Choose the med spa marketing agency that can show you the whole system working: education-led content, paid ads, lead follow-up and honest reporting, run by one team. Then make it prove each part. The questions below are the ones I would ask if I were a clinic owner on the other side of the call, with what a good answer sounds like and the answer that should end the conversation.
This is for owners and practice managers who already know they need help and are now comparing agencies. If you are still deciding whether to hire anyone, start with what an in-house content team really costs.
What should a med spa marketing agency actually do?
Four jobs, connected:
- Content that educates. Short-form video that explains treatments in plain language, ideally with your practitioners on camera.
- Paid distribution. Meta campaigns (and Google where demand already exists) that put the strongest content in front of people who are considering treatment.
- Lead capture and follow-up. Forms, messages and nurture copy that turn interest into booked consults.
- Reporting that leads somewhere. Leads, cost and creative performance, reviewed monthly, with a clear next step.
Plenty of agencies do one of these well. The trouble starts when each job sits with a different vendor and nobody owns the gap between a good video and a booked consult.
The eight questions to ask before you sign
| Question | A good answer | A red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Can I see your aesthetics work, and where did it run? | Named case studies with the market stated | ”We work with lots of clinics” and nothing you can check |
| How do you make ads without before-and-afters or outcome promises? | Education-led creative, with examples | Before-and-afters and discounts as the plan |
| Who approves medical claims? | Your practitioner signs off before anything runs | ”We handle all of that” |
| What happens to a lead after the form? | Specific follow-up copy and timing | ”We send you the leads” |
| How do you define a lead? | A written definition, used in every report | A number with no definition |
| What does the monthly fee include? | Videos, shoot days, campaigns and refreshes, in writing | ”Whatever you need” |
| How do you keep creative from going stale? | A refresh cadence built into the scope | ”We’ll make new ads when results drop” |
| Who will actually run my account? | A named senior person | A sales lead you never see again |
A few of these deserve more than a table row.
Ask where the proof ran
Aesthetics results only mean something in context. Ask which market the work ran in, which platform, and over what period. I hold myself to the same standard: our aesthetics case studies come from clinics in Singapore, and we say so on every one. For one of them, a lead system that ran for 18 months recorded 14,576 leads from message and form conversions. A US clinic should ask any agency the same questions, including us.
Ask how they sell without the shortcuts
Before-and-after images and outcome promises are the easiest creative in this category, and the riskiest. Rules vary by platform and market, so a good agency should be able to show results that did not depend on them. The Botox campaigns we ran for a Singapore clinic had to work under healthcare advertising restrictions: no before-and-after creative, no outcome claims, no discount hooks. They produced 1,277 leads across 66 campaigns because the content made the treatment easier to understand. I break down the creative types that do this in my ad creative framework for med spas.
Also ask who signs off claims. The answer should be your practitioner or medical director. An agency can write the script, but it should not be the last word on what your clinic says about a treatment.
Ask what a lead means
This is where most agency relationships go wrong six months in. A form fill, a message, a booked consult and a treated patient are four different numbers, and only some of them are in the agency’s control. Get the definition in writing before the first report. Then ask what happens in the minutes after a lead arrives: who replies, with what, and how fast. Follow-up copy and nurture sequences were part of the system behind the TruGlow numbers above, not an afterthought.
Ask how creative stays fresh
Every treatment campaign fatigues if the same promise runs for months. Ask how often creative is refreshed and whether that cadence is in the contract. For one undereye filler treatment, we kept the same campaign converting for 18 months by rotating creators, hooks and angles around a constant offer. Across 44 campaigns, acquisition cost in month 18 was almost exactly where it started.
Red flags that should end the call
- Guaranteed patient numbers before they have seen your market, treatments or budget.
- A pitch built on discounts and before-and-after images.
- Reports that stop at reach, views and followers.
- No access to your own ad account.
- A scope with no numbers in it.
- Content that could belong to any clinic, with stock imagery and trending audio. I wrote more about why generic beauty content feels fake in aesthetics.
Where Content Hall fits
I would rather you ask us these questions than take my word for it, so here are our answers up front. We publish our prices: retainers start at $3,900 a month for Foundation (strategy, 10 short-form videos, one shoot day, Meta ads management with a monthly creative refresh, and reporting), then $5,900 for Scale and $8,900 for Accelerate, which adds more video, more campaigns, more creative refreshes and daily ad optimization. Ad spend is paid to the platforms separately, and there is a three-month minimum. I personally run strategy on our Los Angeles accounts, with no handoff to a junior team.
We are not the right fit if you only want someone to post on your feed, or if you want a guaranteed number of patients before we have seen your market. If the questions above are the ones you care about, see how we scope med spa retainers or book a call and ask them directly.
Questions people ask
What questions should I ask a med spa marketing agency?
Ask to see aesthetics work and where it ran, how they make ads without before-and-after images or outcome promises, who approves medical claims, what happens to a lead after the form, how they define a lead, what the monthly fee includes, how they keep creative fresh, and who will actually run your account.
What are the red flags when hiring a med spa marketing agency?
Be wary of guaranteed patient numbers, a strategy built on discounts or before-and-after images, reporting that stops at reach and followers, no access to your own ad account, and a scope that never says how many videos, campaigns or creative refreshes you get.
Should a med spa hire an agency or build an in-house team?
An agency makes sense when you need strategy, production, paid media and reporting working together and you do not want to hire and manage each role. In-house makes sense when you have steady volume and someone senior to run it. The real cost of an in-house team is several jobs, not one salary.
Can a med spa agency run before-and-after ads?
It depends on the platform, the treatment and the rules where you operate, and those change. Treat it as a question for the agency and your own compliance advice, not a default tactic. Our Botox campaigns for a Singapore clinic ran without before-and-after creative, outcome claims or discount hooks.
