Is Your Clinic Website Quietly Breaking the Ad Rules?
Most aesthetic clinics aren’t trying to break any rules. But the way UK advertising rules treat prescription-only medicines and cosmetic procedures catches a lot of good clinics out, usually on the exact pages that sell the most treatments.
This isn’t legal advice, and nothing here says you’ve done anything wrong. It’s a plain-English tour of the patterns that commonly get flagged, so you can spot them on your own site before anyone else does.
Botox is a prescription-only medicine
Botulinum toxin (“Botox”) is a prescription-only medicine (POM). The rules are strict about advertising POMs to the public. A page that explains what the treatment is, informationally, reads very differently from one that names the medicine and prices it, like “Botox from £99”, as a promotion. The second is the single most commonly flagged pattern.
Before-and-after photos
Before/after sections aren’t banned, but the copy around them matters: unproven claims about results, missing caveats, or framing that plays on someone’s insecurities are all common flag points.
Missing credentials, urgency, and “quick lunchtime fix” language
Treatment pages that don’t show who’s actually qualified to inject; “flash sale” and “only 3 spots left” urgency on a medical procedure; and language that makes a medical treatment sound like a casual lifestyle purchase. These all come up regularly.
Screen your own site
The tool below runs an automated screen of your clinic’s site for these commonly flagged patterns and emails you a short, specific list. It’s a starting point for a conversation with a qualified compliance advisor, not a verdict.
Scan your own clinic site
Enter your website and email. We'll run an automated screen for commonly flagged advertising patterns and email you a link to your report. It can take a few minutes, so feel free to close this and go do something else.
Automated screening tool, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified compliance advisor.
If it flags something, don’t panic. Most of it is quick to reword. And if you’d like a hand tightening up the pages that actually bring you patients, that’s exactly the kind of thing we do.