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Last reviewed: July 2026 · prices in USD · national baseline for dermatology practices
Dermatology runs two businesses under one roof, and they need opposite marketing. Medical derm has more demand than it can see — waits run two to three months — while cosmetic derm competes cash-pay against a med spa on every corner injecting for less. In 2026 patients photograph a mole and ask an AI what it is before calling anyone, and they price-shop Botox the same way. Practices that treat the two funnels as one blob waste money defending appointments they would fill anyway, while the profitable cosmetic side loses consults to spas that market like retailers.
Two search streams, both moving to AI engines. Patients photograph a spot and ask what it is — engines that cite your practice's condition content send you the skin-check visit and everything that follows. Cash-pay shoppers ask about Botox versus Dysport and what filler costs — being the physician voice cited there wins consults the med spa was about to take on price. A board-certified dermatologist has an authority edge that answer engines reward, but only if the practice publishes content worth citing.
| Tier | Typical range | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| DIY tooling + monitoring | $300–$2,000/mo | Citation tracking and schema tools, self-managed |
| SMB retainer | $1,000–$2,500/mo | Schema, direct-answer content, citation tracking done for you |
| Mid-market | $2,000–$8,000/mo | Broader query sets, more engines, content velocity |
| Enterprise | $10,000–$25,000/mo | Brand-wide AI-answer presence programs |
| One-time AEO audit | $250–$3,000 one-time | Where you stand across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews |
The cosmetic side should budget like the retail business it is — successful practices put five to ten percent of cosmetic revenue back into marketing it — while the medical side needs almost nothing beyond accurate listings. The physician-owner or practice administrator signs off, and physicians are rightly skeptical of unmeasured spend. Frame everything per consult: a cosmetic patient who converts is typically worth well north of a thousand dollars a year across toxin, filler, and laser cycles.
Cosmetic demand peaks before holidays and summer events, laser season runs fall through winter, and medical skin checks bump each spring.
Should we market medical and cosmetic dermatology separately?
Yes — treating them as one is the most common money leak in dermatology marketing. Medical demand mostly exceeds capacity, so it needs accurate listings and reputation, not paid promotion. Cosmetic is a competitive cash-pay retail business that needs the full apparatus: answer-engine visibility, social proof, consult funnels with deposits. Budget them separately and expect completely different metrics from each.
How do we compete with med spas charging less per unit?
Don't fight on price. Fight on credential and the answer surface. When patients ask AI engines about injectable safety, complications, or who should inject, those answers favor physician-led content — and that's a fight a board-certified dermatologist wins by default if the content exists. Publish it, get cited, and the consult arrives pre-sold on expertise instead of shopping units like a commodity.
What should a practice expect to spend on this?
For managed programs, most single-location practices land between $1,000 and $2,500 a month, weighted toward the cosmetic side where the competition is. Stack that against cosmetic patient economics: consult-to-treatment conversion, then repeat toxin visits three or four times a year plus laser and filler over time. A program producing a handful of converting cosmetic consults monthly carries its own weight.
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Methodology: ranges are synthesized from published 2026 market pricing across vendors, agencies, and platforms, reviewed and refreshed monthly (last refresh: July 2026). Metro figures apply a cost-of-doing-business index (built from 2026 local cost-of-living and labor data) that we scale per price tier: self-serve tools are priced nationally and barely move between cities, while managed and enterprise work — which is delivered by local labor — carries the full local premium. That is why the same city shifts a done-for-you retainer far more than a DIY subscription. Prices are in USD and describe typical market rates, not quotes; a real quote for your business takes minutes through a verified provider on the hashtag.org network.