How much money is spent on plastic surgery marketing each year? The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) recently reported that about a quarter-million more cosmetic procedures occurred in 2018 compared to 2017. With almost 18 million surgical and minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures performed in the United States, a number that has continued to rise, Americans spent over $16.5 billion on various cosmetic surgeries or enhancements in 2018.
Table of Contents
Plastic Surgery Marketing is on the Rise
As the number of elective procedures rises, so does marketing spend. Today most plastic surgery practices spend anywhere between $5,000-$15,000 per month on cosmetic surgery ads and marketing. This does not necessarily reflect the time spent posting on Facebook and Twitter. It’s an investment that pays off, too. Plastic surgery is something that consumers desire. However, they need a lot of information and marketing touchpoints throughout their buying cycle.
Potential patients want to hear from you and your expert staff as they think about what procedure(s) they wish to invest in. Not only will they consider certain factors like affordability and potential benefits, but they will be considering how credible and trustworthy your practice is. These factors can help determine your budget and what type of marketing will yield the highest ROI and client engagement for your private practice.
This article will review how much your practice should spend on marketing to capture market territory. We will also discuss some of the best ways to help your practice stand out from the competition.
How Much Money Should Your Plastic Surgery Practice Spend On Marketing?
It’s a good rule of thumb to allocate around 6% – 12% of your annual revenue for your marketing budget. This includes cosmetic surgery advertising, SEO and content creation. Newer practices or practices found in higher competition areas should plan to spend more to increase brand awareness, gain exposure, and stand out amidst the competition.
When deciding what type of marketing your medspa or plastic surgery practice should invest in, it’s essential to understand who and where your customers are. Your ideal prospective patients fit into an individual profile and live in a specific area. This data will help you identify what marketing platforms and which targeting options can bring you the right results.
Marketing Services for Plastic Surgery Practices
Typically, those seeking elective cosmetic procedures are affluent enough to invest their money and time in exchange for your services. Once you figure out who you want to market to, then you can plan for initial costs that will focus on establishing an online presence. We’ve listed a few top things you will want to focus on first and their recommended monthly spends below:
- Optimized Website ($5,000-$20,000 *one time cost + maintenance fees)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ($2000-$3000)
- PPC Ads ($1000-$2000)
- Content Marketing ($1,000-$10,000)
- Facebook Ads ($1,000-$3,000)
- Instagram Ads ($1,000-$3,000)
Now that we’ve reviewed a few marketing services and the recommended spend you should invest in, the next step is identifying some of the top desired procedures in your area. These are the services you will want to promote heavily.
You will also want to promote any trendy procedures your practice has recently begun to offer. According to The American Society of Plastic Surgery, the top 10 cosmetic procedures (non-invasive and cosmetic procedures) in 2019 were:
- Botox
- Fillers (Restylane, Juvederm, etc.)
- Chemical peel
- Laser hair removal
- Microdermabrasion
- Breast Augmentation
- Liposuction
- Rhinoplasty
- Eyelid surgery
- Tummy tuck
Once you know how much your monthly marketing budget should be, what services you will be promoting, and to whom you will be promoting them to, you will want to implement a marketing strategy that increases brand awareness and lead generation. After you decide on a strategy you can break everything down from a tactical approach.
Cosmetic Surgery Marketing Ideas
Build a Beautiful and Informative Website
When a customer hears about you, whether from a friend or online, they’ll visit your website to learn more. If your website is off-brand or hard to navigate, you could lose them as a potential client. If your website is bad, no matter how good your services are, you won’t be able to attract clients.
Your homepage has to be optimized to keep visitors engaged. You can do so with beautiful imagery, an intuitive user experience, and copy that builds trust. Attracting new clients and keeping old ones requires having a well-designed site, featuring before and after images, past client testimonials, and any accolades or achievements your practice can put on display.
Use SEO to Dominate Market Territory
Every plastic surgeon can benefit from SEO services. When someone searches “botox in Chicago” or “best cosmetic surgeon near me,” it’s important to show up at the top of Google search obtain new cosmetic surgery patients. When people start researching practices or surgeons online, it not only demonstrates purchasing intent, but it also indicates that someone has the procedure in mind they already want to be done.
Local search optimization (SEO) can help improve your rankings on Google and other search engines via keywords, directory listings, creating content, online reviews, and so on. SEO is one of the top ways to ensure that when customers are looking for the types of services your practice provides online, you are one of the first ones they find and evaluate.
Utilize PPC for Quick Results
While SEO has a proven track record of increasing leads and in-practice visits, it takes time to start seeing results. Google’s Pay-Per-Click (PPC) can place your ads in front of people who are searching online for certain procedures you offer.
You have to pay for placement of your cosmetic surgery ads. However, it’s a great way to ensure that while you are waiting for the SEO magic to work that people who are searching certain terms are starting to see your practice name pop up. PPC is an effective and quick way to boost your site’s local search ranking.
Build Trust and Generate Leads via Content
Publishing branded content that demonstrates your expertise and shares patient stories is another great way to ensure that potential clients find you online. Not only does it boost your website’s rankings through keywords, but it also is one of the best ways to build trust with prospective clients.
Sharing and promoting blog posts that feature case studies, reconstructive surgery, videos, pictures before/after performing cosmetic, infographics, and more will help you gain exposure and generate more leads. More importantly, the content you write should build up your practice’s credibility. This will help position you as the top expert in your area. You should also post content on Facebook and Twitter.
Gather Client Testimonials and Promote Them
Your potential patients’ decision-making process is a complex one when it comes to cosmetic procedures. Reviews can help ease their worries by hearing other customer’s success stories post-surgery. Earning trust by displaying your past work is a vital component to gaining new clientele. Promote any rave reviews on your website, blog, and social channels.
Leverage Facebook Ads to Target Your Ideal Audience
Facebook advertising has incredible targeting capabilities and options to help your practice get in front of the right audience, particularly young people. You can really narrow down exactly who you want to target based on your practice’s psychographics and demographics. You can even narrow it down further to interests and behaviors. Meaning, by using this detailed targeting on Facebook, you can refine the group of people your ads are shown to and have a higher chance that your ad is seen by the right people.
Create and Launch Video Ads
Never underestimate the power of video! This year, online video has driven almost 80% of all internet traffic. Videos can be used on your website, social channels, and blog. Incorporate video ads as a part of your social media advertising strategy that features patient testimonials, before/after transformations, and short educational clips about procedures.
Offer a Free Consultation for New Patients
Data shows that out of all the clients who book a consultation, only about 10% will actually go through with it. By offering a free consultation, you can have a no pressure dialogue with your potential customer. (Or another great promo is to have the consultation fee go towards the patient’s procedure.) Either way, engaging new clients in for a consultation is your chance to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. This is a crucial step of the buyer’s journey. Reviewing the procedure and putting your credibility on display will ease any worries they may have. This will help your client feel confident in moving forward with your services, above the competition’s.
Marketing Services for Cosmetic Surgery Practices
What was once considered the holy grail to youth and beauty only accessible to the rich and famous, plastic surgery has expanded to a large portion of the US population. There has never been a better time to start or grow your plastic surgery practice and attract new patients. Digital marketing is an investment that can bring you new customers, maintain and build relationships with current clients, and impact your bottom line.
It may seem like you are too busy or don’t have enough time to achieve it all. It’s a lot of work to launch an optimized website, implement the strategies mentioned above, and manage incoming leads. That’s why it’s important to find the right digital marketing agency. An agency can take their expertise and leverage their vast experience in search technologies and digital marketing techniques to deliver measurable results for your practice.
SEO Design Chicago provides marketing services for plastic surgeons. We can not only help you develop and implement a marketing plan to help you dominate your local, regional, or national market, but we can manage your digital advertising, content creation, SEO, website design and updates, and much more. We do what we do best, help your business grow. So you can focus on what you do best, helping patients achieve their cosmetic surgery goals.
Contact Us Today!