Private healthcare · Meta Ads

Meta Ads for private healthcare

Some services get weighed up for weeks. Aesthetics consultations, sports physiotherapy, health checks. Facebook and Instagram put your clinic in front of people while they think it over. Arête plans the strategy, writes the copy, directs the creative and optimises every campaign towards booked consultations.

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From £399 per month, fixed fee

The situation

Why your customers are searching.

Meta is stricter than many clinics expect. Ads can't imply knowledge of a person's health or appearance, cosmetic procedure ads must be limited to adults, and prescription-only medicines can't be promoted at all. Within those limits, the platform works well for one job: making your clinic and practitioners familiar before a patient is ready to book. The campaigns that hold up best promote a consultation and show your own people, not dramatic results.

What sends them looking

An NHS waiting time longer than they're prepared to wait.
A GP or consultant referral, or an insurer authorising treatment, that sends them looking for a recognised clinic.
A sports injury, bad back or recurring pain that hasn't settled on its own.
A milestone birthday, a wedding or a change in confidence that starts the research into aesthetic treatment.
A house move, and the need for a private GP or physio near home or work.

The problem

What costs private healthcare work.

Where the work slips away

Explaining a treatment well enough to reassure, without drifting into outcome claims the ASA would treat as unsubstantiated.
Promoting aesthetic services when the injectable itself is a prescription-only medicine you can't promote to the public.
Putting each practitioner's registration and experience where patients look for it. The footer doesn't count.
Handling self-pay, insured and referred patients separately, because each arrives with different questions and a different route to booking.
Keeping every clinic location accurate on your website and on Google, each with its own practitioners, hours and services.

What makes customers hesitate

What the treatment will cost in total, beyond the first appointment.
Is this practitioner properly qualified and registered for the treatment?
Whether their insurer covers it, and whether they need a GP referral first.
What happens if the treatment doesn't help, or something goes wrong afterwards.

How it helps

What Meta Ads changes.

Campaigns promote a consultation or assessment, which keeps aesthetics advertising on the right side of prescription-only medicine rules.
Copy steers clear of personal-attribute phrasing, such as questions about the viewer's skin, weight or pain.
Creative features your clinic, your practitioners and the consultation itself. Results imagery appears only where it's genuine and representative.
Cosmetic services reach adults only, within a realistic distance of each clinic.

What you get

Consultation-led campaign strategy

A plan setting out which services to promote, the offer for each, and how prospecting and retargeting fit around your clinic's capacity.

Ad copy written to the rules

Primary text and headlines written against ASA rules and Meta's health policies, avoiding outcome promises and personal-attribute language.

Creative direction for clinic content

Shot lists and briefs for practitioner introductions, clinic walk-throughs and consultation explainers that you can film yourself or commission.

Adult-only local audiences

Age and location settings matched to each clinic, with no targeting based on health conditions.

Booking and lead tracking

Meta pixel and Conversions API set up to record consultation bookings and lead forms while limiting the health information shared with Meta.

Monthly optimisation and reporting

Creative and audience testing, budget moved between services, and a report on booked consultations and cost per booking.

Measurement

The enquiries that count, tracked properly.

What counts as an enquiry

A first consultation or assessment booked online, logged against the clinic and practitioner.
A call from your website or an ad that lasts long enough to be a proper enquiry.
An enquiry form that sends self-pay, insured and referred patients straight to the right person.
A callback request for a higher-value treatment, where the patient wants to talk before booking.

What gets tracked

Booked consultations and lead form submissions per service and clinic.
How cost per booked consultation compares with Google Ads for the same service.
Lead quality: which enquiries turned into attended appointments.
Creative fatigue signals, so ads are refreshed before costs rise.

Worth knowing

What customers check, and the rules to follow.

What customers look for before they call

Practitioner profiles with registration details (GMC, HCPC, NMC or similar) and relevant experience.
Your CQC registration and current rating, where the service is registered and has been rated.
Prices or price ranges, including exactly what the first consultation covers.
Authentic patient reviews on Google and independent review platforms.
Plain-English explanations of what a treatment involves, how long recovery takes and the realistic alternatives.

Rules worth knowing

In England, if your service is registered with the CQC and has been rated, the rating must be displayed on your website as well as at the premises.
The CAP Code expects health and efficacy claims to be backed by evidence, and prescription-only medicines, including botulinum toxin, cannot be advertised to the public.
Google Ads and Meta both restrict healthcare advertising, including prescription medicine terms, audiences based on health conditions and ads that imply knowledge of a person's health.
Ads for cosmetic interventions must not be directed at under-18s, so Arête sets audiences and placements to match.

Straight answer

Is it right for you?

Elective and self-pay services, yes, provided you're happy for the ads to sell the consultation and stay within the rules. Urgent care belongs on Google.

Made for

Aesthetics clinics promoting prescriber consultations and non-prescription skin treatments.
Physiotherapy, sports injury and wellbeing clinics offering courses of treatment that people plan in advance.
Private GP and health screening services wanting to build local awareness among adults who aren't searching yet.

Not for

Urgent or condition-led services, where people search when they need help and Google Ads is the better channel.
Clinics wanting ads that name prescription-only medicines or show dramatic transformations.
Practices unable to follow up lead form enquiries within a working day.

Starting price

From £399

per month, fixed management fee

What moves the price

Volume of creative and testing
How much creative you can supply versus what needs briefing
Number of campaigns and audiences
Reporting frequency

Your ad budget is separate. It goes straight to the platform and is never marked up.

See all starting prices

Questions

Meta Ads for private healthcare: your questions answered

Why do clinic ads on Meta get rejected?

Three reasons come up again and again: copy that implies something about the viewer's health or appearance, images that suggest negative self-perception or unrealistic results, and references to prescription medicines. Neutral, clinic-focused language usually sorts it. Arête writes to those rules from the first draft, so you're not fixing rejections after launch.

Do lead forms or website bookings work better for clinics on Meta?

Lead forms tend to bring more enquiries at a lower cost, but the quality varies. A booking page brings fewer, firmer bookings. A sensible split is lead forms for higher-value consultations that need a conversation, and direct booking for simpler appointments. Your attendance figures then show the right mix.