What to ask an agency before it markets your vet clinic

Late February is when a practice manager loads the spring reminder list. Heartworm tests, flea and tick refills and boosters all come due in the same few weeks, and the front desk already knows which Saturdays will be impossible. It is also when the agency pitches land, most written for any business at all.

A veterinary clinic is an unusual client. Its state board regulates what an ad may say, its phone gets calls about poisoned dogs at 9 pm, and its schedule is often full before anyone spends a cent. Put these questions to every agency that pitches you, and to us as well.

The question most agencies skip: can you take more clients?

The AVMA’s 2025 report on the economics of the profession puts a full-time companion animal vet at about 13 to 14 appointment slots a weekday, and found veterinarian unemployment at 0.7% in its 2024 census. An agency that promises “more leads” without asking about capacity has not understood the business. A good pitch asks which services have room, which weekdays run thin and how far out the next wellness slot is. A worrying one leads with call volume.

Six questions to put to every agency, including us

Have you read our state board’s advertising rule?

Ask them to name it and say what it changes about the copy. The details differ by state:

• Texas. Board rule 22 TAC 573.30 bans advertising that predicts future success or promises “that satisfaction or a cure will result”, bans superiority claims that cannot be verified, and bans implying a vet is a specialist unless board certified in a specialty the AVMA recognizes. Rule 573.32 sets the exact wording for those listings.
• California. Business and Professions Code 651, reprinted in the Veterinary Medical Board’s Practice Act, says a superiority claim needs objective scientific evidence behind it, and that any advertised price must be exact, with no “as low as” or “and up”.
• Florida. Statute 474.214 makes advertising that is “fraudulent, false, deceptive, or misleading in form or content” grounds for discipline.

A good answer quotes your state’s version. If the sample headline says “best vet in town” or promises an itchy dog cured in a week, you have learned enough.

Will you call us an emergency hospital?

This one catches practices that offer same-day sick visits and an on-call vet. In California, the board’s emergency clinic regulation says a premises that presents itself as an emergency clinic must keep a licensed vet on site at all times during its posted hours, and a practice using an on-call service may not be advertised as an emergency hospital. Elsewhere the rule may not exist, but the owner who finds the lights off at midnight will write the review anyway.

The right answer is precise wording for what you actually offer, and an after-hours message that sends a true emergency to the nearest hospital that is open.

How will you get reviews, and who writes the replies?

Google’s rules for Maps reviews ban offering anything in exchange for a review and ban selectively asking the customers likely to be happy. The FTC rule on fake reviews and testimonials, announced in August 2024, bans incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment, and lets the agency seek civil penalties against knowing violators. Every client gets the same ask, including, gently and at the right moment, the family who just said goodbye to a pet.

BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey, published this month, found 47% of consumers will not use a business with fewer than 20 reviews and 74% only care about reviews from the last three months.

Ask the agency to draft three replies on the spot: to a glowing review about a nervous cat, to a one-star review about a bill nobody explained, and to an angry one about a long wait with a dog in pain. None should argue the medical facts in public, and all should sound like someone at the clinic.

What happens to a call at 6:45 on a Saturday evening?

The AVMA found 54% of practices open on Saturdays and only 14% on Sundays. Whitespark’s 2026 survey of local search experts ranks “business is open at time of search” fifth among map pack factors, so the hours on your profile decide whether you appear at all for a weekend search. An owner with a limping dog on a Sunday who reaches a closed clinic usually keeps scrolling.

A good agency asks what your phones do after close, then proposes something concrete: a text-back, an answering service or a voice agent that books the next morning and routes emergencies elsewhere.

Will you run Local Services Ads, and what will you need from us?

Google has a Veterinarian category in Local Services Ads under its Pet care group. Since October 2025 the badge on those ads has been Google Verified, which replaced the older badges. Screening covers business and owner checks for select advertisers, state business and owner licenses where required, professional liability insurance where applicable and a verified Business Profile. Google puts the average screening time at three to four weeks after the documents go in.

An agency that knows this asks for your documents in week one. Because vets sit in Pet care rather than in Google’s Health care group, ask whether message and booking leads are available in your account rather than assuming either way.

What will you do with the reminders we already send?

The AVMA found 76.5% of practices had a practice management system in 2024, but only 59.9% had client communications software tied into it, and only 33.4% offered online appointment scheduling. So many reminder postcards and texts still end in “call us to book”, which loses the owner reading it at 10 pm. Ask whether the agency builds on your system or replaces it, and how a reminder becomes a visit without a phone call.

What the first 90 days and the first report should show

For a general practice, expect roughly this order:

1. Weeks 1 to 2: call tracking, a count of missed calls by hour, Local Services documents submitted.
2. Weeks 2 to 4: profile categories, holiday hours, real team photos, a review ask after every visit.
3. Weeks 4 to 8: reminders linked to a booking page, a puppy and kitten sequence, an after-hours flow.
4. Weeks 6 to 12: Local Services Ads live after screening, search ads on services with open slots.

The first report should separate new clients from existing ones, show calls answered and missed, and tie each booked new-client exam to its source.

What to do this month

• Pull your board’s advertising rule and read your own website against it before anyone else does.
• Check your Business Profile hours, including Easter and Memorial Day, and add an after-hours line.
• Count last month’s missed calls on Saturdays and after close.
• Gather your state license and liability insurance certificate so Local Services screening can start the day you decide.
• Load the heartworm and booster reminders for April now, with a booking link in each.

If you want a second opinion on any of it, our veterinary clinic playbook shows the order we work in, and our Google Business Profile and review management pages explain how those two pieces run. Ask us the same six questions; the answers should hold up.