder we work with.
Matisyahu took my thoughts and goals and created a comprehensive marketing plan. He brought in SEO leads within the first month of launch. I highly recommend his services.
Quotes are from client emails and calls, used with permission. More on a qualifying call.
Programs we’ve done this for.
Client names and full numbers are shared on a call with their permission. Here is the shape of the work.
A site and content rebuild for a mental health provider partnered with a medical group.
Structure and content first, then design: condition and service pages written for families and referring clinicians, an intake path that captures payer up front, and tracking that keeps PHI out of the ad platforms. Built to rank for the local treatment searches the old site never showed up for.
Paid and organic for an adolescent treatment program, with parents as the searcher.
Campaigns written for the parent doing the research, landing pages that explain what the first day looks like, and Google Business Profile work so the program shows up in the map pack for the searches parents actually type. Inquiries routed to admissions with the 15-minute clock.
Compliance and ethics, handled before launch.
- ✓BAA available on request. Many of our clients' compliance teams require it, and we'll sign yours or ours before we touch a form or call log. Either way, no PHI goes to ad platforms.
- ✓No PHI in ad platforms. Conversion events carry no names, diagnoses, substances or payer details. Google and Meta see a conversion, not a patient.
- ✓LegitScript and Google policy. Certification prepared with you where addiction treatment is involved; mental-health campaigns structured under Google’s healthcare policy. Campaigns don’t launch until they’ll pass.
- ✓No lead brokering, no call-center helplines. Every inquiry arrives through your site, your numbers and your ad accounts. We stay well clear of the practices Florida’s Patient Brokering Act and California’s SB 1228 target.
- ✓Call recording consent. Tracking numbers announce recording where state law requires it. Recordings live in your account, not ours.
- ✓You own every asset. Domains, pages, ad accounts, certifications, tracking numbers and portal data stay yours if we part ways.
Launch is day 25.
Intake, tech handoff, build, launch and QA, then scale. Nothing goes live until routing, tracking and the portal have been checked against real test inquiries. On Growth and Enterprise, if the first 30 days after launch don't produce qualified inquiries in your portal, the next month's retainer is waived.
See the 30-day roadWhat you get each month on a PHP/IOP account
- •Google Ads managed daily against cost per admission, by program and payer
- •Weekly GBP posts and HIPAA-aware review responses per facility
- •Level-of-care and condition pages updated as programs, payers and staff change
- •Speed-to-lead report per coordinator and shift
- •Referral-source report: who is actually sending admissions
- •Monthly admissions loop: you mark outcomes, we move budget
- •A named account manager you can text
Questions treatment programs ask us
Do we need LegitScript certification to run Google Ads?
If you provide addiction treatment, including detox, residential, PHP or IOP for substance use, Google requires LegitScript certification before your ads can serve in the US. Mental-health-only programs (depression, anxiety, eating disorders, adolescent mental health) generally do not, but Google's healthcare policy still applies. We prepare the LegitScript application with you (licensing, staff credentials, policies, website disclosures) and structure campaigns so they pass Google's review the first time. Budget four to eight weeks for certification if you don't have it.
How do you handle verification of benefits in the lead flow?
The inquiry form captures the payer and member ID (on a HIPAA-compliant form, never through an ad platform), routes to your admissions line with the 15-minute clock running, and the portal logs when VOB was completed and the result. Commercial, in-network inquiries get priority routing. Medicaid and out-of-network inquiries get the path you choose: a referral list, a sliding-scale option or a courteous decline. Admissions stops spending its day on calls that can't convert.
Our admissions line is 24/7. Does that change anything?
It helps, and it's the norm for residential and detox. For PHP/IOP programs that run business hours, we route after-hours inquiries to an on-call admissions coordinator or an answering service that can schedule an assessment, because a person in crisis at 11pm who gets voicemail calls the next program on the list. Either way the portal timestamps first human touch so you can audit it per coordinator and per shift.
What about patient brokering and state marketing laws?
We don't do lead-gen arbitrage, we don't buy or sell leads, and we don't run call-center 'helpline' numbers that route to the highest bidder. Every inquiry comes to your program through your own website, your own tracking numbers and your own ad accounts. Florida's Patient Brokering Act, California's SB 1228 and similar laws target exactly the practices we avoid. Your compliance officer is welcome on the kickoff call.
How is PHP/IOP marketing different from marketing a therapy practice?
Higher stakes and shorter windows. A PHP or IOP admission is worth $15k to $45k across the episode, families are often in crisis, and the decision happens within hours, not weeks. The work is built around high-intent search ('IOP near me', 'partial hospitalization program [city]', '[insurer] covered mental health treatment'), immediate human response, benefits verification inside the first call, and an assessment booked within 24 hours. A weekly outpatient therapy practice doesn't need that machinery.
Can you market to referral sources as well as families?
Yes. Hospitals, EAPs, therapists, school counselors and primary care are a large share of census for most programs. We build referral-source landing pages, track which sources actually send admissions in the portal, and run the LinkedIn and email programs that keep your clinical outreach team in front of them. Digital and referral-source census show up side by side in the scoreboard.
What does behavioral health marketing cost?
Retainers are scoped by Google Business Profile location: $1,500 a month for a single program (SEO, reviews, portal, no ads), $3,500 for two to four with Google Search Ads up to $10k a month in managed spend, and $5,000 and up for five to ten. Ad spend is billed to you directly by Google. Month to month. Full details on the pricing page. LegitScript's own fees are paid to LegitScript.
Is this HIPAA compliant?
We sign a Business Associate Agreement before we touch a form, a call log or your EHR-connected CRM. Conversion tracking is built so names, diagnoses, substances and payer details never reach Google or Meta. Call recording announces itself where state law requires it, and recordings live in your account.
See if your program qualifies.
Fifteen minutes. We look at your levels of care, your payer mix, your admissions coverage and your certification status, and tell you yes or no. If it’s no, we still tell you what to fix first.
- You answer the phone live during business hours
- You can call or text a web lead back within 15 minutes
- You will mark each inquiry's outcome once a month
- Your rating is 4.7 or you want help getting there
Prefer email? hello@lukrah.com