Let's TalkLet's TalkAn account governed by a licensing board before it is governed by a platform, and by a platform policy written specifically to restrict this category.
Give us read access to the account. We come back with where the spend goes, which treatments produce booked consultations rather than clicks, any claims that would not survive scrutiny, and the three changes worth making first. Recorded walkthrough, no call required.
Four failures we see repeatedly in this vertical, and what each one actually costs.
Google will run an ad that a state board would sanction, and a disapproval tells you nothing about whether the copy is permitted where you practise. Two separate rulebooks apply, they do not overlap neatly, and an account managed against the platform alone is being managed against the less consequential one. The licensee carries the board's view, not the agency.
Advertising in health and cosmetic categories runs into restrictions on how audiences may be built and on what may be implied about the person seeing the ad. Accounts built on assumptions carried over from ecommerce - detailed audience targeting, aggressive remarketing, outcome-led creative - collide with those rules and either get disapproved or get approved and create a different problem.
An injectable appointment, a laser course and a body treatment differ enormously in value, decision length and competition. Run together at a single cost-per-lead target, the cheapest conversions win the budget - which in this category means the lowest-value treatment - while the work that actually pays for the clinic is underfunded into invisibility.
Most med spa accounts optimise toward booked consultations, which is a reasonable proxy until it is the only number anyone looks at. A campaign producing cheap consultations that do not convert to treatment outperforms one producing fewer, better ones on every report. Without the treatment number fed back, the account reliably optimises toward the wrong end.
Business outcomes rather than dashboard metrics. None of these is a guaranteed number - where we do guarantee something, it is written into the offer above.
The real deliverables, not a list written to make a proposal look thicker.
Not the general agency pitch. The reasons that only apply to this kind of business.
Google's approval is the easier test and the less consequential one, and an agency that stops there leaves the licensee carrying a risk they did not know they had. We establish which board governs the practice and what it permits before any creative is produced, which is a step most med spa accounts have never had.
It is the most persuasive asset in aesthetics and the most restricted, across both platform policy and board rules, with consent requirements on top. Building the account to work without depending on it is more difficult and it is the version that does not collapse when a policy tightens or a board takes an interest.
Optimising to booked consultations produces more consultations, and a share of those never become treatment. Feeding the performed-treatment value back changes what the algorithm chases and typically lowers the headline conversion count while raising revenue - an uncomfortable chart and the right one.
Platform health policy and the board that licenses the practice. Both, before any creative.
Separate campaigns, budgets and targets so value is not averaged into the cheapest conversion.
Performed treatment rather than booked consultation, with values imported from the practice system.
Claims and imagery that survive both rulebooks, without depending on before-and-after.
Training courses, product purchases and DIY queries removed. This category attracts all three heavily.
Monthly, per treatment, so budget follows the work that pays rather than the cheapest booking.
The parts of this that come from having run it in this industry before rather than from running it well in general.
Two campaigns producing identical consultation costs can differ by half in what they are worth, entirely because of who they attract. Measuring that rate per campaign is the single most informative report in a med spa account and it is almost never built.
Someone pricing a laser course has questions about downtime, sessions and suitability that a general aesthetics page cannot answer. Each treatment researched at length deserves its own page, and that is also what lets the campaigns be split and bid honestly.
Aesthetics generates enormous search volume from people wanting to buy devices, take certification courses or purchase products. None of them will book a treatment, all of them click, and without a maintained list they take a meaningful share of a premium budget.
Demand concentrates ahead of social seasons and around procedures with visible downtime, which is a predictable curve and rarely planned for. Budget that responds to it beats a flat monthly figure by a wide margin in this category.
The closest engagement we can show is a multi-state clinic network rather than a med spa, and we will not present it as one. What makes it the right comparison is scaling paid acquisition in a regulated health category without lead quality collapsing - 54,000+ leads with cost per lead down 57%. The compliance work on this page is specific to aesthetics and does not transfer from that engagement or from anywhere else.
Read the full case studyUsually claims about outcomes, imagery that implies a result, or targeting that the platform treats as inferring a health condition. Health and cosmetic categories carry restrictions that do not apply to ordinary retail, and accounts built on ecommerce habits collide with them repeatedly. Building inside the policy rather than testing against it stops the cycle.
Treat it as constrained by two separate sets of rules and a consent requirement, and take the specifics to your own advice. Platform policy restricts imagery implying results in health categories, your board may restrict it further, and every image needs documented patient consent for advertising use specifically - not consent to treatment. We build accounts that do not depend on it for exactly this reason.
Yes, and it is usually the largest structural gain available. Injectables, laser courses and body treatments differ in value, decision length and competition, and sharing one budget and one target means the cheapest conversions win - which is rarely the treatment that pays for the clinic. Separate campaigns let you bid each at what it is actually worth.
A performed treatment, with the value imported from your practice system. A booked consultation is a reasonable proxy and a poor target, because a campaign producing cheap consultations that do not convert will beat a better campaign on every report. Feeding treatment values back typically lowers the headline conversion count and raises revenue.
With care and not first. It will find the cheapest conversions available, and in this category that means consultation bookings from people comparing prices. It also gives you less control over where ads appear, which matters more when a category is regulated. Get search structured, the conversion definition honest and the exclusions in place before handing it budget.
The licensee, in practice, which is why we treat it as our problem to prevent rather than yours to catch. A platform approving an ad is not a defence, and an agency that has never read the rules governing your licence can create an exposure you carry. We establish the board and its position before creative is produced.
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No pitch deck, no discovery call you have to sit through. Tell us the situation and we will tell you whether we can help.