Source: https://oguzerol.com/en/skincare/ Google Ads # Skincare Google Ads: Beauty Salon or Medical Provider First [Oğuz Erol](https://oguzerol.com/en/about-me/) | 12 min read What a skincare business can do on Google depends first on what it legally is. A beauty salon offering facials, cleansing and make-up can run ordinary Search ads, as long as the ads stay inside what the salon is allowed to do and make no medical claims. A medical provider offering lasers, injections or deeper peels is in a different world: health advertising law applies, Google treats injections as a sensitive health category, and some products can’t be advertised to the public at all. In the UK, for example, Botox is a prescription-only medicine and can’t be advertised to consumers. The biggest trap is mixing the two: a salon advertising medical results, or a clinic advertising a prescription-only treatment the way a salon advertises a facial. This page is written for salons outside Turkey and uses UK rules as the worked example. Turkey has its own, stricter rules, covered on the [Turkish version of this page](https://oguzerol.com/cilt-bakimi-google-reklamlari/). None of this is legal advice. ## Salon or medical provider: decide this first Which side you are on is decided by two things: how your premises and staff are licensed, and which procedures you perform. Ask your licensing authority or regulator two questions. Is my business licensed as a beauty or personal-care business or as a healthcare provider? And which of my procedures count as medical? The procedures to check are energy-based treatments (laser and IPL used for acne, pigmentation, vessels or resurfacing), anything that breaks the skin (injections, microneedling, mesotherapy) and chemical peels above a superficial strength. A doctor or nurse on the team doesn’t change what a salon may advertise: in the UK, for example, the prescription-only ban applies even when a registered medical professional administers the product (see the UK section). ## Google approving an ad does not make it legal An approved ad only passed Google’s own policies. Google doesn’t know how your business is licensed, and its [policy centre](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6023676) puts the duty to comply with the laws of the targeted area on the advertiser. Google’s own rules, as I read them on 13 October 2026: - **Health is a sensitive interest category.** Google’s definition includes “invasive medical procedures, including cosmetic surgery, surgical procedures, or injections” ([Google](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/16701855)). Ads in sensitive categories can’t use Customer Match, your data segments (remarketing lists), audience expansion or lookalike segments ([Google](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/143465)). Facials and skincare aren’t named. My reading is that a salon writing in care language stays outside it. If Google rejects a remarketing list on policy grounds, you may be inside it; clean medical wording out of your ads and landing pages. - **Prescription drug terms are restricted** in ads, landing pages and keywords, and Google allows prescription drug promotion only in specific locations and for certified advertisers ([Google healthcare policy](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/176031)). Before you bid on “Botox”, check the policy for your country and your regulator’s rule on advertising prescription-only products. - **Improbable results are misrepresentation.** Google doesn’t allow claims that “entice the user with an improbable result” ([Google](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6020955)). “Clear skin in 3 sessions” is that kind of claim. ## UK rules a skincare advertiser runs into The UK is a useful example because its rules are written down clearly and enforced in public rulings. I haven’t checked US or EU advertising rules against primary sources, so I don’t summarise them here; the Google rules and the setup below apply anywhere. - **Prescription-only medicines can’t be advertised to the public.** The Human Medicines Regulations 2012 say: “A person may not publish an advertisement that is likely to lead to the use of a prescription only medicine” ([regulation 284](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/1916/regulation/284)). The CAP Code repeats this in rule 12.12. - **Botox is one of them, and the ban is wide.** The ASA says Botox and its other brands are prescription-only medicines that can’t be advertised to the public, on social media or in any other advertising space ([ASA](https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-and-resources/cap-bitesize/rules-for-advertising-botox.html)). According to the ASA, Botox before-and-after photos are visual claims that break the rules even without any wording. What you can advertise is a consultation: “You can advertise consultations for wrinkles”. In its [LIFT Aesthetics ruling](https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/lift-aesthetics-a22-1158433-lift-aesthetics.html) (17 May 2023) the ASA found that “anti-wrinkle injections” references were indirect references to Botox. - **Beauty claims need evidence.** The ASA’s beauty guidance says marketers “must hold clinical evidence of any efficacy claims” (CAP rules 3.7 and 12.1) and that a claim implying a cream “can change the structure of the skin” could be a physiological claim and may not be acceptable ([ASA beauty guidance, published 2 February 2026](https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/beauty-and-cosmetics-general.html)). - **Before-and-after photos need proof.** The ASA expects “signed and dated proof that the photos are genuine and have not been manipulated”, and evidence that the result shown is representative ([ASA, published 5 June 2025](https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/before-and-after-photos.html)). - **Breaking the rules has consequences.** For online ads that break the CAP Code, the ASA can ask search engines to remove paid-search ads and place its own paid-search ads highlighting the advertiser’s non-compliance. Advertisers that persistently break the rules and don’t work with the ASA can be referred to statutory bodies such as Trading Standards ([ASA sanctions](https://www.asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings/sanctions.html)). For a salon in practice: a cleansing facial can be advertised. “Removes acne scars” needs clinical evidence you probably don’t hold. Botox can’t be advertised to the public, not even by a clinic; you can advertise the consultation, not the product. Whether a salon may perform laser or microneedling at all depends on its licence, which this page doesn’t cover; if your licensing authority confirms it in writing, the evidence rules above apply to those ads too. ## Setting up Google Ads for a skincare salon For a salon I recommend one Search campaign with ad groups split by service, sending traffic only to services the salon is allowed to perform. ### Campaign type In a Search campaign you write the keywords and ad text yourself; in this sector that control matters. I don’t recommend starting with [Performance Max](https://oguzerol.com/en/what-is-performance-max/). Performance Max distributes ads across Search, Maps, YouTube and Display on its own, and with text customization on it can write headlines from your website. A claim on any page of your site can end up in an ad. If you use it, turn off text customization and final URL expansion. For the same reason, the claim rules apply to your landing page as well as the ad. ### Ad copy Pin a headline that names the business type, such as “beauty salon” or “skin studio”. It stops the ad reading as a medical service. Pinning limits the combinations Google can test, so test with and without it. Put your trading name in the business name asset. Don’t use “clinic”, “medical” or “dermatology” for a business that isn’t a medical provider. “Treatment” is fine in salon language (“facial treatments”); what you avoid is medical claims such as “acne treatment”, “scar removal” or “treats rosacea”. Example headlines: - “Facials in \[Area\], Book Online” - “Deep Cleansing Facial” - “Open Weekdays 10am–8pm” - “Facials From \[price\]” Headlines I avoid: “Say Goodbye to Acne” and “Pigmentation Gone in 3 Sessions” (results you can’t evidence), and “Anti-Wrinkle Injections” (an indirect Botox reference in the ASA’s view). Use a device brand name such as HydraFacial only if you actually use that device. If you advertise a discount, check your country’s consumer rules on price claims. ### Which searches to bid on Bid on searches that name a service and a place. Searches for prescription-only products are off-limits; searches for medical procedures are outside a salon’s scope unless your licence covers them. | Group | Example search | Decision | | --- | --- | --- | | Location | “facial \[area\]”, “beauty salon \[area\]” | Bid | | Device facial | “hydrafacial \[area\]” | Bid if you use the device | | Price | “facial prices \[area\]” | Bid, show the price | | Men | “men’s facial \[area\]” | Separate ad group and copy | | Generic | “skincare”, “skincare routine” | Don’t bid; brings product and routine searches | | Prescription-only | “botox” | Never as a salon; in the UK not even as a clinic (CAP 12.12) | | Medical procedure | “acne scar treatment”, “laser resurfacing”, “microneedling” | Only if your licensing authority confirms in writing that you may perform it | Negative keywords keep your ad off searches you don’t want. I suggest adding these as **broad match negatives**; a broad match negative blocks a search that contains all of its words, in any order. Negative keywords don’t extend to close variants, so plurals and spellings are listed separately: ``` routine, routines diy at home how to cream, creams serum, serums job, jobs course, courses training certificate, certification machine, machines for sale used acne scar rosacea dermatologist hospital botox filler, fillers mesotherapy ``` If you also sell products, remove “cream” and “serum” and handle product searches in a separate campaign. Add “laser” only if you don’t offer laser hair removal; that service has its own rules, see my [laser hair removal ads](https://oguzerol.com/en/laser-hair-removal/) page. Check the search terms report, the list of searches your ad actually appeared for, every week in the first month and keep adding to the list. ### Budget, bidding and cost per booking In skincare the value sits in the course of sessions and the repeat visit, not in a single appointment, so budget and bidding are built around that. **First-month budget:** first-month budget = target new course customers ÷ click-to-course rate × cost per click. The cost per click you can afford comes from the margin a course leaves you: | Step | Calculation | | --- | --- | | Course value | 6 sessions × 100 = 600 | | Gross margin (50%) | 300 | | Share you spend on ads (20%) | 60 per new course customer | | Click to booking 10%, booking to course 50% | Click to course 5% → 20 clicks per customer | | Highest affordable cost per click | 60 ÷ 20 = 3 | | First-month budget for 3 new course customers | 3 ÷ 5% × 3 = 180 | *Worked example in units of your own currency: every figure is an assumption, not market data.* Look up your area in Google Ads Keyword Planner. If the top-of-page bid range for your keywords sits well above the cost per click you can afford, the course stays within your ad share only if your click-to-course rate is higher than assumed. The top-of-page bid is an estimate of what it takes to appear at the top, not what you will actually pay per click. **Bidding strategy:** In the first month use the Maximize clicks bidding strategy with a maximum CPC bid limit set to the ceiling above. Maximize conversions is smart bidding: Google sets bids itself from your conversion data. Google gives no minimum number; that a handful of bookings a month isn’t enough is my rule, not a Google threshold. Switch once real booking conversions arrive steadily every week. Make the booking form your primary conversion, the action bidding aims for. The mistake I see most often in Google Ads accounts is putting a conversion that isn’t real into the smart bidding target. In a salon that means making the WhatsApp tap the only primary conversion: not everyone who taps writes, not everyone who writes books, and the campaign learns to chase the easiest tap. **What to measure:** The booking form is the most valuable conversion. A WhatsApp tap comes second: put a pre-filled message such as “Hi, I’d like to book a facial (SK)” on the landing page link and count conversations that start with it ([WhatsApp conversion tracking](https://oguzerol.com/en/whatsapp-conversion-tracking/)). If bookings happen on a third-party booking platform, check whether it lets you add a Google Ads conversion tag to its confirmation step. If it doesn’t, use the coded WhatsApp or call route. Call taps on the call asset, the phone number shown under your ad, count at a low value. Google forwarding numbers, which make call length measurable, exist in 30 countries; check [Google’s list](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2382961) for yours. **Cost per booking:** cost per booking = ad spend ÷ real bookings from ads. The most reliable route is the GCLID, the ID Google gives every ad click. Your form stores it, and once a week you upload the customers who booked or bought a course back to Google Ads with that ID. If you can’t set that up, the minimum is a weekly sheet with three columns: “where did you hear about us” answers, WhatsApp messages carrying your code, and ad spend. **Seasonality:** compare “facial” and “beauty salon” for your country over five years in Google Trends, raise budget gradually in the months that rise, and compare cost per booking with quieter months. Before setting anything up, list your licence type and the procedures you perform; those two facts decide which keywords can be bid on at all. You can reach me through the [contact page](https://oguzerol.com/en/contact/). ## Frequently Asked Questions ### A doctor or nurse works in my salon. Can I advertise injections then? Not as a salon. In the UK the prescription-only ban “applies even if the POM is administered by a registered medical professional”, as the CAP/ASA [enforcement notice on Botox advertising](https://www.asa.org.uk/static/a8fa05da-b3ee-4528-82095e7bba2a3e5c/Enforcement-Notice-Advertising-Botox-and-other-botulinum-toxin-injecti.pdf) (January 2020, written for social media) puts it. The underlying rule, CAP 12.12, covers all advertising. If you also run a medical practice, keep it as a separate business with its own site and its own advertising rules. ### Can I offer a free skin consultation in my ads? If a provider only offers prescription-only treatments, the ASA’s enforcement notice says promoting the consultation is the safe route: claims such as “a consultation for the treatment of lines and wrinkles” may be acceptable, provided the ad doesn’t directly or indirectly advertise the prescription-only product. A salon with no such products can offer a skin consultation; make any conditions attached to “free” clear in the ad itself, and describe the consultation as advice on skin type and products, not as a diagnosis. [Back to top ↑](https://oguzerol.com/en/skincare/#icerik) ## You may also find these useful [Google Maps Ads | Stand Out in Local SearchAppear at the top of Google Maps with the 'Sponsored' tag. Local search intent is the clearest signal — setup, Business Profile link, measurement.](https://oguzerol.com/en/google-maps-ads/)[Geographic Targeting Optimisation | Location ControlThe wrong location setting spends money on cities you do not serve. The hidden default trap, region-level bidding and local campaign structure.](https://oguzerol.com/en/geographic-targeting-optimization/)[Call Conversion Tracking | Measuring Phone EnquiriesIf customers convert by calling and that is not measured, campaigns look worse than they are. Call tracking setup and filtering low-quality calls.](https://oguzerol.com/en/call-conversion-tracking/) [Browse all articles →](https://oguzerol.com/en/articles/) WHAT YOU CAN ASK FOR ## How do I work? Work-hour packages Tell me about your business and what you need on WhatsApp or by phone; we agree on **a work block of somewhere between 5 and 40 hours** and I start doing what is needed. What you get is not a calendar window — it is net working hours spent directly on your business. I can use 40 hours working three days straight, or deliberately spread it out and finish it over a year — whatever the work calls for. I do not spend my time estimating how long something will take, I spend it doing the work; every hour I spend leaves a lasting result in your business. We keep going for as long as you find it useful. WORK BLOCKS ## Why not monthly? Is 40 hours a week? On a fixed monthly fee both sides are watching the wrong thing: you watch a fixed cost, the other side watches how many more contracts like this they can line up. Working by the hour puts us both in front of the same thing — the real value of the work that got done. I know not having an upfront answer to "how much will this cost in total?" is the natural cost of this model. But instead of paying a fixed fee for months to a setup that is not producing results, you only pay for the qualified time spent on your work — and you see exactly where that time went, start to finish. That is why my clients keep coming back. 5hours300€ + VAT60€ per hour[Choose this block](https://wa.me/905496546489?text=Hi%2C%20I%27d%20like%20info%20about%20the%205-hour%20work%20block.) 10hours500€ + VAT50€ per hour[Choose this block](https://wa.me/905496546489?text=Hi%2C%20I%27d%20like%20info%20about%20the%2010-hour%20work%20block.) 20hours800€ + VAT40€ per hour[Choose this block](https://wa.me/905496546489?text=Hi%2C%20I%27d%20like%20info%20about%20the%2020-hour%20work%20block.) 40hours1,400€ + VAT35€ per hour[Choose this block](https://wa.me/905496546489?text=Hi%2C%20I%27d%20like%20info%20about%20the%2040-hour%20work%20block.)