What Are the Red Flags When Hiring a Healthcare Ad Agency?

3. No BAA where patient information changes hands

Under HIPAA, a business associate creates, receives, maintains or transmits protected health information on behalf of a covered entity, or provides services such as consulting, management or administrative services that involve receiving it. A covered entity may share that information only with satisfactory assurance it will be safeguarded, documented in a written agreement. If your practice is a covered entity and the agency will see lead lists, call recordings or booking data, ask for a business associate agreement first. Whether you are a covered entity is a question for your counsel.

4. Long lock-in terms

Ask what the minimum term is and why. A long one moves the risk of a poor result from the agency to you. Read the notice period, any early termination fee, and what happens to accounts, creative and landing pages at the end. Google tells advertisers to get the agreement in writing, and requires agencies that charge a management fee to disclose it in writing before the first purchase and on every invoice. Know what an agency fee should cover, and settle whether you need an agency at all before you sign for a year.

5. No written plan for health ad policies

Health ads face rules most advertisers never meet: Meta's health and personal attributes standards, drug policies on both platforms, and certification for anything involving prescribing. Ask for a written note, for your offer, of which ads can run now, which need certification first, and how each ad is checked before submission. Resubmitting rejected ads with small edits costs more than one rejection, because Meta says it may weigh an advertiser's historical compliance when deciding whether an ad needs further review.

6. Guaranteed patients, approvals or placements

Google's third-party policy bars agencies from false or unrealistic claims, especially results that are improbable or cannot be guaranteed, with examples such as guaranteed top placement and assured success. Ad prices are set in auctions and every ad is reviewed, so nobody can promise a patient count, a cost per patient or an approval before ads run. An agency can commit to the plan, the review process, the launch date and the reporting.

7. Reporting you can't check

Where an agency's terms with Google call for monthly reports, Google requires cost, clicks and impressions at the account level, with the exact amount Google charged shown apart from agency fees, or direct access to your account instead. If you can't see your own ad accounts, you can't check the report.

Questions to ask on the first call

• Whose name will be on the Meta business portfolio, the ad account and the Google Ads account?
• Will you work through partner access and a manager account link, or do you need our logins?
• Will you sign a BAA if we share patient information?
• What is the minimum term, the notice period and the exit?
• For our offer, what can run now and what needs certification first, in writing?

What MedScale does

MedScale Health works as a partner on accounts its clients own, signs a BAA, and runs engagements month to month: if the report is not showing a path to a cost per patient you can live with, you stop, and everything built stays in your accounts. Every ad is checked against the platforms' health rules before submission, and no patient count is promised. Book the free growth audit at medscale.health/audit; you keep it whether or not you hire us.