How far will a woman drive for Botox? How I set the ad radius

A clinic owner sent me a screenshot of her ad settings once. Her circle covered almost the whole state.

"I want everyone to see it," she said.

I understood. When the calendar is slow, a bigger circle feels safer. More women. More chances.

But when we looked at where her patients actually lived, almost all of them came from a small area around the clinic. The giant circle was showing her ad to women two hours away. They were never going to come.

Here is how I set the radius instead.

What the radius really does

The radius is the circle you draw on the map in your ad settings. Only women inside that circle can see your ad.

So the radius decides who is in your market. Draw it too small, and you miss women who would book. Draw it too big, and your money goes to women who will never drive in.

The right radius is the distance a woman will happily drive for that one treatment.

This is part of my bigger method for finding the women near you who will book this month. You can read the whole thing in The 300 Women Playbook.

Where I start

For most med spas, I start with a circle of about 10 to 15 miles around the clinic.

Then I adjust it. I ask three simple questions.

1. How busy is the area?
2. What treatment is the ad for?
3. Where do the clinic's patients already come from?

Question 1: How busy is the area?

In a big city, 10 miles can mean an hour in traffic. Nobody wants that for a quick visit. So I make the circle smaller.

In a small town, women are used to driving. A 20 minute drive is normal for errands. So I often make the circle bigger.

I think in drive time, not miles. Miles on a map can fool you. A woman cares about how long she sits in the car.

Question 2: What treatment is it?

This is the part most people skip. And it matters a lot.

Think about Botox. It is a quick visit. She may come back a few times a year. She wants it close to home, close to work, or close to the school pickup. She will not drive an hour for it when there are clinics nearby.

So for a quick visit, I keep the circle tight.

Now think about a bigger package. Body sculpting. A microneedling series. A plan for pigmentation. She is not just popping in. She is making a choice about her body or her skin.

For that kind of package, many women will drive farther. They want the right clinic, not just the closest one. A strong offer and real proof can pull them past other clinics.

So for a package, I often make the circle a bit bigger.

Same clinic. Different radius. It depends on what she is buying.

Question 3: Where do your patients come from?

This is my favorite check. It uses your own data, not a guess.

Pull up your patient list. Look at the zip codes or the towns. You do not need fancy software. A quick look is enough.

You will usually see a pattern. Most patients come from a few nearby areas. A handful come from farther out.

That pattern shows you where your real circle is. I draw my ad radius to cover where most patients already live, plus a little room to grow.

How I check the circle in Meta

Once I have a radius in mind, I open Meta Ads Manager.

I set the location to the clinic address and the radius I picked. Then I set the age and gender to the women who book.

Meta shows an estimated audience size on the right side. It is a range.

If the range looks very small, I widen the circle a little. If it looks huge, I ask if I am reaching too far.

I walk through the full counting method in How I count the women in a med spa's zip code in 20 minutes.

Why a bigger circle can cost you more

This surprises a lot of owners.

Your ad budget has to spread across everyone in the circle. A bigger circle means each woman sees your ad less often.

Here is an example. These are made up numbers, not a real clinic.

Say your budget can show your ad 10,000 times a week. In a small circle with 5,000 women, each woman might see it twice. In a giant circle with 50,000 women, most see it once or not at all.

Now ask yourself. Which woman is more likely to book? The one who saw your offer once, or the one who saw it a few times?

I would rather reach the right women often than reach everyone once.

The giant circle also brings in women who click and never come. They are too far away. That pushes your cost per booking up. I explain that number in Cost per booking: the only med spa ad number I watch.

One more thing I always do

Inside the circle, I always remove women who already booked from my ads.

She already paid her deposit. She is coming in. Showing her the same ad again is wasted money. And it can annoy her.

So I keep a list of booked women and tell Meta to skip them. That leaves more of the budget for the women who have not heard of you yet.

What happened with the giant circle

We shrank that owner's circle down to the area where her patients lived. We made it a little bigger for her body sculpting package. We kept it tight for her quick visit treatments.

The ads were now going to women who could actually get there. And they saw the offer more than once.

Results vary by clinic, by offer, and by market. But I see the same lesson again and again. A smaller, smarter circle usually beats a giant one.

The radius on one page

1. Start with a circle of about 10 to 15 miles around the clinic.
2. Think in drive time, not miles. Go smaller in a city, bigger in a small town.
3. Keep it tight for quick visits like Botox.
4. Go a bit wider for bigger packages women plan around.
5. Check where your patients already live, and draw around that.
6. Check the audience size in Meta Ads Manager.
7. Remove women who already booked.

The right circle is not the biggest one. It is the one that holds the women who will drive to you.

Quick answers

What radius should a med spa use for Facebook ads?

I usually start with about 10 to 15 miles around the clinic. In a busy city I go smaller. In a small town I go bigger. Then I adjust by treatment, because women drive farther for a big package than for a quick visit.

How far will patients drive to a med spa?

It depends on the treatment and the area. For a quick visit like Botox, most women want something close to home or work. For a bigger package they plan around, many will drive farther. Look at where your own patients already come from.

Should I target my whole city with med spa ads?

Usually not. A huge circle shows your ad to women who will probably book closer to home. I would rather reach the women nearby again and again than reach everyone once.