How do I get more patients for my paediatric clinic?

How parents actually choose a paediatric clinic

Most paediatric demand is urgent. A child has a fever at 9 pm and a parent searches "paediatrician near me" or "kids doctor open now" on a phone. The clinic that shows first, shows open hours and answers WhatsApp in minutes gets the visit. The second, planned stream is vaccinations, well-baby checks and newborn care, where parents compare doctors and insurance before booking. Plan for both.

The 8-step plan

1. Fix your Google Business Profile first. Set the primary category to "Pediatrician" (Google's US spelling), add every doctor, true opening hours including evenings and weekends, holiday hours, and photos of the waiting area and play corner. Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence, so accurate hours and steady reviews matter more than anything you write.
2. Make "seen today" visible. Put "same-day appointments" and your walk-in hours on the homepage, the profile and every ad. If you take walk-ins until a set time, say the time.
3. Build one page per service. Newborn checks, vaccinations, fever and infections, allergies and asthma, child development, and any sub-specialty such as paediatric ENT or endocrinology. Explain what happens at the visit, how long it takes and what to bring (vaccination card, Emirates ID of the child).
4. Publish insurer lists and the newborn rule. Parents call to ask this more than anything else. Under Dubai's basic Essential Benefits Plan, a newborn is covered for 30 days from birth under the mother's benefits and must then be enrolled on its own policy, and essential vaccinations are covered up to AED 100 (EBP table of benefits; check your insurers' current tables). Enhanced plans differ, so list the networks you accept. See health insurance in Dubai.
5. Introduce your doctors properly. Name, DHA, DoH or MOHAP-licensed title, languages, years in paediatrics and a short video of the doctor talking to parents. A female paediatrician and Arabic, Hindi, Urdu or Russian speakers are real selling points in the UAE.
6. Answer WhatsApp in under 5 minutes during opening hours. A sick child's parent will message three clinics and book whoever answers. Read how to get more WhatsApp leads.
7. Run Google Search ads on high-intent searches. Start with "paediatrician + area", "paediatric clinic open now", "child vaccination + area" and your doctors' names. Use call assets and location assets, and schedule higher bids for evenings and weekends if that is when you take walk-ins. Budget guide: how much a clinic should spend on Google Ads.
8. Turn first visits into a family relationship. Vaccination reminders, a WhatsApp broadcast for opted-in parents about flu season, and a simple sibling booking flow. Retention is cheaper than acquisition in paediatrics.

Google Ads rules for paediatric clinics

• No remarketing on health topics. Health is a sensitive category under Google's personalised advertising policy. That rules out remarketing lists, Customer Match and lookalikes on ads about conditions or treatments. Disability content stays restricted even when it is aimed at the parent or carer, which affects autism, ADHD and developmental clinics.
• Target parents, never children. Google says users under 18 are not eligible for personalised advertising of any kind. Write ads to parents, using keywords and location.
• No drug names. Google's Healthcare and medicines policy restricts prescription drug terms in ads, keywords and landing pages outside a few countries. Advertise "child vaccinations", not branded vaccine or antibiotic names.
• No scary claims. "Is your child's fever dangerous?" style copy risks Google's unreliable claims checks and breaks the UAE rule against using fear to drive demand.

If an ad is disapproved, follow how to fix disapproved healthcare ads.

UAE advertising rules that hit paediatrics hardest

• Children's photos and stories need written parental consent. The DHA medical advertising standard requires verifiable consent from a parent before using a child's personal or health information, documented consent for any patient image, and no patient identification. Consent covers only the use and period it was given for.
• Medical director sign-off. In Dubai, any post that names the clinic, including staff or influencer posts filmed in your waiting room, needs medical director approval, and the clinic is responsible for content filmed on its premises.
• MOHAP licence on social accounts. The DHA standard says a facility's official account must show its MOHAP medical advertisement licence number. MOHAP's social media advertising licence costs AED 100 to apply, then AED 1,000 a month or AED 3,000 a year, with 1 to 3 working days' processing.
• Banned words. "Best paediatrician", "100%", "the only" and "no side effects" are among the words Dubai bans in medical ads (Khaleej Times, September 2026).
• Infant formula. Cabinet Decision No. 21 of 2018 regulates marketing of feeding products for infants and young children (CMS legal guide). Do not promote formula brands in clinic content.

What to track

• Calls and WhatsApp chats from ads and from the Maps profile, by hour of day. See tracking phone calls in the UAE.
• Booked versus attended visits, and new versus returning families.
• Cost per new family, not just cost per click. Benchmark context: what a good cost per lead is.

Want this done for you?

Access One is the UAE's first Healthcare Google Partner and Dubai's #1 Google Ads agency for healthcare. We build paediatric campaigns around urgent searches and opening hours, and keep every ad inside Google and UAE rules. Get a free ads audit.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use photos of children in my clinic's ads?

Only with documented written consent from a parent, limited to that use and period, and without identifying the child's health details. Many clinics use stock images or illustrations to avoid the risk.

Can I run remarketing ads to parents who visited my website?

Not for ads about health conditions or treatments. Google treats health as a sensitive category. Use keywords, location and ad scheduling instead.

Which searches bring the most paediatric bookings?

Urgent, local searches such as "paediatrician near me", "kids clinic open now" and "paediatrician + area". Vaccination and newborn searches are the main planned demand.

Does insurance cover a newborn's visits in Dubai?

Under the basic Essential Benefits Plan, a newborn is covered for 30 days from birth under the mother's benefits and must then have its own policy. Enhanced plans vary.

Do I need a MOHAP licence to post on Instagram?

The DHA standard requires a facility's official account to show its MOHAP medical advertisement licence number. MOHAP issues social media advertising licences monthly or yearly.

Related: How do I get more gynaecology and maternity patients? and How do I advertise a clinic in Dubai?

Sources

• Google Ads: Health in personalised advertising
• Google Ads: Healthcare and medicines policy
• Google Business Profile: How to improve your local ranking
• DHA: Standards for Medical Advertisement Content on Social Media
• MOHAP: Licence for Healthcare Advertisement on Social Media
• DHA Essential Benefits Plan: table of benefits
• Khaleej Times: Words Dubai clinics cannot use in ads (September 2026)
• CMS: Advertising of medicines and medical devices in the UAE

Published 18 Oct 2026 · Access One