Skin Clinic Marketing FAQs

How much does it cost?

Retainers start from $1,800 per month ex GST for Standard retainer (Google Ads OR SEO) or $3,200/month ex GST for Premium retainer (multi-channel). This is separate from your ad spend budget. Landing pages are $1,200-$1,800 each. Full website builds are $4,500-$8,500 depending on complexity.

See our Retainers page for full pricing breakdown.

What's the difference between your retainers?

Standard ($1,800/month ex GST) focuses on one service (Google Ads OR SEO) with monthly reporting and email support. Premium ($3,200/month ex GST) includes multi-channel strategy, bi-weekly calls, priority support, and up to 3 landing pages. Premium is for clinics ready to scale across multiple marketing channels.

What ad budget do we need?

Minimum $2,500/month for Standard retainer, $4,000/month for Premium. Cosmetic clinics often need higher budgets ($3,000-$5,000+) due to competition. Ad budget goes directly to Google and is separate from our service fee. We'll recommend the right budget during your initial call based on your goals and competition.

Is there a minimum commitment?

Three months minimum for retainers. Marketing needs time to gather data, test approaches, and optimise. After three months, it's month to month with 30 days notice. Project work (websites, landing pages) is one-off with no ongoing commitment.

Do you offer pay per lead or performance-based pricing?

No. We charge a transparent monthly service fee plus your ad spend. Performance pricing creates misaligned incentives and typically costs more in the long run. We focus on sustainable, scalable patient acquisition rather than short-term volume games.

What's the 8 Week Sprint?

Our structured 8 week process for launching and optimising campaigns. Week 1-2: Setup and research. Week 3-4: Launch and initial testing. Week 5-8: Optimisation and scaling. It's included in your first two months of the retainer and gives us the foundation for long-term success.

How involved do we need to be?

Initial setup requires 2-3 hours of your time (onboarding call, content review, tracking setup). After that, Standard retainer needs about 30 minutes per month for reporting review. Premium includes bi-weekly 30 minute calls plus monthly strategy sessions. You handle enquiry follow-up and booking; we handle the marketing.

Do you work with clinics outside Australia?

No. We only work with Australian clinics. Different countries have different regulations, advertising rules, patient behaviour, and search patterns. We specialise in the Australian healthcare and aesthetic market only.

Can you guarantee results?

No. Anyone who guarantees specific results in healthcare marketing is lying. Results depend on your location, competition, pricing, services offered, booking process, and dozens of other factors we can't control. We can show you examples of what's worked for similar clinics, but every situation is different.

What access do you need to our systems?

Google Ads account (admin access), Google Analytics (admin access), your website CMS (for landing pages and tracking setup), and Google Business Profile (manager access). We'll walk you through the setup process. You maintain ownership of all accounts.

Do you work with general medical clinics or other healthcare businesses?

No. I only work with five clinic types: Skin Cancer Clinics, Skin Cancer GPs, Dermatology Clinics, Cosmetic Clinics, and Skin Laser Clinics. I don't work with general medical, dental, allied health, physiotherapy, chiropractic, or non-clinical businesses. This focus allows me to develop deep expertise in these specific markets.

Do you work with brand new clinics?

It depends. If you're pre-launch with no patients yet, probably not. Marketing works best when you already have some patient flow and understand your booking process. If you're 2-3 months into operations with capacity for more patients, that can work. We'll assess your readiness during the initial call.

What if we're already running Google Ads?

That's fine. We'll audit your existing campaigns during the initial call and let you know if we think we can improve results. If your current setup is already working well, we'll tell you honestly. If we see opportunities for better targeting, lower costs, or higher booking rates, we'll explain what we'd do differently.

Do you only work with private clinics?

We work with private practices, bulk billing practices (GPs offering skin checks), and mixed billing models. The marketing approach differs for each. Bulk billing attracts higher volume but lower average revenue. Private billing requires different positioning and patient education. We adjust strategy accordingly.

Are your marketing practices AHPRA compliant?

Yes. We follow AHPRA advertising guidelines and TGA regulations. We don't use testimonials in ads, don't make outcome claims, don't create fear or urgency inappropriately, and don't use before/after photos in paid advertising. See our Compliance Workflow page for our full approach.

Can you use patient testimonials in our marketing?

No. Under section 133 of the National Law, testimonials in advertising a regulated health service are banned outright, and no disclaimer makes one compliant. That includes patient reviews embedded or quoted on your own website and reshared patient stories on your clinic's social media. Reviews that sit on third party platforms you do not control are allowed to exist there, but engaging with them or republishing them can make them your advertising. The full rule is at the testimonial rule article.

What about before and after photos?

Treat before and after images as high risk everywhere, not just in ads. AHPRA's requirements, tightened for higher risk cosmetic procedures from September 2025, demand genuine, unedited, matched images with accurate timing information and specific consent for advertising use. Disclaimers alone do not make an image compliant. The conservative position for most clinics is not to use before and after imagery in advertising at all: the detail is at the before and after article.

What if we don't have a website?

We can build landing pages for your campaigns ($1,200-$1,800 each) or a full website ($4,500-$8,500). For Google Ads, you technically only need landing pages for each service. For SEO, you'll need a proper multi-page website. We'll discuss the right approach during your initial call.

Do you integrate with practice management software?

We can track form submissions and phone calls from marketing. If your practice management system has an API or integration capabilities, we can potentially pass lead data through. Most clinics just manually enter enquiries into their PM system. Integration setup is assessed case by case.

Can you help with social media marketing?

No. We focus on Google Ads, SEO, and websites only. Social media marketing for healthcare has different compliance challenges and typically generates lower quality enquiries compared to search-based marketing. We'd rather do three things extremely well than spread across five services.

What reporting do we get?

Standard retainer: Monthly performance report showing spend, clicks, enquiries, cost per enquiry, and recommendations. Premium retainer: Same monthly report plus bi-weekly performance calls and quarterly strategy sessions. All clients get real-time access to Google Ads and Analytics dashboards.