Plastic surgery · Hiring guide
Plastic surgery marketing agency — or the person who does the work?
If you're searching for a plastic surgery marketing agency, you're really shopping for three things: who touches your account, what their incentives are, and whether results get verified. Here's the honest comparison — including where an agency genuinely is the better choice.
What you're actually buying from an agency
A typical plastic surgery marketing agency sells a team: an account manager who talks to you, a media buyer you rarely meet, a content pool shared across dozens of practices — often including your local competitors. Billing is commonly percentage-of-spend, which rewards budget growth whether or not consultations grow with it. The reporting layer answers to the account manager's renewal, which is why it leans on impressions, clicks and "leads."
What a senior consultant model changes
- No layers. The person who plans your strategy is the person inside the account — every campaign, every week. On my engagements, that's me.
- Flat retainer. No percentage of spend; scaling your budget earns me nothing unless verified consultations scale with it.
- Exclusivity is possible. A solo practice can lock its market; a 40-client aesthetics agency structurally can't.
- Verification instead of reporting. Consultations and surgeries matched to clicks in your own practice system — the model described on the plastic surgery marketing page. You audit me in your own records.
When an agency is the right call
Honesty cuts both ways: if you need volume production — daily social content, video editing, PR, five channels at once — a staffed agency out-produces any individual. Multi-location groups needing standardized execution across ten offices are also better served by agency infrastructure. The consultant model wins when the bottleneck is judgment on serious ad budgets, not content throughput.
The questions that expose everyone
Whoever you interview — including me — use the audit checklist. Three questions do most of the work: Who personally logs into my account, and how often? How exactly is a consultation verified as coming from ads? What gets cut when spend underperforms, and who decides? Vague answers to any of the three are the answer.
| Dimension | Typical agency | Senior consultant |
|---|---|---|
| Who touches the account | Junior buyer behind an account manager | The person you hired |
| Billing | % of ad spend | Flat retainer |
| Incentive | Grow the budget | Grow verified consultations |
| Market exclusivity | Rare — dozens of practices | Possible |
| Verification | Platform dashboard | Your own practice system |
Official documentation
Questions owners ask
Straight answers
How much do plastic surgery marketing agencies charge?
Commonly a monthly fee plus a percentage of ad spend as budgets grow. I charge a flat retainer regardless of spend — the incentive difference shapes every recommendation you'll receive.
Can one consultant really replace an agency?
For paid search, SEO, AI search and tracking on a serious budget — yes, and with fewer handoffs. For high-volume creative production — no, and I say so upfront. Scope honesty is the test to apply to everyone.
Do you work with practices outside the US?
My focus is US practices — US search behavior, US ad policy enforcement, US patient-privacy rules. That specialization is most of the value.
Interview me with the hard questions.
Thirty minutes. Bring the audit checklist — I'll answer every question on it, including the uncomfortable ones about what I don't do.
Book a 30-minute call$500 audit + 90-day roadmap