The headline numbers
We pulled every ad we could find from U.S. med spas and aesthetic practices in Meta's public Ad Library and checked the copy line by line.
Out of 773 unique ads, 121 (15.7%) made at least one claim that Meta's ad policies or regulators commonly flag.
That's roughly one ad in six.
Across advertisers, 67 of 297 (22.6%) ran at least one ad with a flagged claim.
Share of ads making each claim (all 773 ads)
The most common flagged claim was also the one most likely to get an ad rejected.
Meta's personal attributes policy bars ads that assert or imply something about the person reading them, such as their age, weight or appearance.
41 ads did exactly that, with openers like these:
- "Over 40 and not sure where to start with your skincare?"
- "Tired of looking tired?"
- "Ever look at an old photo and wonder where those forehead lines came from?"
- "Is your makeup no longer covering up even skin tone the way it used to?"
Independents vs national chains
The gap between independent med spas and national chains was the biggest finding in the data.
Independent practices addressed the reader's own age, body or appearance in 39 of 422 ads (9.2%).
The 16 national chains in the sample did it in 2 of 351 ads (0.6%).
That makes the independent ads about 15 times as likely to use the opener Meta is most likely to reject.
Independent med spas (422 ads)
- 17.8% made at least one flagged claim
- 9.2% addressed the reader's age, body or appearance
- 5.2% claimed no downtime, no pain or no risk
- 0.9% promised permanent or guaranteed results
National chains (351 ads)
- 13.1% made at least one flagged claim
- 0.6% addressed the reader's age, body or appearance
- 1.4% claimed no downtime, no pain or no risk
- 5.7% promised permanent or guaranteed results
The chains weren't clean, they just made different claims.
Their most common flagged wording was "permanent" results (5.7% of chain ads) and unsourced "#1" or "leading provider" claims (4.3%).
Some of those may be backed by the company's own terms, such as a written lifetime guarantee, which an ad screen can't see.
By treatment
Body contouring stood out by a wide margin.
22 of 50 body contouring ads (44%) made at least one flagged claim, and 14 of them (28%) promised permanent results, such as "Remove fat & tighten skin, permanently."
Ads with at least one flagged claim, by treatment
Skin treatment ads were the most likely to call out the reader (11.0% of them), usually through questions about dull skin, pores or aging.
Botox and neurotoxin ads followed the same pattern at 7.1%.
Filler ads were the cleanest, and their most common flag was a patient testimonial (5.2%).
What this means for practice owners
The claims that get ads rejected are mostly a habit of voice, not of intent.
"Tired of looking tired?" feels personal and warm when an owner writes it, and Meta reads it as a statement about the viewer.
The fix costs nothing: describe the treatment and the result, not the person reading.
"Soften fine lines in a 20-minute visit" sells the same thing without the rejection risk.
The "no downtime" and "painless" wording is a slower risk.
It rarely gets an ad rejected, but it's the kind of claim the FTC expects you to be able to back up for every patient.
If you want to check your own ads, the free med spa ad checker runs the same rules used in this study, line by line.
How we did it
Source. Ads came from Meta's public Ad Library, filtered to ads shown in the United States, collected on October 4, 2026.
Sample. We combined three pulls: every ad from 14 national aesthetic chains, keyword searches for "med spa", "lip filler" and "botox special", and every advertising med spa in one metro area (northwest Houston, Texas).
Cleaning. Duplicate copy was counted once. We removed advertisers that aren't U.S. aesthetic providers: product brands, media outlets, influencers, training courses, clinics abroad and IV or wellness-only clinics. That left 773 unique ads from 297 advertisers (16 national chains and 281 independent practices).
Screening. Each ad was split into lines and screened by Jev, a classification model from TypeSafe, against the rules in our ad checker. A claim counted only when the model was at least 90% confident.
Review. Every flagged line was then read by hand, and flags that didn't hold up were dropped, along with two rule categories that proved too noisy to report (generic "expert injector" titles and "#botox" hashtags).
What it can't see. The screen reads ad text only, not images, video, landing pages or targeting. It can't tell whether a claim is backed by evidence or by the business's own terms. Because we only counted high-confidence, reviewed flags, the real share of ads with these claims is likely higher than reported.
Data. The aggregate figures are available as a CSV download. We don't publish business names or individual ads.
For journalists
You're welcome to use these figures with a link to this page.
Gabe Meierotto, founder of More Booked Consults and former Director of CRO at LaserAway (2018–2023), can talk about what the data means for med spa owners and how aesthetic ads get reviewed.
Reach him at hello@morebookedconsults.com.
Frequently asked questions
Where did the ads come from?
From Meta's public Ad Library, filtered to ads shown in the United States. The sample combines every ad run by 14 national aesthetic chains, a keyword search for 'med spa', 'lip filler' and 'botox special', and every advertising med spa in one metro area (northwest Houston). Ads were collected on October 4, 2026, and 82% were still running that day.
How were the claims identified?
Each ad was split into lines and screened by Jev, a classification model from TypeSafe, against the same rules our free ad checker uses. A claim only counts if the model was at least 90% confident and the flagged line then passed a manual review. Flags that failed review were removed, so the figures are a conservative count.
Does a flagged claim mean an ad broke the law?
No. The study counts claims that Meta's ad policies and regulators such as the FTC and state boards pay attention to. Whether a specific claim is a problem depends on the treatment, the evidence behind it, the business's own terms (a written guarantee, for example) and state law. We don't name any business, and nothing here is legal advice.
Can I use these numbers in an article?
Yes. Please cite More Booked Consults and link to this page. The aggregate figures are available as a CSV, and Gabe Meierotto is available to comment on what the data means for practice owners.
Why are chains and independents so different?
National chains usually run ads through legal and brand review, and most of their copy is about offers and locations. Independent ads are more often written by the owner or an injector, in a personal voice, which is where 'Over 40?' and 'Tired of looking tired?' style openers show up. The chains' most common flagged claim was a different one: 'permanent' results, mostly in body contouring and laser hair removal ads.