What Rehab Clicks Cost on Google Ads: Detox, Inpatient and IOP

Short answer: Rehab clicks are some of the most expensive on Google Ads. At the high end of Google's estimates, a top of page click for "detox near me" costs $105.63, "rehab near me" $75.41 and "intensive outpatient program" $39.80. Those prices only tell you half the story. What matters is what each admission costs, and that depends on what happens after the click.

I pulled US search volumes and bid ranges for the searches treatment centers buy most often. Here's what they show, and how I'd use them to set a budget.

What rehab searches cost

These figures come from Google Keyword Planner data for the US, pulled November 1, 2026. Monthly searches are 12-month averages. The bid range is Google's estimate of what advertisers have paid to show at the top of the page, from the low end to the high end.

Your own costs will differ. Your market, your competitors and the quality of your ads and landing pages all move the price. But the gaps between levels of care hold up, and they're what a budget should be built around.

Why detox costs the most

"detox near me" has the highest top bid in the set, even though it gets a quarter of the searches "drug rehab near me" does. Someone searching for detox usually needs help today, and detox is often the first step into a longer program. Advertisers bid the most where a click is closest to an admission.

That urgency cuts both ways. A $100 detox click is wasted if nobody answers the phone. I run detox ads only when intake can pick up, and I track calls from them through to admission instead of just counting them.

IOP: lots of searches, lower bids

"intensive outpatient program" gets 33,100 searches a month. Only the two biggest "near me" rehab searches get more. Yet its top bid stops at $39.80. "iop near me" gets fewer searches, 14,800, and its top bid reaches $70.93.

The difference is intent. Some people typing the full phrase are still learning what IOP is. Someone typing "iop near me" is choosing a program. I put those in separate ad groups with separate bids, so the research searches don't set the price for the ready ones.

The cheap clicks that cost the most

Not every rehab click is expensive. "free rehab near me" gets 5,400 searches a month with top bids under $7.10. "sober living near me" gets 22,200, with top bids around $12. "rehab jobs" gets 880.

Those look like bargains next to detox. But if you don't take Medicaid, don't offer free beds and don't run sober living, they will never become admissions. They still take budget. And any form fills they produce, from job seekers for example, can teach the bidding to find more people like them. Unless you offer the service, they belong on the negative keyword list.

Searches peak early in the year

Rehab searches aren't flat across the year. In the 12 months I pulled, "detox near me" ranged from 12,100 searches in November 2025 to 22,200 in February 2026. "inpatient rehab" peaked at 14,800 in January 2026 and fell to 8,100 in September. "drug rehab near me" went from 40,500 in August 2026 to 74,000 in March 2026.

One year of data doesn't make a rule, but the pattern points the same way across levels of care: more people search from January through March. If your budget runs out mid-month then, that's when it costs you the most admissions. I'd plan the year with more room in the first quarter, and check your own account's history to see whether the pattern holds in your market.

Budget on cost per admission, not cost per click

A click price tells you what it costs to get someone to your site. It doesn't tell you what an admission costs. For that you need three numbers from your own account and intake records:

1. Your average cost per click.
2. The share of clicks that become a call or a form.
3. The share of those calls and forms that become admissions.

Divide the cost per click by the first rate, then by the second, and you have your cost per admission. Compare that with what an admission is worth to you after costs, and you know how much you can afford to spend.

For a real reference point, one national behavioral health program I worked with, built around a 5-day intensive, paid $96.55 per completed inquiry form in the six months before a budget increase and $88.48 in the six months after, while inquiries went from 36 to 53 a month. That's cost per inquiry, one step before admission. The step from inquiry to admission is where most of the cost hides, and Google Ads can't see it on its own. It takes call tracking connected to your intake process, with patient details kept out of Google Ads.

Before you spend more

Two things come before any budget decision in this category. First, in the US, Google only approves drug and alcohol treatment advertisers that hold LegitScript certification, plus Google's own healthcare certification. I explain that process in LegitScript certification before your first ad. Second, health is a sensitive category, so remarketing lists and customer uploads can't be used for targeting. Google's health ad rules cover what that means for your campaigns.

Once ads can run, split the levels of care. Detox, residential, outpatient and dual diagnosis services each get their own campaign and budget. Otherwise the cheaper high-volume searches take the money meant for the admissions you want most. I lay out how I set that up on my Google Ads for addiction treatment centers page.

If you want to know what your account pays per admission, and how much of the budget goes to searches that can't become one, request a free Google Ads audit.