Cosmetic Surgery Advertising: The Ultimate Guide

For cosmetic surgery brands looking to jump into the advertising world, Team TEGNA is here to help you get answers, grow brand visibility, and increase the number of appointments made. Here is our complete guide to help you advertise their cosmetic dentistry brand.

What Is Cosmetic Surgery Advertising?

For any business, marketing is the process of amplifying your brand to a target market in order to generate and grow business. This includes conducting market research to identify and learn about your target audience and then advertising your services across a number of different platforms. 

For example, TEGNA’s new e-book, Checking the Pulse of the Healthcare Consumer,​ found that in seeking elective procedures, improving the quality of life is the top motivator for 52% of consumers, and 12% are motivated by wanting to change their appearance. 

What do these insights mean? Now is the time to ramp up marketing and advertising, create cosmetic surgery ads to attract new patients, and position your business as the vital choice in quality care.

Should I Advertise My Cosmetic Surgery Business?

People of all shapes, sizes, and ages want to look and feel great, which most cosmetic surgery centers aim to help patients achieve. However, not all patients share that they’ve had procedures done. With that in mind, due to the sensitive nature of some procedures, ads must be targeted to those over the age of 18, and campaigns should be educational, intentional, and crafted in a very thoughtful way. 

In fact, the FTC outlines several guidelines for media outlets to perform before running ads in certain areas, such as weight loss, pharmaceuticals, medical claims, and testimonials from these fields. Before getting started, you’ll want to ensure your messaging is FTC-compliant. 

3 Ways To Advertise Your Cosmetic Surgery Business

Because so much thought goes into cosmetic procedures from a consumer standpoint, leading with education is the best way to advertise your brand. At TEGNA, we’ve found the best way to provide this patient education is through: 

1. Local Television & Lifestyle Content

TV advertising is extremely effective, and with Checking the Pulse of the Healthcare Consumer, we found that local news channels are a vital way for communities to receive patient education. Nearly 60% of consumers who get health information from local news trust its advertisers. In fact, local broadcast news is the most trusted platform for viewers – and consumers are more likely to buy from brands that advertise alongside sources of information they trust.

While traditional TV ads – spots that are usually 15 to 30 seconds long – remain one of the top ways dental brands can generate business and should always be considered when creating a great media plan, there is another great way to leverage this visual medium and provide patient education on a higher level. 

For example, with an appearance on a lifestyle show, such as KARE 11’s Minnesota & Company, the Minneapolis Vein Center discussed spider and varicose veins treatments and procedures for nearly five minutes, providing valuable bits of information to a wide audience. 

Sarah Nellermoe, Local Sales Manager at KARE 11, dives a bit deeper into the value of this type of advertising. “When people will spend $10, $20,000 dollars on a procedure, there’s a larger story that has to be told, education that has to be provided. Longer formatted content works well for these industries because they have a trustworthy platform to provide that education.” 

2. Combine Linear TV with Streaming

As viewing habits change, thriving brands combine linear broadcast and streaming platforms. While broadcast has unmatched reach, streaming adds advanced targeting layers to reach additional areas and specific audiences. When paired with measurement tools, such as TEGNA Attribution, you can measure the effectiveness of your TV and streaming campaigns by connecting viewing behaviors to engagement metrics, such as website visits and app downloads. In other words, you will now know who saw an ad and then visited your website. This data can then be used to prove the value of your campaign and make optimization decisions to ensure your campaign delivers the best results possible. 

3. Online Local Advertising 

To further align with your trusted local community channels, you’ll also want to add digital ads, such as display, banner, high-impact units, native ads, and video ads, to the mix to extend your reach even further. Advertising in places – such as within TEGNA’s Local Station Websites and Apps – you can reach an engaged audience within a trusted, local community environment to increase brand awareness and drive conversions.​

Better yet, these channels also offer advanced targeting options. TEGNA AudienceOne is one of the only first-party targeting solutions in the local media landscape and combines contextual and buying behavior with household demographics to optimize advertising on TEGNA’s station websites and beyond. This allows advertisers to be more precise and reach users within specific audience targeting parameters.​ Visitors to TEGNA sites see ads that are relevant to them for a more personalized experience, resulting in stronger campaign results and more conversions for advertisers.

5 Best Practices for Plastic Surgery Advertising

Marketing is about reaching the right people with the right message and enough frequency to compel them to action. But that might be easier said than done. Here are our best practice tips to help create the right message to reach an ideal audience with the perfect frequency.

1. Understand Your Audience 

Checking the Pulse of the Healthcare Consumer found that 52% of consumers who get elective procedures choose to do so to improve their quality of life, and 12% are motivated by changing their appearance. Then it should come as no surprise that massages and teeth whitening were last year’s most popular wellness activities. Additionally, most of those seeking to maintain a healthy lifestyle choose to see a nutritionist or join a weight loss program before settling on surgical procedures. 

2. Define Your Brand & Be Consistent

Ask yourself, “What does my brand look like? What does my brand feel like? What does my commercial look like? What does your commercial sound like if I can’t hear it?” Be sure to be consistent with the brand and its values in tone, voice, and music selection.

3. Differentiate Your Practice

Did you know that less than half of patients understand what differentiates the hospitals in their area? Applying this insight to all healthcare brands, you have a major opportunity to highlight competitive differentiation. This could incorporate addressing consumer pain points found in Checking the Pulse of the Healthcare Consumer,​ which includes long wait times, inconvenient appointment times, and the need for a true healthcare partner.  

4. Be Transparent Around Pricing

Since cosmetic procedures aren’t generally covered through insurance, it’s important to be transparent about payment plans and financing options. Be sure to Increase transparency around costs to help avoid sticker shock. Explore payment plan options to help consumers better afford costly procedures or highlight a sliding scale for those without insurance.

5. Utilize Storytelling

When audiences become captivated and emotionally connected to an ad, it improves brand awareness and ad recall and increases purchase intent. Before the pandemic, creatives that performed well told a patient’s story. During the pandemic, the best-performing ads focused on health and wellness – things like how to keep yourself safe. In 2023, we’re seeing that viewers want to hear a caregiver’s perspective as much as they want to listen to the patient’s.

3 Examples of Successful Plastic Surgery Ads

Carolina Age Management Institute

Arizona Midday Features LED Light Phototherapy

Minimally-Invasive Vein Treatments at Texas Vein Experts

Grow Your Cosmetic Surgery Business With TEGNA 

At TEGNA, our ultimate goal is to equip brands with data and insights to inform creative, then amplify those messages with cross-platform campaigns, including linear, streaming, and digital elements. With 64 broadcast stations in 51 markets nationwide, our unique content opportunities will connect your business to the audiences that matter most and deliver proven results. Let’s get in touch to see how we can help your brand grow with the power of advertising.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I advertise my cosmetic surgery business on social media?

Yes, but ads for certain services such as weight loss, laser treatments, dermal fillers, skin rejuvenation, and injectables must be targeted at those at least 18 years old. 

Does cosmetic surgery advertising work?

TV advertising remains one of the top ways for a cosmetic surgery brand to cut through the clutter, reach a large local audience, build credibility and trust, create brand awareness, get phones ringing, and get people visiting your website and making appointments.