AHPRA Advertising Guidelines Australia: Health Practice Advertising Risks

Why health practice advertising is a legal risk

Health practices now acquire patients through digital channels that change quickly and are often managed by non-clinical staff or external agencies. A patient may see a clinic through Google reviews, social media posts, a search advertisement, a booking platform, a practitioner profile and a landing page before speaking to reception.

That creates a common failure point. Marketing content is drafted to convert enquiries, while the legal rules are concerned with patient protection, accurate health information and the risk of unnecessary treatment. A clinic can breach the rules even where no one intended to mislead patients.

The risk is wider than registered practitioners. Ahpra’s guidance states that anyone advertising a regulated health service must comply with the National Law. A company, partnership, clinic owner or other business that controls or authorises advertising can be an advertiser. A practice cannot safely leave compliance to an individual practitioner, a receptionist, a social media contractor or a digital agency without an approval process.

Who must comply with the advertising rules?

The rules apply to advertising for a regulated health service. That includes services provided by, or usually provided by, a registered health practitioner.

In practice, the rules may affect medical centres, dental clinics, psychology practices, physiotherapy clinics, chiropractic practices, podiatry clinics, optometry practices, occupational therapy providers, cosmetic clinics, multidisciplinary allied health businesses, telehealth clinics, franchise-style health businesses and corporate practice groups.

Advertising is not limited to a formal advertisement. Website copy, landing pages, printed brochures, signage, Google Business Profile content, email campaigns, SMS offers, paid search ads, social media captions, boosted posts, videos, practitioner bios and platform listings can all be advertising if they promote a regulated health service or the business that provides it.

The five advertising risks under section 133

Section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law is the central advertising provision. For practice owners, it is useful to convert the legal rule into five screening questions.

1. Is the claim false, misleading or likely to mislead?

   A claim can mislead even if every sentence is technically accurate. The question is the overall impression created for the likely patient.

   Common examples include describing a practitioner as a specialist when they do not hold recognised specialist registration, overstating clinical evidence, implying a treatment is suitable for most patients, using unsupported claims such as leading or best, or using photos and captions that imply a typical result without adequate context.

   This risk overlaps with the Australian Consumer Law, which prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct and false or misleading representations. Health practices should be able to substantiate factual, comparative and outcome-related claims before publication.

2. Does the offer include clear terms and conditions?

   A health practice may advertise a gift, discount or other inducement only if the advertisement states the terms and conditions of the offer.

   A discounted consultation, package price, free add-on, limited-time promotion or membership offer should make the material limits clear. Relevant terms may include expiry dates, eligibility, excluded services, cancellation fees, whether clinical suitability is required, whether the offer applies only to particular practitioners or locations, and whether follow-up appointments or consumables are included.

   The offer should not pressure a patient to obtain treatment that may not be clinically appropriate. Urgency and scarcity claims carry greater risk where the service involves cosmetic procedures, injectables, screening, repeat treatment or a vulnerable patient group.

3. Does the content use testimonials or purported testimonials?

   The National Law prohibits advertising a regulated health service, or a business that provides one, in a way that uses testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business.

   This is one of the most common traps for clinics. A patient may independently publish a review on a third-party platform. The practice creates risk when it copies that review onto its website, shares it in a social media post, quotes it in an advertisement, includes it in an email campaign, encourages testimonial-style content, or uses a review widget in a way that promotes clinical outcomes.

   Indirect testimonials can also create risk. A caption thanking a patient for saying a treatment changed their life, a practitioner reposting a patient’s result story, or an influencer post describing the effectiveness of treatment may still function as a testimonial even if the practice avoids the word testimonial.

4. Does it create an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment?

   Health advertising should not make treatment outcomes sound guaranteed, simple, universal or risk-free.

   Risky wording includes guaranteed improvement, pain-free, risk-free, permanent result, instant recovery, no downtime, life-changing outcome or similar language that removes clinical uncertainty. The same issue can arise through images, selective case studies, edited before-and-after photos or claims that imply most patients will achieve the same result.

   A safer service page explains the assessment process, possible treatment options, material limitations and the need for clinical suitability. It should not sell the outcome before the patient has been assessed.

5. Does it encourage unnecessary or indiscriminate use of health services?

   Advertising should support an informed healthcare decision. It should not push people to buy treatment before considering clinical suitability.

   This issue arises with package deals, repeat-treatment programs, cosmetic promotions, subscription models, membership offers, screening campaigns, limited-time discounts and social media campaigns built around urgency. A clinic should be able to explain why the content encourages appropriate enquiry rather than indiscriminate use.

Website and Google review risks

Website content is often the highest-value place to start an advertising audit because it is controlled by the practice and visible to patients, regulators, competitors and insurers.

Practitioner biographies should accurately describe registration status, qualifications, professional memberships, experience and areas of interest. Avoid protected titles the practitioner is not entitled to use, unsupported superiority claims and wording that implies recognised specialist status where none exists.

Service pages should describe the service without overstating benefits. A useful page can explain the condition or concern, the assessment process, available options, limitations, fees and referral pathways. It should not guarantee results or imply that treatment is suitable for everyone.

Social media, influencers and agency-created content

Social media posts are still advertising where they promote a regulated health service or the business that provides it. The platform does not soften the legal test.

Higher-risk posts include patient success stories, transformation captions, reposted reviews, before-and-after material, influencer endorsements, trend-based treatment claims, discount promotions with missing terms, and practitioner posts that mix personal commentary with clinic promotion.

A practice should also control comments where the platform and workflow allow it. If a patient posts a testimonial-style comment on the clinic’s own promotional post, the practice should consider whether leaving, liking, pinning or replying to that comment makes use of the testimonial in advertising.

Agency agreements should require compliance with the National Law, Australian Consumer Law, privacy law, therapeutic goods advertising rules where relevant, and the practice’s approval process. The contract should say who checks claims, who approves publication, who monitors comments, who removes non-compliant content and what happens if content is published without approval.

Before-and-after images and cosmetic procedure advertising

Before-and-after images can be lawful in some contexts, but they are high risk because they can create unrealistic expectations about outcomes.

The practice should consider whether the images are genuine, comparable, current, unedited in a misleading way, clinically relevant and presented with enough context. Consent is necessary where patient information or images are used, but consent does not by itself make the advertisement compliant.

Cosmetic surgery and higher-risk non-surgical cosmetic procedures require closer review. The Medical Board has specific cosmetic surgery advertising guidance, and Ahpra has published guidance for higher-risk non-surgical cosmetic procedures. Clinics advertising cosmetic procedures should review qualifications, use of titles, patient imagery, testimonials, influencer content, emojis, informal procedure names, claims about recovery and statements about risk.

Privacy, patient stories and tracking tools

Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act 1988. The OAIC’s health privacy guidance makes clear that health service providers can be covered by the Privacy Act even where they might otherwise think of themselves as small businesses.

Marketing creates privacy risk when it uses patient photos, case studies, stories, online reviews, booking data, retargeting pixels, email lists, lookalike audiences or platform analytics. Consent for treatment is different from consent to use health information in marketing.

A practice should check whether the proposed marketing use is described in its privacy policy and collection notices, whether express consent is needed, whether the patient can withdraw consent, whether the material will remain online, whether third-party platforms receive health information, and whether the advertising rules still restrict the content even if privacy consent has been obtained.

Related Creo Legal article: Health Practice Service Agreements: What Clinic Owners Should Review Before Signing or Renewing.

Therapeutic goods and prescription medicine advertising

Some health advertising also involves therapeutic goods. That can bring TGA rules into the analysis, especially for medicines, medical devices, injectables, medicinal cannabis, weight-loss medicines, nicotine products, compounded products, supplements and health technologies.

The TGA updated guidance on advertising health services that involve therapeutic goods and prescription medicine advertising on 18 June 2026. The practical point for clinics is that promoting a consultation service can become unlawful therapeutic goods advertising if the content directly or indirectly promotes prescription-only medicines or controlled drugs to the public.

Clinics should review service pages, Google ads, social media posts, FAQs, blog articles and booking pages where a treatment pathway may involve a prescription medicine or therapeutic good. AHPRA compliance does not remove the need to consider TGA advertising restrictions.

How contracts should support advertising compliance

A practice’s advertising risk is often created by delegation. The website may be controlled by a service entity, social media by an agency, practitioner bios by individual clinicians, Google reviews by reception staff and paid ads by an external contractor.

The contracts should match that operating model. Marketing agency agreements, practitioner agreements, contractor agreements and platform terms should allocate responsibility for compliant content, clinical review, approvals, patient confidentiality, photography, review management, social media access, intellectual property and removal of non-compliant material.

For service entity and contractor models, advertising control can also become relevant to broader risk analysis. It may not decide employment status, payroll tax or contractor classification by itself, but it can be part of the practical evidence about how the practice operates and who controls patient-facing activity.

Creo Legal’s healthcare page outlines broader legal support for healthcare businesses and private health practices.

Practical advertising compliance checklist

Before publishing a page, post, advertisement or campaign, health practice owners should ask:

• Does the content advertise a regulated health service or a business that provides one?
• Who controls or authorises the content?
• Are all practitioner titles, qualifications, memberships and areas of interest accurate?
• Can the practice substantiate every clinical, comparative and outcome-related claim?
• Does the content use a testimonial, review, patient story or influencer endorsement?
• Does it imply a guaranteed, typical, fast or risk-free outcome?
• Does it use urgency, scarcity, discounts or packages in a way that may encourage unnecessary treatment?
• Are all gift, discount or inducement terms clearly stated?
• Does it use patient photos, stories, booking data or health information?
• Has privacy been reviewed separately from advertising compliance?
• Could TGA therapeutic goods advertising rules apply?
• Has the final version been approved before publication by the right person?

What health practices should do now

Start with a focused audit of the highest-risk material: homepage, service pages, practitioner biographies, paid ads, Google Business Profile content, review widgets, Instagram and Facebook posts, cosmetic result pages, discount offers, email templates and booking platform descriptions.

Classify issues into three groups: content to remove immediately, content to amend, and content that needs clinical or legal evidence before it can stay live. The audit should also identify who approved the content and whether the current process would prevent the same issue happening again.

For growing clinics, multi-location groups and health practices using agencies, the next step is usually contract and governance alignment. The marketing policy should match the agency agreement, practitioner agreements, privacy policy, consent forms, website terms, social media policy and internal approval workflow.