Waze ads for medical practices

Waze is a driving and navigation app owned by Google. A practice can appear on it as a promoted pin along a driver’s route, which makes it a candidate for offices that depend on local, drive-in visits, such as dental offices, urgent care clinics, chiropractic offices and med spas. The way to buy those pins has changed. Waze stopped selling its own ads after August 31, 2023, and Waze placements are now part of Google Ads Performance Max campaigns for store goals.

This guide covers how Waze ads are bought today, what Google’s health and targeting policies mean for them, Washington’s law on geofences around health care providers, what Waze’s own terms say, and the FTC, HIPAA and tracking questions that follow. For related local topics, see our guides to geofencing ads near health facilities, Apple Maps listings for medical practices and medical office signage.

This is general information, not legal advice. Sources cited were checked on November 1, 2026: the Waze Ads Wind Down FAQs (no date shown); the Google Ads Help pages About Performance Max for store goals and Target ads to geographic locations (no date shown); the Google Ads policies on Healthcare and medicines, Restricted targeting in personalized advertising and Health in personalized advertising (no date shown on these pages); the Waze Terms of Use and Waze Privacy Policy (each last modified July 8, 2026); Revised Code of Washington 19.373.010 and 19.373.080; the HHS OCR bulletin on online tracking technologies (content last reviewed June 26, 2024, with its note on American Hospital Association v. Becerra); 45 CFR 164.502(a), 164.508(a)(3) and 164.514(b)(2)(i)(Q); and 15 USC 45(a)(1) and 52. Google and Waze update their pages without notice, so check the current versions before you launch. We found no federal rule or agency guidance written for Waze advertising by medical practices as such. State rules differ, so have a health care attorney review your advertising.

The short version

Waze ended its own ad sales after August 31, 2023. Waze placements are now bought through Google Ads Performance Max campaigns for store goals.
On Waze, a promoted business appears as a branded square pin on the driver’s route, and tapping it shows details such as location and directions.
The campaign runs on your linked Google Business Profile locations, so an accurate listing comes first.
Because it is a Google Ads campaign, Google’s Healthcare and medicines policy and its personalized advertising rules for health apply.
Google treats health as a sensitive interest category. Advertisers promoting health conditions or invasive procedures, including cosmetic injections, may not use advertiser-curated audiences such as Customer Match.
Washington makes it unlawful to implement a geofence around an entity that provides in-person health care services to track consumers seeking care, collect consumer health data or send them health ads.
Waze’s terms tell users not to view or click ads while driving and not to submit promotional content as Waze users.

How Waze ads are bought now

Waze’s Ads Wind Down FAQs say Waze stopped providing Waze Ads after August 31, 2023, including insertion orders booked to run after that date, and stopped supporting campaigns through Display and Video 360 from September 1, 2023. The FAQs point advertisers to Performance Max for store goals while Waze ads moved to Google Ads technology.

Google’s help page on Performance Max for store goals now lists Waze among the places those campaigns can serve, with Google Maps, Search, YouTube, Gmail, Business Profiles and the Display Network. It says Waze ads are available through store goals campaigns that bid on store visits, store sales or local actions (directions), and lists the United States among the supported countries. The page describes Waze as one placement inside the campaign. It does not describe a way to buy Waze placements alone, so a practice should expect its budget to be spread across Google’s properties.

To set up a store goals campaign, Google says you define the locations you want to promote by linking your Business Profile or selecting affiliate locations, then provide a budget and ad assets. Google’s systems then choose bids, placements and asset combinations.

What the pin shows, and why your Business Profile matters

Google describes the Waze placement this way: a business promoted on Waze appears as a branded square pin on a user’s driving route, and tapping the pin reveals key business details such as location and directions. For a practice, the details a driver sees depend on the locations you linked, so the name, address, hours and phone number on your Business Profile need to match the office a patient will arrive at.

No federal rule we found sets standards for a Waze pin as such. We recommend checking the Business Profile before the campaign starts, removing closed or duplicate locations, and confirming that hours shown match the hours the front desk can take walk-ins or calls. Our guide to Google Business Profile for doctors covers the listing itself, and our guide to multi-location practice SEO covers practices with more than one office.

Google’s health rules still apply

A Waze placement bought through Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign, so the Google Ads policies govern it. Google’s Healthcare and medicines policy says Google restricts healthcare content and that you are expected to know the local law and regulations for each location your ads target. The parts that matter to a practice are:

Prescription drug services: Google restricts the promotion of online prescribing, dispensing and sale of prescription drugs, including by telemedicine providers, and advertisers must apply to serve these ads.
Prescription drug terms: Google does not allow prescription drug terms in ad text, landing pages or keywords, with narrow exceptions.
Addiction services: Google restricts recovery-oriented drug and alcohol addiction services and allows them in certain locations only if the advertiser is certified by Google.
Speculative and experimental treatments: Google does not allow promotion of speculative or experimental medical treatments, or of cell or gene therapies, except FDA licensed or approved cell or gene therapies promoted in the United States by the entity that holds the license or approval.

If an ad is disapproved, our guide to healthcare ads disapproved covers the review and appeal steps.

Targeting: location, not health

Google’s personalized advertising policy lists health as a sensitive interest category. Its Health page includes physical or mental health conditions, treatments for chronic conditions, health issues tied to intimate body parts or functions, invasive medical procedures including cosmetic surgery, surgical procedures and injections, and disabilities. Advertisers promoting products or services in a sensitive interest category may not use advertiser-curated audiences, such as Customer Match and your data segments, but may use predefined Google audiences, which Google says are built without sensitive user signals. Google also says users under 18 are not eligible for personalized advertising of any kind.

Waze’s Privacy Policy says ads on Waze may be shown based on current activity, such as approximate location, the general path of a route and the destination type. It says Waze does not personalize ads based on sensitive categories such as health, and does not share information that personally identifies a user with advertisers, such as name or email, unless the user asks. A practice running Waze placements should expect location and context targeting, not a list of drivers.

Google’s location targeting page says radius targeting requires a radius of at least 1 km around a location, and that location targeting is Google’s best effort, and that 100 percent accuracy is not assured in each situation. Store goals campaigns use a radius around your linked locations, either one you set or one Google determines from factors such as the vertical, population density and existing competitors.

Washington’s geofence law and other state limits

Revised Code of Washington 19.373.080 makes it unlawful for any person to implement a geofence around an entity that provides in-person health care services where the geofence is used to identify or track consumers seeking health care services, to collect consumer health data from consumers, or to send notifications, messages or advertisements to consumers related to their consumer health data or health care services. RCW 19.373.010 defines a geofence as a virtual boundary that is 2,000 feet or less from the perimeter of the physical location.

The text of RCW 19.373.080 does not carve out a provider’s own location. Whether a store goals radius around your own Washington office, which Google sets at 1 km or more, is a geofence used for one of those purposes is a question for your attorney before the campaign runs. Placements near other clinics, hospitals or pharmacies raise the same question. Other states have their own rules, covered in our guide to geofencing ads near health facilities. We have not reviewed each state for this guide, so have counsel check the states you serve.

Drivers, safety and short copy

Waze’s Terms of Use tell users they must not attempt to view or click on any ads while operating a vehicle. The same terms say that Waze does not endorse the content of third party ads and that Waze’s advertising of commercial content is not a recommendation of the goods or services advertised.

No federal rule we found sets copy standards for navigation ads. We recommend a pin and assets that a passenger or a stopped driver can read at a glance: the practice name, the service, and nothing that invites a driver to interact while moving. We also recommend not describing a Waze placement as a Waze recommendation or endorsement in other marketing.

Promotional content from staff accounts

Waze users can submit reports and other content, and the Terms of Use say users must not submit or share content for advertising or solicitation purposes, including promotional or commercial content. The terms also bar content that identifies other persons without their express written consent. For a practice, staff should not use personal Waze accounts to post promotional reports or comments about the office. Paid placement belongs in the ad campaign, where it is labeled and reviewed.

Conversion tracking and health data

A store goals campaign measures store visits, store sales or local actions such as direction clicks and calls. A practice that also tracks website actions adds a Google tag to its site, which raises the questions covered in our guide to tracking pixels on practice websites.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights bulletin on online tracking technologies is still posted, with a note. On June 20, 2024, in American Hospital Association v. Becerra, the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated the bulletin to the extent it said HIPAA obligations are triggered when a technology connects an IP address with a visit to an unauthenticated public page about specific health conditions or providers. The rest of the bulletin stands, including its guidance on authenticated pages such as patient portals. We recommend keeping tags off patient portals, appointment request confirmations and pages that would reveal a visitor’s condition.

Location claims and the FTC

15 USC 45(a)(1) declares unfair or deceptive acts or practices unlawful, and 15 USC 52 makes it unlawful to disseminate a false advertisement likely to induce the purchase of services or cosmetics. A navigation ad invites claims about time and place: walk-ins welcome, open now, same-day visits, minutes away. No federal rule we found lists navigation claims as such. We recommend using a time or availability claim only when the front desk can honor it at each hour the ad may serve, and setting the campaign schedule to match.

Images and patient photos

Performance Max uses the image assets you provide across Google’s properties. A covered entity may not use or disclose protected health information except as the Privacy Rule permits or requires (45 CFR 164.502(a)). Full face photographs and comparable images are among the identifiers listed in 45 CFR 164.514(b)(2)(i)(Q), and using a patient’s photo to promote the practice is a marketing use that needs the patient’s written authorization, with narrow exceptions (45 CFR 164.508(a)(3)). We recommend using the practice logo, the building and staff who have agreed in writing, and leaving patient images out of the campaign unless a signed authorization covers advertising use.

Questions to ask before you run Waze placements

Is the Business Profile for each linked location accurate, including hours and the entrance a patient will use?
Does any service in the campaign fall under a Google certification or application requirement?
Does the campaign avoid Customer Match and other advertiser-curated audiences for health services?
If we have an office in Washington, has counsel reviewed the radius around it and any placement near other health care providers?
Can the front desk honor each time or availability claim at each hour the ad serves?
Are tags kept off portals and condition-specific pages?
Do we hold a signed authorization for each patient whose image appears?

Use and avoid

Use: a store goals campaign tied to accurate Business Profile locations.
Use: short assets a passenger can read at a glance.
Use: an ad schedule that matches the hours the office can take patients.
Use: predefined Google audiences and location targeting for health services.
Avoid: Customer Match lists and your data segments for health services.
Avoid: prescription drug terms in ad text, landing pages or keywords.
Avoid: radius or placement choices around Washington health care locations without counsel’s review.
Avoid: promotional reports or comments from staff Waze accounts.
Avoid: calling a Waze placement a Waze recommendation.

An illustration

This example is invented. [Practice name], an urgent care clinic with offices in [city, Oregon] and [city, Washington], wants to show up for drivers on a nearby highway. The office manager asks a vendor for a Waze-only campaign and learns that Waze placements are part of a Performance Max for store goals campaign that also serves on Google Maps, Search and other Google properties. Before launch, the manager updates both Business Profiles so the hours match when the clinic accepts walk-ins. The first draft asks to upload the clinic’s patient list as a Customer Match audience and to target drivers near a hospital across the street from the Washington office. The manager drops the patient list, since Google’s health rules bar advertiser-curated audiences for these services, and sends the Washington radius question to the clinic’s attorney before that location goes live. The image assets use the clinic sign and the front entrance, and the headline says walk-ins are welcome only during the hours shown on the profile.

Checklist

Read the current Google Ads Help page on Performance Max for store goals and the Healthcare and medicines policy before launch.
Update each linked Business Profile location.
Apply for any Google certification the services require.
Leave Customer Match and other advertiser-curated audiences out of health campaigns.
Have counsel review any Washington location and any placement near other health care providers.
Keep assets short and readable at a glance.
Match the ad schedule to the hours each claim holds.
Keep tags off portals and condition-specific pages.
Get a signed HIPAA authorization before using any patient image.
Save copies of assets, targeting settings and approvals with their dates.

How we help

We build websites, local and organic search, Google Ads and lead generation and an AI front desk for independent practices. For Waze, that means accurate Business Profile locations, store goals campaigns set up within Google’s health targeting rules, and landing pages and tags that keep health data off ad platforms. Our tools are built with HIPAA in mind. We confirm in writing what a BAA covers before any patient information flows through a tool, and if it is not covered, we do not route patient information through it. We are not a healthcare provider and we do not give legal or medical advice. Read our guide to healthcare marketing rules for the wider picture.

Can a medical practice still buy Waze ads?

Yes, through Google Ads. Waze stopped selling its own ads after August 31, 2023. Google now lists Waze among the placements for Performance Max campaigns for store goals, available in the United States and other supported countries.

Can we run ads on Waze only?

The Google Ads Help page we read describes Waze as one placement inside a Performance Max for store goals campaign, alongside Google Maps, Search, YouTube, Gmail and other properties. It does not describe a way to buy Waze placements alone.

Can we target Waze drivers who have a health condition?

No. Waze’s Privacy Policy says Waze does not personalize ads based on sensitive categories such as health. Google’s personalized advertising policy treats health as a sensitive interest category and bars advertiser-curated audiences, such as Customer Match, for those ads.

Is a radius around our clinic a geofence under Washington law?

RCW 19.373.010 defines a geofence as a virtual boundary 2,000 feet or less from a location’s perimeter, and RCW 19.373.080 bars geofences around in-person health care providers for tracking, collecting consumer health data or sending health ads. The text has no exception for your own location, so ask counsel how it applies to your campaign.

Do Google’s healthcare ad rules apply on Waze?

Yes. Waze placements are bought as part of a Google Ads campaign, so the Google Ads policies apply, including Healthcare and medicines rules on prescription drug services, addiction services and speculative treatments.

Waze ads for medical practices: navigation pins, Google Ads health rules and location limits