Pharmacies · Pay per click advertising
Find out what the platform allows before you spend a rupee.
Advertising platforms treat pharmacies as a restricted category and ask for proof before an ad runs, and the drug rules decide what that ad may say. GullySales establishes what is permitted for your licence, then runs a small radius campaign about hours, delivery and the categories you may promote.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
What pay per click advertising means
Pay per click advertising (PPC) is paying a fee each time someone clicks your advert on Google or another platform. It puts you at the top of a search page immediately, instead of waiting for ranking to build. GullySales sets the targeting, writes the ad text and checks spend against enquiries received.
Last updated 5 Oct 2026. Rules for this trade differ by state and professional body, and they change. We describe restrictions in general terms, so check the current position with your own council or adviser before you publish anything.
For pharmacies
Where it usually goes wrong, and what we would do.
“The platform asks before the regulator does”
Advertising systems restrict this category and want documents first. An account set up without that step gets stopped, usually after the money has gone.
“Your market is two or three kilometres wide”
A chemist five kilometres away is somebody else's chemist. Budget spent outside walking and delivery distance is spent on nothing at all.
“The hours nobody schedules are the ones worth buying”
Between nine at night and midnight the competition thins and the intent is at its highest. Most accounts are switched off by then.
“The keywords you would want are the ones to exclude”
Medicine names and condition searches are the obvious targets. They are also the shortest route into an advertising restriction your licence carries.
What we do
What we deliver for pharmacies.
Every deliverable, what it covers for you, and the result it is there to produce. Nothing here is an extra.
A check of what the platform permits
Which documents and certifications your licence category needs before an ad can run, established and kept on file before any budget is agreed.
Result: The account does not get stopped a week in.
A small radius campaign about the service
Hours, home delivery and ordering on WhatsApp, targeted to the roads and apartment blocks around the shop rather than to the city.
Result: The ad reaches people who can reach you.
Campaigns for the categories you may promote
Home health devices, baby care and surgical supplies advertised as products, kept completely apart from anything prescription.
Result: The non-prescription counter gets demand of its own.
Call ads scheduled for the late evening
Ads running when your shop is open and others are not, pointing at a phone that is answered rather than a page nobody reads at midnight.
Result: The late-night caller reaches you first.
A negative list covering medicines and conditions
Medicine names, disease terms, treatment queries and job searches excluded, and added to from the search report.
Result: The account stays on the right side of the line.
A count of orders per rupee spent
Calls, chat orders and deliveries traced back to the ads, set against the order figures recorded before the work started.
Result: You can stop the spend that brought nothing.
How the result is measured
- Cost per click
- Cost per enquiry
- Enquiries from paid search
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
Searches to bid on and block
The searches from people near the shop, and the medicine terms that no pharmacy advert should touch.
- Medical shop near me and chemist open now
- Bid, in a radius of a few streets and in the hours you are open. A person needing a refill wants the nearest open counter. Show the address and a call button.
- Medicine home delivery near me
- Bid only if you really deliver to that area and your licences cover it. Name the delivery area and the hours. Check the platform's current rules for pharmacy advertising before the advert runs.
- Names of prescription medicines
- Do not bid and do not mention. Drug laws forbid promoting prescription medicines to the public, and platforms reject these adverts. Add the names as negatives, along with tablet and dose.
- Pharmacy jobs, D Pharm course and franchise
- Block. Add job, vacancy, D Pharm, B Pharm, course, franchise and wholesale licence as negatives, since students and shop-seekers type these.
- Where the click lands
- Send it to a page with your address, opening hours, delivery area and WhatsApp number. A customer in a hurry needs to know whether you have the item and how to reach you.
- Counting a real enquiry
- Count a call or message from a person within your delivery area that asks for an item or a refill, and a walk-in that mentions the advert. Log it simply, and do not store prescriptions in the marketing sheet.
Who it is for
This is written for these pharmacies.
- Independent neighbourhood chemists
- Pharmacies attached to a clinic or nursing home
- Hospital pharmacies serving outpatients
- Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras and generic medicine stores
- Multi-outlet local pharmacy chains
- Franchise outlets of national pharmacy brands
- Surgical and medical equipment stores
- Pharmacies stocking Ayurvedic and homoeopathic medicines
- Twenty-four hour and late-night pharmacies
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- You want a guaranteed Google ranking or a guaranteed number of leads. Nobody honest can promise either.
- You need enquiries by next week and have nobody to answer them.
- You want posts and reach reported, not enquiries and orders.
How it works
From your first message to the first report.
No open-ended retainer. Every step gives you something in writing.
First
Your brief
You tell us what you need in a few short steps: your business, what you want, where enquiries come from and how they are handled.
After the brief
A conversation and a written scope
We read it, then talk with whoever handles your enquiries. If you want our help, the scope, the fee and the reporting come in writing, and nothing starts before you have read them.
Before work starts
Baseline recorded
Enquiries by source, reply time, conversion and cost per order, written down so every later report has an honest comparison.
After the baseline
The first fix goes live
The fix we agreed to start with is put in place and measured against the baseline, whether that is reply time, a follow-up sequence, the page buyers land on or the handover between marketing and sales.
As agreed
Report against the baseline
What moved, what did not, and what changes next, in plain words. How often you get it is set in writing before work starts.
At renewal
Renew on the numbers
The term ends and you decide whether to continue from the results. The length is agreed in writing before anything starts.
How the pay per click advertising work runs
- 1
Understand the total budget
We agree the full paid advertising budget available across all platforms, rather than planning each one separately.
- 2
Audit current platform performance
We compare existing campaigns on a shared basis to see where the budget currently performs best and worst.
- 3
Build the cross-platform plan
Campaigns are structured across platforms with a shared measurement standard from the outset.
- 4
Implement and monitor
Campaigns run with budget allocated dynamically based on real-time performance.
- 5
Measure and reallocate
We report performance and shift budget toward what is working, within agreed limits.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Can a chemist run search ads at all?
Is advertising worth it when our customers live on the same road?
Can we advertise discounts on medicines?
How should we handle a prescription sent on WhatsApp from an advert?
Can a pharmacy advertise medicines?
Can we offer discounts to match online pharmacies?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
From the blog
Further reading for pharmacies.
8 min read · 21 Sept 2026How to advertise to retail business ownersA shop owner is behind the counter from ten to nine and cannot leave it. That single fact rules out most media, and it makes the lean afternoon hour and the distributor's salesman worth more than any campaign.
7 min read · 18 Feb 2025Best advertising channels for diagnostic centresMost tests are decided by a prescribing doctor, so advertising has a ceiling. The channels that pay are Maps, the referral round, home collection and a small number of honest packages.
More for pharmacies
Everything else we would do for you.
Or start from the overview: sales and marketing for pharmacies.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.