A med spa advertising budget should cover the complete acquisition process: media spend, management, setup and any separately agreed production. Start with a service your team can deliver, a market you understand and enough appointment capacity to respond to the interest generated.
There is no universal amount that guarantees bookings. Use your own enquiry and appointment data to decide what to test, and distinguish planning examples from promises about your results.
Start with the business constraint
Before choosing a monthly number, check what the med spa can accommodate. How many relevant consultations are available? Which providers can take them? Who handles enquiries during busy hours and after closing?
If capacity is limited, a broader advertising campaign may increase requests that your team cannot fulfil. If capacity is available but few local people know the service, a focused acquisition campaign may be worth testing. If you already receive enquiries but fail to reach them, improve the response process before buying more traffic.
Choose one starting service or offer. Splitting a modest budget across many treatments and markets can leave you with too little evidence to understand what works.
Separate the four cost categories
| Cost | What it covers | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Media budget | Advertising delivery on the platform | Meta directly for Meta campaigns |
| Management | Ongoing campaign work within the agreed scope | Your agency |
| Setup | Initial strategy and campaign preparation | Your agency |
| Original production | Separately scoped filming or major creative work | The agreed production provider |
Meta ads can include Facebook and Instagram placements. They are parts of the Meta advertising system, not two separate management services by default. The proposal should explain the actual campaign scope.
Do not assume that a management fee includes every website rebuild, new location or video production request. Ask for those boundaries before comparing quotes.
A worked budget using Planet Ads pricing
Planet Ads Advertising management is $1,500 per month or 15% of monthly ad spend, whichever is higher. Ads setup is $1,500 once. The standard starting scope is one Meta ad account, one market and one offer, subject to the agreed proposal.
| Monthly Meta spend | Monthly management | Combined monthly investment after setup |
|---|---|---|
| $3,000 | $1,500 | $4,500 |
| $5,000 | $1,500 | $6,500 |
| $10,000 | $1,500 | $11,500 |
| $20,000 | $3,000 | $23,000 |
| $50,000 | $7,500 | $57,500 |
These are published-fee calculations, not estimates of how many clients each amount will generate. Add the one-time setup fee, applicable taxes and any separately agreed work to the appropriate period. Larger and more complex requirements need a confirmed scope.
At $5,000 in monthly Meta spend, a 2-month pilot totals $14,500 before those extras: $10,000 to Meta, $3,000 in management and $1,500 in setup. The default $5,000 selector in the calculator is a planning example, not a requirement for every med spa.
What creative work should you budget separately?
Normal ad variations made from existing or supplied assets are included in Planet Ads management. Major original production, such as filming, custom video ads, AI UGC or large creative batches, is quoted separately.
First inventory what you can use. Approved team footage, a clear explanation of the consultation and genuine material from the business may support a focused starting campaign. Check permissions and whether the material accurately represents the services being advertised.
Do not assign a production budget just to increase the number of assets. Decide which patient question or objection the material should answer. A useful creative brief explains the message, format, approval owner and intended use.
Judge cost per attended consultation carefully
Cost per lead is one stage of the measurement chain. It does not tell you whether someone was reached, could find a suitable time or attended the consultation.
For an illustrative example, suppose a campaign uses $5,000 in media and $1,500 in monthly management and produces 20 attended consultations. Dividing $6,500 by 20 gives $325 per attended consultation before setup and production. This example is arithmetic only, not a typical result or forecast.
If only 10 consultations attend, the same monthly spend equals $650 per attended consultation. That is why availability and follow-up deserve attention alongside advertising delivery. A full evaluation also needs appropriate treatment and financial outcomes, using reliable records and a suitable attribution period.
Keep the first period separate when setup is included. Otherwise, comparing the first month with later months can make ordinary one-time costs look like a change in campaign efficiency.
Avoid valuing every enquiry as future revenue
An enquiry is an opportunity to have a conversation. It is not a confirmed treatment purchase. Some people will ask questions, choose a different provider or decide not to proceed after assessment.
Use actual records when evaluating contribution after acquisition and service-delivery costs. Do not base a large spending decision on optimistic lifetime value assumptions that the business has not demonstrated. Separate collected revenue from booked treatment value and from potential future visits.
If numbers are uncertain, label them. A simple report with clear limitations is more useful than an apparently exact return calculation built on assumptions nobody can explain.
When should you increase the budget?
Consider increasing spend after the campaign is reaching relevant people, the handoff works and the team has available appointments. Review the quality of conversations and the outcomes of the enquiry group, not a single strong day.
Ask these questions before increasing spend:
- Are new enquiries receiving a timely, relevant response?
- Are booking and attendance records reliable?
- Can the team accommodate more suitable appointments?
- Is the current creative still attracting appropriate interest?
- Are there unresolved problems that more traffic would amplify?
If enquiries are not booking, review the med spa follow-up workflow. If bookings fail to attend, use the no-show reduction guide.
Where does AI Reception fit in the budget?
AI Reception is a separate service. Its value depends on whether call handling is a genuine gap and whether the configured workflow can help your team. Do not add it automatically to every advertising calculation or assume it replaces all reception work.
Planet Ads AI Reception starts at $950 per month with 500 minutes included. Additional minutes cost $0.45 each, and standard setup is $1,250. Confirm the final integrations and scope before committing. The pricing page and calculator keep these costs separate from Meta spend.
Use evidence from your own market
Platform planning tools and prior campaign experience can help form a starting hypothesis. They do not guarantee delivery costs or client outcomes. Local competition, the service, creative, seasonality and the quality of the response process all affect what you learn.
For a medical spa, review advertising claims and patient imagery through the appropriate approval process. The AmSpa marketing resource provides an industry starting point for those considerations.
Use the complete Meta ads guide for med spas to plan the acquisition journey. If you want a budget tied to your actual scope, request a 2-month pilot discussion rather than treating a calculator estimate as a final proposal.