Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
Medical and cosmetic are two businesses. The marketing has to know the difference.
Most dermatology clinics share one website between two completely different patient journeys: a medical patient (skin cancer check, total body photography, biopsy, treatment of complex skin disease, Mohs surgery) finding the clinic through a GP referral or a 'skin cancer check near me' search and paying via Medicare with a gap fee, and a cosmetic patient (laser resurfacing, IPL, injectables, dermal fillers, skin rejuvenation) finding the clinic through Instagram or a 'best injector near me' search and paying full cash-pay. Bundling them onto one home page costs both: the medical patient lands on a page full of before-and-afters and wonders if you're a 'cosmetic clinic', and the cosmetic patient lands on a page about Mohs micrographic surgery and bounces. The clinics that earn well split the libraries cleanly, separate the FACD-fellow credentials from the cosmetic nurse credentials, and run two ad funnels with different copy rules, different bid strategies and different conversion goals. None of which the principal dermatologist has time to do at 7pm after a full operating list.
Good dermatology marketing is three things, in this order: a fully separated site architecture with a medical library (skin cancer check, total body photography, mole mapping, biopsy, Mohs micrographic surgery, paediatric dermatology, complex skin disease, teledermatology) on one set of URLs and a cosmetic library (laser resurfacing, IPL, injectables, dermal fillers, skin rejuvenation, chemical peels) on a separate set; an FACD-fellow credentials block on every medical page and a GP-referral page with a downloadable one-pager the local GPs can hand to patients; and an AHPRA-and-TGA-aware content cadence that builds trust without referencing Schedule 4 brand names or showing before-and-afters on injectables. The clinics that grow do exactly this; the rest blur the two funnels and bleed conversions on both sides.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Builds your annual plan around the two funnels as two separate plans: medical growth (skin-cancer screening, paediatric dermatology, complex skin disease, GP-referral partnerships) and cosmetic growth (laser, IPL, injectables, skin rejuvenation), with their own targets, budgets and compliance rules. Briefs the other agents so the medical and cosmetic libraries, the two ad funnels, the AHPRA-aware content and the GP-referral outreach all push the right patient to the right page.
Imports your existing site and immediately splits the medical and cosmetic libraries onto separate URL trees. Ships a medical page for every condition you treat (skin cancer check, mole mapping, Mohs, paediatric, eczema, psoriasis, teledermatology) with FACD-fellow credentials baked in, and a cosmetic page for every procedure with the appropriate AHPRA-and-TGA copy treatment. GP-referral page with a downloadable one-pager included.
Owns whether you appear for the long-tail medical searches ('skin cancer check [suburb]', 'paediatric dermatologist [suburb]', 'eczema specialist [suburb]') and the cosmetic searches ('best laser resurfacing [suburb]', 'injectables clinic [suburb]'). Complete Google Business Profile with the right primary category, Physician + MedicalClinic schema, internal links from suburb to condition pages. Auto-applies low-risk fixes; flags anything that touches AHPRA or TGA copy.
Runs two completely separate Google Ads accounts under one umbrella: a medical funnel on high-intent searches (skin cancer check, mole mapping, paediatric dermatologist) with medical-compliant copy, and a cosmetic funnel on cash-pay searches (laser resurfacing, skin rejuvenation, IPL) with TGA-safe copy that never names Schedule 4 brand names in consumer-facing text. Meta is medical-side educational only; cosmetic Meta is paused unless explicitly approved, given the AHPRA risk.
Posts AHPRA-and-TGA-aware educational content in your real accounts: a 90-second 'what happens in a full skin check' walkthrough with the dermoscope, an eczema flare-management explainer, an SPF-and-sun-safety reminder, a paediatric dermatology spotlight. No testimonials, no comparative claims, no before-and-after on Schedule 4 procedures, no brand names for botulinum toxin in consumer copy. You approve every draft, the agent learns your hard nos in the first week.
Drafts the long-form pieces patients search before they book: 'how often should you have a skin cancer check', 'what to expect from total body photography', 'when is Mohs surgery the right choice', 'eczema in children: when to see a dermatologist'. Two a month, in your voice, that pull consideration-stage search and double as patient handouts in the consult room.
Your first 30 days.
- Site imported, hosting bill cancelled
- Two-funnel growth plan (medical + cosmetic) delivered by Sam
- Medical and cosmetic libraries split onto separate URL trees
- Three medical pages (skin cancer check, mole mapping, paediatric) indexed
- Cosmetic page library rebuilt with AHPRA-compliant copy treatment
- Google Business Profile flipped to 'Dermatologist', FACD credentials surfaced
- GP-referral page live with downloadable one-page PDF for local GPs
- First fortnight of AHPRA-compliant educational posts queued in your voice
A dermatology clinic in 2026 is two practices wearing one logo: a Medicare-rebated medical practice that lives on GP referrals and 'skin cancer check' searches, and a cash-pay cosmetic practice that lives on Instagram discovery and 'best injector' searches. The clinics that grow run both funnels properly, on separate URL trees, with separate ad funnels, with copy that respects AHPRA and TGA on the cosmetic side and surfaces FACD credentials on the medical side. The clinics that don't blur the two and bleed conversions on both.
Agencies are too dear to actually run two funnels for $4k a month, and most of them don't know the AHPRA cosmetic-procedure rules well enough not to land you in trouble. Tools are cheap but the medical-vs-cosmetic split never gets built. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship two separate page libraries, run two separate ad funnels, post AHPRA-and-TGA-aware educational content, and keep the GP-referral page current. You stay in the driver's seat, compliance-aware by construction, two taps to approve.