Short answer: med spa marketing agencies charge a monthly retainer, published anywhere from about $900 to $10,000 or more, or a percentage of ad spend, commonly 10 to 20 percent. One agency's published rate card runs $900, $2,000 and $3,500+ a month by practice size. Ad spend is separate, usually several thousand dollars more, and whether any of it pays back depends on the page the ads send people to.
Fee figures come from what med spa agencies publish about their own pricing: Intellius Medical's 2026 rate card (read September 2026) and Pennock's medspa marketing cost guide (April 2026). No neutral body audits agency fees, so read every number here as an asking price, not a measured average.
Med spa marketing agency pricing at a glance
Most proposals you will see fall into one of four shapes. The shape matters more than the headline number, because each one behaves differently as your ad budget grows.
| Pricing model | Published range | What it usually covers | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer or solo marketer | $1,000 to $3,000 a month (Pennock) | One channel, usually Meta or Google ads | No cover when they are away, thin reporting |
| Boutique med spa agency | $2,500 to $6,000 a month (Pennock) | Ads plus some creative and landing pages | How many landing pages are included, if any |
| Full-service agency | $5,000 to $10,000+ a month (Pennock) | Ads, SEO, social, email, reporting | Twelve-month contracts and setup fees |
| Percentage of ad spend | 10 to 20 percent of spend (Pennock) | Ads management, fee grows with budget | An incentive to raise spend before fixing conversion |
SEO is often quoted separately. Pennock lists local SEO at $500 to $1,500 a month, on-page SEO with content at $1,000 to $3,000, and a full SEO strategy at $2,500 to $6,000.
A published med spa agency rate card
Most agencies say "custom pricing" and stop there. Intellius Medical, which markets to medspas and plastic surgeons, publishes three tiers for its management fee, with ad spend paid separately.
| Tier | Monthly fee | Who it is aimed at |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | $900 | A single location with a working website and ad account that needs ongoing management. The page describes this buyer as likely spending $5,000 to $10,000 a month on ads. |
| Growth | $2,000 | Practices ready to scale, and the first tier that includes conversion rate optimization. Described for practices spending $10,000 to $20,000 a month on ads. |
| Multi-location | $3,500 and up | Groups with three or more locations that need campaigns run per market. |
The same page states no setup fee, no cancellation fee and that the practice owns its ad accounts, and describes a $495 setup fee as common elsewhere. Those terms are worth asking every agency about, whoever you hire.
One detail in that ladder matters more than the prices: conversion work on the landing page first appears at the second tier. At the entry fee, someone manages the ads and the page stays as it is. That pattern is not unique to one agency. The same pattern shows up in published LinkedIn ads agency price lists, and it is the main reason a small practice can pay an agency for months and see no change in bookings.
What med spa marketing really costs per month, all in
The fee is the smaller half. Pennock's guide puts total monthly marketing budgets at $2,000 to $5,000 for a startup or solo practice, $5,000 to $10,000 for a growth-stage med spa, and $10,000 to $25,000 or more for multi-location or premium practices, with 7 to 15 percent of gross revenue as the common allocation.
Here is how a typical single-location proposal adds up, using the published numbers above.
| Line | Monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Agency management fee | $900 to $2,000 | Intellius Foundation or Growth |
| Google and Meta ad spend | $5,000 | Paid to the platforms, not the agency |
| Booking and review software | Varies | Often already in place |
| Total | About $5,900 to $7,000 | Before creative shoots or new landing pages |
Pennock's published lead cost ranges are $30 to $90 per lead on Google Ads and $20 to $60 on Meta. At $5,000 of spend that is roughly 55 to 250 leads a month depending on channel mix, and a lead is still not a patient. The number to put in the proposal is cost per treated patient, and the landing page and the front desk decide most of it.
Is a med spa marketing agency worth it?
An agency is worth it when three things are true: you spend enough on ads that a 10 to 20 percent efficiency gain covers the fee, nobody in the practice has time to run campaigns weekly, and the agency's scope includes the pages the ads point at. At $5,000 a month in spend, a $900 fee needs to save or earn back about 18 percent of that budget to break even. That is realistic for a neglected account and unrealistic for a tidy one.
It is usually not worth it when spend is under about $2,000 a month. The fee becomes a large share of the budget, and the cheapest improvement available is almost always on the page rather than in the account: a treatment-specific page, a price in the first screen, one booking button, and a deposit step that cuts no-shows. A small practice can also lose most of its leads to slow follow-up, which no ad manager fixes. Replying to every new lead within minutes, including evenings and weekends, often moves bookings more than any bid change.
Med spa PPC agency or in-house?
The honest split looks like this.
| Agency | In-house or owner-run | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $900 to $10,000+ fee, plus spend | Staff time plus tools, plus spend |
| Speed of change | Depends on the agency's queue | Same day |
| Knowledge of your treatments and prices | Learned over months | Already there |
| Ad policy experience (prescription drug terms) | Usually strong | Often learned the hard way |
| Landing page work | Often only at higher tiers | Needs a tool or a freelancer |
That ad policy row deserves a sentence. Google restricts prescription drug terms in ads, landing pages and keywords, and in the US promoting botulinum toxin brands requires certification. Agencies that work only with aesthetics practices handle this daily. A practice going in-house needs to learn it before launch, and the med spa landing page optimization guide covers how it shapes the page itself.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Who owns the ad accounts, the pixel and the landing pages if we leave? The answer should be you, in writing.
- Is there a setup fee and a minimum term? Twelve months is common; month-to-month exists.
- How many landing pages are included, and who changes them? If the answer is none, budget for them separately.
- Do you report cost per booked or treated patient, or only cost per lead? Lead reports flatter weak campaigns.
- How do you handle prescription drug terms on Google? A vague answer is a red flag.
- What happens in the first 30 days? A good answer includes tracking checks and a landing page review before any budget increase.
Fix the page first, then decide on the agency
Whether you hire or not, the page your ads send people to sets the ceiling. Paste it into Converto and it scores copy, CTA, layout, speed and AI-readability in about a minute, names the measurement behind each deduction, and writes headline, button and first-screen variants you can ship. Plans start from $29 a month billed yearly, which is a small fraction of one month's agency fee. If you then hire an agency, you hand them a page that already converts, and their fee buys account work instead of patching a leaky page. If you want to compare with another high-cost local vertical, dental PPC agency pricing follows the same structure, and the CRO agency versus CRO tool breakdown covers the general decision.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a med spa marketing agency cost per month?
Published retainers run from about $900 a month for ads management at a single location to $10,000 or more for full-service work, with percentage-of-spend deals commonly at 10 to 20 percent. Ad spend is paid on top, usually several thousand dollars a month.
How much should a med spa spend on marketing?
A common allocation is 7 to 15 percent of gross revenue, per one medspa agency's 2026 guide, which puts total budgets at $2,000 to $5,000 a month for a solo practice and $5,000 to $10,000 for a growth-stage one. Start from your cost per treated patient and work backward rather than from a percentage.
Do med spa marketing agencies require long contracts?
Many ask for six to twelve months, and some charge a setup fee. Others publish no setup fee and no cancellation penalty. Ask for the term, the notice period and account ownership in writing before signing.
What does a med spa PPC agency do?
It builds and manages Google and Meta campaigns, handles ad policy for restricted treatment terms, sets up conversion tracking, and reports results. Landing page work is often included only at higher tiers, so check whether the pages your ads point at are in scope.
Paste your page and see what is leaking
Drop in any live URL and Converto audits the copy, layout, CTAs, speed, and AI-readability of the page you already have, then hands you ready-to-ship variants to lift signups and sales. Suggestions are data-informed, not guarantees.