A wellness clinic marketing agency is a business that fills the diary of a private-pay clinic with people who are mostly well, not ill. Three kinds of help travel under that label, sorted here by the work they do rather than by any legal category. A channel operator buys and tunes paid search and social ads, and reports on bookings. A content and claims shop writes service pages and ad copy and checks every statement against the rules. A retention specialist runs email, SMS and rebooking so a first visit turns into a second. Some agencies do all three, and others do one well and two thinly, so the scorecard below is partly a way of finding out which kind your riskiest service needs. The Social Target's wellness clinic marketing page describes the clinic work it offers.
Sort your services into three groups first
Sort your own service list into the three groups below, because your weights come from it.
Group one is hands-on and advice-led work: massage, nutrition consultations and coaching. The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) says in its massage advice that it is likely to accept claims that massage helps relieve everyday stress, aids relaxation and sleep, and promotes wellbeing, and that anything beyond that needs robust documentary evidence. The same advice says practitioners should not refer to the diagnosis or treatment of medical conditions that need medical supervision, unless a suitably qualified health professional supervises that diagnosis and treatment. Its nutritional therapy advice accepts that good nutritional advice can support a healthier lifestyle, but says a claim that nutritional therapy treats or prevents disease would need robust clinical evidence, which the ASA and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) have not yet seen. The same advice says nutritional therapists should not confuse consumers between their therapy and those of a "Dietician" or "Dietitian" registered with the Health and Care Professions Council, and that CAP understands both spellings to be protected terms.
Group two is testing and screening: blood panels, food intolerance kits and health checks. CAP's food intolerance advice says the ASA and CAP have yet to see consistent evidence that IgG testing is accurate or useful. In a screening statement dated October 2019, the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), a professional body rather than a regulator, asks private providers to stick to screening that the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) or NICE recommends, and where a provider sells other screening regardless, to tell the buyer before payment which tests the UK NSC does and does not approve. The same statement says providers should arrange follow-up and the care needed to deal with the results of the tests they sell.
Group three is anything injected or infused. UK CAP Code rule 12.12 says prescription-only medicines may not be advertised to the public. CAP's 28 May 2020 enforcement notice states that injectable vitamin D and injectable vitamin B12 are prescription-only medicines. For drips, the ASA's advice on IV drips says the supplement rules in section 15 of the code do not apply, but that marketers are likely to be expected to hold robust documentary evidence, and that general references to "mood", "energy" and "immunity" are likely to be problematic without robust supporting evidence. In a December 2023 ruling against REVIV UK Ltd, the ASA found the drip ads misleading because it had not seen evidence which was adequate to support the advertised health benefits of the drips.
The regulation reaches past advertising. In England, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) says a provider of IV drips will need to register for the regulated activity when the service is delivered or supervised by a listed healthcare professional, includes products that need a prescription in that form, and claims to change the body's state in response to a defined concern. In the US, the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure warns in its IV hydration guidance that many clinics and spas offering drips do not realise the treatment is the practice of medicine, and the Oregon Medical Board, in a position adopted on 3 October 2024, says IV hydration therapy is considered the practice of medicine. Neither binds a clinic in England or in another US state.
Our view is that the same copy mistake carries a different cost in each group. In group one, an unsupported claim can still draw a complaint and force you to rewrite pages. In group three, the same slip can also raise a registration question and a client safety question. Hence the claims row's rising weight from group one to group three.
The ASA's Pulse Report of 1 October 2026 used its Active Ad Monitoring system to count around 309,000 healthcare-related paid online ads, and found widespread likely breaches of the advertising rules in all seven priority topics it studied. It sampled health advertising as a whole, not wellness clinics: a sign of where the regulator is looking.
The scorecard
The weights below are illustrative and adjustable, and nobody has validated them. Pick the column that matches your highest group. If you sell across groups, use the column for the riskiest service you actively promote, or average two columns. Each column totals 100.
| Criterion | Group one weight | Group two weight | Group three weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claims discipline for your services | 20 | 25 | 30 |
| Clinical gate in the booking path | 5 | 15 | 20 |
| Follow-up after a result | 5 | 15 | 10 |
| Setting and location | 10 | 10 | 15 |
| What the report contains | 30 | 20 | 15 |
| Proof from a clinic like yours | 30 | 15 | 10 |
Give each criterion a mark from 0 to 3 against the descriptions below.
| Criterion | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claims discipline | Promises benefits such as "immunity" or "energy" for drips, or cannot say which rule covers each of your services | Knows the advertising code in general, with no written check | Names the rule for each of your services and shows one rewritten ad | Runs a written claims check per service, asks to see your evidence file, and refuses wording you cannot support |
| Clinical gate | Lets a client choose a drip and pay with no clinician assessment | A disclaimer in small print | Booking page says a clinician assesses first | Intake goes to the prescriber, suitability is stated up front, and declines are counted apart from cancellations |
| Follow-up | Sells tests without saying what happens after the result | Mentions follow-up in a call only | States follow-up on the price page | States what follow-up is included, who reviews the result, and what the UK National Screening Committee does and does not approve |
| Setting and location | Has never asked where treatment is delivered | Asks your country only | Asks country and whether care is mobile or at events | Maps your location, venues and registrations before it plans a campaign |
| Report contents | Clicks and leads only | Leads by campaign | First visits by service | First visits by service, clinician declines, second appointments and cost per booked first visit, monthly, from your booking system |
| Proof | Logos only | A case from another sector | A clinic with a different service mix | A reference clinic with your service group and country, whose live ads you can check |
What each row is testing
Claims discipline is the row to read twice. Ask the agency to name the rule behind each service on your list, and to say whether the document is law, a code, regulator guidance or a professional body's view. An agency that treats them all as one "health rules" blob will not tell you when a drip name such as "Immunity" is itself a problem. The ASA's IV advice warns that, even where a description makes no benefit claim, the name itself could make implied treatment claims that would need robust evidence. Score a 3 only when the agency shows you the rewrite, not a promise to be careful.
The clinical gate row tests how the booking path treats a clinician's decision. The Mississippi board's guidance cites its own rule that prescriptions may not be written outside of a valid licensee-patient relationship, and lists a history, an examination and a diagnosis among the parts of that relationship. Oregon's board says its licensees must refrain from delegating any part of the diagnosing, obtaining informed consent, prescribing, treating, and documenting process to staff who are not properly licensed, trained or qualified. We would treat a booking page that sells a fixed drip against a card payment, with no assessment, as a warning sign beside that process. The evidence to request is a mock-up of the intake form, the name of the person who reads it, and the message a declined client receives.
The follow-up row matters when you sell tests. The RCGP statement above puts follow-up on the provider, so the agency's price page should say what follows a result.
The setting row catches mobile and pop-up work. Since a change to the regulations, CQC says providers carrying out regulated treatment at events are legally required to register with CQC. That applies in England, so ask about registration before anyone plans a pop-up campaign.
The report row asks where the figures come from. A monthly report should say which entry service produced each first visit, how many bookings a clinician turned down and why, how many clients came back, and what each booked first visit cost. Declines and second visits live in your booking system, so a report built only from the agency's ad platform cannot show them.
The proof row turns on matching service groups. A case study from a dental practice or a gym tells you little about how an agency handles IV drips. Ask for a clinic with the same service group in your country, then check its live ads and pages against the rules in the groups above. Names and numbers you cannot check carry no weight.
Running the scorecard across a shortlist
Send every agency the same pack: your grouped service list, a request for a sample report, one rewritten ad or page, and two references. Multiply each mark by its weight and divide by 3, so each column tops out at 100.
The column you choose can change the winner, not just the totals. Take two illustrative agencies. A channel operator with a strong report and spa references scores 1 on claims, gate and follow-up, 2 on setting, and 3 on report and proof, its spa references matching a group one menu. A claims shop scores 3, 3 and 2 on the first three rows, 2 on setting, and 1 on report and proof. Under the group one column the channel operator leads by about 77 to 55. Add IV drips and two things change: you switch to the group three column, and spa references now show a different service mix, so the channel operator's proof falls to 2. The claims shop then leads by about 75 to 52. If the order flips when you add or drop a service, that service is the one to discuss in the meeting.
A massage-only clinic may find the clinical gate and follow-up rows do not apply. Mark them not applicable rather than 0, add five of their 10 points to claims discipline and five to the report, and score again if you later add a test or a drip.
Any 0 on claims discipline ends the process for group two and group three clinics, whatever the total. As a rule of thumb rather than a tested threshold, treat a gap of under about ten points as a tie and break it with the references.
If everything you sell sits in group one and most of your diary is rebookings, a part-time hire running the booking page and rebooking emails may do more for the money than a retainer. The post on questions to ask a marketing agency covers the contract side once you do shortlist.
What to ask each agency, service by service
- Bring your service list in three groups, with the evidence you hold for every benefit you state.
- Ask which rule covers each service, and whether it is law, a code, guidance or a professional view.
- Ask to see one ad or page they rewrote to remove a claim, and the reason.
- Ask who in your clinic decides a booking is suitable, and how the booking path shows it.
- Ask how the report counts bookings a clinician declines.
- Ask what follow-up a test price includes, and where the page says so.
- Ask where care will be delivered, and whether any of it is mobile or at events.
- Ask for a reference clinic with your service group, and the date of its latest report.
To test your own service list against these weights with someone else, tell us about your business and we can map it together.
↳ Frequently asked
01Can an agency run Instagram ads for B12 shots at my clinic?
In the UK, a 2020 CAP enforcement notice names injectable vitamin D and injectable B12 as prescription-only medicines, and CAP Code rule 12.12 says no prescription-only medicine may be advertised to the public. A post that names the injection as a product for sale therefore risks a complaint. Before any post goes up, find out how the agency plans to write about the service without breaking that rule, and ask to see an example.
02Can massage pricing pages mention back pain or sleep problems?
The ASA's massage advice says claims about everyday stress, relaxation, sleep and wellbeing are likely to be acceptable, and that any claim going beyond those, such as relieving back pain, is likely to need robust documentary evidence. A page that refers to diagnosing or treating a medical condition needs a suitably qualified health professional supervising that care. Sleep as a general wellbeing benefit sits in a different place from a named condition, so it is fair to expect your agency to say where it draws that line and which CAP rule it relies on.
03What should an advert for private health screening say about national screening advice?
The RCGP's October 2019 screening statement asks private providers to offer only screening that the UK National Screening Committee or NICE recommends, and, where they sell other screening, to tell buyers before payment which tests the committee does and does not approve. That statement comes from a professional body, so it is not law, but an agency writing screening pages should know it and build the wording into the sales page rather than a footnote.
04Does an agency need to know that dietitian is a protected title?
Yes, for any nutrition service. The ASA's nutritional therapy advice says CAP understands both "dietician" and "dietitian" to be protected terms, and that nutritional therapists should not let consumers mistake their therapy for that of a dietitian registered with the Health and Care Professions Council. An agency writing your nutrition page should check how your practitioners are titled before it publishes.