An optometry marketing agency should understand something generalist agencies often miss: your practice is three businesses. Routine exams run on vision plans, the optical is retail, and medical eye care is billed to medical insurance. An agency that markets them as one will waste money on at least two of them. This page gives you an optometry-specific way to evaluate agencies, including the website bundles sold with practice software, and compares them with hiring in-house or using a platform.
What optometry marketing agencies typically offer
Few practice owners search for help this way. "Optometry marketing agency" draws about 30 searches a month in the US, while "optometry marketing" draws 170 at an average of $46.28 a click (Google Ads Keyword Planner data via DataForSEO, US, 12-month average to Sep 2026). That cost per click tells you something: agencies are paying more to reach one practice owner than you pay for most patient clicks. Expect a polished sales process.
The services on offer usually fall into six groups:
| Service | What good looks like for an optometry practice |
|---|---|
| Website | A page per service (exams, pediatric, contacts, dry eye, myopia management, optical), a vision plans page, a booking button to your scheduler |
| Local search | Practice and per-doctor Google Business Profiles, accurate hours and services, photos of your optical |
| Paid search | Separate campaigns for exams, contacts and medical eye care, with negative keywords and booked-exam tracking |
| Social and Meta ads | Frame and brand content, kids' exam campaigns, policy-safe wording |
| Content | Patient education sourced to the AOA, National Eye Institute or MedlinePlus |
| Reporting | Booked exams, calls and optical sales by source, not just clicks |
Some agencies also sell review tools, recall messaging or phone systems. Those can be useful, but judge them separately from marketing, since they touch patient data in different ways. For what good websites and ads look like in detail, see our guides to optometry websites and eye doctor advertising.
Questions that reveal real optometry experience
Generic agency questions (contract length, reporting cadence) still matter; our list of questions for any agency covers them. These are the ones that separate an agency that knows optometry from one that has an optometry slide in its deck.
Business model
- How would you market routine exams differently from medical eye care, given that one runs on vision plans and the other on medical insurance?
- How would the vision plans our patients use change the landing pages and ad copy?
- How would you grow our dry eye and myopia management services, and where do your treatment claims come from?
Optical and the FTC rules
- What do the FTC's Eyeglass Rule and Contact Lens Rule require of us, and how does that shape optical promotions? (A good answer: the prescription is released after the exam whether or not the patient asks, before anyone offers to sell glasses, and never in exchange for a purchase, fee or waiver. See the FTC's Eyeglass Rule guidance (opens in a new tab) and Contact Lens Rule guide (opens in a new tab).)
- How do you check an offer against our vision-plan agreements before it runs?
- Do you check each frame brand's co-op and advertising guidelines before using its logo or campaign images?
Patient data
- Will you sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for forms, chat and anything else that touches patient information?
- Do you place Meta or Google pixels on appointment request forms or patient portals?
- Will you ever upload our patient lists to ad platforms?
Ownership and reporting
- Who owns the domain, the website content, our Google Business Profiles and the ad accounts?
- What will you report each month: booked exams by source, calls, optical sales per exam?
- Do you mark up ad spend, and is your fee tied to it?
- What does it cost to leave, and what do we take with us?
Why the BAA question matters: HIPAA lets a practice share patient information with a vendor only after getting written assurances, documented in a contract that meets HIPAA's business associate requirements (45 CFR 164.502(e) (opens in a new tab)). If the agency's forms collect appointment requests with symptoms or insurance details, it needs one.
Red flags
- They promise first-page rankings or a set number of new patients.
- They can't explain the difference between a vision plan and medical billing.
- Their sample ads ask "Struggling with dry eyes?" (platforms restrict ads that imply a viewer's health condition).
- They suggest withholding prescriptions until after the optical tour.
- The website, domain or ad accounts would be registered in their name.
Pricing models and what's included
Agencies price in a handful of ways. Ask for the model in writing, then compare the total over two years.
| Model | How it works | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | A fixed fee for a defined scope | Vague scope ("ongoing optimization") and long minimum terms |
| Build fee plus hosting | One-time website fee, then monthly hosting and updates | Who owns the site, and what edits cost |
| Percentage of ad spend | Management fee scales with your budget | An incentive to raise spend rather than lower cost per exam |
| Software bundle | Website or marketing included with practice or optical software | Whether the site leaves when you change software |
| Per lead | You pay for each form or call | How a "lead" is defined, and duplicates |
What drives the price: the number of channels managed, how much content is produced each month, ad budget size, custom photography and design, the number of doctors and profiles, and how much reporting and meeting time is included.
We don't quote agency prices here because they vary widely and most aren't published. Ask three agencies for written proposals with the same scope so you can compare like for like. Our overview of healthcare marketing agencies explains contract terms in more depth.
Ownership: website, domain, Google listing and ad accounts
This section decides how painful it is to leave. Settle it before you sign.
- Domain: registered in your practice's name, with you holding the login.
- Website: you own the content and photos and can export them. If the agency's platform hosts it, get the export process in writing.
- Google Business Profile: your practice is the owner, and the agency is added as a manager. Google's guidelines (opens in a new tab) also allow separate profiles for public-facing practitioners, named with only the practitioner's name. Make sure those are owned by the practice too.
- Google Ads and Meta ad accounts: created under your business, with billing on your card. Agencies get access; they don't own the account or its history.
- Analytics: your property, with the agency as a user.
If you change agencies later, every one of these should transfer with a few clicks, not a negotiation.
Agency, in-house or platform: a comparison
There's no single right answer. Here is how the three options compare on the public facts.
| Item | Agency | In-house coordinator | Platform (for example, Medfy) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | Agency staff | Your employee | Software, with you approving key steps |
| Cost structure | Retainer, project or percentage fees | Salary, benefits, tools | Published monthly price |
| Optometry knowledge | Varies by agency | Learns your practice deeply | Built for medical practices, not optometry alone |
| Speed of changes | Depends on the account manager | Fast for small tasks | Edits requested in plain English |
| Best for | Practices wanting hands-off service and creative work | Larger practices with steady content needs | Independents wanting the website, SEO and reporting covered at a fixed price |
When an agency is the better fit: you want events, photo shoots, community sponsorships, organic social posting or a dedicated person to call. Those need people.
When in-house makes sense: you have several doctors, a large optical and enough work to fill a role, and someone who can learn the FTC rules and your plans.
Where Medfy fits: Medfy is AI marketing software for independent practices in the US and Canada. The $349/month base plan includes your website rebuilt and hosted on your own domain, weekly researched articles you approve, AI visibility tracking, first-party analytics for calls, forms, bookings and directions, Google reporting, an AI CMO dashboard with a weekly brief, and a patient CRM. Add-ons are Google Ads management ($199/month), Meta ads + AI creatives ($199/month) and a HIPAA AI chat widget ($49/month). Ad spend is paid directly to Google and Meta. It's billed monthly and you can cancel anytime. Medfy doesn't post to social media, send recall emails or texts, run review requests or plan events, so pair it with your own staff for those. See Medfy pricing, and get a free audit before you hire anyone, so you know your starting point.
For the bigger picture, return to the optometry marketing hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do optometry marketing agencies charge?
Prices vary widely and few agencies publish them, so compare written proposals with the same scope. Common models are a monthly retainer, a website build fee plus hosting, a percentage of ad spend, per-lead pricing, or marketing bundled into practice software. Ask what is included, the minimum term, whether ad spend is marked up, and what it costs to leave, then compare totals over two years.
Should my website come from my EHR or optical software vendor?
It can be convenient, but check three things first. Do you own the domain and content, and can you export them if you change software? Can the site support a page per service, a vision plans page and your own booking link? And will the vendor sign a BAA for forms that collect patient information? If any answer is no, keep the website separate from your practice software.
What should an optometry marketing agency deliver each month?
A short report tied to the schedule: booked exams, calls and form requests by source, optical sales per exam if you share them, and ad spend with cost per booked exam. Add the work completed, such as new pages, campaign changes and negative keywords, plus a plan for next month. Rankings and impressions are supporting detail, not the result you're paying for.