Chiropractic is one of the more closely watched professions in Australian health advertising, and the rules catch practices out in predictable ways. Most breaches are not deliberate — they are old testimonial pages, enthusiastic social posts, or an offer headline without its terms. This is a plain-English guide to what the National Law permits, where chiropractic practices most often get caught, and how to run a compliance check across your own marketing. It is general information rather than legal advice.
The framework
Section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law governs advertising of regulated health services. It prohibits advertising that is false, misleading or deceptive; that uses testimonials about clinical aspects of the service; that creates an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment; that offers a gift, discount or other inducement without stating the terms and conditions; or that directly or indirectly encourages the unnecessary use of a health service.
Advertising is interpreted broadly. It includes your website, Google Business Profile, Google Ads, social media accounts and posts, printed material, signage, email and newsletters. Content posted by staff or by a contracted agency counts, and so does content on a page you control that was written by someone else.
Testimonials: the most common breach
Testimonials about clinical aspects of care cannot be used in advertising. That means a patient quote describing pain relief, improved mobility or a treatment outcome cannot sit on your website, in an ad or in a social post — even though the same words are perfectly lawful sitting on your Google profile where the patient left them, unprompted.
Two things catch practices repeatedly. The first is a legacy testimonials page from an earlier version of the website that nobody has looked at in years. The second is an automated review widget that pulls Google reviews onto the site, which republishes clinical testimonials as advertising without any conscious decision. Both are simple to fix once found, and neither is found unless somebody audits the site.
You may still respond to reviews. Keep replies brief and generic, never confirm publicly that a person was a patient, and never discuss clinical detail.
Claims, evidence and scope of practice
Claims must be accurate and capable of being substantiated by acceptable evidence, and they must sit within the accepted scope of chiropractic practice. Language implying that care will resolve conditions beyond that scope is a serious risk area for the profession, and it is one regulators have paid particular attention to.
Practically: describe the assessment, describe what care involves, describe what conditions you assess and manage. Avoid framing that promises a result, states or implies a cure, or attributes broad health benefits to treatment. Avoid "studies show" unless you can name the study and it genuinely supports the specific claim you are making. Avoid superlatives such as best, leading or number one unless you can substantiate them, which in practice you usually cannot.
Offers and inducements
Discounted first visits, bundled assessments and free spinal checks are widespread in chiropractic advertising and are the second most common source of complaints. An offer is permitted, but the terms and conditions must be stated — what is included, who is eligible, what is excluded, and when the offer ends. They need to be visible in the advertisement itself, not on a page one click away.
Separately, advertising must not encourage the unnecessary use of a health service. Offers built around ongoing care plans, or promotions aimed at people with no presenting complaint, sit close to that line and deserve careful thought.
Social media
Social accounts are advertising, and they carry two extra exposures. Comments left by patients on your posts describing clinical outcomes can constitute testimonials on a platform you control, so accounts need monitoring and, where necessary, moderating. And before-and-after imagery, including posture photographs, is high risk because it implies a typical outcome that may not be typical.
The safe content for a chiropractic social account is educational and practice-focused: what happens at a first appointment, how to prepare, who the practitioners are, general movement and ergonomics information without a treatment promise attached.
Who is responsible
The registered practitioner is responsible for the advertising of their regulated health service, including material produced by a marketing agency, a web developer or a franchisor. "The agency wrote it" is not a defence. That is a good reason to require any agency to demonstrate they understand these rules, and to review anything before it goes live.
A practical audit
Work through your own material in this order: the website homepage and every service page, any testimonials or reviews section, the Google Business Profile description and services, all live Google Ads copy and landing pages, the last six months of social posts and their comments, and any printed material or signage. Look for patient statements about clinical care, outcome promises, unsubstantiated superlatives, offers without terms, and anything outside scope.
Our free AHPRA advertising compliance checker runs the same checks over text in a few seconds and explains which rule each flag relates to, which makes the audit far quicker than reading everything line by line.
Keeping it current
Guidelines are updated periodically and enforcement priorities shift. Check the current AHPRA advertising guidance and the Chiropractic Board's position rather than relying on what was true when the website was built, and confirm anything material with your professional indemnity insurer or a lawyer before relying on it.
Compliance and performance are not opposed. Clear, descriptive, non-promissory copy tends to convert well, because it answers the practical questions patients actually have. See how to get more chiropractic patients for the channel view and Google Ads for chiropractors for paid search specifics. Compliance review is built into our chiropractic marketing and medical SEO work.
Wording that usually causes problems
Certain phrases appear again and again in complaints, and they are easy to remove once you know to look for them. Anything promising relief, correction or a cure. Anything implying a result is typical or expected. Superlatives such as best, leading, top or number one without substantiation. Claims of expertise or specialisation not recognised by the Board. Language creating urgency around a health decision, such as limited places or offers expiring imminently. And statements attributing broad health improvements to care.
Safer alternatives exist for almost all of them. Describe what an assessment involves rather than what it will achieve. Describe your practitioners' qualifications and registration rather than ranking yourself against others. State the practical facts patients want — availability, parking, private health claiming, appointment length — which are both compliant and genuinely persuasive.
Building compliance into the process
The practices that stay compliant are not the ones that audit once. They are the ones where a check sits inside the publishing process, so nothing goes live without passing through it.
That means naming one person responsible for approving advertising material, keeping a short written checklist covering testimonials, outcome claims, superlatives, offer terms and scope, and applying it to website changes, ad copy, social posts and printed material alike. It also means briefing any agency or contractor on the rules in writing at the start of the engagement rather than assuming they know, and re-checking the site after any redesign, since new pages assembled from old copy are a common way that resolved problems reappear.
