Groupon is how a lot of med spas get their first real surge of patients. It's also the channel owners most often tell us they regret. Both of those are true, and the difference is whether you went in knowing the math.
What a voucher actually pays you
A voucher is sold well below your normal price, and then Groupon keeps a share of what's left. The American Med Spa Association has noted that Groupon can take up to 50% of the revenue.
Run it on a treatment you normally charge $400 for:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Your normal price | $400 |
| Voucher price to the patient | $199 |
| Groupon's share (up to half) | ~$100 |
| What you receive | ~$100 |
Your product cost and your injector's time didn't change. On many treatments, that's a loss on the visit.
A voucher isn't a discount on your price. It's a discount on a discount, and you pay the full cost of delivering it.
The part that costs more than the margin
Who you attract. A deep discount draws people shopping for the discount. They're entirely reasonable to do so — and they're the least likely to come back at full price.
What it teaches your market. Once your treatment has been seen at $199, $400 looks like a markup rather than your price.
Your schedule. Voucher redemptions cluster, and they fill slots that a full-price patient might have booked.
Facebook ads work the other way around: you pay to reach people, and the offer and the price in the ad do the filtering. Naming your real price in an ad cuts the number of inquiries and raises the share who book, arrive and return — the same trade we laid out in cheap leads are the most expensive thing you can buy.
Side by side
| Groupon | Your own Facebook ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Very fast | One to three weeks |
| Revenue per visit | Heavily discounted, then shared | Your price |
| Patient type | Deal-seekers | Whoever your offer attracts |
| Repeat rate | Typically low | Depends on you |
| What you keep | A list of past buyers | Pixel data, audiences, your brand |
When Groupon is the right call
- Genuinely empty capacity you can't fill any other way, where some revenue beats none.
- A non-medical, low-cost service used deliberately as a loss leader, with a real plan to convert redeemers to a membership.
- A brand-new location that needs reviews and foot traffic quickly — as long as you cap the number of vouchers.
The better version of the same idea
If what you want from Groupon is volume and a low barrier to trying you, a consultation offer gets most of it without the discount: a short assessment, a written plan and a real price. It fills the calendar with people who can afford the treatment, and it survives the next month.
And if you want recurring revenue rather than one-off redemptions, a membership changes what you can afford to pay for a patient.
If you've run Groupon and want to know what your own ads would have cost for the same number of patients, bring the numbers to a call. We'll work it out with you.