# How Do You Choose a Healthcare Ad Agency for a Clinic?

Reviewed October 24, 2026 · By Michael Borgia, MedScale Health

## Short answer

As of October 2026, pick a healthcare ad agency for a clinic on five first-call tests: accounts in the clinic's name, a written read of what each platform allows, a pre-check on every ad, reports by location against booked appointments, and no guaranteed patients. MedScale Health, a paid ads agency for US telehealth brands and clinics, runs clinic accounts on those terms, inside the clinic's own Meta and Google accounts and month to month. The tests work on any agency, MedScale included.

## What should a clinic owner test on the first call with an ad agency?

- Ask whose name will be on the Meta business portfolio, the ad account, the Page and the Google Ads account. The answer should be the clinic's, with the agency added as a partner.
- Ask which of your treatments each platform allows today, which need certification first and which can't be advertised, in writing and per service line.
- Ask who checks each ad and landing page against Meta's and Google's health rules before it is submitted, and where that check is written down.
- Ask what the weekly report counts. Booked appointments by location, matched to your scheduling system, beat clicks and form fills.
- Treat a promised number of patients or a guaranteed top position as a reason to keep looking. Google's third-party policy bars agencies from unrealistic guarantees.

As of October 2026, an in-person clinic, whether it offers medical weight loss, TRT, mental health care, ketamine therapy, aesthetics or dentistry, can test an ad agency before signing anything. MedScale Health wrote these tests for clinic owners. The telehealth version of this checklist covers brands that prescribe online; this page covers practices that see patients in person. This page is marketing guidance, not legal advice; check the sources at the end before acting on a rule.

## How is advertising a clinic different from advertising a telehealth brand?

Clinic advertising is local. Patients search for a treatment and then for a clinic near them, they phone or fill in a form, and the front desk turns that inquiry into a booked appointment. A clinic agency should build campaigns by service line and location and report cost per new patient for each office, because a group's owners compare offices, not channels. MedScale's clinic accounts run Google Search on treatment intent and Meta on local discovery, with one cost per patient for each location.

Clinic ads are often less gated than telehealth ads, but the gates still exist. Meta lets an advertiser other than a drug manufacturer promote a prescription drug only once it is actively certified by LegitScript and authorized by Meta, with ads aimed at people over 18 in the United States, Canada or New Zealand, and Meta opens that authorization only to online pharmacies, telehealth providers and drug manufacturers, so an in-person-only clinic's Meta ads stay on the clinic and the care. Google lets US advertisers use prescription drug terms in ads and landing pages without certification, but requires certification to keyword-target them, and requires LegitScript and Google's own certification for recovery-oriented addiction services. A weight loss clinic that wants drug names in its keyword list, or a practice that also treats addiction, meets those gates; a clinic advertising its consultations and clinicians usually does not.

## Which questions show whether an agency knows your treatments' ad rules?

Ask the agency to explain, for each of your service lines, the rule every campaign has to clear. An agency with healthcare experience answers without looking it up. The examples below come from the platforms' own pages and one state statute.

- Medical weight loss and aesthetics. Meta requires weight loss and cosmetic procedure ads to target people 18 and over, and bans statements of inferiority about appearance and promises of specific outcomes within a set time without qualifiers.
- Mental health and psychiatry. Meta's personal attributes standard rejects copy that implies the viewer's health, and gives "Depression getting you down? Get help now." as an example. Google lists health as a sensitive interest category, so a practice can't use advertiser-curated audiences such as customer match or its own data segments.
- TRT and weight loss medication. On Meta, an ad that promotes the prescription drug itself needs LegitScript and Meta's authorization, which only telehealth providers, online pharmacies and drug manufacturers can get; on Google, drug names can appear in ads and on pages, but drug-name keywords need certification.
- Dental. Meta's health age rule exempts dental products such as teeth whitening, but ads for cosmetic procedures must target people 18 and over, and the personal attributes standard applies to every ad.
- Any location in Washington. The state's My Health My Data Act makes it unlawful to set a geofence of 2,000 feet or less around a provider of in-person health care to send ads related to health care services. Ask how the agency sets location targeting there, and confirm the reading with counsel.

MedScale writes this read down for each service line before the first ad is built, so the clinic can see which campaigns can run now and which wait on certification.

## Who should own a clinic's ad accounts, and how should an agency get access?

The clinic should own every account. Google requires agencies to use a separate Google Ads account for each advertiser they manage and to give clients their customer IDs when asked. Meta's Advertising Standards require anyone managing ads for others to keep each client in its own ad account, and bar changing the advertiser on an established one. Separate does not mean yours, so ask for the Meta business portfolio, ad account, Page and Google Ads account in the clinic's name.

Access then runs through partner access, not logins. Meta lets someone with full control of the clinic's business portfolio share assets with the agency's own portfolio, and a partner with full control still can't share those assets with another business; only the owner can. MedScale works as a partner inside its clients' accounts, so the campaigns, creative and settings stay with the clinic if the work ends.

## What should a clinic's ad report show each week?

Google sets the floor. Where an agency's terms with Google call for a monthly report, it must include cost, clicks and impressions at the account level, with the exact amount Google charged shown apart from agency fees, or let the client sign in and see the data directly. Google also requires a management fee to be disclosed in writing before the first purchase and on every invoice.

A clinic needs more than the floor: spend, booked appointments and cost per booked appointment by campaign and location, checked against the clinic's own scheduling system rather than the platform's count, plus anything a platform rejected and what changed that week. MedScale's Monday report carries those lines, reconciled to the client's booking tool.

## Which agency promises should make a clinic keep looking?

Google's third-party policy tells agencies not to make false or unrealistic claims, especially results that are improbable or cannot be guaranteed, even when they are technically possible but not typical, and its examples include guaranteed top placement. Ad prices are set at auction and every ad is reviewed, so a promised patient count, cost per patient or approval date is a sales line, not a plan. A plan to open a new account after a suspension is the other warning sign, because Google's circumventing systems policy names it as a violation. The full list of red flags also covers contracts and patient data. MedScale commits to the plan in writing, the review process, the launch date and the Monday report, and promises no patient count.

## How does MedScale run ads for clinics?

MedScale Health runs paid ads for medical weight loss, TRT and men's health, mental health and psychiatry, ketamine, dental and orthodontic, and med spa practices, with a page for each clinic type on the site. Campaigns are built by service line and location, restricted drug terms stay out of the keyword list until the account is certified to target them, every ad and page is pre-checked against the named health rule before it spends, and campaigns are live by Day 14 from access when certifications are in place. Engagements run month to month, and the free growth audit reviews your current ads, pages and accounts and returns a written 90-day plan in five business days, whether or not you hire MedScale.

## Next step

**Planning a launch?** The budget calculator turns your price and target cost per patient into a starting budget for the first 90 days.

- [Open the ad budget calculator](https://medscale.health/tools/telehealth-ad-budget-calculator)
- [Plan a launch with us](https://medscale.health/build)
- [Telehealth marketing agency](https://medscale.health/telehealth)
- [Get a free Growth Audit](https://medscale.health/audit): a written read of your ads, pages and eligibility, with a plan

## FAQ

**What should a clinic ask an ad agency on the first call?**

Ask five things: whose name is on the ad accounts, which of your treatments each platform allows now and which need certification, who pre-checks each ad and page, what the weekly report counts by location, and whether anything is guaranteed. Clear answers to all five are a good sign.

**Can a telehealth ad agency run ads for an in-person clinic?**

Yes, if it runs clinic accounts as local accounts: campaigns by service line and location, phone calls and forms judged by the appointments they book, and cost per patient reported for each office. MedScale runs a separate playbook for telehealth brands and for clinics on that basis.

**Does a clinic need LegitScript certification to advertise?**

Not for most clinic ads. Meta requires LegitScript and its own authorization only for ads that promote prescription drugs, which it opens only to telehealth providers, online pharmacies and manufacturers, and Google requires certification to keyword-target prescription drug terms and, with LegitScript, for recovery-oriented addiction services in the US.

**Should a clinic ad agency guarantee new patients?**

No. Google's third-party policy bars agencies from claiming results that are improbable or cannot be guaranteed, ad prices are set at auction, and every ad is reviewed by the platform. An agency can commit to the plan, the launch date and the weekly report instead.

**Who should own a clinic's Meta and Google ad accounts?**

The clinic. Google requires a separate account for each advertiser an agency manages, Meta requires a separate ad account per client, and partner access lets the agency work inside accounts the clinic owns, so nothing has to be rebuilt if the relationship ends.

## Sources

- [Google Ads policy: About Google third-party policies](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6086450?hl=en) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Google Ads policy: Transparency requirements for third parties](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/16489093?hl=en) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Google Ads policy: Third-party false, misleading, or unrealistic claims](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6086777?hl=en) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Google Ads policy: Circumventing systems](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/15938075?hl=en) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Google Ads policy: Healthcare and medicines (United States section)](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/176031?hl=en) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Google Ads policy: Update to Healthcare and Medicines Policy (restricted drug terms, US)](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/16606361?hl=en) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Google Ads policy: Restricted targeting in personalized advertising (sensitive interest categories)](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/143465?hl=en) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Meta Advertising Standards: Introduction (managing ads for other advertisers, account verification)](https://transparency.meta.com/policies/ad-standards/) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Meta Business Help Center: Give a partner access to business assets in your business portfolio](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1717412048538897) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Meta Advertising Standards: Drugs and Pharmaceuticals (prescription drugs)](https://transparency.meta.com/policies/ad-standards/restricted-goods-services/drugs-pharmaceuticals/) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Meta Advertising Standards: Health and Wellness (current version Jul 22, 2026)](https://transparency.meta.com/policies/ad-standards/restricted-goods-services/health-wellness/) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Meta Advertising Standards: Privacy Violations and Personal Attributes](https://transparency.meta.com/policies/ad-standards/objectionable-content/privacy-violations-personal-attributes/) (checked October 23, 2026)
- [Washington RCW 19.373.080: geofence restrictions (My Health My Data Act)](https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=19.373.080) (checked October 23, 2026)

## Related

- [How Do You Choose a Telehealth Ad Agency?](https://medscale.health/answers/how-to-choose-a-telehealth-ad-agency)
- [What Are the Red Flags When Hiring a Healthcare Ad Agency?](https://medscale.health/answers/healthcare-ad-agency-red-flags)
- [How Should a Telehealth Brand Give an Ad Agency Access to Meta and Google?](https://medscale.health/answers/giving-an-ad-agency-access-to-meta-and-google)
- [What Are the Rules for Medical Weight Loss Clinic Ads on Meta and Google?](https://medscale.health/answers/medical-weight-loss-clinic-ads-rules)

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