Med Spa Success Strategies Podcast

Episode Title: How Med Spas Can Improve Lead Quality
Host: Ricky Shockley
Guest/Co-host: Lauren
Date: September 22, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode tackles the all-too-common issue med spa owners face: "lead quality"—specifically, why med spas obsess over it, what actually matters more to profitability, and practical strategies to improve both quantity and quality of leads. Ricky and Lauren break down the tradeoffs inherent in different advertising strategies, challenge misconceptions, and offer actionable tips to refine your lead acquisition and lead management processes.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Real Metric: Cost, Revenue, and Value Over “Lead Quality”

• Lead quality is frequently discussed, but Ricky suggests most practices focus on the wrong metrics.
• The core issue is not how clean your leads are, but the cost to acquire a client, initial visit revenue, and total lifetime value.
  • “Lead quality doesn’t necessarily matter. What mainly matters is cost of acquisition, initial visit revenue, and lifetime value.” — Ricky (01:01)
• High numbers of "bad" leads are acceptable if your acquisition cost and end-client value make financial sense.
  • Example:
    • $10,000 ad spend → 1,000 leads @ 5% conversion = 50 clients ($200 acquisition cost each)
    • $10,000 ad spend with heavy screening → 250 leads @ 10% conversion = 25 clients ($400 acquisition cost each)
    • “We say don’t get caught up on lead quality… Scenario one is going to make a lot more sense.” — Ricky (01:41)

2. Understanding and Managing Tradeoffs

• Optimizing for patient quality (e.g., high ticket offers, less discounting) means accepting a higher acquisition cost and fewer overall new patients.
  • “...As you optimize for a better quality patient… you’re generally going to accept a higher customer acquisition cost and fewer patients because of that…” — Lauren (04:07)
• Discount-based strategies usually yield more total clients, which is especially powerful for services reliant on retention and recurring revenue.
  • “90% of the time we see that these discount-based strategies… give us more at bats and more opportunities to develop client relationships.” — Ricky (05:06)
• Providers’ ability, in-office experience, and follow-up play a vital role in turning discounts into long-term patients.
  • “A lot of that really is dependent on the in-office experience, the provider, how they do it, cross-selling, upselling and educating.” — Lauren (06:48)

3. Don't Rely on Anecdotes—Review Data and Provider Performance

• Owners often judge “lead quality” by a small sample; this is misleading.
  • “Don’t get caught up on anecdotal perception… You’re going to have ebbs and flows with it…” — Ricky (08:05)
• Often, retention variance is traced to differences between providers or follow-up, not the ad source or lead quality itself.

4. How To Improve Lead (and Patient) Quality IF You Must

If you decide your practice should focus more on qualifying leads upfront, Ricky and Lauren offer these steps:

a. Reputational Framing in Ads

• Communicate not just a price or deal, but why a client should choose you.
  • “Make it super clear…why they should [be] excited about doing business with your practice.” — Lauren (11:37)
• Use “badges” (high star rating, best reviews), before/after photos, and post-lead campaigns to reinforce reputation.

b. Google Reviews and Social Proof

• “If you don't have the goods, you're going to have to be more aggressive with your offer framing… Make sure your Google reviews are in the place that they should be.” — Ricky (14:03)
• Negative reviews tank conversion rates. Address legitimate issues, build review volume, and continuously manage your reputation.

c. Mid to Higher-Ticket Promotions

• Move away from cheap, high-volume offers to more exclusive, higher-value packages:
  • Examples:
    • Botox: “First 40 units for $399"
    • Sculptra: “Buy 2 vials, get 1 free”
  • “...promos are things like Botox first 40 units for $400 or for $3.99… Sculptra…” — Lauren (16:36)

d. Creative “Combo” or Add-On Offers

• Bundle related high-perceived-value services (e.g., “Botox + Facial”, “Botox + Free Dermaplane”).
  • “The facial has an impact on your Botox results… When people come in for that, they get to see two providers…higher retention rates and really, really good quality of client.” — Lauren (19:46)
• Add-ons must have broad appeal and near-total overlap with your primary service.
  • “Your add-ons…need to be complementary and have broad appeal…It’s got to be nearly 100% overlap.” — Ricky (22:06)

e. Leads Management & Customer Service

• Treat leads as clients from the very first contact—white glove service, not just automations.
  • “The customer service experience doesn’t start when you’re in the office. It starts with your leads management.” — Ricky (17:30)

f. Audience Targeting

• Target affluent neighborhoods closest to your practice, avoid broad “20 mile” radius targeting.
  • “Go in and use the 1 mile bubble pin drop feature… try to map out the places that are…affluent areas.” — Ricky (25:23)
• Offers can “pull” different types of clients, even in the same geography.

g. Brand Content & “Know, Like, Trust”

• Supplement deal-based ads with educational and storytelling content to build brand trust and recognition.
  • “Trying to develop the know, like and trust element before the ask or in conjunction with your offer…” — Ricky (27:27)
• Use strong hooks: “Not many people know this one fact about Dysport…” to encourage engagement.
• Practices with local brand presence see better ROI from ads.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ricky [01:01]:
  • “Lead quality doesn’t necessarily matter. What mainly matters is cost of acquisition, initial visit revenue, and lifetime value.”
• Lauren [04:07]:
  • “…As you optimize for a better quality patient… you’re generally going to accept a higher customer acquisition cost and fewer patients because of that…”
• Ricky [05:06]:
  • “Discount-based strategies…give us more at bats and more opportunities to develop client relationships.”
• Lauren [06:48]:
  • “A lot of that really is dependent on the in-office experience, the provider, how they do it, cross-selling, upselling and educating.”
• Ricky [08:05]:
  • “Don’t get caught up on anecdotal perception…You’re going to have ebbs and flows with it…”
• Lauren [11:37]:
  • “Make it super clear…why they should [be] excited about doing business with your practice.”
• Ricky [14:03]:
  • “If you don't have the goods, you're going to have to be more aggressive with your offer framing..."
• Lauren [19:46]:
  • “The facial has an impact on your Botox results… higher retention rates, good quality client.”
• Ricky [22:06]:
  • “Your add-ons…need to be complementary and have broad appeal… It’s got to be nearly 100% overlap.”
• Ricky [25:23]:
  • “Go in and use the 1 mile bubble pin drop feature… try to map out the places that are…affluent areas.”
• Ricky [27:27]:
  • “Trying to develop the know, like and trust element before the ask or in conjunction with your offer…”

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Topic / Segment | |:-------------:|:------------------------------------------------------| | 00:06 | Framing the lead quality debate | | 01:01 | Why bottom-line metrics matter more than lead quality | | 04:03 | Tradeoff: lead quality vs. customer acquisition cost | | 05:06 | Discount strategies and long-term value | | 06:48 | Importance of in-office experience and retention | | 08:05 | Avoiding anecdotal reasoning and provider impact | | 11:37 | Embedding reputation into ad copy and campaigns | | 14:03 | Managing Google reviews & reputation’s impact | | 16:36 | Examples of higher-ticket promotions | | 19:32 | Creative "combo" and add-on offers | | 22:06 | Offer add-ons: achieving broad appeal | | 25:23 | Fine-tuning audience targeting | | 27:27 | Building “know, like, trust” through content |

Actionable Strategies Recap

• Prioritize data over “lead quality” feelings: Focus on acquisition cost, initial revenue, and retention, not anecdotal frustrations.
• Discounts yield more total clients—great for volume/retention models.
• If improving lead quality:
  • Build strong reputation and embed it in all marketing
  • Improve reviews and address systemic issues
  • Experiment with higher-priced and creative combo offers
  • Manage leads with white-glove touchpoints
  • Target affluent nearby audiences precisely
  • Complement lead-gen with brand-building educational content
• Blend tactics: For best ROI, combine discount-driven lead gen plus strong provider experience and reputation management.

Tone & Takeaways

The episode is practical and direct, a little contrarian to standard advice (“just get better leads!”), and leans heavily on data and real-world med spa lessons. Ricky and Lauren’s tone is grounded, collaborative, encouraging ongoing testing, realistic about tradeoffs, and insistent on quality follow-through in operations and branding.

Summary prepared for: Med Spa Success Strategies Podcast, Episode released September 22, 2025