A dermatology marketing agency should understand something a generalist agency can miss: your practice runs two businesses. The medical side is often booked solid and needs the right patients routed to the right provider. The cosmetic side competes with med spas for cash-pay patients every day.
The best way to choose an agency is to test how it thinks about both, what it reports, how it sources medical claims, and what you own if you leave. This guide gives you the questions and a checklist to bring to every call.
What dermatology agencies typically do
Most agencies that serve dermatology sell some mix of the same services:
- Website design, hosting and updates
- SEO: condition and procedure content, local pages, technical fixes
- Google Business Profile management for the practice and its providers
- Google Ads and Meta ads, mostly for cosmetic services
- Organic social media posting
- Review requests and reputation management
- Photography, video and before-and-after gallery management
- Monthly reporting
The services are similar across agencies. What differs is judgment: which of these they recommend for your practice, in what order, and how they prove it worked.
A proposal that bundles every service at full price, regardless of your schedule, tells you the agency sells packages rather than plans. Before the first call, it helps to know what a sound plan looks like; our dermatology marketing overview lays out the medical and cosmetic tracks. For a wider look at the market, see our guide to healthcare marketing agencies.
Medical vs cosmetic strategy: test their thinking
Ask scenario questions on the first call. The answers separate agencies that understand dermatology from those that have a dermatology landing page.
"Our physicians are booked ten weeks out for new medical patients. What would you do?" A good answer: stop buying generic medical demand, promote providers with openings (often PAs and NPs), make accepting-new-patient status visible, and put the budget behind cosmetic services. A weak answer: more ads for "dermatologist near me".
"How would you market our PAs and NPs?" Look for provider pages with accurate credentials, a Business Profile for each public-facing provider where Google's practitioner guidelines (opens in a new tab) allow it, and reporting by provider.
"How do we compete with the med spa down the street?" Look for physician-led positioning, transparent pricing and named injectors, not a race to the lowest Botox price.
"What would you do in May?" Skin Cancer Awareness Month is the dermatology calendar's anchor. An agency that has never planned around it hasn't worked with many dermatologists.
"What would you not do for us?" A good agency turns down work that won't pay. If nothing is off the table, everything is billable.
Ask to see one dermatology plan they've written (with the client's name removed) and our dermatology marketing ideas can serve as a benchmark for range. For the paid side specifically, compare their answers against our guide to dermatology advertising.
Reporting: new patients by service and provider
Many agency reports measure activity. You need outcomes. Ask for a sample report before signing, and check it against this table.
| Metric | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| New patients by service (skin check, acne, Mohs referral, injectables) | Shows whether marketing fills the services you want to grow |
| New patients by provider | Shows whether open PA and NP schedules are filling |
| Requests and bookings by source | Separates Google Business Profile, organic search, ads, referrals and social |
| Cosmetic consults and consult-to-treatment rate | Distinguishes curious clicks from revenue |
| Cost per booked patient, by campaign | The only ad number that matters to an owner |
| Medical vs cosmetic split | Keeps one side from hiding the other's results |
Be wary of reports built around impressions, reach, "engagement" and rankings for phrases nobody searches. These numbers can rise while bookings fall.
Content and claim sourcing
Dermatology content carries medical claims, and an agency's writers usually aren't clinicians. Ask three questions.
- Who writes it, and who checks it? Condition and procedure content should cite the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), MedlinePlus or the CDC, and someone at your practice should review it before it publishes. The AAD itself warns patients that medical misinformation can spread like wildfire (opens in a new tab) online; your site shouldn't add to it.
- How do they handle cosmetic claims? The FTC's health products guidance (opens in a new tab) requires competent and reliable scientific evidence for health claims, and treats testimonials showing atypical results as likely deceptive. Ask how they choose before-and-after photos and what they do with a dramatic outlier.
- What about influencers and paid posts? If the agency arranges free treatments for influencers or pays for posts, the FTC's endorsement guidance (opens in a new tab) expects the connection to be disclosed. Ask how they ensure it is.
Also ask how patient photos are approved. Each one used in marketing needs the patient's written HIPAA authorization under 45 CFR 164.508 (opens in a new tab), and the agency should never post an image without seeing it on file.
Pricing, contracts and ownership
Agencies price in a few common ways: a monthly retainer, a setup or onboarding fee, and sometimes a percentage of ad spend. None is wrong in itself. What matters is the total and what you can walk away with.
Questions to settle in writing:
- Who owns the domain, website, content and photos? You should, including the right to take the site with you.
- Whose name is on the Google Ads, Meta and Google Business Profile accounts? Yours, with the agency added as a user.
- How is ad spend billed? Directly to your card by Google and Meta, or passed through the agency? If passed through, is it marked up?
- How long is the contract, and how do you exit? Notice period, early-termination fees, and what happens to the site on the last day.
- What does a change cost? A new provider page or price update should not need a quote.
The question checklist
Bring these to every agency call. Print this section or copy the list into your notes.
- How would you split our medical and cosmetic marketing?
- What would you do with a fully booked medical schedule?
- How do you market PAs and NPs?
- Can we see a sample report with new patients by service and provider?
- Who writes condition content, and what sources do you cite?
- How do you store patient photo authorizations?
- Will you sign a BAA? Which of your vendors touch patient data?
- Who owns the domain, site, content and ad accounts?
- Is ad spend billed directly to us? Any markup?
- What is the contract term and the exit process?
More general questions to ask an agency are in our agencies guide.
HIPAA and the business associate agreement
Under HIPAA, a business associate is a person or company that creates, receives, maintains or transmits protected health information (opens in a new tab) on behalf of a covered entity, such as your practice. Before you disclose patient information to one, 45 CFR 164.502(e) (opens in a new tab) requires satisfactory assurances, documented in a written contract: the business associate agreement (BAA).
In dermatology marketing, an agency usually touches patient information through:
- Appointment and consult forms on a website it hosts
- A patient inbox, CRM or website chat
- Before-and-after photos and video
- Patient lists, if anyone suggests uploading them for ads (don't)
Ask for the BAA before work starts, and ask which subcontractors (form tools, hosting, chat vendors) handle the same data. A BAA covers how a vendor protects information; it doesn't authorize marketing uses. Patient photos and testimonials still need each patient's written authorization.
This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm how it applies to your practice with a qualified advisor.
Agency vs platform: a factual comparison
Some practices compare an agency with a software platform such as Medfy. Here are the public facts, with agency terms left as questions because they vary by firm.
| Item | Typical agency | Medfy |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Varies: retainers, setup fees, percentage of spend | $349/month base plan; optional add-ons: Google Ads management $199, Meta ads + AI creatives $199, HIPAA AI chat $49 (per month) |
| Contract | Varies; ask about term and exit | Billed monthly, cancel anytime |
| Ad spend | Ask whether it's passed through or marked up | Paid directly to Google and Meta, never marked up |
| BAA | Ask | Signed with each practice before patient data flows |
| Website | Varies | Rebuilt and hosted on your own domain, with a free preview before you subscribe |
| Content | Varies; ask about sourcing | Researched articles every week, drafted from MedlinePlus and PubMed, approved by your practice or auto-published |
| AI assistant visibility | Ask | Weekly checks of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews |
| Organic social posting | Often offered | Not offered |
| Review requests | Often offered | Not offered |
| Events and outreach | Sometimes offered | Not offered |
Last verified October 2026 against Medfy's published plan. No other firm's prices or results are stated.
When an agency is the better fit. If you want someone to post to Instagram for you, run review requests, film video, organize screening events, or manage several locations, an agency (or an in-house marketer) covers ground Medfy doesn't. If what you need is a better website, sourced content, ads with daily guardrails and clear reporting, a platform may cost less. See Medfy pricing for the plan, or get an independent marketing audit of your current setup before you talk to anyone.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a dermatology marketing agency cost?
Prices vary too widely for a reliable average, and we don't publish other firms' rates. Agencies usually charge a monthly retainer, sometimes with setup fees or a percentage of ad spend. Compare the total monthly cost, what each fee buys, contract length and exit terms, and whether Google and Meta bill you directly for ad spend or the agency passes it through with a markup.
What should a dermatology marketing agency deliver?
A plan that treats medical and cosmetic dermatology separately; a website with condition, procedure and cosmetic pages; sourced content; managed Google Business Profiles for the practice and its providers; ads aimed at services with open capacity; and monthly reports of new patients by service, provider and source. It should also deliver a signed BAA, consent-backed photo practices and your ownership of every account.
Do I need a BAA with a dermatology marketing agency?
If the agency creates, receives, maintains or transmits patient information for you, yes. That includes hosting appointment forms, managing a patient inbox or chat, or handling patient photos. HIPAA requires written assurances, documented in a business associate agreement, before you disclose protected health information to a business associate. An agency that never touches patient data may not need one; confirm that in writing.