Five-star med spa reviews have a favorite subject, and it isn't the bill or the diploma on the wall. The clients who write them talk about how they look afterward, and how nobody could tell they'd had anything done. One reviewer put it simply: "I look like myself, just refreshed."
Then look at the ads competing for those same clients. They mostly talk about something else. This chapter is about closing that gap: writing ad copy from the words clients use about the results they're buying.
Four of Nine Local Ads Pitched a Price. One Mentioned Natural Results.
We pulled current Search ads for aesthetic practices in our example market, Miami, from Google's public ad library. Nine had readable ad text. Of those nine:
- Four mentioned a price, discount or financing, three of them right in the headline: a national laser chain's "70% Off Laser Hair Removal," a monthly-payment offer, a "starting at" price and a "save hundreds" promise.
- Four mentioned credentials or awards: "Voted Best," "5 Star," "Board Certified."
- One used a word clients use about results: "natural beauty." (Some ads did more than one of these.)
It's a small sample, so treat it as a snapshot, not a census. Search your own treatments today and see whether your market looks similar: lots of price and credentials, very little about how the client will look and feel.
Now the reviews. In the 849 Google reviews of med spas we collected for this guide, "explain" came up in 95 of them, "clean" in 75, "natural" in 57 and "injector" in 51. Clients praise being told what's happening, a spotless room, results that look like them, and their injector.
That's not an argument against ever mentioning price or credentials. It's a sign that the thing clients praise most is the thing the ads say least.
Your Best Ad Copy Is Already Written on Your Treatment Page and in Your Reviews
Good ad copy starts with the page the ad points to. The treatment page from Chapter 4 already says what the treatment does, who does it, what it costs and why a client should trust you. Pull its strongest lines first, because an ad that echoes its landing page gives the searcher exactly what she was promised.
Then read your own reviews, all of them, and write down the phrases clients repeat. Google reviews are the obvious source. RealSelf is where med spa clients go deep on a specific treatment, and Reddit is where they ask the questions they won't ask a front desk. The example market's reviews produced lines like these:
- "I look like myself, just refreshed."
- "no one can tell what I did"
- "she keeps it natural and isn't afraid to say no"
- "Doesn't try to upsell me on products which has been a constant experience at other med spas."
Every one of those is a selling point in the client's own words. Two more places are worth checking: your front desk, for the questions callers ask before they book, and the gaps on your own site, where a client's obvious question has no answer.
Your reviews can also tell you something bigger than a headline. If clients keep praising the same thing, a specific injector, a no-pressure consult, results that don't look done, that's how you're positioned in your market whether you planned it or not.
Thirty Characters Holds a Client's Best Line if You Cut Everything Else
You get room for fifteen headline variations in one responsive search ad, capped at 30 characters apiece, plus four longer description lines of up to 90. Google mixes and matches them. Thirty characters is short, so the job is compression: keep the idea, cut everything else.
From the review lines above, for example:
- "Natural Results, Not Frozen" (27 characters)
- "Look Like You, Just Refreshed" (29)
- "An Injector Who Will Say No" (27)
- "No Upselling. Just Answers." (27)
- "Lip Filler, Explained First" (27)
Only write a headline that's true for your practice. "The Same Injector Every Visit" is a strong line if your scheduling guarantees it and a problem if it doesn't. Mix the client-language headlines with plainer ones: the treatment and your location, a booking line, a credential if you have one worth naming. Then use the descriptions for proof: how many years your injectors have practiced, how the consult works, what the price covers.
Drug names are allowed in ad text, so "Botox" can appear in a headline even though, as Chapter 5 explained, most med spas can't bid on it as a keyword.
A Full Lip Filler Ad Built From Reviews, Without a Single Discount
Here is what the method produces for one ad group, lip filler, using only lines drawn from the treatment page and client reviews. Eight headlines, each counted against Google's 30-character limit:
- "Lip Filler Near You" (19)
- "Natural-Looking Lip Filler" (26)
- "Look Like You, Just Refreshed" (29)
- "Lip Filler, Explained First" (27)
- "An Injector Who Will Say No" (27)
- "No Upselling. Just Answers." (27)
- "Book Your Lip Filler Consult" (28)
- "Soft, Subtle, Still You" (23)
And two descriptions, each under 90 characters:
- "We plan your lip filler with you first, then show you exactly what it will cost." (80)
- "Licensed nurse injectors. A spotless room. Book online or call with questions." (78)
Notice what's there and what isn't. The treatment and location appear, because the searcher typed them. The rest is about the experience clients praised: being explained to, not being pushed, looking like themselves. There's no discount and no superlative. Fill the remaining headline slots with more of the same, then let Google test the combinations.
Every line in an ad like this has to be true for your practice. If your injectors aren't nurses, don't say nurses. If you don't show the cost before treatment, don't claim you do.
Google's Ads Transparency Center Shows What Your Competitors Already Claimed
Before you write, look at what the other ads say, so yours doesn't say the same thing.
Google publishes the ads its verified advertisers run, filed under each advertiser's name, in the Ads Transparency Center. Search for a competitor, or open the three-dot menu on one of their ads in the search results and choose to see more ads from that advertiser. If the results come up blank, check the date range and location filters. Some practices' ads run under their agency's account name instead of the practice's own. Google's Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool shows what appears for a search in your area without affecting anyone's numbers.
Paid research tools can add more history, and an AI tool can be a useful last check on a draft. Neither is where the copy should start. Start with your page and your clients.
In the example market's sample, the national laser chain opened with a discount and several surgeons with credentials. That leaves the results clients describe, and the experience of being treated well, largely unclaimed.
Launch Unpinned. Pin Only What You Know Works.
Google lets you pin a headline so it always appears in a set position. It's tempting to pin your favorite line to the first slot. For a new account, don't.
Google's own help page notes that pinning "reduces the overall number of headlines or descriptions" available for each position, which cuts down the combinations it can try. New med spa accounts should launch with everything unpinned and let Google test which combinations get clicked.
Pin a headline only when you have a reason to trust it: a line the practice already knows works from other channels, or one the data has proven in this account. If a legal or brand requirement means a line must always show, pinning is the right tool for that too.
Google Won't Let a Med Spa Ad Promise What an Injector Can't Guarantee
Google's misrepresentation policy applies squarely to aesthetic treatments, and it's worth knowing before you write:
- An ad can't present an improbable result as what a client can typically expect.
- Guaranteed results require a clear, easy-to-find refund policy.
- Testimonials that claim specific results need a visible note that results aren't guaranteed and can vary.
- Prices have to be honest about the full cost. A "$9 per unit" headline that hides a large minimum purchase is exactly the kind of thing Google's dishonest-pricing rules target.
The client-language approach works well within these rules. "Natural results" describes an aim. "Nobody will ever know you had Botox" promises an outcome no injector can guarantee.
One Headline Retired a Month Is Twelve Client-Phrase Tests a Year
Ad copy isn't finished at launch. Monthly, pull up the ad's asset breakdown to see which of your lines earned their keep. Find the weakest headline, remove it, and replace it with one new line drawn from a recent review.
Change one thing at a time so you can tell what moved the numbers. Over a year, that's twelve tests of your clients' own language against the old copy. The ad gets steadily more specific to your practice and harder for a chain to match.
Next: Google Already Hides Your Ads From Teens
The ads are written. Before they go live, the campaign settings decide who sees them, where and when, and for a med spa some of those limits are set by Google whether you choose them or not. Chapter 9 walks through the settings to check before launch.
All fifteen chapters are laid out on the Google Ads for Med Spas guide home. Chapter 7 explains why the injector is a med spa's strongest selling point, which is exactly what these ads should say.
When we write med spa ads under our Google Ads management, the review export gets read before a single headline is typed.
