AHPRA-compliant marketing for your clinic
Marketing a regulated health service in Australia is a minefield. Get it wrong and you are looking at a complaint, a takedown notice, and fines of up to $30,000 per breach for individuals or $60,000 for a company. Here is what you can and cannot do, in plain English.
What is AHPRA-compliant marketing?
AHPRA-compliant marketing means every public-facing communication about a regulated health service meets the advertising obligations under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. In practice that means no patient testimonials or reviews about clinical services, no claims of superiority or guaranteed outcomes, no before-and-after imagery that creates unreasonable expectations, and every factual claim backed by accepted clinical evidence. It applies across your website, social media, Google Ads, email, print and directory listings, and to third-party content you can influence, including agency campaigns and review-platform responses. The rules cover all 16 AHPRA-registered professions, and AHPRA processes more than 800 advertising complaints a year, with anyone, including competitors, able to lodge one. The reliable approach is to audit every channel systematically, train everyone who creates content, and review material before it goes live.
What you cannot do
- ×Patient testimonials or reviews about clinical services, including embedded Google and Facebook reviews on your own site.
- ×Claims of superiority or guaranteed outcomes ('best', 'safest', 'painless', 'guaranteed results').
- ×Before-and-after images that create unreasonable expectations or lack the required disclaimers.
- ×Schedule 4 prescription medicine names or indirect descriptors used as marketing ('anti-wrinkle injections', 'lip flip').
- ×Discount inducements, package deals or time-limited offers on regulated health services.
What you can do
- ✓Factual, substantiated information about the services you provide and the conditions you treat.
- ✓Practitioner qualifications and registration details that match your AHPRA record.
- ✓Educational content that helps patients make informed decisions.
- ✓Clear fee information and what a consultation actually involves.
- ✓A review process that checks every page, ad and post before it goes live.
Go deeper
- AHPRA compliant marketing: a guide for healthcare
- AHPRA advertising guidelines: complete 2026 guide
- AHPRA advertising guidelines for cosmetic clinics
- AI website audits for healthcare advertising
Want AHCRA to scan your own site? Our automated website audit runs 51 checks against AHPRA, TGA, ACCC and Privacy Act requirements.
Want it built and marketed for you, compliantly?
Knowing the rules is one thing. Building a website and running SEO that bring patients in without breaching them is another. Our partner, LUNA Systems, builds AHPRA-aware websites and SEO for Australian clinics. It was founded by a registered nurse, so compliance is built in, not bolted on.
Talk to LUNA SystemsLUNA Systems is an independent marketing partner. You will be taken to lunasystems.com.au.