Two pairs of glasses and an eye exam for $95. For a family watching its budget, that's a hard offer to ignore, and it runs in some form at optical chains in almost every market in the country. An independent practice that charges more than that for the exam alone can feel priced out before the patient ever calls.
It isn't, but the answer isn't a cheaper pair of glasses either. The chains' offers work within a set of federal rules that apply to every optometrist, and understanding them shows both what the chains can't do and what your own offers can. This chapter covers how the big brands price the exam, what the FTC allows and forbids, and how to answer with offers and ads built around the exam itself.
Searches for the Chains Outnumber Searches for an Eye Doctor
Start with how big the chains are on Google. In the US, people type "lenscrafters" into Google roughly 1.2 million times a month, "warby parker" 673,000 times, and "myeyedr" and "visionworks" 550,000 times each, per Keyword Planner. "Pearle vision" adds 301,000. The generic searches every practice fights over are smaller: "eye doctor near me" runs about 450,000 a month and "eye exam near me" about 246,000.
Some of those brand searches are about exams specifically. "americas best eye exam" and "warby parker eye exam" draw about 12,100 each, and "lenscrafters eye exam" about 6,600. The chains have spent years teaching patients to search for them by name.
Chapter 5 kept chain names out of your keywords, and Chapter 13 kept AI Max from sneaking them back in. That still holds. You don't win a LensCrafters searcher by bidding on the name. You win the patient who searches "eye exam near me" with a chain's offer already in mind, and that patient compares.
The Chains Put a Price on the Exam, and Some Give It Away With Glasses
Here's what four national brands published on their own websites on September 27, 2026. Prices change often, so check them in your own market.
- America's Best advertises two pairs of glasses plus an eye exam for $95, with single-vision uncoated lenses and frames from a set range. The exam alone is listed at $80. The site also notes that vision insurance can't be combined with the two-pair offer.
- LensCrafters lists an eye exam "starting fee" of $69, plus $39 for retinal imaging and $15 for dilation at the Chicago store we checked, with complete pairs of glasses starting at $99.
- Warby Parker says comprehensive exams start at $85 nationally (the Chicago store we checked listed $95), with retinal imaging an additional $39.
- MyEyeDr. advertises a complete pair for $95 and leads with "Vision insurance covers your eye exam!" rather than an exam price.
Two things stand out. The chains price the exam low, or fold it into glasses, because the glasses are the business. And the headline price often isn't the whole price: retinal imaging and dilation are extra at two of the four.
The FTC Allows the Bundle. It Doesn't Allow Tying the Exam to It.
The Federal Trade Commission's Eyeglass Rule sets the order of events for every optometrist and ophthalmologist in the country, chain or independent. Two lines matter most for offers.
First, the doctor must give the patient a copy of their prescription "immediately after the refractive eye examination is completed and before offering to sell the patient ophthalmic goods," whether or not the patient asks. Second, it's an unfair practice to "Condition the availability of a refractive eye examination to any person on a requirement that the patient agree to purchase any ophthalmic goods."
The FTC's own compliance guide answers the bundle question directly. You may advertise a single price for an exam plus glasses, or a free exam with the purchase of glasses. But the prescription still comes first, and in the FTC's words, "The exam cannot be contingent on the purchase of eyeglasses." Since 2024, the rule also asks prescribers to request that the patient confirm, in writing, that they received the prescription, and to keep those records for at least three years.
If your own practice runs an exam-and-glasses package, build the landing page around that order. Say the exam price on its own, say the package price, and say that the patient receives the prescription after the exam whether or not they buy. That one sentence answers the question a careful patient is already asking, and it keeps the offer inside the rule.
So a two-pairs-and-an-exam offer is legal. What isn't legal is a practice telling a patient they can only have the exam if they buy the glasses, or holding back the prescription until they do. The same rules apply to any offer you write.
A Contact Lens Offer Can Never Hint the Prescription Is Optional
Contact lenses have a rule of their own. The FTC's Contact Lens Rule says anyone who sells contact lenses "may not represent, by advertisement, sales presentation, or otherwise, that contact lenses may be obtained without a prescription."
That matters for the offers practices run most: annual supplies, rebates and seasonal colored lenses. "Save 20% on a year of contacts" is fine. "Order your contacts today, no exam needed" isn't, and neither is anything that makes a costume lens sound like an accessory. Keep the exam in the offer: "Save 20% on a year of contacts with your contact lens exam" says the same thing and follows the rule.
Answer the Bundle With What Your Exam Includes
An independent practice rarely wins a price war on glasses against a chain buying frames at national scale. It doesn't have to. The patient comparing offers is really choosing an exam, and on the exam you can be specific where the chains are vague.
Put these on the landing page, and the strongest of them in the ad:
- Your exam price, stated plainly. If it's higher than a chain's headline, say what's included.
- What the exam includes. If retinal imaging or a dilated exam is part of your standard exam, say so. Two of the four chains above charge extra for them.
- Who does it. Your doctors by name, with the right designation, as Chapter 8 covered.
- How patients pay. The vision and medical plans you take, from Chapter 14, and a self-pay price.
Stick to facts a patient can check. "Retinal imaging included" is a fact. "Better than the chains" is the kind of superiority claim some states restrict, as Illinois's rule in Chapter 9 showed, and it doesn't persuade anyone anyway.
Here's how that might read for an imaginary practice whose exam includes retinal imaging and that bills most vision plans. Swap in your own facts, and only the ones that are true:
- Headlines: "Eye Exams With Retinal Imaging," "Exams by Our Two Optometrists," "VSP, EyeMed and Davis Accepted," "No Insurance? $120 Exam." Each one is a fact a patient can check, and each answers a question the chain bundle leaves open.
- Description: "One price covers the exam and retinal imaging. You leave with your prescription, ready to use anywhere."
- Sitelinks: a page listing what the exam includes, the insurance page, and the doctors' page.
The prescription line deserves care. Every optometrist has to hand it over, so don't word it as if the chains don't. Framed as "ready to use anywhere," it's simply true, and it reassures the patient who's worried about being pushed into buying glasses on the spot.
Promotion Assets Carry an Offer Without Rewriting Your Ads
When you do run an offer, Google's promotion assets are the cleanest way to show it. A promotion asset adds a highlighted line under your ad with a monetary or percentage discount, the product or service it applies to, and a link to the offer page. You can attach an occasion, such as Back-to-school or New Year's, which appears as a bold label, and set start and end dates so the offer switches off on time.
They're free to add. A click on the promotion costs the same as a click on the headline. And the asset has a field for requirements such as a promo code or minimum purchase, plus an optional link to the full terms, which is where an offer's conditions belong.
For an eye care practice, the useful promotions line up with the seasons this guide has already covered:
- Back-to-school kids' glasses or a second pair for school, in the summer flight from Chapter 11.
- New Year's offers on an annual contact lens supply, as January's rush arrives (Chapter 7).
- Second pair discounts year-round, for patients who've already had their exam.
Two cautions. Google pauses occasion promotions that haven't been edited within six months of their start date, so review them each season. And every promotion is still an ad: if the discount only applies with an exam, or only on certain frames, say so in the requirements and on the page.
"Free Eye Exam" Searchers Want an Offer You May Not Make
Price searches are big in eye care. "Cheap eye exam" is typed about 60,500 times a month across the US, dwarfing "free eye exam" at 8,100, "eye exam deals" at 2,400 and "eye exam coupon" at 1,000.
Chapter 5 made "free" and "cheap" negative keywords by default, and for most practices that stays right. Those searchers are looking for the chain bundle, and your ad is unlikely to change their mind.
If your practice does run a free or discounted exam with a purchase, those searches become worth testing, with two conditions. The ad or the landing page must state the condition, because Google's misrepresentation policy requires ads to disclose the full cost a patient will bear. And the offer must follow the FTC order: exam first, prescription in hand, then the chance to buy.
Next: Medical Eye Care Ads
The last chapter moves from price to medicine. Advertising dry eye treatment, glaucoma care or myopia control brings in rules that routine exam ads never touch, from prescription drug names to FDA device clearances. Chapter 16 covers what an optometry practice can say, and where.
Every chapter is listed on the guide's home page.
Every eye care practice we manage under our Google Ads management gets its exam price and what the exam includes on the landing page before any promotion runs. Writing your own? Check what the nearest chain charges for retinal imaging, then check whether your exam already includes it.
