Google Ads Negative Keywords for Psychology Practices: Stopping the Clicks That Were Never Going to Book

26 September 2026·5 min read

Quick answer: Negative keywords for a psychology practice's Google Ads account stop your budget being spent on clicks from students researching psychology degrees, job seekers looking for "psychologist jobs," people searching for free or crisis-line support you don't offer, and researchers looking for clinical definitions rather than a session. Add these as a shared negative keyword list across all campaigns, review search terms weekly for the first month, and expect this alone to meaningfully improve your cost-per-booked-session without changing a single ad. 📈

Almost every psychology practice we've looked at running their own Google Ads has the same leak: broad match keywords like "anxiety help" or "psychologist [suburb]" pulling in a genuine mix of people who want to book a session and people who are studying psychology, applying for psychology jobs, or searching for free government or crisis support. None of those searches deserve to cost you money, but without negative keywords, Google will happily show your ad and charge you for the click regardless 💖. This is one of the few paid ads fixes that's almost entirely upside — it doesn't cost anything to set up, and it directly protects budget that should be going toward people who might actually book.

Please note: this is general marketing information about paid advertising, not medical or health advice, and it isn't guidance on clinical crisis response — practices should always keep clear, prominent signposting to crisis services (like Lifeline or a GP) on their website regardless of ad targeting choices.

What most psychology practices get wrong with Google Ads

The first mistake is running broad match with no negative list at all, on the assumption that Google's own targeting will sort out relevance — it won't, particularly for mental-health-adjacent terms which attract huge search volume from students, journalists and job seekers. The second is building a negative list once and never touching it again, when search term reports genuinely shift over time (exam periods spike student searches, for instance). The third, specific to this sector, is writing ad copy or landing pages that lean on outcome claims or patient testimonials to compete for clicks — this both breaches AHPRA advertising rules and doesn't even work well, because it invites the wrong kind of scepticism in a category where trust is built through calm, credible information, not promises.

The starter negative keyword list for psychology practice Google Ads (add all as phrase or exact match):

Study/career terms: "psychology degree," "psychology course," "how to become a psychologist," "psychologist jobs," "psychologist salary," "psychology internship."
Free/crisis/government terms: "free counselling," "free psychologist," "lifeline," "beyond blue," "medicare mental health plan," "headspace" (unless you're formally affiliated).
Research/definition terms: "what is cognitive behavioural therapy," "psychology definition," "types of therapy," "DSM-5" (unless you're specifically targeting clinician-level searches).
Other-provider terms: "psychiatrist" (if you don't offer prescribing), "counsellor" or "coach" (if your practice is strictly registered psychologists and this distinction matters to your positioning).
Irrelevant intent: "psychology quiz," "psychology books," "psychology podcast," "personality test."

Clarity Psychology Group (multi-practitioner, inner-city): Their search term report showed nearly a third of clicks over one month came from study-related and job-seeker searches. Adding the starter list plus a suburb-specific set of university names cut wasted spend and let them reallocate that budget into extending campaign hours during their highest-booking windows.

Riverside Psychology & Wellbeing (regional, sole practitioner plus one associate): With a small daily budget, every wasted click mattered more proportionally. They found "medicare mental health plan" and "free counselling" were consistently eating budget from people looking for bulk-billed or no-cost options their practice didn't offer, so excluding those terms had an outsized impact relative to their spend.

A practice specialising in workplace and organisational psychology: Their biggest leak wasn't students but job seekers and HR professionals researching "organisational psychologist" as a career path or hiring term, not a service to book. Adding career- and recruitment-related negatives (a set unique to their niche, not on most generic lists) fixed the majority of the mismatch.

How to build and maintain the list properly

Set the starter list up as a shared negative keyword list at the account level so it applies across every current and future campaign automatically, rather than pasting it into one campaign and forgetting new ones. Pull the actual search terms report weekly for the first month after launch and again after any big change (new campaign, new suburb targeting) — this is where you'll catch niche irrelevant terms specific to your practice's positioning that no generic list will ever predict. Use phrase match for most negatives so you catch variations, and reserve exact match negatives for very specific single terms you want to exclude without blocking related, relevant phrases. Revisit quarterly at minimum, because search behaviour shifts with news cycles, exam periods and even seasons.

💡 Negative keywords fix wasted spend, not weak ad copy or a slow booking process. If your cost-per-click drops but bookings still don't follow, the leak has moved further down the funnel — check your landing page clarity and how quickly enquiries actually get a response before assuming the ads themselves are the problem.

Running broad match keywords with no negative list at all, especially on high-search-volume mental-health terms.
Copying a generic negative list without adding practice-specific terms from your own search term report.
Setting the list once at campaign launch and never reviewing it again.
Leaning on outcome claims or testimonials in ad copy to compensate for weak targeting, instead of fixing the targeting itself.

Frequently asked questions

Will negative keywords reduce our overall traffic?

Yes, and that's the point — you're deliberately reducing traffic that was never going to convert, which should lower your cost per genuinely relevant click even if total click volume drops.

Should we exclude "psychiatrist" entirely?

Only if that distinction matters for your specific positioning and no one on your team can support that search intent — some multi-disciplinary practices actually want to appear for it if they have a referral pathway or shared intake process.

How long before we see the impact?

Often within one to two weeks of adding a solid starter list, though the practice-specific niche terms typically only surface after a few weeks of your own search term data — this is an ongoing process, not a one-off fix.

What's the honest limitation of this tactic?

Negative keywords manage waste; they don't create demand. If your booking volume is low because of weak ad copy, an unclear offer, or genuine capacity constraints, tightening negatives will save money without necessarily increasing bookings — it's one lever among several.

Keep reading 🤍

Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

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