Aesthetic clinic advertising rules: can you advertise anti-wrinkle injections in the UK?

Can you advertise anti-wrinkle injections in the UK?

No. Anti-wrinkle injections use a prescription-only medicine, and those can't be advertised to the public in the UK (CAP rule 12.12). What you can advertise is the consultation, and a good consultation ad is easier to act on anyway.

The same applies to some weight-loss injections. You can advertise a consultation for a concern; you can't advertise the medicine that might come out of it.

An ad doesn't have to name the medicine to break the rule. In December 2024 the advertising regulator, the ASA, ruled against a clinic's Facebook ad for "Cosmetic Injections 3 Areas from £179". The words alone weren't the problem: the "3 areas from £179" offer matched the clinic's own anti-wrinkle prices, so the ad indirectly advertised a prescription-only medicine.

So check the offer, the price and the image as well as the words. A vaguer name such as "injectables" doesn't help if anything else in the ad points to the medicine.

Where does the rule apply?

Everywhere the public can see it, not only in paid ads: your website, social posts, hashtags, emails, leaflets and influencer posts. The one exception is an inner page of your website, which can give balanced, factual information about the medicine.

• Your homepage: no reference to the medicine, direct or indirect, and no price list that names it.
• Inner pages of your website: balanced, factual information about the medicine, as one possible outcome of a consultation.
• Ads and social posts: the consultation and the concern only. No medicine name, no syringes and no hashtags that name it.
• Before-and-after photos of a prescription-only treatment: leave them out everywhere. Even with no words beside them, they count as an ad for the medicine.

Example · Juniper's Friday post

First draft · don't post: "Injectables evening this Friday. DM to book your spot."

Our edit: "Lines and wrinkles consultations in Bath this Friday evening. Meet our practitioner, ask your questions and decide afterwards."

Why: the edit offers a consultation for a concern, says who you'll meet and points to no medicine.

Staff and influencers posting for the clinic follow the same rules. Give them the agreed wording and image before they post.

Which wording is lower risk?

Name the concern and offer the consultation. CAP's own example of acceptable wording is "a consultation for the treatment of lines and wrinkles", as long as nothing else points to the medicine.

Swap sheet · examples

• "Anti-wrinkle injections from £[price]" becomes "Lines and wrinkles: book a consultation". Keep medicine prices off the ad and its landing page.
• "Wrinkle-relaxing injections" becomes "Lines and wrinkles consultation".
• "Weight-loss injections, from £[price] a month" becomes "A consultation for weight loss", with no hint of a particular prescription.
• "Lose a stone in four weeks" goes entirely. The code bans promising a precise weight loss in a set time.
• A practitioner endorsing a medicine becomes a description of their consultation role and verified qualifications.

Read the whole ad, image and hashtags included. Changing one word doesn't remove a promotion the rest of the ad still makes.

What do Google and Meta add?

Both platforms add their own limits on top of the UK rules.

Google restricts prescription-drug terms in ads, keywords and landing pages, and its health rules switch off remarketing and Customer Match lists for injections. Our Google Ads guide covers the rest.

On Facebook and Instagram, cosmetic procedure ads must target people aged 18 or over, and Meta rejects ads that play on how people feel about their looks. If Meta rejects an ad, our Meta ads guide shows how to read the decision.

Make the consultation the thing you sell

Sell the appointment you can actually describe: who attends, what it covers, what it costs and what happens next. Say whether treatment can happen the same day.

The ad promises a conversation with a qualified person, never an outcome. Only claim results you could back up if asked.

Check your highest-spend ad and its page together

A clean ad landing on a page that promotes the medicine still breaks the rule, so review them as one thing. Run six checks:

1. No medicine named or shown on the ad or your homepage, including images, hashtags and small print.
2. The ad offers a consultation for a named concern.
3. The landing page is a consultation page. Any medicine information sits on an inner page, balanced and factual.
4. No before-and-after images of prescription-only treatments.
5. Cosmetic campaigns target adults only, on every platform.
6. Every results claim has evidence on file.

Keep a dated note of who checked each ad. For a large campaign, a weight-loss programme or after an ASA ruling, CAP's Copy Advice service can comment on a draft before it runs. The standard service is free; faster replies cost extra.

Juniper's finished ad brief

Put the wording decisions on one page that whoever makes the ad can follow.

Juniper's finished ad brief

• Concern: lines and wrinkles
• Appointment: a 30-minute consultation with Juniper's nurse prescriber in Bath, £30, with no treatment promised
• Headline: Lines and wrinkles consultations in Bath
• Supporting line: Meet our practitioner, ask your questions and decide afterwards.
• Image: the real consultation room, used with permission; no syringes and no before-and-after
• Button: "Request a consultation", opening the consultation page
• Landing page: the consultation page; medicine information only on an inner page, as a possible outcome
• Audience: adults only; no remarketing or customer lists
• Checked by: the practice manager for wording and the prescriber for clinical lines, 2 October

Do this today

Run your highest-spend ad and its landing page through the six checks.

Done when: each check is marked pass or fix, with a name against every fix, on the ad wording brief.

For the wider picture beyond the advertising rules, PatientPulse's free 60-page Clinic Growth Playbook covers the costly mistakes, the numbers that matter and the playbooks that work. Requesting the PDF means agreeing to PatientPulse's emails, each with a one-click unsubscribe.

Questions owners ask

Can we list anti-wrinkle injection prices on our website?

Only on an inner page, in a price list covering a range of treatments, with no claims and no discount that encourages choosing the medicine. Keep them off the homepage and out of ads, social posts and marketing emails.

Do posts on our own Instagram count as ads?

Yes. CAP treats a clinic's own social posts, including hashtags, as advertising, so the same rule applies.

Are dermal fillers covered by the prescription-only rule?

No, fillers aren't prescription-only medicines. Cosmetic intervention ads still mustn't be aimed at under-18s, and results claims still need evidence.

Next in the guidebook: with the wording settled, build the first campaign. Google Ads for aesthetic clinics starts with the sum to do first.

Juniper is an example clinic. Its posts and brief are illustrative.