AHPRA advertising guidelines, explained in plain English

Everyone who advertises a regulated health service — not just registered practitioners. A clinic company, a non-registered owner, a practice manager or a marketing agency can all commit an advertising offence. If a service you offer is delivered by an AHPRA-registered profession (physio, chiro, psychology, podiatry, dental, nursing, medicine and others), the advertising for it is regulated.

The practitioner and the clinic stay responsible even when posting is outsourced. 'Our agency wrote it' is not a defence, which is why a review step before publishing matters.

1. False, misleading or deceptive advertising — including claims your evidence can't support, edited images, and 'best clinic in town' superiority claims.

2. Gifts, discounts or inducements advertised without clear terms and conditions. The offer isn't banned; hiding the fine print is. See the guide to discounts, gift vouchers and free offers.

3. Testimonials — using reviews or patient statements about clinical care in your advertising. This is the one clinics break most, usually via review screenshots. Full guide: testimonials and Google reviews.

4. Creating an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment — 'pain-free', 'permanent', 'guaranteed results', dramatic transformation framing. This also covers before-and-after photos used without the required conditions.

5. Encouraging indiscriminate or unnecessary use of health services — urgency countdowns, 'book now or risk worse damage', prizes and giveaways attached to treatment.

Titles like physiotherapist, psychologist and chiropractor are protected — and 'specialist' is restricted to the few professions with formal specialist registration (medicine, dentistry, podiatric surgery). For everyone else, even 'specialises in backs' is risky wording. The safer phrase is 'special interest in'. Full guide: specialist titles.

Since 2 September 2025, higher-risk non-surgical cosmetic procedures (like injectables) have their own advertising guidelines on top of the general rules: influencer testimonials are banned, under-18 targeting is banned with a seven-day cooling-off period for under-18 patients, and before-and-after images face strict conditions. If that's your world, start with the cosmetic injector guide.

Botulinum toxins and most dermal fillers are prescription-only medicines, and advertising prescription medicines to the public is a separate offence under the Therapeutic Goods Act — that's why clinics can't say 'Botox' in a caption, and since the TGA's 2024 position, why generic substitutes like 'anti-wrinkle injections' are no longer the workaround they used to be. Full explainer: why clinics can't advertise Botox.

Advertising breaches are criminal offences. Since the National Law was amended in 2022, the maximum penalties are $60,000 per offence for an individual and $120,000 per offence for a body corporate — figures many older articles still under-quote. Registered practitioners also face board action, from cautions to conditions on registration.

Most matters start with a compliance letter and a window to fix things, and escalate only if ignored. See what fines actually get handed out and what happens after a breach warning.

Almost every breach is a normal-sounding post someone published in good faith. The fix isn't a legal memo per caption — it's one review step before anything goes live. That's what Abby is: paste the draft, get plain-English flags and a calmer rewrite, then post.