Google Ads Strategy & Best Practices for MedSpas and Cosmetic Surgeons

According to a study¹  the revenue from surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures in the USA rose to a whopping 1.6 billion USD. And while this is excellent news for plastic surgeons looking to expand their digital footprint; it also implies that the competition is getting fierce and advertising costs are peaking. Not to mention, the rising average cost per click is not the only challenge faced by the industry. The majority of effort also goes into making sure the advertising infrastructure (including ad copies, content on landing pages, and imagery) for plastic surgeons aligns with Google Ads policies and respects the audience’s right to privacy and data protection.

Our Paid Media marketing strategists have helped some of North America’s top plastic surgeons increase their YoY revenue by devising winning strategies on Google Ads and Bing Ads. 

Read on to learn how Wisevu helped their clients evolve with Google’s strict ad policies and guidelines for cosmetic procedures, alongside managing an annual million-dollar portfolio on Google Ad spend.  

Broadly, Google categorizes adult cosmetic procedures into two sections that restrict ads from going live:

1. Strongly Restricted Content 
2. Moderately Restricted Content

Typically, a Google ad for a general merchandise store takes up to 24 hours to get reviewed by Google’s Machine Learning ML and AI-enabled systems. In contrast, complex ads like invasive cosmetic surgeries require a complex editorial review. In order to ensure your ad gets approved, our team of experts makes sure we comply with Google Ad’s sexual content policy³ and refrain from targeting minors. 

Once the ad gets approved with limitations, it is eligible to show in limited scenarios based on user search queries, their browser’s safe search settings, their age (should be 18+), and local laws where the ad is being served.

Strongly Restricted Categories comprise of:

1. Nudity: People or graphical illustrations that portray intimate body parts (including representations that are blurred or censored). For example – visible genitalia, female breasts and buttocks, before and after visuals of the male groin and female genitalia.
2. Sexual Encounter Dating:  Dating explicitly motivated by sexual encounters. Examples: Hook-up or fling dating, swinger dating sites.

Moderately Restricted Categories comprise of:

1. Partial nudity: People or graphical illustrations of people that exhibit partially exposed intimate body parts. For example – exposed lower or outer curve of the female breasts, majority of the buttocks exposed.
2. Mature Cosmetic Procedures: Invasive and non-invasive procedures including female breast augmentation, penis enlargement surgery, Brazilian butt lift, vaginal laser rejuvenation, buttock implants, pubic hair grooming, labiaplasty, vaginoplasty and other ob-gyn procedures.
3. Sexually Suggestive Elements and Themes:  Text, images, audio, or video that can be interpreted as suggesting sexual intent or being sexually evocative. Content containing sexually suggestive poses or postures. For example – lewd or sexual language, images featuring legs spread open, touching covered intimate body parts, mimicking sexual positions or movements, dating for general audiences that includes more sexually suggestive imagery.
4. Sexualized theme dating: Dating explicitly motivated in terms of sexual themes. For example: sexual fetish dating.
5. Sexual merchandise: Sex toys, lubricants, aphrodisiacs, sexual enhancers, sexual fetish lingerie.
6. Sexual entertainment: Strip clubs, adult movie festivals, sexually suggestive live streaming or live chat, sexually suggestive role-playing games

Google clearly states that these strongly and moderately restricted business categories are not allowed to run ads on YouTube, Google Display Network and Gmail. Any ad account that is found violating these policies can face account suspension without any prior warning. This is applicable to the account running the ads, and every account that is connected via the same payment method.

Another over-arching restricted advertising category comprises of Speculative and Experimental Medical Treatments. Procedures involving cell therapies, gene therapies, blood transfusions, platelet-rich plasma and stem-cell therapies fall under Healthcare and Medicines category; and advertisers are withheld from marketing these services. However, Google permits advertising for these terms only when they are meant for educative and informative purposes, including academic papers, research, and medical conferences.

Google’s strict rules and advertising policies can seem quite daunting and oftentimes inevitable. Our seasoned Google Ads Marketing Experts for cosmetic and Plastic Surgeons as well as medical spas have acquired the skills and industry expertise over years by carrying out numerous experiments, A/B tests on content & lead generation tactics, and sentiment marketing – all while keeping the target audience’s psychological expectations and behaviour in mind. 

Wisevu’s Digital Marketing Services for Plastic Surgeons

Our marketing experts can help you devise an efficient game plan to outweigh your competitors and unlock the full potential of your business. Our core services include:

References

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/281357/total-us-expenditure-on-surgical-and-nonsurgical-cosmetic-procedures/
2. Google Ads Support Policy – https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/7187501
3. Google Ads Support Policy – https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6023699