LegitScript certification, or Google will not run your ads.
Meta and Microsoft require it too, so an uncertified addiction treatment provider cannot buy a single click. We prepare the application, answer the reviewer's follow-up requests, and clear the platform certifications afterward.
The short answer
LegitScript certification is a third-party verification that an addiction treatment provider is licensed, legally operating, and not engaged in deceptive marketing or patient brokering. Google has required it for US addiction treatment ads since 2018, and Meta and Microsoft Advertising require it too. Certification involves an application, document review of licensure and clinical staffing, background checks on owners and key personnel, and monitoring for as long as it is held. LegitScript approval is not the last step. You then apply separately for each ad platform's own certification.
2018
Year Google began requiring LegitScript certification for US addiction treatment ads
https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/176031
number of clients taken through LegitScript certification — verify with Tim
Facilities certified with our help
What it includes
State licensure, accreditation status, ownership structure, and marketing practices checked against LegitScript's published criteria first. Applying when you are not going to pass is an expensive way to learn.
Licenses, accreditation certificates, clinical staff credentials, ownership disclosures, and the policies LegitScript asks for. This is the part that stalls most applications, and it is mostly a chasing problem.
LegitScript reviews how you advertise alongside whether you are licensed. Outcome claims you cannot substantiate, unbranded lead-gen sites, and third-party call centers presented as your admissions line are all failure points.
Reviewers come back with questions. Answering them quickly and precisely is the difference between a few weeks and a few months. We manage that correspondence.
LegitScript approval does not switch your ads on. You still submit to Google's addiction services certification and the equivalent process at Meta and Microsoft. We file those and clear the disapprovals.
Certification is monitored continuously and can be pulled. Licensure changes, ownership changes, and new landing pages all have to stay inside the rules. We watch it so a renewal date does not take your ads offline mid-quarter.
In 2017 Google pulled addiction treatment ads in the US entirely after reporting showed lead brokers buying calls from families and selling them to whoever paid most. The ads came back in 2018 behind LegitScript certification, and Meta and Microsoft followed with the same requirement.
The underlying conduct is also a federal crime. The Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act, passed in 2018, makes paying for patient referrals to recovery homes, clinical treatment facilities, and laboratories a felony. LegitScript's review is partly a check that your marketing arrangements are not on the wrong side of it.
For a licensed operator the effect is that the paid channel is gated and far less crowded. That is a good trade if you can get through the gate.
Licensure gaps first. A facility licensed in one state advertising into three, or a program operating under a level of care its license does not cover, will not pass.
Marketing claims second. Success rate percentages with no methodology behind them, before-and-after testimonials, and language implying a guarantee of recovery are all reviewed. If it is on your site, assume it is being read.
Third, opaque lead flow. Unbranded microsites, rented phone numbers, and third-party call centers that answer generically are what the certification was built to stop. If part of your admissions volume comes through an arrangement you would not want reviewed, deal with it before applying rather than after a denial.
LegitScript charges an application fee and an annual monitoring fee, published on their site and subject to change. current LegitScript application and annual monitoring fees — check legitscript.com and confirm with Tim Our fee for handling the process is separate. Quantum fee for LegitScript application management — confirm with Tim
Review time depends almost entirely on how fast documents come back. typical time from application to approval across our clients — verify with Tim Budget more time after approval for the ad platform certifications, which run on their own schedule.
One thing to plan around: do not build a paid search campaign, a landing page set, and a budget against an assumed start date until certification is in hand. Run SEO and local search in the meantime. Neither one is gated, and both produce calls while you wait.
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We audit your rankings, ads, and call tracking, then show you where admissions are leaking. Yours to keep either way.
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Who we help
Fourteen years in behavioral health, all of it spent getting rehab centers on the phone with people who need a bed. We know your competitors, we know which searches produce a call, and we know which ones only produce a report.
Somebody decides to stop drinking at 11pm. Whoever comes up in the results and answers the phone gets the admission, and we build the system that does both.
Since Congress killed the X-waiver, every DEA-registered prescriber can treat opioid use disorder. Primary care came in, telehealth came in, and the clinics that owned these searches for a decade now share them.
The whole category runs on one question: can I be seen today. Clinics that answer it on the page get the call, and clinics that hide it behind a contact form lose to a telehealth company two states away.
Patients dose daily, before work. That one fact decides how an opioid treatment program gets found, and it puts nearly the whole budget into local search.
A recovery residence sells housing, not a treatment episode, so the number that decides the year is occupancy. Demand arrives from two directions, and most sober living websites are built for only one of them.
FAQ
No. Certification gates paid advertising on Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Organic search, local search, and your Google Business Profile are untouched by it. Plenty of facilities run for years on organic alone and certify only when they want to buy volume.
LegitScript charges an application fee plus an annual monitoring fee, both published on their site and revised periodically. current LegitScript fee schedule — verify at legitscript.com Our management fee is separate and quoted per facility, since the work scales with the number of licenses and locations involved.
Document turnaround drives the clock more than LegitScript's queue does. Facilities with licenses, accreditation, and staff credentials already organized move quickly. Facilities that have to request documents from three states do not. typical range we see — confirm with Tim
It depends on the arrangement. A call center that answers in your name, follows your intake process, and is paid a flat fee is generally fine. One paid per admission or per qualified lead is a patient brokering exposure under EKRA and a likely denial. Fix the structure before you apply.
Your ads stop across every platform that requires it, usually within days. Revocation typically follows a licensure lapse, an ownership change that was not disclosed, or a marketing complaint. That is why we monitor client certifications instead of treating this as a one-time project.
The LegitScript addiction treatment certification covers substance use disorder services. Purely mental health services fall outside that specific requirement, but Google's healthcare policies still apply and a program offering both is treated as an addiction treatment advertiser. If you run dual-diagnosis, assume you need it.
Free audit
Get a free review of your rankings, ads, and call tracking. We'll show you opportunities to reach more patients and what to improve first. Yours to keep, with no obligation.
Prefer the phone? (561) 269-2833