A med spa should split paid budget by treatment mix and chair capacity rather than by which channel looks cheaper. Meta books a first appointment for roughly $28 to $55 and Google Search for $45 to $80. Most med spas start near 35 percent Google and 65 percent Meta, then move toward Google as device, package, and GLP-1 revenue grows.
This post covers the paid allocation decision only. The ClinicAds med spa advertising benchmarks post carries the auction data, and the med spa lead generation channels post ranks every channel including email, SMS, and organic search. The plastic surgery version of this question is answered in a separate post because the two verticals allocate against different clocks: a surgeon buys a consultation that converts to a case over 90 to 180 days, while a med spa buys a first visit that has to become a second visit inside 90 days or the economics do not work.
- Meta books a med spa appointment for roughly $28 to $55 against $45 to $80 on Google Search, and Google appointments rebook within 90 days at a higher rate. Agency averages, not guarantees.
- The binding constraint on a med spa is provider chair hours, not metro search volume. One full-time injector delivers 60 to 90 appointments a month, while a metro of 250,000 people produces 1,500 to 3,000 monthly searches across injectable and skin treatment terms.
- Treatment mix moves the split more than metro size does at med spa budgets of $3,000 to $8,000 per month. An injectables-led med spa belongs near 30 to 40 percent Google; a device-led med spa belongs near 50 to 60 percent.
- Allocation should follow 12-month cohort value, not cost per booked appointment. A $32 Meta appointment worth $180 in total revenue loses to a $70 Google appointment that starts a $1,900 device package.
- Move budget on measured signals: Meta frequency above 3.5, Google impression share lost to budget above 25 percent, or membership conversion below 15 percent of first visits.
Should a med spa put more budget into Google or Meta?
Most med spas should put more budget into Meta and more treatment-specific intent into Google Search. Meta books a first appointment at roughly $28 to $55 against $45 to $80 on Google Search, and Meta reaches people who were not searching that day. Google Search buys people who already typed a treatment name, and those appointments rebook at a higher rate. Agency averages, not guarantees.
The cheaper channel does not take the whole budget because a med spa does not sell appointments, it sells repeat visits. Member lifetime value runs $120 to $280 per month, so the number that matters is what a first visit becomes over 12 months. Offer-led Meta traffic fills the chair fastest and converts to membership at the lowest rate. Google Search traffic costs more per appointment and arrives already treatment-aware, which is why ClinicAds keeps both running rather than consolidating into whichever one wins on cost per booked appointment.
What does each channel cost a med spa per appointment?
Cost per booked med spa appointment ranges from about $18 on Meta retargeting to about $80 on non-brand Google Search terms. The spread matters less than what each campaign type produces afterward. Retargeting and brand search are cheap because they harvest demand the other campaigns created, and they cannot be scaled independently of the campaigns feeding them.
The table below is how ClinicAds reads a med spa paid account before touching the split. Figures are planning ranges from active med spa accounts, not guarantees.
- Brand search should be bought at any split; it is usually under $4 per click and rebooks highest
- Retargeting cost per appointment falls as prospecting spend rises, so it cannot be judged on its own
- A blended cost per booked appointment above $80 means the mix has drifted, not that ads stopped working
| Campaign type | Cost per booked appointment | First-time visitors | Rebooks within 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta prospecting, offer-led | $32-55 | 85-95% | 30-45% |
| Meta retargeting | $18-30 | 45-60% | 45-60% |
| Google Search, brand terms | $20-35 | 40-55% | 55-70% |
| Google Search, non-brand treatment terms | $55-80 | 80-90% | 45-60% |
| Performance Max | $40-75 | 70-85% | 35-50% |
What split should a med spa start with?
The starting split follows from treatment mix, brand demand, and average ticket. A new med spa with no brand demand belongs near 30 percent Google Search because nobody is searching its name yet. A device-led med spa selling $1,500 to $4,000 packages belongs near 55 percent, because that buyer researches before booking and types the treatment name to do it.
The table below is where ClinicAds starts a med spa account before the first 60 days of data replace the assumption. Every split is a starting position, not a permanent allocation.
| Med spa profile | Google Search | Meta and Instagram | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| New med spa, first 6 months | 25-35% | 65-75% | No brand demand exists yet; an offer has to create the first cohort |
| Injectables-led, tox and filler over 60% of revenue | 30-40% | 60-70% | Search volume is plentiful but the ticket is $400-900; chair hours fill before the metro runs out of searches |
| Device-led, laser and body contouring | 50-60% | 40-50% | $1,500-4,000 packages, explicit research-stage search, longer decision window |
| GLP-1 or medical weight loss program | 45-55% | 45-55% | Meta creative is constrained by health policy; search intent is explicit and converts |
| Membership-led, recurring revenue over 40% of total | 30-40% | 60-70% | Meta retargeting and offer sequencing do the membership conversion work |
| Multi-location | 40-50% | 50-60% | Google splits cleanly by location geography; Meta carries the radius between sites |
Why is chair capacity the real ceiling for a med spa?
A med spa runs out of provider hours long before it runs out of searches. One full-time injector delivers roughly 60 to 90 appointments per month, and a metro of 250,000 people produces roughly 1,500 to 3,000 monthly searches across injectable and skin treatment terms. That is several times what a single-injector med spa can serve, which inverts the allocation question. The constraint is not how much Google Search can absorb, it is which appointments are worth a chair.
This is the clearest structural difference between med spa and plastic surgery allocation. A surgery practice hits a hard search-volume ceiling in its metro and has to move the marginal dollar to Meta once it arrives. A med spa hits a capacity ceiling first, and the correct response is to buy a more valuable appointment rather than more appointments. ClinicAds tracks utilization alongside cost per booked appointment for exactly this reason.
- One full-time injector: 60-90 appointments per month at 45 to 60 minutes each
- One device room: 40-70 treatments per month depending on protocol length
- A two-provider med spa at 85 percent utilization needs roughly 110-150 booked appointments per month
- Paid media should supply 30-50 percent of those appointments; the rest come from rebooks, referrals, and organic
- Past 85 percent utilization, the marginal ad dollar should buy ticket size rather than volume
When should a med spa move budget between the two?
Budget should move on measured signals rather than on quarterly habit. The five below are what ClinicAds reviews monthly on a med spa account. Reallocation happens in 10 percent increments and gets judged on 45 to 60 days, which is long enough to see a rebook and short enough that a med spa is not carrying a bad split for a quarter.
- Meta frequency above 3.5 in a 7-day window: refresh creative before adding budget
- Google impression share lost to budget above 25 percent on core treatment terms: move budget into Google Search
- Membership or package conversion below 15 percent of Meta first visits: fix the offer before changing the split
- Blended cost per booked appointment above $80 for 60 days: diagnose the mix before reallocating
- Chair utilization above 85 percent: shift toward device, package, and consultation terms on Google Search
What breaks a med spa Google and Meta split?
Four errors account for most broken med spa splits. The first is allocating on cost per booked appointment rather than on 12-month cohort value. A $32 Meta appointment that produces $180 in total revenue is worse than a $70 Google appointment that starts a $1,900 device package, and an account optimized on appointment cost will systematically defund the second one. The second error is running the same discount offer on Meta indefinitely, which trains a local audience to wait for it and drives rebook rates toward the bottom of the 30 to 45 percent range.
The third error is judging a reallocation on 30 days, which is shorter than the med spa rebook window and reads noise as signal. The fourth is the most expensive and least visible: a broken measurement layer. A med spa that stripped client-side conversion tracking off its booking form for compliance reasons, without replacing it with a server-side feed, underreports conversions by 15 to 30 percent, and the underreporting is rarely symmetric across the two channels. ClinicAds fixes the tracking before touching the split, because an allocation decision made on a broken feed is a guess wearing a number.
Should a med spa run Google Ads or Meta Ads first?
Meta first for most new med spas, at roughly 65 to 75 percent of budget, because a new med spa has no brand search demand to capture and Meta creates demand rather than waiting for it. Brand-name Google Search terms should still run from day one, since they are usually under $4 per click and rebook at the highest rate.
What is a good Google and Meta split for a med spa?
It ranges from 25 to 35 percent Google Search for a new or membership-led med spa to 50 to 60 percent for a device-led med spa selling $1,500 to $4,000 packages. Treatment mix sets the split more than metro size does at budgets of $3,000 to $8,000 per month.
Why does Meta look cheaper than Google for med spa appointments?
Because Meta creates demand with an offer and Google Search harvests intent that already exists. Meta books an appointment at $28 to $55 against $45 to $80 on Google Search, but Meta appointments rebook within 90 days at 30 to 45 percent against 45 to 70 percent on Google. ClinicAds allocates on 12-month cohort value rather than on appointment cost. Agency averages, not guarantees.
What ROAS should a med spa expect from this split?
ClinicAds targets 4 to 8x on $3,000 to $8,000 per month of managed spend for med spa accounts, measured on 12-month cohort revenue rather than first-visit revenue. Member lifetime value of $120 to $280 per month is what carries the upper half of that range. Agency averages, not guarantees.
What should a med spa do when the schedule is already full?
Stop buying volume and start buying ticket size. Past 85 percent chair utilization, budget should move toward device, package, and consultation terms on Google Search, and Meta should shift from acquisition offers to membership and rebook sequencing against the existing patient list.