Dermatology marketing,
by the rules.

By Preston Durnford, Founder and CEO. Updated October 26, 2026. Sources read October 23, 2026, unless a line says otherwise.

A dermatology practice is two businesses sharing a waiting room. One side treats skin disease. The other side sells cosmetic treatments. They share a phone number, a website and a reputation. Almost nothing else about their marketing should be shared.

So we build them as two funnels: each ad points to the page that matches it, and every report has two lines. Blend them and a cheap cosmetic lead can hide an expensive medical one. Split them and you see what each side costs and brings in.

So the medical side gets more than one line on the homepage: a clear answer, a real dermatologist and the next open appointment for anyone looking for a skin check.

Because several rulebooks land on one practice, starting with the two ad platforms.

Google: some targeting is off the table

Google treats health as a sensitive interest category. Its list includes two things a dermatology practice touches every day: “Physical or mental health conditions, including diseases, sexual health, and chronic health conditions, which are health conditions that require long-term care or management”, and “Invasive medical procedures, including cosmetic surgery, surgical procedures, or injections”. For those categories, Google says: “You can't use advertiser-curated audiences.”

Source: Google Ads, Health in personalized advertising, read October 23, 2026.

In plain words: no uploading your patient list to follow people around the internet with psoriasis or filler ads. Google lists Customer Match among those advertiser-curated audiences. Our Google Ads management builds campaigns on what people search, not on who they are.

We never guess a cost per click. Before we suggest a budget, we pull your market's numbers from Keyword Planner, and our free ad spend calculator shows how the budget math works.

Meta: adults only, and no put-downs about looks

Meta's Health and Wellness policy says: “Ads promoting or marketing cosmetic products, procedures or surgeries, must be targeted to people at least 18 years or older.” It bars cosmetic ads that contain “statements of inferiority about physical appearance”. Its personal attributes policy lists “Ready to upgrade your skin to look younger?” as disallowed.

Mock ads and our reading of the rule, not Meta's own example: the first describes a service, the second says something about the reader. Our Meta ads use the first kind only. More on Meta's personal attributes rule. Sources: Meta, Health and Wellness, read September 23, 2026; Meta, Personal Attributes, read September 27, 2026.

Here is the sentence that decides it, for campaigns targeting the United States, Canada or New Zealand:

Under this rule, your Google ad can say Botox. Your keyword list cannot. Google is picky like that.

We checked 18 drug names a dermatology practice may use against Google's prescription drug list, as exact entries.

13 of 18 skin drug names are on Google's prescription drug list

On Google's list

• Botox
• Dysport
• Xeomin
• isotretinoin
• tretinoin
• Retin-A
• spironolactone
• Humira
• methotrexate
• finasteride
• Latisse
• fluorouracil
• imiquimod

Not on it

• Daxxify
• Jeuveau
• Accutane
• Dupixent
• Otezla

Not on the list is not a green light. Google says of it: “This is not an exhaustive list, and is intended to provide examples of the types of content monitored under the Restricted drug terms policy.” So we keep every drug brand out of the keyword list, listed or not, and bid on the treatment instead: wrinkle relaxer, acne dermatologist, eczema care.

Dermatology SEO means showing up when someone nearby searches for a skin problem or a treatment: in the map results, the regular results and the AI answers.

One Business Profile per dermatologist, done Google's way

Google's guidelines name doctors as individual practitioners. They say: “An individual practitioner should create their own dedicated Business Profile if:” the doctor is public facing and can be contacted at the verified location during stated hours. With several practitioners at one location, “The organization should create a Business Profile for this location, separate from that of the practitioner.” A solo dermatologist at a branded practice is different: Google says “it's best for the practitioner to share a Business Profile with the organization.”

Fun fact: Google's own examples of a department that may have its own profile include “Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Dermatology”. Dermatology is, quite literally, in the rulebook.

Source: Google Business Profile, Guidelines for representing your business, read October 23, 2026. More on how we set up and optimize a Google Business Profile.

Pages for the conditions and treatments that matter most

One page for skin checks, one for acne, one for eczema, one for Mohs surgery if you offer it, and your top cosmetic treatments. Each page answers its question in the first few lines, shows who performs the treatment, and has a clear way to book. We write the same plain answers for AI search optimization, and each ad points to the page that matches it.

On Meta, for cosmetic treatments shown to adults, yes. Meta's Health and Wellness policy lists “General cosmetic products, procedures, surgeries depicting before and after transformation.” among what advertisers can run when targeting people 18 or older (Meta, read September 23, 2026; see Meta's before-and-after rule in our glossary). Five rules come along for the ride, for photos and every other claim in the ad.

1. The patient signs first. Under HIPAA, “a covered entity must obtain an authorization for any use or disclosure of protected health information for marketing”, with two narrow exceptions. Our reading: a patient's photo in an ad is that kind of use. No signed authorization, no photo. Source: 45 CFR 164.508, 2025 annual edition, read October 23, 2026.
2. The result has to be typical, or the ad says what is. The FTC says an ad with an endorsement relating a consumer's experience on a central or key attribute of the product “will likely be interpreted as representing that the endorser's experience is representative of what consumers will generally achieve with the advertised product in actual, albeit variable, conditions of use”. So unless the practice can show a result is typical, the ad states what patients generally get. The same thinking applies to creator and influencer ads for cosmetic treatments. Source: 16 CFR 255.2, 2026 annual edition, read October 23, 2026.
3. Your state may add its own photo rules. We read yours before the first photo runs.
4. “FDA approved” only when it is. If a laser or other device reached the market through premarket notification (the 510(k) route), the federal rule says: “Any representation that creates an impression of official approval of a device because of complying with the premarket notification regulations is misleading and constitutes misbranding.” So we ask for the device's FDA paperwork and write the ad to match it. For fillers, the FDA says: “The FDA has approved dermal fillers for use in adults 22 years of age or older (over the age of 21) for specific uses”, so we never aim filler ads at anyone under 22. Sources: 21 CFR 807.97, 2025 annual edition; FDA, Dermal Fillers (Soft Tissue Fillers), content current as of July 6, 2023; both read October 23, 2026.
5. Board certified only if it is true today and your state's rule allows the board. We check before it runs.

More of the cosmetic rulebook, platform by platform, is on our med spa and aesthetic advertising rules page. For the cosmetic side in Southern California, see med spa and aesthetic clinic marketing in Orange County.

Here is the order we build in, and what we look at every week. The free, boring parts go first, because every paid click leans on them.

1. Profiles. One Business Profile per location, and one for each public-facing dermatologist where Google's rule above allows it. A solo dermatologist at a branded practice shares the practice's profile, as Google advises. Weekly: any edits suggested to your profiles.
2. Google search ads, each sent to the page that matches it. Treatment and condition terms, never drug brands as keywords. A skin check ad goes to a skin check page, not the homepage. Weekly: the search terms people actually typed, and new negative keywords (jobs, salary, school).
3. Meta for the cosmetic side. Adults 18 and older only, one idea tested at a time: the dermatologist explaining a treatment, the room, the process. Weekly: which ad holds attention.
4. Pages for your top conditions and treatments. Reviewed by your dermatologist before they go live. Weekly: which pages gained search impressions, and which questions people asked.
5. AI search. The same pages, plus your profiles and listings, kept identical everywhere. Monthly: we ask the main questions in the AI tools and record who gets named.

Your proposal lists which of these your plan includes. Platforms change their rules without notice, so we re-read the rule pages before each launch. Our health ad policy tracker quotes them from the official pages, dated. You can run a first pass on your own ads with our two-minute clinic ad risk check.

Big group or small practice: different game plans

A multi-location group with budget can hold broad terms like dermatologist near me and test creative at volume. A one or two doctor practice usually cannot outbid that, and should not try. It wins on the specific: the condition plus the town, each doctor's own profile, and pages that answer what the big site skips.

Both sides get tracking set up with your counsel to keep health details out of ad platforms.

We have no dermatology case study to show you yet, so this page shows the work instead: the rules, read at the source, and the plan. Every tier and price is on our pricing page.

PELORA is founder-run and headquartered in Newport Beach, California, and we serve clients nationwide. Preston Durnford built and ran Epic Journey Recovery, a behavioral health company, and has two business exits of his own. So he has sat on the side of the desk that pays for the ads and answers the phones. Our line for it: We help people that help people.