The global plastic surgery market has seen tremendous growth, surging to a total value of USD 69.7 billion in 2023.
It’s expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 11.1%, reaching an estimated USD 158.7 billion by 2031.
For your practice, these numbers point to a real possibility for steady growth in the US plastic surgery industry. But here’s the question: Are you getting a good slice of this pie?
If you’re an established plastic surgeon trying to balance patient care, procedures, and administrative tasks, the prospects of growth might not leave much time to focus on building your practice’s online presence.
Maybe you’ve already tried online marketing solutions like SEO, Google Ads, and Meta Ads without seeing much success. If so, chances are you just haven’t found the right strategy yet.
At Digital Spotlight, we get it—you don’t want to waste more time or money on campaigns that don’t deliver. That’s exactly why we’re here.
With 15+ years of digital marketing experience, we know how to set your plastic surgery practice up for real, lasting success.
We specialize in medical marketing and know exactly how to connect plastic surgeons like you with patients actively seeking aesthetic procedures. Our lead-driven strategies bring in new patient inquiries—not just clicks, referrals, consultations, and procedure bookings.
We can use our deep understanding of Google’s algorithm and search engine ads (on both Google and Bing) to help your practice rank higher—without overspending.
We also run data-driven campaigns on Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram to get your message in front of the right people at the right time—not just random clicks or likes.
More importantly, we’ll take a deep dive into your audience—so you can reach your ideal patients and reengage past visitors who already know your practice.
Most of our clients come to us after trying three to seven other agencies—and they stay for the long haul because we get them the results they need.
If you’re ready to grow your practice further, let’s have a quick chat. Call 310 879 8003 or email contact@digitalspotlight.com today for a no-pressure consultation. We’d love to show you how we can help.
Understanding the Plastic Surgery Market for Digital Growth
Public interest in reconstructive plastic and cosmetic procedures remained strong despite some slowdown in demand during the post-pandemic period, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
In its 2023 report (the latest one available), the ASPS said that the number of plastic surgeries grew by 5% annually, which was mainly due to Americans not letting tighter budgets get in the way of their desire for aesthetic enhancement.
The ASPS added that minimally invasive treatments in the US went up by 7% as more patients are choosing lower-risk procedures.
What do these developments mean for your practice? If you’re a veteran practitioner in the plastic and cosmetic surgery market, your ad campaign will definitely benefit from insights into how surgeons and patients are making decisions about these life-changing procedures.
Plastic Surgery Industry Trends and How They Impact Your Marketing Strategy
The ASPS said in its 2023 report that a growing number of people are seeking plastic surgeries and less invasive treatments. This means that your marketing efforts should focus on these areas.
Market Trends Shaping Online Growth
Amid the rise of the internet, an increased patient awareness of treatment options has accompanied steady innovation in the plastic surgery industry.
The ASPS said that more people now prefer personalized solutions like nose reshaping for facial refinement, fat reduction for body contouring, and lower-risk techniques like dermal fillers.
A growing number of patients are also understanding the appeal of nonsurgical procedures. The ASPS said that a major draw of these treatments is the promise of a high-quality result without the hassle and recovery time of regular surgery.
Economic Impacts on Plastic Surgery Trends and Digital Marketing
However, a potentially major roadblock could be the relatively high cost of these procedures, which can lead to a slight deceleration in the industry’s pace of growth.
For instance, The Aesthetic Society mentioned that surgeon’s fees run at an average of about USD 6,764 for tummy tucks and around USD 4,235 for breast augmentation.
The Aesthetic Society is a group of more than 4,000 plastic surgeons, all certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery or the Canada-based Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
How Global Plastic Surgery Trends Influence Local Marketing
In its 2023 report, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) said that the number of cosmetic surgeries performed by plastic surgeons reached 15.8 million worldwide, increasing by 5.5% from the previous year.
During the same period, an estimated 19.1 million nonsurgical procedures were completed. This pushed the overall increase in global procedures to 40% over the prior four years.
The most sought-after procedure worldwide in 2023 was liposuction, with over 2.2 million treatments. Other highly popular aesthetic surgeries were breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, abdominoplasty, and rhinoplasty.
Demand for face and head procedures significantly increased, with a 19.6% annual upswing for a total of 6.5 million procedures.
Nonsurgical aesthetic procedures remained popular as well.
Botulinum toxin was still the most requested in this category, with 8.8 million injections by plastic surgeons globally. Hyaluronic acid injections followed with 5.5 million procedures.
The Digital Evolution of Plastic Surgery Marketing
In recent years, plastic surgery has seen significant improvements in terms of accessibility and precision—and technological innovations have similarly helped in the marketing of these procedures.
How Digital Innovation Is Changing Plastic Surgery Marketing
Treatments like skin tightening have become safer and more effective than ever due to innovations such as laser technologies.
By stimulating accelerated collagen production once skin layers are burned off, lasers address issues like wrinkles and scars without the need for extended recovery time.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is another promising assistive tool. By running simulations, AI-powered systems can gradually become better at surgery planning and decision-making.
AI can also build on surgeons’ guidance and management to improve treatment results and patient outcomes.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are other potentially valuable companions to modern surgery.
AR can help surgeons with real-time digital displays during surgery, while VR simulations can provide opportunities to safely practice procedures.
How Patient Mindsets Affect Your Online Strategy
According to a survey published in the Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology peer-reviewed journal, cosmetic surgical procedures are increasingly important among college-age patients.
The following factors were described as the major drivers of this development:
- Celebrity influence on beauty standards
- Concerns about attractiveness and self-worth
- Idealized media portrayals showing “perfect” physical forms
These factors show the link between bodily satisfaction and aesthetic treatment choices among members of this demographic.
What this means for your online marketing campaign is that you should focus on those who want to be more confident about their appearance, as this group might be more likely to seek out plastic and cosmetic procedures.
Our digital marketing services can showcase your practice as a leading provider of plastic surgery services using the following approaches:
- Customized Content: We’ll make relatable, relevant, and useful content that focuses on keywords matching what your ideal patients are looking for.
Definitely no generic information from us; we’ll create valuable, human-written content tailored for you.
- Data-Driven Insights: Our approach is based on the same algorithms Google uses, which can help your practice attract high-quality patient leads at lower patient acquisition costs.
- Positive Patient Experience: We’ll ensure high-quality patient experience from the very first moment they visit your website, as this can elevate your practice in your patients’ eyes.
- Credibility Through Testimonials: Our reputation management services will highlight positive feedback about your practice, as these are a robust source of referrals. We’ll also manage and protect the information seen online about your brand and personnel.
The COVID Boom: Why More Patients Are Searching for Plastic Surgery Online
Approximately 28 million elective surgeries were postponed or canceled worldwide due to the pandemic, with an estimated 10.9% annual decrease in aesthetic surgical procedures in 2020.
The decrease was due to many plastic and reconstructive surgery procedures being considered elective.
Multiple studies have since shown that interest in plastic surgery—which includes reconstructive and aesthetic procedures—significantly went up right after the pandemic.
Potential reasons included more recovery time at home and the increased popularity of video conferencing and video social media platforms.
By region, the most significant surges in plastic surgery interest—especially nonsurgical procedures and facial plastic surgery, as gauged through Google Trends—were seen in the US, India, and Mexico.
Since the pandemic, the greatest changes in patient interest were observed in breast augmentation, forehead lifts, injectable fillers, laser hair removal, liposuction, microdermabrasion, and facelift (rhytidectomy).
All of these saw a noticeable increase as people began focusing more on self-care and personal confidence.
Most Searched Plastic Surgery Procedures and How To Market Them
The ASPS mentioned that the top reconstructive procedures in the US for 2023 were:
- Tumor removal
- Hand surgery
- Breast reconstruction
- Maxillofacial surgery
- Scar revision
Trends in Facial Rejuvenation Procedures
The ASPS noted that facial and neck procedures were incredibly popular in 2023. On an annual basis, facelifts saw the biggest jump at 8%, followed by rhinoplasty and chin liposuction at 6% each, and blepharoplasty at 5%.
Globally, the facial rejuvenation trend as of 2023 was the reduction of facial wrinkles and antiaging treatments.
Among invasive facial treatments, the most popular choices worldwide were fillers, botulinum toxin, and hyaluronic acid. On the other hand, among noninvasive options, the most preferred were laser, platelet-rich plasma, and radiofrequency.
Meanwhile, the most researched procedures in the East Asia and Western regions were nasolabial folds (13.4%) and glabellar lines (12.4%).
Trends in Body Contouring Procedures
Body contouring procedures enjoyed increased popularity, with the most significant year-over-year growth seen in liposuction (7%), breast lifts (7%), and tummy tucks (5%).
Globally, patients are often motivated to undergo these procedures to eliminate unwanted areas and achieve better firmness in the treated sections.
Body contouring treatments are seeing accelerated demand as their noninvasive nature allows patients to resume their daily lives immediately after the procedure.
For instance, the noninvasive SculpSure laser device by Cynosure, Inc. destroys approximately 24% of unwanted fat cells in 25 minutes.
Trends in Minimally Invasive Procedures
Among minimally invasive procedures, BOTOX® injections registered a 6% annual increase in 2023, while dental filler treatments went up by 4% during the same period.
The ASPS said that the surge in the popularity of minimally invasive treatments was due to technological advancements and a growing patient preference for reduced downtime.
In particular, neuromodulator treatments like BOTOX® and dermal fillers have become mainstays of aesthetic maintenance as they ensure nearly immediate results with less recovery time.
Enhancing the Patient Experience
The popularity of the internet has made patients particularly aware of the wealth of options available at their fingertips, which is why your practice needs to be aware of the lay of the land if it’s to succeed in capturing your patients’ interest.
Provider Analysis
According to Fortune Business Insights, most plastic surgeons prefer working with hospitals and specialty clinics as these facilities offer a broad range of services.
The study also found that hospitals and specialty clinics represented the bulk of cosmetic procedures in 2023, as most of the treatments are conducted in these facilities.
Among the various healthcare provider types, hospital and specialty clinics especially benefited from the increased demand for minimally invasive procedures.
Meanwhile, the spas and cosmetic surgery centers segment of the industry is likely to see steady growth over the next few years, mainly due to medical tourism and the emergence of new facilities in this category.
Social Media Influence
Social media providers like Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok have become crucial to promoting plastic surgery services and displaying transformations.
The visual nature of these sites—especially with the increased popularity of before and after photos—has influenced how plastic surgery practices market themselves and interact with their patient base.
Aside from before and after images, regular high-value posts can retain patient engagement and make a practice more distinct in an increasingly competitive market, the ASPS said.
On the consumer side, social media has affected how people see themselves.
The advent of selfies and the prevalence of Zoom calls have made individuals more self-conscious, and the ASPS warned that unhealthy levels of self-scrutiny may drive people to focus on perceived imperfections.
The prevalence of image editing and filtering in social media, which often highlight unattainable beauty standards, has also led to idealized patient expectations.
Social media trends can affect the popularity of certain procedures, as some people might ride on trendy treatments without fully understanding the risks, limitations, or suitability of these procedures.
What these developments emphasize is the vital role that a strong social media plays, but growing this presence requires significant effort and expertise. Fortunately, our digital marketing agency has these elements in spades.
We’re intimately familiar with how high-quality content interacts with platforms like Facebook and Instagram. We can take advantage of Meta’s algorithms and our audience segmentation analysis to help your practice reduce costs per lead by as much as 70%.
Aside from helping grow your social media likes and engagement volume, we can design and implement marketing campaigns for Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok so that your practice can attract a constant stream of qualified leads and procedure bookings.
Understanding Your Ideal Patient Online
In its global report, the ISAPS found that women still represented most of the patients going for aesthetic procedures, making up 85.5% of the 2023 total. However, the number of plastic surgeries involving men also increased, particularly involving face and head procedures (up by 18% annually).
Liposuction outstripped breast augmentation as the most common surgical procedure among women, with a 29% increase from 2021 for a total of 1.8 million procedures.
On the other hand, eyelid surgery became the most preferred aesthetic procedure among men, replacing liposuction.
We can help you maximize these trends by creating a marketing strategy that analyzes your ideal patient groups.
Our page-specific keyword intent targeting can align your website content with patients’ intent for each keyword involved. Our approach to keyword analysis will also allow us to identify high-value opportunities for your practice.
Our digital marketing approach, which is built on an in-depth understanding of your needs and goals, will help you keep pace with your industry’s steady growth.
How Young Adults Are Driving Digital Engagement in Plastic Surgery
A significant number of college-age individuals are considering plastic and cosmetic surgery treatments.
An estimated 1.3% to 6.4% of this group have already undergone cosmetic surgery, while 21% to 43% have expressed interest in having plastic and cosmetic surgery procedures done sometime in the future.
The ISAPS further found that most breast augmentations (53.7%) and rhinoplasties (65.8%) were performed on people in the 18–34 age group.
To take advantage of these trends, social media marketing via TikTok can help. The platform is considered to have strong potential in engaging younger patients as around 14.1% of the platform’s global audience are women aged 18-24, and 16.6% are men in the same age range.
Our digital marketing services can allow you to leverage these trends as our maths-based approach speaks the same language that platforms like TikTok use.
Competitive Landscape: How Leading Clinics Dominate Online
The most popular ventures in any discipline have mastered the digital realm through their strong online presence.
How do they accomplish this? Mainly by working with specialized agencies that help them precisely target their most desired consumer groups.
At Digital Spotlight, we can find patterns in the sea of data, allowing us to conduct advanced analysis on your ideal patient demographics when setting up your campaigns.
Your plastic surgery practice can benefit from marketing campaigns that attract strong organic traffic. These campaigns ensure that potential patients who find you through search engine results pages (SERPs) are genuinely interested in your offerings.
We can develop such campaigns for you. We’ll use our uniquely effective tools and approaches developed through over 15 years of industry success.
Our seal of quality is our client retention rate of 95.67%, and we back this up by the all-important concept guiding our approach to marketing: results.
We don’t offer vague promises or guarantees of success, as digital marketing involves too many variables for any such promise to be meaningful.
What we can guarantee is our commitment to providing long-lasting benefits for practices like yours.
SEO Strategies Based on Industry Trends
Our search engine optimization services can improve your practice’s local online presence by making you the go-to place for patient questions.
We can simultaneously target a wide range of core keywords for your practice (including critical terms such as “breast implant” or “skin resurfacing”), helping rank your site for 10 to over 150 variants of these terms on Google’s first page.
Our SEO services have brought significant returns on our clients’ investments. We’ve successfully reduced our customers’ marketing costs by an average of 33% and their acquisition costs by 23%.
We’ve also grown our clients’ leads and sales by around 83% to as much as 400%.
Our SEO services hinge on a three-pronged approach that ensures maximum coverage:
- Off-site SEO: We’ll establish your website’s domain authority and topic relevance with strategic link-building. We’ll ensure that high-quality links help make your site more credible in Google’s eyes and thus increase referrals from relevant sites.
- On-site SEO: We’ll ensure that your content aligns with the keywords you want to rank for so that Google detects these crucial terms on your optimized web page.
- Local SEO: We’ll help geo-dependent businesses like your plastic surgery practice get better rankings on Google’s local search results.
Local SEO for Plastic Surgeons: Winning in Your Market
Our data-focused services are designed to boost your visibility in the most important markets for you.
Additionally, our local SEO approach will greatly help your practice if your service coverage focuses on patients in a specific locale or region.
We’ll develop a keyword strategy that prioritizes location-oriented targeting before general targeting, helping maximize your local visibility.
We’ll then analyze SERPs to help your website become more visible whenever users key in geographically dependent terms like “plastic surgeon near me.”
Our local SEO approach is highly versatile and can meet most of your conceivable needs. We do this by listening first and then offering a free technical audit that could otherwise cost you thousands of dollars.
Future Surgeons and Digital Branding: Why Online Presence Matters
According to many medical students, exposure to plastic surgeons and observing their work has inspired their decision to enter the industry.
Teaching staff can also be particularly influential in forming medical students’ understanding of the techniques, procedures, and ethical considerations inherent to plastic surgery.
Additionally, specialized workshops and courses can help students gain valuable insights into the plastic surgery field as well as unique opportunities to learn about the latest advancements.
What do these facts mean for you? These trends emphasize the need for your practice to stand out from the competition.
We combine over 15 years in digital marketing and a well-developed grasp of what really works for healthcare practices. Through these, we can set up your plastic surgery practice for lasting success.
We’ll use lead-focused strategies that won’t just stop at getting your name out there but also help drive new patient inquiries and referrals, consultations, and procedure bookings. This is all so you can focus on what you do best: delivering exceptional aesthetic services.
We’ll develop eye-catching marketing material like websites and content, incorporating crucial keywords like “chemical peel,” “reconstructive surgery,” or “breast reduction” to help you stand out.
We’ll also use our online reputation management approach to showcase the reviews or citations that spread the good word about your practice, ensuring that they’re the focus instead of harmful reviews.
We’ve achieved first-page Google rankings for 1,812+ international businesses across 355 niches, and we’re ready to do the same for your practice.
Contact us today if you have questions about growing your practice through digital marketing.
Call us at (+1) 310 879 8003 or email us at contact@digitalspotlight.com to book your no-pitch, no-obligation consultation. We’ll be happy to discuss how we can fuel your further growth in the plastic surgery industry.
