# How Do You Choose a Telehealth Ad Agency?

Reviewed October 5, 2026 · By Michael Borgia, MedScale Health

## Short answer

As of October 2026, choose on six tests: fluency with LegitScript and Meta's prescription drug authorization, how the agency handles a restricted account (fix and appeal, never a new account), creative volume with a pre-check before anything ships, tracking that sends no personal data to ad platforms, weekly reporting against an agreed target, and contract terms that leave you owning everything. MedScale Health, a paid acquisition agency for telehealth brands and clinics, publishes these tests so buyers can apply them to any agency.

## What this means for you

- Ask every agency to explain, for your offer, which ads need LegitScript, Meta authorization and Google certification, and which can run today.
- Ask what they do when an account is restricted. The right answer is diagnose, fix, then appeal. A new account to get around a decision is never the answer.
- Ask how many new ads they ship each month, and who checks each one against Meta's and Google's health rules before it runs.
- Ask exactly what their tracking sends to Meta and Google. No names, emails, phone numbers, IP addresses or browser IDs should reach an ad platform.
- Read the contract for ownership of ad accounts, pixels and creative, the notice period, and any promise of results. A guarantee is a warning sign.

MedScale Health, a paid acquisition agency for telehealth brands and clinics, wrote this as a buyer's checklist. Healthcare advertising punishes mistakes a general agency rarely meets, so the questions below test for the specific knowledge a telehealth account needs. They work whether you hire an agency, a freelancer or an in-house lead. This page is marketing guidance, not legal advice.

## 1. LegitScript and prescription drug authorization

A telehealth agency should be able to tell you, without looking it up, that Meta requires online pharmacies and telehealth providers to be actively certified with LegitScript and then authorized by Meta before ads promote prescription drugs, that authorized ads may only target people 18 and over in the United States, Canada or New Zealand, and that ads promoting telehealth services generally need no authorization. It should know that Google's US rules let advertisers use prescription drug terms in ads and landing pages without certification, but require certification to keyword-target them and for telemedicine providers.

It should also know the costs and the limits. LegitScript's published pricing, read on October 5, 2026, is $975 per website to apply, $2,150 a year once certified, and an optional $2,500 to have review start within 2 business days. And it should repeat LegitScript's own point: certification is like a driver's license. It qualifies you to be on the road, but it does not approve a single ad.

## 2. How they handle a restriction

Ask the agency to walk you through its last account restriction, without naming the client. Listen for a sequence: read the notice and name the policy, remove and rewrite the offending ads and pages, fix verification and tracking, then appeal with evidence. Be wary of any plan that starts with a fresh ad account, Page or Business Manager.

Google's circumventing systems policy names creating new accounts after a suspension, and using several accounts to promote products you lack certification for, as violations. It treats them as egregious, with suspension on detection and no prior warning. Meta restricts or removes accounts used to egregiously or persistently violate its policies. A new account moves the problem and adds to it.

## 3. Creative volume and pre-check

Ask how many new ads the agency ships each month, in what formats, and who checks each ad and landing page against Meta's personal attributes and health rules before launch. LegitScript's webinar write-up recommends running a checklist before submitting ads and keeping backup creative approved and ready, so a disapproval does not stop delivery. An agency that resubmits rejected ads with light edits, rather than rewriting them, builds the pattern of violations that leads to restrictions.

## 4. Tracking that sends no personal data

Meta lists health information, including conditions, treatments and prescription medications, as prohibited information advertisers must not share through its tools. Google bars sharing personally identifiable information through its tags and treats health as a sensitive category where your own audience lists cannot be used. Ask the agency to list every event it will send, its name, and every field attached.

The right answers: server-side, neutral event names such as Lead or Purchase, under a BAA where patient data is involved, and no names, emails, phone numbers, IP addresses or browser IDs going to any ad platform. If the agency proposes uploading patient lists or improving match rates with emails, keep looking.

## 5. Weekly reporting against a target

At kickoff, agree what a new patient or order is worth after your costs. That sets the most the agency should pay to win one. A useful weekly report shows spend, results, cost per result against that number, rejected ads, and what changed and why. Monthly-only reporting is too slow for accounts where a policy problem can stop delivery in a day.

## 6. Contract terms to ask about

- Ownership. Ad accounts, Business Manager, pixels and datasets, landing pages and creative files belong to your business, with agency access granted as a partner rather than through personal logins.
- Term and notice. How long the minimum term is, and how much notice either side gives.
- Fees and spend. Whether ad spend is paid directly to the platforms, and whether LegitScript fees go directly to LegitScript.
- Data. What confidentiality and data-handling terms cover patient information, and what happens to data at the end.
- Promises. Any guarantee of approval, reinstatement, cost per patient or patient numbers. Nobody can promise these before ads run, so treat a guarantee as a red flag.

## What MedScale does

MedScale Health is built around this list: LegitScript certification help and the Meta and Google filings, Ad Account Rescue that never routes around a platform decision, monthly creative pre-checked before launch, landing pages for ads, server-side tracking with neutral events, and weekly reporting against an agreed cost per patient. Ad accounts and assets stay in the client's name. The free growth audit at medscale.health/audit applies these tests to your current setup and gives you the written result whether or not you hire us.

## FAQ

**What should I ask a telehealth ad agency on the first call?**

Ask which of your offers need LegitScript, Meta authorization or Google certification, what they did on their last restricted account, what their tracking sends to ad platforms, and who owns the ad accounts. Specific answers to all four are a good sign.

**Should a telehealth ad agency guarantee results?**

No. Nobody can honestly guarantee ad approval, account reinstatement, cost per patient or patient numbers before ads run. An agency can commit to the work, the review process and weekly reporting. A guarantee usually means the risk is hidden, not removed.

**Is it a red flag if an agency suggests a new ad account after a ban?**

Yes. Google's circumventing systems policy names new accounts after a suspension as a violation, and Meta removes accounts used to persistently violate its policies. A new account moves the problem and adds to it. Fix the cause, then appeal.

**Who should own the ad accounts when we hire an agency?**

Your business should. The ad accounts, Business Manager, pixels, datasets, landing pages and creative files belong to you, with the agency added as a partner. If the relationship ends, you keep the history, the learning and the assets.

**How can we check an agency's healthcare experience without client names?**

Ask them to walk through an anonymised case: the policy that was hit, the evidence they gathered, what they changed and what the platform decided. Agencies with real healthcare experience can describe the process in detail without naming anyone.

## Sources

- [Meta Advertising Standards: Drugs and Pharmaceuticals](https://transparency.meta.com/policies/ad-standards/restricted-goods-services/drugs-pharmaceuticals/) (checked October 5, 2026)
- [Google Ads policy: Restricted drug terms](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/15595717?hl=en) (checked October 5, 2026)
- [LegitScript: Healthcare certification process and pricing](https://www.legitscript.com/certification/healthcare-certification/process-pricing/) (checked October 5, 2026)
- [LegitScript: Certified but still getting disapproved? Telehealth advertising webinar takeaways](https://www.legitscript.com/healthcare/certified-but-still-getting-disapproved-key-takeaways-from-our-telehealth-advertising-webinar/) (checked October 5, 2026)
- [Google Ads policy: Circumventing systems](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/15938075?hl=en) (checked October 5, 2026)
- [Meta Advertising Standards: Account Integrity](https://transparency.meta.com/policies/ad-standards/business-assets/account-integrity/) (checked October 5, 2026)
- [Meta Business Help Center: About prohibited information](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/361948878201809) (checked October 5, 2026)
- [Google Ads policy: Restricted targeting in personalized advertising](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/143465?hl=en) (checked October 5, 2026)

## Related

- [What Does a Telehealth Growth Audit Include?](https://medscale.health/answers/what-a-telehealth-growth-audit-includes)
- [How Much Does LegitScript Certification Cost in 2026?](https://medscale.health/answers/legitscript-certification-cost)
- [Meta Disabled Our Healthcare Ad Account. How Do We Get It Back?](https://medscale.health/answers/meta-ad-account-disabled-healthcare-recovery)
- [How Do You Launch a Telehealth Brand? The Compliance Checklist](https://medscale.health/answers/how-to-launch-a-telehealth-brand-checklist)

Canonical page: https://medscale.health/answers/how-to-choose-a-telehealth-ad-agency