How Google AI Overviews Are Changing Behavioral Health

Why behavioral health centers must adapt to AI-driven search00:56

Gary Garth: Welcome to the elev8 Podcast — the thought leadership platform designed for behavioral health executives navigating growth, innovation, and impact. Each week we sit down with top minds in behavioral healthcare and unpack the key drivers of success for patient acquisition. Today's guest is Trevor Rand, Account Strategist at Google and a vertical specialist in the substance use disorder industry. Trevor brings a wealth of insight into how behavioral health facilities can adapt to the rapidly changing digital landscape — especially with the rise of AI-driven search. In this episode we're diving into how AI Overviews are transforming search, what this means for treatment centers, and how to leverage data-driven tactics to acquire high-value patients more effectively than ever. Welcome Trevor, what's up?

What Google's AI Overviews mean for treatment facilities04:11

Trevor Rand: Great, Gary. Thanks for having me on.

How AI Overviews impact click-through rates and SEO strategy07:47

Gary Garth: I've been working with Trevor on several accounts and I've worked with Google for 15 years — I've met few people as dialed into an industry as Trevor is with substance use disorder campaigns. Trevor put together a deck covering the topics most relevant right now. Trevor, do you want to give us a quick overview?

Trevor Rand: Absolutely. My team specifically covers probably 30 of the top largest behavioral health centers in the US right now. What my clients have been asking me is: how is search changing with AI? How is that going to affect my ads? How should I be prepared? Everyone is learning as we go and the space is rapidly changing. I want to give everyone a clear picture of where things stand with Google search, where it's heading, and how that impacts behavioral health centers. I also want to cover YouTube — as a platform overall and specifically YouTube Ads as a digital billboard to market your business.

Gary Garth: Very excited. It comes up in every single status call with our 30-plus facilities. So let's start with AI Overviews — how they work and the impact on treatment facilities.

Trevor Rand: What's happening right now is different from anything we've seen in the last five to ten years — there's actually a big change in how people search. The search results page looks different. We're also releasing AI Mode, where people can ask questions and even use voice on their phone. What the AI Overview does is instead of showing you the standard results page, it scans all the indexed websites and generates an AI summary — maybe a paragraph or two — trying to answer your question directly. Right now in the United States, AI Overviews are showing on roughly 30% of searches. They appear on informational searches — queries where there's no single right answer.

Why value-based bidding beats clicks and calls for ROI19:00

Gary Garth: And for behavioral health specifically — queries like "what treatments are available for cocaine addiction" or "which methods sustain long-term recovery" — how does Google draw the line between informational and commercial?

Trevor Rand: It's evolving. If the query is purely informational — like "what is addiction treatment?" — we probably wouldn't show an ad for a facility. But if someone types "where's the best place to get treatment near me" or "when can I go get help," that's where we'll show ads in the AI Overview. The system tries to identify when a person is ready to find a facility right now, and that's when a facility ad should appear.

Gary Garth: What impact are AI Overviews having on click-through rates? Because I've read on Search Engine Land that CTR has actually dropped slightly since AI Overviews rolled out.

Trevor Rand: Yes — click-through rates are down slightly overall because the person gets their answer right there in the summary before reaching the standard results. However — and this is critical — if your facility is mentioned and cited inside that AI Overview, we've seen substantial increases in both click-through rates and conversions. People see that as an endorsement. So the new SEO goal isn't just ranking in the blue links; it's getting cited inside the AI summary itself. The best way to do that is to have comprehensive Q&A content on your website that answers the questions someone researching treatment would ask.

Gary Garth: So let's say I'm an advertiser. How does campaign performance compare to traditional search? What's the best way to optimize?

Trevor Rand: You're only as good as the data that's in your Google Ads account. The better data going in, the better the output. The best setup I see working is where facilities give Google the actual VOB data and actual admit data directly in the platform — telling the campaign: here are the admits we got from these searches, here are the VOBs. If you're only tracking calls, the campaign optimizes for calls. But most facilities don't make money from driving calls — they make money from admissions.

The overlooked power of YouTube ads for awareness and admissions38:28

Gary Garth: At elev8.io we focus on three metrics: leads to VOB, VOB to qualified VOB, and qualified VOB to admission. Understanding the lifetime value per patient changes how much you can afford to pay per lead entirely. How do you set up that measurement mechanism?

Trevor Rand: What I recommend is connecting your CRM — or your call tracking platform like CTM or CallRail — and having your team score each lead. One through five stars. A Medicaid lead gets a three-star value, say $10. A strong VOB gets four stars at $50. A viable VOB gets five stars at $100. What you're telling Google is: drive me four- and five-star leads; I'm not looking for the three-star Medicaid calls. Over a few weeks the algorithm learns the personas of people who drive high-value VOBs — their search history, how long they've been researching — and starts going after them specifically. Clients who implement this see dramatically higher-quality vobs within weeks.

Gary Garth: One client — I can't mention them — had a hundred extra admissions in a single quarter after switching to this setup with a CRM integration. So it absolutely works. What are the minimum data requirements? Budget? Conversion volume?

Trevor Rand: You want at minimum one conversion per day of whatever you're measuring — VOBs or admits. That's roughly thirty a month. Where this works best is when you're hitting fifty-plus per month. The system needs consistent daily data to learn properly. Once that's in place, implement value-based bidding. And if you have lifetime value data — if a patient comes back for additional care — feed that in too. Google doesn't know if that person came back five times unless you tell it.

Gary Garth: Fantastic. Let's shift to YouTube — you mentioned it's been a big interest area for behavioral health centers. Why YouTube, and how does it fit into the patient acquisition strategy?

Creating compelling video content for patient acquisition51:06

Trevor Rand: YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. For behavioral health, it works as a digital billboard — a top-of-funnel awareness channel that reaches families and individuals who are researching care but not yet ready to call. The CPMs are a fraction of Google Search CPCs. Short, authentic videos — staff introductions, facility tours, testimonials from alumni where HIPAA-compliant — build familiarity and trust before someone ever picks up the phone. And AI tools have made video production accessible to any facility, regardless of budget.

How AI tools lower the barrier for video ad creation55:31

Gary Garth: Trevor, this has been incredibly valuable. For anyone listening, the key takeaways: get your Q&A content optimized for AI Overviews, implement value-based bidding with tiered lead scoring, and add YouTube to your awareness strategy. Trevor, how can folks reach you?

Trevor Rand: Best way is through your Google rep, or connect with Gary and the elev8.io team — they'll make the introduction. Happy to help any facility thinking through these strategies.