Advertising Botox in Sweden: how an aesthetic clinic does it right

Advertising Botox in Sweden: the treatment is allowed, the drug isn't

Läkemedelsverket's own wording is "Det är inte förbjudet att göra reklam för en behandling" (our translation: "It is not forbidden to advertise a treatment"). A treatment ad can still become drug advertising, for example when part of it consists of information or claims about a prescription drug. The agency's page names 3 situations:

• Discounts. Läkemedelsverket has no supervisory responsibility for prices, but a campaign that highlights a discounted price for a treatment in which the drug is a central part can be considered marketing of the drug.
• Before-and-after pictures can be drug advertising if it's clear the treatment involves a drug.
• Price lists generally don't count as marketing of drugs, provided they contain no claims about the drug.

Advertising prescription drugs to the public is banned

The ban on advertising prescription drugs to the public sits in chapter 12 of the Swedish Medicinal Products Act (läkemedelslagen, 2015:315). On its page about advertising drugs used in aesthetic injections (in Swedish, changed March 2023, read October 2026), Läkemedelsverket takes drugs containing botulinum toxin as its example:

• The ban applies whether the drug is used for aesthetic or medical purposes.
• Text or images can be drug advertising even without the name or the substance, if the reader still understands which drug is meant.

Fillers follow different rules from Botox

Fillers don't count as drugs and are usually classed as medical devices, so the ban doesn't apply to them. Their advertising still may not give a false picture of the treatment or leave out the risks (EU Regulation 2017/745 on medical devices and the Swedish Marketing Practices Act).

At least 2 days of cooling-⁠off: no same-⁠day first treatment

IVO's page on aesthetic treatments (the Health and Social Care Inspectorate, in Swedish, updated August 2026, read October 2026) gives the cooling-⁠off period, betänketid in Swedish, as at least 2 days for an injection treatment. When the same type of treatment is repeated within 6 months, it applies only before the first one.

Section 11 of the Act on Aesthetic Surgical Procedures and Aesthetic Injection Treatments (SFS 2021:363, in Swedish, read October 2026) says the treatment may not be given until a cooling-⁠off period has passed since the patient received the information.

For your sales, that means a new patient can never receive the information and be treated at the same visit. Build the flow around a consultation and a follow-⁠up once the cooling-⁠off period has passed, never around an offer the patient has to take the same day.

How to advertise Botox: beauty injections and a landing page

Advertise the treatment as beauty injections (skönhetsinjektioner, in a Swedish ad) and send the traffic to your own landing page rather than a Meta lead form. That's what we do.

The term "beauty injections" describes a kind of treatment. The ad names no product and makes no claim about any drug, and the image doesn't point to one either, because even a paraphrase the reader understands can count as drug advertising.

The landing page doesn't name the drug either, and under Google's rules a page that receives traffic from Google Ads in Sweden may not use the name for promotional purposes. The page has room for what a lead form can't hold: what the treatment involves, who gives it, the risks, the 18-year age limit and the cooling-⁠off period. A patient who has read all that comes to the consultation with the right expectations. Then count those consultations per ad, not the form fills: why cost per lead is the wrong number to optimize for.

Once the cooling-⁠off period has passed, the clinic gets in touch and suggests a time, and the decision is the patient's.

Keep the offer plain. The Swedish Medical Association's marketing rules (Läkarförbundet, in Swedish), binding on its members and named by the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) as a basis for good marketing practice, say free offers and combination offers can be considered undignified, and that doctors' practices must be free from the marketing of credit.

How we run it is on our page about marketing for aesthetic clinics.

The Marketing Practices Act asks more when health is involved

The Swedish Marketing Practices Act (marknadsföringslagen) applies to all advertising for aesthetic procedures and injection treatments, and its demands are particularly high when a service affects people's health. That comes from Konsumentverket's rules for businesses on cosmetic procedures (in Swedish, reviewed January 2026, read October 2026):

• Advertising that leaves out important risk information can mislead. Cosmetic procedures are rarely entirely free of risk.
• Prominent before-and-after pictures that show only a successful, easily achieved result can give a false picture of the procedure.
• The treatments may not be given to anyone under 18, so advertising for them may not be aimed at children.

Google and Meta add their own rules on top of the law

The platforms' rules aren't law, but they decide whether your ad runs.

• Google (Restricted drug terms, read October 2026): outside the US, Canada and New Zealand, prescription drug terms may not be used in ads or on landing pages, except in non-⁠promotional use such as regulatory warnings. Its rules for Sweden add that advertisers "must not promote prescription drugs in their ads, landing pages, and keywords". Google's list of such terms includes "botox" and "botulinum toxin".
• Meta (Health and wellness, changed July 2026, read October 2026): ads for cosmetic treatments must target people aged at least 18, may not attack anyone's appearance or body, and may not promise a specific result within a specific time without a qualifier. Meta allows prescription drug ads (Drugs and pharmaceuticals, changed February 2025) only in the US, Canada and New Zealand, not in Sweden.