Telehealth marketing for a primary care practice is not the same job as marketing a telehealth startup. You already have patients, a local reputation and clinicians licensed in specific states. Virtual visits extend that practice: follow-ups, medication checks, minor illness, lab reviews. The marketing has to stay inside the same lines your clinical care does, which means state licensure, payer coverage, prescribing rules and the ad platforms' telemedicine policies. This how-to covers each, in the order you should check them.
Who searches for telehealth primary care, and who you can legally see
Practice-side searches show how small and expensive this niche is:
| Search (US, monthly) | Volume | Avg. CPC |
|---|---|---|
| telehealth website | 720 | $12.77 |
| telehealth advertising | 70 | $35.72 |
| telehealth marketing | 50 | $48.01 |
| telemedicine marketing | 20 | $76.14 |
Google Ads Keyword Planner data via DataForSEO, US, 12-month average to Sep 2026. "Telehealth website" mixes patients looking for a telehealth service with providers looking to build one.
The high CPCs come from telehealth platforms and agencies bidding for providers. For a primary care practice, the patients worth reaching are mostly your own, plus local patients who want the option of a virtual visit. That shapes the first step.
Step 1: List who you can legally see. For each clinician, write down the states where they hold a license. That list is your telehealth market. Everything else in this guide follows from it.
State licensure and payer rules that shape your telehealth message
Step 2: Confirm licensure follows the patient. The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact's FAQ (opens in a new tab) states that "the location of medical practice is the state where the patient is located" and that "all laws and regulations of the patient's state apply." The Compact (opens in a new tab) offers an expedited path to licenses in member states, but those licenses "are still issued by the individual states"; it does not create a national license. Nurse practitioners have separate licensing rules through their boards of nursing; see our guide on NP-led practices.
Step 3: Check each payer. Medicare, Medicaid and commercial plans each set their own telehealth coverage rules, and they change. Before you write "covered by insurance", confirm the current rules for each plan you accept, and keep the wording on your site general: "Many plans cover virtual visits; we'll confirm yours before the visit."
Step 4: Turn the rules into one sentence. For example: "Virtual visits are available to established patients located in Ohio and Kentucky." Use that sentence on your website, in ads and at the front desk.
This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm how it applies to your practice with a qualified advisor.
A telehealth page on your website: what it must answer
Step 5: Build one telehealth page. It should answer, in this order:
- What works virtually: follow-ups, medication reviews, lab results, minor illness, and what needs an office visit instead.
- Who can use it: new or established patients, and the states patients must be located in during the visit.
- Insurance: which plans you accept, with a reminder to confirm virtual-visit coverage.
- How to join: the video platform, what device and connection patients need, and how to test it. If you're choosing a platform, check that the vendor will sign a business associate agreement for the plan you use; our guide answers is Zoom HIPAA compliant in detail.
- Prescriptions: "Any prescription is decided by your clinician after an evaluation."
- Emergencies: "Telehealth is not for emergencies. Call 911."
- How to request a visit: phone, a HIPAA-compliant form, or your existing booking tool.
Illustrative example (fictional practice): "Virtual visits at Brookside Family Medicine are available to established patients who are in Ohio or Kentucky at the time of the visit. They work well for follow-ups, medication reviews and lab results. Your clinician may ask you to come in if an exam is needed. Telehealth is not for emergencies; call 911."
Advertising virtual visits: Google and Meta rules for telemedicine
Step 6: Check the platform rules before writing ads. As checked on October 22, 2026:
- Google. The Healthcare and medicines policy (opens in a new tab) lists telemedicine under online pharmacies and telemedicine. For the US it says "Google allows telemedicine providers if they're accredited by LegitScript's Healthcare Merchant Certification Program, which offers telemedicine certification to websites that provide virtual healthcare services and facilitate prescribing." The page doesn't separately address practices advertising virtual visits with no mention of prescribing, so watch your ads' policy status closely and ask Google support if they are limited. Our guide to the Google healthcare ad policy covers the rest.
- Meta. The Drugs and Pharmaceuticals policy (opens in a new tab) says "Meta requires online pharmacies and telehealth providers to be actively certified with LegitScript" to promote prescription drugs, with Meta's written permission, in the US, Canada or New Zealand only, for people 18 or older. Separately, the personal attributes policy (opens in a new tab) bars ads that assert or imply a viewer's medical condition.
About LegitScript. LegitScript's healthcare merchant certification (opens in a new tab) covers telemedicine providers that offer remote clinical services through licensed professionals, and is the route to platforms that "require LegitScript approval to run healthcare ads," including Google, Meta and Microsoft. Its standards say a prescription "must not be prescribed or dispensed prior to the provision of care by a licensed medical professional." Medfy does not provide LegitScript certification; see our guide to LegitScript certification for the application process.
Step 7: Geo-target to licensed states only. Set campaign locations to the states in your one-sentence rule, and nowhere else. Our guide to primary care advertising prices local campaigns with real CPCs.
Prescriptions and controlled substances: what not to advertise
Step 8: Advertise the visit, never the prescription. For most primary care practices, ads and pages should not promise prescriptions at all, and especially not controlled substances.
The federal rules for controlled substances by telemedicine are temporary. DEA and HHS's fourth temporary extension (opens in a new tab), published December 31, 2025, is "effective January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026." It lets a DEA-registered practitioner prescribe Schedule II to V controlled substances by telemedicine "to a patient without having conducted an in-person medical evaluation of the patient," when specified conditions are met. Rules after that date may differ, so check again before any campaign that runs into 2027.
What that means for marketing:
- No ads naming medications, especially controlled substances.
- No "get your prescription online today" claims.
- No copy implying a certain outcome of the visit.
This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm how it applies to your practice with a qualified advisor.
Local signals still matter for hybrid practices
Step 9: Keep the office front and center. Most of your telehealth patients will be local, and they find you the same way any primary care patient does: Google's local results, your website and insurer directories.
- Keep your Google Business Profile's hours, address and services accurate, and mention virtual visits in the services you list.
- Link your telehealth page from the home page and every relevant service page.
- Keep the same address and phone number everywhere, so listings and AI assistants connect your virtual and in-person care to one practice.
Tracking virtual-visit requests without exposing patient data
Step 10: Measure requests, not people.
- Count telehealth page visits, form submissions, calls and clicks to your booking tool with first-party analytics.
- Use a HIPAA-compliant request form covered by a business associate agreement (BAA).
- Keep ad pixels off the telehealth request form and any page where patients describe symptoms.
- Send ad platforms only anonymous counts, such as "form submitted", never form contents.
Common mistakes
- Advertising nationally when clinicians are licensed in one or two states.
- "Covered by insurance" without checking each plan's telehealth rules.
- Naming medications in ads or on landing pages.
- Using a consumer video app without a BAA.
- Forgetting the office: a telehealth page that never mentions your location or in-person care.
Where Medfy fits for a hybrid telehealth practice
Medfy is AI marketing for independent practices, built HIPAA-compliant by design.
- Website: your site rebuilt on your own domain with a page per service, including a telehealth page, and HIPAA-compliant forms. Patient information is stored in separate, encrypted HIPAA databases, and Medfy signs a BAA with your practice.
- Google Ads management ($199/month add-on): location targeting, daily search-term reviews and ad copy suggestions checked against healthcare policy, with every change logged and reversible. Ad platforms never receive patient data.
- First-party analytics: calls, forms and booking clicks from your telehealth and service pages.
The base plan is $349/month, billed monthly, cancel anytime. Medfy doesn't provide telehealth video software, scheduling or LegitScript certification. For the bigger picture, see the primary care marketing hub, or start with a free marketing audit.
Frequently asked questions
Can a primary care practice advertise telehealth in other states?
Only where your clinicians can legally treat patients. Licensure generally follows the patient: the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, for example, treats the state where the patient is located as the location of practice. If your physicians and NPs are licensed only in your home state, limit ads, website copy and location targeting to that state, and say so plainly on your telehealth page.
Do I need LegitScript certification to advertise telehealth?
If your ads or landing pages promote prescribing, very likely. Google's US policy allows telemedicine providers accredited by LegitScript's healthcare merchant certification, which it describes as covering sites that provide virtual care and facilitate prescribing, and Meta requires telehealth providers advertising prescription drugs to be LegitScript-certified. Google doesn't spell out the case of virtual visits with no prescribing in the ad, so check before launching.
What should a telehealth page on a practice website say?
Which visits work virtually and which need an office visit, which states your clinicians can see patients in, which insurance plans cover virtual visits as far as you know, the video platform and what patients need to join, hours, and how to request a visit. Add that prescriptions are decided by the clinician after an evaluation, and give emergency instructions.
Can we advertise online prescriptions?
Treat it as off-limits for most primary care practices. Google and Meta restrict prescription drug promotion to certified advertisers, and controlled substances carry federal rules: DEA's telemedicine flexibilities for prescribing them without an in-person evaluation run through December 31, 2026 under the current extension. Advertise the visit, not a prescription, and let the clinician decide treatment.