Optometry marketing

The prescription is handed over before the frames are shown

The Eyeglass Rule sets the order of the visit. The patient gets one copy of the prescription “immediately after the refractive eye examination is completed and before offering to sell the patient ophthalmic goods, whether or not the prescription is requested by the patient”, and no fee on top of the exam fee may be charged as a condition of releasing it (16 CFR 456.2(a)(1) and (c)). A practice with a financial interest in selling eyewear then asks the patient to sign a confirmation of receipt, or keeps evidence that a digital copy was sent, and keeps that record for “not less than three years” (456.4). The FTC’s guidance puts it plainly: “Your staff also must give prescriptions to patients before you or anyone at your office offers to sell them glasses” (Complying with the Eyeglass Rule; all checked 3 November 2026). Optometrist marketing that leads with frame prices is competing with every website that sells frames. So premium eyewear is sold on what the optical does that a website can’t: frame choice, lens options, measurements, fitting and adjustments. The checkout puts the prescription and the confirmation first, the optical’s own campaigns welcome people holding a prescription written somewhere else, and optical sales are reported apart for your own exams and for outside prescriptions.

Myopia control is a program a parent buys

The FDA’s authorizations for slowing myopia are for children: eyeglass lenses for children “6 to 12 years old at the initiation of treatment”, and before them one contact lens device “for 8 to 12-year-olds” (FDA, 25 September 2025). So the reader is a parent, and the ads are written for adults and targeted to them. Google says “Users under the age of 18 are not eligible for personalized advertising of any kind” (health in personalized advertising), and Meta said in 2023 that advertisers “will only be able to use age and location to reach teens” (Meta). A program runs for years with visits in between, so the page says what one program year includes and what it costs, and each year gets its own good faith estimate for families paying for it themselves, because the scope of one estimate for recurring care “must not exceed 12 months” (45 CFR 149.610(b)(1)(x); all checked 3 November 2026). The ads describe the evaluation and what the program involves; what it may do for a particular child is the optometrist’s conversation with the parent. The request form speaks to the parent and asks for the parent’s name, phone and email, not for anything about the child’s eyes.

Dry eye is a series, sold after an evaluation

People who search for dry eye care have often tried drops from the pharmacy first, so the first booking is an evaluation, and the page says what the evaluation measures, how long it runs, its fee and what follows it. The treatment plan that follows is often a series of in-office sessions with care at home in between, so the series is priced as a whole and the next session is booked before the patient leaves. The audience rules are the health category’s. Google’s personalized advertising policy counts “Physical or mental health conditions, including diseases, sexual health, and chronic health conditions” and “Products, services, or procedures to treat or manage chronic health conditions, including over-the-counter medications and medical devices” as health, and there “You can use predefined Google audiences. You can’t use advertiser-curated audiences”, the group that includes Customer Match, your data segments and lookalike segments (Google). So dry eye campaigns run on search intent and Google’s own audiences, never on a list of your patients. Some dry eye prescription drug names are on the list of prescription drugs Google Ads monitors, and keyword-targeting those terms takes certification (prescription drugs list and restricted drug terms; all checked 3 November 2026), so the ads sell the evaluation and the in-office care rather than a drug.

Specialty and scleral lenses: the fitting is the product

The Contact Lens Rule defines a contact lens fitting as “the process that begins after an initial eye examination for contact lenses and ends when a successful fit has been achieved”, and it may include “Medically necessary follow-up examinations” (16 CFR 315.2). The FTC’s FAQ adds that “Some patients may require follow-up visits after the initial exam before their contact lens fitting is complete”, and that trial lenses may be charged for only if they “are necessary to complete the fitting process”, which is “sometimes the case with ‘specialty’ or custom-made lenses” (FTC Contact Lens Rule FAQ; both checked 3 November 2026). The prescription is released when the fit is complete. So the page prices the fitting apart from the lenses: the visits, any trial lenses and the follow-ups, and how many visits a fitting usually takes at your practice. The first visit is booked with the chair time it needs, and pages written with your optometrist answer the condition searches that bring these patients, such as keratoconus or an irregular cornea after surgery. Fittings started and fittings completed are reported side by side.

The routine exam is where private-pay care starts

Many dry eye and myopia control conversations start in your own chair, at an exam a vision plan pays for. Original Medicare doesn’t cover routine eye exams “for eyeglasses or contact lenses” (Medicare.gov, routine eye exams), and Part B “doesn’t usually cover eyeglasses or contact lenses” (Medicare.gov, eyeglasses and contact lenses; both checked 3 November 2026), so many older patients pay for the exam and the glasses themselves or through another plan. The weak point is the step between a mention in the chair and a booking. So the patient leaves with a page to read at home, written for the service the optometrist raised, and the practice follows up on the date the patient agreed to. The ads are kept for people outside the practice who search for those services, and never bid on in-network routine exam searches. Private-pay bookings are reported by source (the exam chair, an ad or a referral), so the eye care marketing is credited only with the bookings that came from it.

The leaflet that waits for next year’s exam

A ten-year-old comes in for the routine exam her parents’ vision plan pays for, and her prescription has gone up again. At the end of the visit the optometrist mentions myopia control and talks it through for a few minutes. Her mother leaves with a leaflet, a busy week ahead and a plan to ask about it later. The next exam the plan covers is twelve months away. Nothing happens in between, and at next year’s visit the conversation starts again from the beginning.

So the mention in the chair starts a follow-up of its own. Within days the parent hears from the practice with what a program year includes, what it costs and its good faith estimate, and an evaluation slot on your real calendar, by phone, text and the email they agreed to be contacted on. It ends when the parent books or says the family has decided against it. Each mention is logged in the chair and reported against the evaluations and program starts that follow it, so you can see whether families stall before the evaluation or after it.

The reorder that ships from somewhere else

A contact lens wearer opens the last pair on a Sunday night. Reordering from the practice means calling during office hours, so they order from an online seller instead. The seller sends the practice a verification request, and the practice verifies it, as the rule requires (16 CFR 315.3(a)(2)). A prescription also counts as verified if the prescriber doesn’t respond within eight business hours (315.5(c)(3)), and the FTC notes that “‘Eight business hours’ is not the same as ‘eight hours’” (FTC FAQ; all checked 3 November 2026). Either way, the sale was decided at the reorder step, before the request arrived.

So reordering from your practice works at any hour: a reorder page that takes the order on a Sunday night, reminders timed to when the supply runs out, and the annual supply price stated plainly. A contact lens prescription runs at least a year unless the prescriber’s medical judgment sets an earlier date (16 CFR 315.6, checked 3 November 2026), so the reminders offer the renewal exam before the expiry date rather than after it. Reorders placed with the practice and verification requests received are both reported, so you can see how many of your wearers are buying elsewhere.

Where the rest of it leaks

Nothing here is judged on clicks. The eye care advertising we run is counted on evaluations held, program starts and fittings completed, with dry eye, myopia control, specialty lens and optical campaigns reported apart, so a busy month in the optical doesn’t pass for a month of dry eye starts. Website and booking pages give each line its own evaluation type on your real calendar, with a form for myopia control that takes a parent’s details only. Patient follow-up carries each myopia mention from the chair to a booking, and each dry eye evaluation that ended without a series booked, until the parent or the patient books or decides against it. When the optometrist is in an exam and the front desk is busy, missed call recovery calls back the new patient and optical inquiries that ring out, and passes calls from current wearers about a reorder to your front desk. Optometrist SEO is mostly local: the map listing with each service named and a page for each line, which local SEO builds and keeps current, while patient reviews and AI visibility cover what people read about the practice before they call. Lens wearers past their renewal date and families who let a program year lapse are the list patient reactivation works, on the higher-tier plans after the pilot. A myopia program or a dry eye series is a run of visits, so the patient retention calculator works out how many patients stop before care ends and what missed visits add up to, and the patient acquisition cost calculator works out the cost of each start from your own spend. The full eight, and how they hand off to each other, are laid out under what we do. All of it maps onto the seven leaks we look for in week one.