Healthcare marketing is helping the right patients find your clinic, understand what you do, and book, without breaking the rules that govern health advertising. In Australia, advertising a regulated health service falls under section 133 of the National Law: no testimonials, no unreasonable promises, and offers only with their terms set out. I'm a marketer, not a lawyer or a clinician, so I work inside those rules and point you to the regulator for anything that needs a legal view. I'm based on the Central Coast, NSW, working with clinics across Australia.
Written by Dan Picken, founder. Last checked 28 October 2026.More practitioners, more scrutiny. And patients research before they book: in a 2018 survey of 1,511 Australians, 54% searched Google for medical questions or symptoms at least weekly. The survey is old and run for a software company, so treat it as a direction. The clinics that win explain things clearly and carefully, before the patient ever calls.
How patients find a clinic
They search what's wrong, then who treats it, then who's near and can see them soon. They read reviews, check the booking site, maybe ask ChatGPT whether they need a physio or a chiro. Your website is where they decide if you're the one.
The psychology
Booking a health appointment means trusting someone with your body, your time and often your money, usually while worried. These are the checks patients run. None of the answers needs a testimonial or a promise.
01
Physio, chiro, osteo, myotherapist, GP. Too many unclear options make people put the decision off.
Show them: Plain pages on what you treat and who you are a good fit for, and when someone else would suit them better.
02
Without your fees, patients anchor on whatever number they heard last, often the most expensive.
Show them: Fees for a first and follow-up visit, what Medicare or health funds might cover, and your cancellation policy.
03
Fear of losing what they have, even a sore back they know, can outweigh the hope of getting better.
Show them: What happens in the first appointment, step by step. Explain the process, without promising a result.
04
Nisbett and Wilson showed one good impression spills over into judgements of unrelated qualities. A clear, careful website gets read as a careful clinic. Hype does the opposite, and it's what the rules ban anyway.
Show them: Practitioner pages with qualifications and registration, written plainly. No superlatives.
05
Small effort changes have big effects on what people do. In one famous study, simply changing the default option shifted organ donor consent rates dramatically.
Show them: Online booking with real availability, visible on your profile, your website and your ads.
From my audits
Most clinic websites and ad accounts I look at have the same few problems. Some cost bookings. Some could cost a letter from the regulator.
A carousel of glowing Google reviews on the home page, several mentioning conditions and results. Ahpra counts those as testimonials in your advertising.
One services page listing forty conditions with a line each. It doesn't rank for any of them and doesn't help anyone decide.
Patients have to ring to find out what a visit costs. Many would rather book somewhere that tells them.
The phone is answered during clinic hours, which is exactly when most patients are at work. The clinic with online booking gets them.
'Our knee specialists' on a site where nobody holds specialist registration. Ahpra says that's likely to mislead.
Someone searching for help with a specific problem lands on a general home page, and goes back to Google.
Ad wording checker
Paste an ad, a social post or a page from your website. The checker flags words and phrases that often cause trouble under the National Law, Ahpra's guidance and the TGA's rules on medicines, and explains why. Everything stays in your browser.
It's a word check, not a compliance review. It can't read context, so it will flag some fine wording and miss some problems. A clean result doesn't mean an ad is compliant. Ahpra's own advertising guidelines are the source to check against.
Paste some copy, or load the example, to check it.
Unreasonable expectation of benefit
Section 133 bans advertising that creates an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment.
What to do: Describe what the treatment involves and who it may suit. Never promise an outcome or how fast it will come.
Possible testimonial
Testimonials are banned by section 133. Ahpra counts positive statements about symptoms, diagnosis, treatment or outcomes as testimonials. Comments about service, like friendly staff, are not.
What to do: Remove patient comments about their condition, treatment or results. Keep only comments about service: friendly, on time, easy parking.
Gift, discount or offer
Offers to attract patients are only allowed if the ad sets out the terms and conditions of the offer.
What to do: Put the full terms and conditions in the ad itself: who it is for, what is included, any limits, and when it ends.
Pressure or encouraging unnecessary use
Section 133 bans advertising that encourages the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of health services.
What to do: Take out urgency and scarcity. Recommend care based on need, not a deadline or a sale.
Comparative or unprovable claims
Section 133 bans advertising that is false, misleading or deceptive, or likely to be. Claims to be the best or the leading clinic are hard to back up.
What to do: Replace 'best' or 'leading' with something specific and true: years open, hours, what you offer, who your practitioners are.
Titles and specialist words
Ahpra says words like 'specialist' and 'specialises in' are likely to mislead unless the practitioner holds specialist registration, and only some registered specialists may use 'surgeon'.
What to do: Use 'specialist' only for registered specialists, in their specialty. Otherwise try 'substantial experience in' or 'works mainly with'. If you use 'Dr', make the profession clear.
Prescription-only medicine named
Prescription-only medicines, including cosmetic injectables like botulinum toxin, can't be advertised to the public under the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code, and that includes social media.
What to do: Remove the medicine name and indirect references to it. Talk about the consultation, not the product. Check the TGA guidance before advertising cosmetic injectables at all.
AI search
Patients already search their symptoms before they book. Now some ask ChatGPT or Google's AI the follow-up: 'physio or chiro for this?', 'who's good near me?'. The answer they get is built from pages that explain things clearly and carefully.
Built on Google Search. Google's AI runs related searches behind each question, so a page that answers the follow-up questions has more chances to be used.
It searches the web, using providers such as Bing, then names the clinics its sources agree on. Directory and booking profiles count as sources.
What to do now
My take: the writing Ahpra wants, balanced and free of hype, is also the writing AI tools find easiest to trust and quote. The rules and the algorithms point the same way.
Australian rules
Health is one of the most tightly regulated industries to advertise. These are the rules I check before running anything. Checked against the sources on 28 October 2026.
Advertising a regulated health service can't be misleading, offer gifts or discounts without the terms, use testimonials, create an unreasonable expectation of benefit, or encourage unnecessary use. Maximum fines are $60,000 for an individual and $120,000 for a company.
Ahpra defines a testimonial as a positive statement about symptoms, diagnosis, treatment or outcomes. Comments on service, like friendly staff, are fine. You're responsible for reviews on your own site and social pages.
Words like 'specialist' are likely to mislead unless the practitioner holds specialist registration, and only some registered specialists may call themselves a surgeon.
Medicines like botulinum toxin can't be advertised to the public under the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code, including on social media. Non-surgical cosmetic procedures also have their own Ahpra guidelines from 2 September 2025.
A marketer's summary, not legal advice. For anything specific, check Ahpra's advertising guidelines, your professional association or your indemnity insurer.
The channel mix
The health hub
Only with care. Ahpra treats positive comments about symptoms, diagnosis, treatment or outcomes as testimonials, which can't be used in advertising, and your website counts. Comments about service, like friendly staff or easy booking, are fine. Selectively showing only positive reviews may also be misleading.
An offer can be used if the ad sets out its terms and conditions: who it's for, what's included, any limits and when it ends. Make sure the offer doesn't encourage unnecessary treatment.
Only if they hold specialist registration, and only in that specialty. Ahpra suggests wording like 'substantial experience in' or 'working primarily in' instead.
Prescription-only medicines can't be advertised to the public, and the TGA has said general terms that point to them aren't allowed either. Get advice before advertising cosmetic injectables at all.
No. It flags words that often cause problems and explains the rule behind each one. It can't read context, so check anything important against Ahpra's guidelines or with your insurer or association.
No. I'm a marketer. I work inside the advertising rules, link the official source for each one, and suggest you check anything specific with the regulator, your professional association or a lawyer.
Keep going
Takes a minute. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days. For anything else, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens next