The dearest click in this market brings a client who will compare your price against three clinics again in twelve weeks.
What your clicks actually cost, which searches are wasting money, and what your cost per booked client looks like. Fifteen minutes, and you keep it either way.
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Half the price, 33,100 searches a month, and the client is committed to a program rather than a single appointment.
Laser hair removal gets 33,100 searches a month at $2.30 a click, more volume than every other row on that chart combined and the cheapest of them. It is also a course of six to eight sessions booked as a package. Cosmetic injectables costs $4.37 with 1,000 searches, and that client is back on Google comparing prices before the next appointment. Both are good work. They are not the same business.
Average cost per click across Australia, from Google Keyword Planner. What your account pays will differ with location, competition and quality score. The gap between these rows is the argument, not the exact figures.
The expensive end is the injectables end. It is the most contested corner of the market, the client is the most price aware, and it is also the part of this industry where the advertising rules bite hardest, which limits what you are allowed to say for the money.
The cheaper end is where the packages are. Laser and skin treatment programs are courses rather than appointments, they are booked and paid up front more often than not, and the click costs about half what an injectables click does.
Three numbers, and only the last one decides anything. It is the same chain our Brisbane digital marketing agency works through in every industry, only the dollar figures change.
We work it right to left. What a job is worth sets what a lead can cost, which sets what a click is worth bidding.
Cost per click is the easiest number to improve and the least useful one. Bid on cheaper searches and it drops immediately, whether or not those searches ever turn into work. That is why we will sometimes tell you to pay more per click rather than less.
Google Ads is the fastest of the three and the only one you pay for by the click. Here is what the other two do, and where the expensive clicks eventually stop.
THE SLOW ASSET
A real page per treatment instead of a Treatments menu, written inside the advertising rules, a Google Business Profile built properly, and a review process that stays on the right side of the guidelines. Slow to arrive, and the only thing that eventually takes the expensive clicks off your bill.
THE FAST LEVER
Campaigns split by treatment so laser packages never compete with injectable appointments for the same budget. Negative keywords so you stop paying for beauty therapy courses, injector training, clinic jobs, at home devices and people pricing equipment. Booking tracking, because this industry books online and pays deposits online.
THE ONE MOST CLINICS SKIP
The obvious channel for this industry and the one with the tightest rules attached. Cosmetic work is decided visually and socially over months, and getting the compliance right matters more here than the creative does.
We start from what a client is worth across a course of treatment, not what a click costs. A clinic built on injectable appointments and one built on laser packages cannot afford the same cost per click. Google Ads does the fast work, SEO eventually takes the paid clicks off your bill, and Meta Ads is where this industry lives. We will tell you if one is not worth running.
Not a strategy document. These are the three campaigns we would build first for a Brisbane clinic, and what each one is actually for.
Built around “laser hair removal”
33,100 searches a month at $2.30 a click, the largest and cheapest search in the market. It is a course of six to eight sessions, it is usually sold as a package, and the client is comparing package price and technology rather than shopping every visit. The page needs your package pricing, your machine and the number of sessions.
Built around “skin needling”
$2.52 a click on 8,100 searches, and the same package logic as laser. Skin programs run in courses, they suit a membership or a package structure, and they bring a client into the clinic often enough that the rest of your services get discussed naturally rather than sold.
Built around the searches we exclude
Beauty therapy courses, injector training, clinic jobs, at home devices, machines for sale, and the very large number of people pricing a treatment they will never book. On broad match you pay full price for all of it.
Send us access to your Google Ads account and we will come back with what it is wasting, which searches are costing you the most for the least, and what we would change first. Fifteen minutes, no obligation, and you keep it either way.
Two clicks can cost the same and be worth completely different amounts. That gap, not the click price, is what decides whether an account works.
Two dollars and change for the click, the biggest search in the market behind it, and a course of six to eight sessions at the end. Package clients are in your clinic regularly for months, which is worth considerably more than a single appointment and considerably easier to forecast.
Your Google Business Profile, suburb pages, and local listings optimised so customers in your area find you first.
Technical fixes and service-focused SEO that make your site easy for Google to understand and trust.
Build your reputation through reviews, with monthly reports tracking rankings and leads from organic search.
Four dollars and change for the click, the most contested search in the market, and a client who will be back on Google comparing prices before the next appointment is due. Injectables are good work and a hard thing to build loyalty on, because the entire market trains people to shop.
Site speed, crawlability, schema markup, and Core Web Vitals sorted so Google can index and trust your site.
Service pages and suburb landing pages written to rank and convert, not just fill space.
Backlink building and on-page optimisation that compounds month over month.
Three things come up in nearly every Google Ads account we audit for a clinic.
Injectables take the whole budget because they are the obvious buy and the most visible part of the business. They are also the most contested search, the most price sensitive client, and the most heavily restricted thing you are allowed to advertise.
Laser hair removal at $2.30 with 33,100 searches, skin needling at $2.52 with 8,100. Half the click price, far more of them, and a client who commits to a course rather than an appointment.
Cosmetic advertising in Australia is tightly regulated, and the rules around prescription only injectables in particular restrict what can be named, shown and claimed. A great deal of clinic advertising sits outside them, usually written by somebody who did not know the rules existed.
We keep treatment claims, imagery and testimonials inside the guidelines that apply to your clinic, and hand the copy to your medical director to review before anything goes live. It is a genuine constraint on the copy and a much better position than a takedown notice.
A booking count treats a single injectable appointment and a six session laser package as the same event. They are worth completely different amounts and they behave completely differently over a year.
Cost per click, then cost per booking, then what that client spent across twelve months. That is the only view that shows a $2.30 laser click outperforming a $4.37 injectables click, and almost no clinic measures it.
We start with what a client is worth across a year and work backwards to what a click can cost.
A single appointment and a package client cannot carry the same cost per click. We work out what your clients spend across twelve months by treatment type, because a clinic built on packages can afford clicks that a clinic built on appointments cannot.
Laser, skin programs, injectables and consultations each get their own campaign, budget and landing page, so the most contested and most restricted part of the business is not quietly consuming the budget meant for the packages.
Search terms reviewed weekly and negatives added, because this industry attracts an enormous volume of training, jobs and at home device searches. Then monthly reporting on cost per booked client by treatment, and what they spent afterwards.
Worth saying before you enquire, because it saves everyone three months.
If your advertising has never been checked against the guidelines that apply to your treatments, fix that before you spend anything amplifying it. And if you compete purely on price on injectables, more advertising accelerates a race you are unlikely to win, because there is always a clinic willing to go lower.
Fast answers, clear decisions.
Spend, leads and trends at a glance.
Your data, your accounts.
Budget goes to what converts.
4+ years average client retention.
Specialists across each platform.
Because it is the most contested search in the market, the client is the most price aware, and it is the most heavily restricted thing you are allowed to advertise. Run it. Just notice that laser hair removal has thirty three times the search volume at half the click price and sells as a course rather than a single appointment.
Per session, yes. Per client, no. It sells as a package of six to eight, it is usually paid up front, and the client is in your clinic regularly for months. That relationship is worth more than a single injectable appointment and it is far easier to forecast.
Agency fees usually work one of three ways: a percentage of ad spend, a flat monthly retainer, or a base fee plus a percentage above a threshold. Percentage models get expensive as you scale and quietly reward the agency for spending more of your money. Ask which model an agency uses and why before you ask for a number.
Cosmetic advertising in Australia is tightly regulated, and the restrictions around prescription only injectables in particular limit what can be named, shown and claimed. The specifics depend on your treatments and who performs them, which is why we write the copy to the applicable guidelines and hand it to your medical director before anything goes live.
It depends on the treatment and there are real limits, particularly around injectables. This is not an area to guess in. We keep imagery and testimonials inside what applies to your clinic and let your medical director sign off, which is slower than most agencies and considerably safer.
Enough that the data means something. Clicks here are cheap relative to most of this hub, so a modest budget goes a long way, and we would rather fund the package treatments properly than compete for injectables clicks against every clinic in the city.
It varies enormously by treatment and is only useful alongside what the client spends afterwards. We report cost per booked client by treatment and then twelve month spend, because that is the only view where the cheaper laser click visibly beats the dearer injectables one.
Three places, in this order. The whole budget on injectables. Training, jobs and at home device searches, which this industry attracts a great deal of. And advertising that has to be pulled down because nobody checked it against the guidelines first.
Split the package treatments out with their own campaigns and pricing pages. In most clinic accounts we audit, laser and skin programs are either bundled into a general campaign or unadvertised, while the injectables campaign absorbs everything.
We look at what it is wasting, how much sits on injectables, whether the package treatments are advertised at all, whether anything published sits outside the guidelines that apply to you, and what your clients spend across a year by treatment. You get it in writing and you keep it either way.
