Google Ads in the Age of AI: What’s Working Now for Mental Health Practices

Host Adrienne Wilkerson welcomes John Sanders of RevKey Digital to discuss how AI is changing Google paid ads, especially for mental health practices. John shares his background managing Google Ads since 2015, how his wife’s testing psychology practice led him into the mental health niche, and how he founded Rev Key in 2018, now supporting mostly mental health clients with a team of nine account managers. They explain the shift from keyword-based exact match search campaigns to intent-driven targeting, noting that search campaign cost-per-click has often doubled in the last 18 months, making traditional search less viable. John describes using performance max more frequently due to lower CPCs and broader top-of-funnel reach, while emphasizing the need for tight guardrails to prevent low-converting placements like display and to stop auto-generated assets such as poor AI-created videos. The conversation covers why agencies should avoid letting AI write ad copy in regulated mental health contexts, predictions that ads will eventually appear alongside Gemini and within AI search experiences due to Google’s ad-driven revenue model, and the current AI market dynamics with ChatGPT holding major share. John also offers advice for choosing an agency: clients should own their Google Ads account and expect clear, monthly communication beyond reports to connect ad performance to real business outcomes.