Key takeaways
- Judge a med spa agency on booked consultations and consult-to-treatment rate, pulled from your booking platform.
- Ad accounts, Meta business assets, Google profile, website and CRM must all be in your name.
- An agency that doesn't know Google's and Meta's health and cosmetic ad rules will get your ads rejected.
- Be wary of any agency that promises Local Services Ads, guaranteed reviews or results only on a long contract.
A good marketing agency for a med spa reports in booked consultations, keeps every account in your name, and knows which injectable and laser ads Google and Meta will reject before it writes them. If an agency can't show you all three in the first meeting, keep looking. Below is the checklist to hold them to, and the red flags.
What to look for
Look for an agency that can trace its work to booked consultations in Boulevard or Zenoti, not just to leads in its own dashboard. A med spa's numbers live in the booking platform, so an agency that never asks for access to them is measuring the wrong thing.
Use this as your checklist in the first meeting:
- Reporting from your booking data. Booked consultations, consult-to-treatment rate and cost per new patient, by channel, every month.
- Fluency in ad policy. They can tell you, before writing a word, which injectables keywords Google's healthcare policy is likely to limit and which cosmetic creative Meta's standards will reject (Google's healthcare policy, Meta's ad standards). Ask them to show you a compliant ad they would run for you.
- Your accounts, their access. Google Ads, Meta business assets, Google Business Profile, website, domain and CRM are created in your name. The agency is a user you can remove.
- Retention, not only acquisition. Patients come back for cycles and series, so a plan that ignores rebooking, memberships and reactivation ignores the visits after the first one.
- A season plan. A calendar built backward from wedding season, the holidays and New Year resolution periods, with offers and pages live before each one.
- Follow-up in scope. Someone owns what happens after an inquiry arrives: the DM reply, the consult reminder, the plan follow-up.
- Dated deliverables and short terms. Projects with outcomes and dates, month to month or project by project.
- Honesty about Local Services Ads. Eligibility depends on category and location, and a med spa should not plan around it (Google's requirements).
Choosing a marketing partner
| Question | Look for | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts | Everything in your name | They own the ad account or site |
| Contract | Projects with outcomes and dates | Long lock-in with no exit |
| Reporting | Calls and booked jobs | Impressions and clicks only |
| Promises | Honest trade-offs | Promised top rankings |
Red flags
The biggest red flag is an agency that keeps your ad accounts in its own name and reports clicks and leads instead of consultations. These are the other lines to listen for, and what they cost a med spa:
| What they say | What it means for your med spa |
|---|---|
| "We'll run the ads from our account." | You lose your ad history, audiences and access when you leave. |
| "Our dashboard tracks leads." | A discount form fill isn't a patient until they book and show up. |
| "Before-and-after photos convert best." | On Meta and Google, that invites disapproved ads and account restrictions. |
| "We'll get you into Local Services Ads." | Not available to every category or area. It isn't something to promise. |
| "We'll get you fifty reviews this month." | Bought, incentivized or AI-written reviews are banned by the FTC's rule and by Google (16 CFR Part 465). |
| "Give it twelve months on contract." | You pay for activity whether consultations book or not. |
| "A deep injectable special every month." | It trains patients to wait for the deal and fills the book with price shoppers. |
One more: an agency that writes treatment claims without asking who your medical director is. Every ad and page that describes a treatment should be reviewed by your providers.
Agency vs hiring
Hire in-house when the work is daily and in the building; use an agency when it needs several specialists. A coordinator on your payroll can film providers between appointments, post to Instagram and answer DMs. Search, paid ads, the website and CRM automation are separate skills that are hard to find in one person. Many med spas end up with both. The hire versus agency guide for med spas lays out a framework for comparing the costs.
Why VETS Growth Marketing
- Assess. We review your Google Business Profile, website, ads and follow-up, and pull consultation and rebooking numbers from your booking platform to see where patients are lost today.
- Prioritize. We rank the five moves with the most impact on booked consultations and put a date on each one.
- Execute. We do the work inside your accounts, with ads and pages written to Google's and Meta's health and cosmetic rules and checked by your providers.
- Measure. Every month we report booked consultations, cost per new patient and rebooking, then set the next priorities ahead of your next peak season.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We are a full growth team for about the cost of one senior hire, covering search, your Google profile, the website, Google and Meta ads, CRM follow-up and AI. Every account is opened in your name, each piece of work is a project with an outcome and a date, and there is no long-term contract. You can see how we approach med spas on our med spa industry page, or book a growth consultation and leave with your five highest-impact next moves, whether you hire us or not.
Sources
- Healthcare and medicines policy, Google Advertising Policies Help
- Introduction to the Advertising Standards, Meta Transparency Center
- 16 CFR Part 465: Use of consumer reviews and testimonials, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
- Local Services Ads requirements, Google Advertising Policies Help