How to Market PRP in an Orthopedic Practice (2026)

Most orthopedic practices that offer PRP treat it like a line item on the services page. A patient who happens to ask gets the injection. Nobody markets it, nobody tracks it, and the practice leaves a cash-pay service sitting on the shelf.

The practices that do market it tend to go the other way and promise too much. Both mistakes cost money. The first one costs you patients. The second one can cost you a lot more.

This guide is for the surgeon, practice owner or administrator deciding whether an orthobiologics program is worth building, and how to build it so it grows without landing you in trouble with the FTC, the FDA or Google.

What a PRP patient is worth to your practice

Start with the number, because it decides how much you can spend to get one.

A 2026 study in Arthroscopy, Sports Medicine, and Rehabilitation collected orthobiologic knee injection prices from 64 clinics on Long Island between July and September 2025. According to the study, the median PRP price was $1,000 (interquartile range $800 to $1,000). Orthopedic sports medicine practices charged a median of $1,000, while non-orthopedic alternative clinics charged a median of $875. Stem cell injections at alternative clinics had a median of $3,500. (Tauro et al., 2026)

Two things follow from that data.

First, PRP is cash pay. There is no payer to argue with, no prior authorization, and no 90-day wait for a claim. The money arrives the day of the injection.

Second, you are not the cheapest option in your market, and you should not try to be. The chiropractor down the road charges less. Your advantage is the surgeon’s diagnosis, imaging on site and the fact that if the injection does not work, the patient is already in the right office for the next step. Your marketing has to say that plainly.

A patient who gets a series of injections is worth a multiple of the single-injection price. Use your own numbers here: average injections per patient, and the share of PRP patients who later need another service from you. That is your real case value, and it is usually much higher than the injection fee alone.

Only 12% of hip and knee surgeon websites even mention it

In June 2026, researchers published a content analysis of 4,683 websites belonging to members of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons. Orthobiologics were mentioned on just 12.3% of them (575 sites). PRP was the most common, appearing on more than half of the sites that discussed orthobiologics at all. (Bellissimo et al., Journal of Arthroplasty, 2026)

So nearly nine in ten joint surgeon websites say nothing about a service that many of those same practices offer. If a patient searches for PRP for knee arthritis in your city, the pages they find are more likely to belong to a wellness clinic than to an orthopedic surgeon.

That is the opening. The search volume for PRP in any single city is modest, which is exactly why a well-built page from a real orthopedic practice can rank quickly. There is not much serious competition to beat.

The same study found the problem on the other side too. Among the sites that did promote orthobiologics, benefit claims appeared more often than risk disclosures: reduced pain on 5.5% of sites against injection-site infection risk on 1.8%. Only 7.5% of promoting sites (43 of 575) acknowledged uncertain efficacy or a lack of long-term data.

Read those two findings together. Most practices are invisible, and many of the visible ones are overselling. There is room for a practice that is both visible and honest.

The FTC and FDA lines you cannot cross

Regenerative medicine marketing has a real enforcement record, and it is worth knowing where it came from.

In January 2025 the FTC and the Georgia Attorney General settled with the co-founders of the Stem Cell Institute of America. According to the FTC, they had made false claims that stem cell therapy could treat osteoarthritis, neuropathy and joint pain, charged up to $5,000 per injection, and recruited patients through free “educational seminars” and a vault of sample ads with unsupported efficacy claims. The court ordered them to pay $5,155,146 and permanently banned them from marketing any regenerative medicine treatment. (FTC press release, January 8, 2025)

Look at the playbook in that case: joint pain, cash pay, seminars and big promises of relief. It is close to what a lot of agencies still pitch to orthopedic practices today.

The FDA also warns consumers about the serious risks of unapproved cell and tissue products, and it keeps that warning page current. (FDA consumer warning)

What this means in practice:

• Keep PRP and “stem cell” apart. PRP made from the patient’s own blood is a different regulatory conversation from products sold as stem cell therapy. Do not let an agency blur them into one “regenerative” package with one set of claims.
• No cure language. “Regrow cartilage”, “avoid surgery” and “heal your knee” are the phrases that get practices in trouble. “May reduce pain for some patients with mild to moderate arthritis, based on current evidence” is the kind of sentence that keeps you safe.
• Show the risks on the page. It is legally safer and, as I explain below, it converts better.
• Have your compliance person or counsel read the page before it goes live. I am not your lawyer, and state rules differ.

What Google Ads will and will not run

Paid search is where many orthobiologics programs stall.

In October 2019 Google updated its healthcare policy to ban ads for speculative and experimental treatments, and it named platelet rich plasma in the list, next to stem cell therapy and gene therapy. (Google Ads policy update, October 2019) The current policy page still bans speculative and experimental treatments and cell or gene therapies, with exceptions for FDA-approved products and for ads that are “exclusively educational or informational.” It no longer names PRP. (Google Ads healthcare policy)

In practice that leaves PRP in a grey area. Some practices get PRP ads approved; others see them limited or disapproved, sometimes after they have been running for weeks. I would not build a PRP program that depends on paid search. Treat any ad approval as a bonus, not the plan.

When I audited one orthopedic practice’s Google Ads account, 92% of the spend was going to a campaign that had produced zero appointments. That had nothing to do with PRP. It is simply what happens when nobody checks which campaigns turn into booked visits. If you do run PRP ads, track them to a consult, not to a click. For what orthopedic ads cost in general, see my breakdown of Google Ads costs for orthopedic surgeons.

Honest claims convert better than big promises

This is the part most agencies get backwards.

The patient searching for PRP has usually already read the wellness clinic’s page that promises a pain-free knee without surgery. They are skeptical. Many of them have had a cortisone shot that wore off. A surgeon’s page that says “here is what the evidence shows, here is who it tends to help, here is who it does not” is the first page that sounds trustworthy to them.

A PRP page that converts well has these parts:

1. Who it is for, and who it is not for. For example, mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis, certain tendon problems, patients who want to delay surgery. Say plainly that advanced bone-on-bone arthritis is unlikely to respond.
2. What the evidence says, in plain English, with a link to one or two real studies. Do not overstate it.
3. The risks, including injection-site pain and the chance it does not work.
4. The price, or a clear price range, and whether a series is needed. Cash-pay patients comparison-shop. Hiding the price sends them to the clinic that shows one.
5. What happens if it does not work. This is where the surgeon wins. “If PRP does not help, you are already with the team that can plan your next step” is a line no wellness clinic can write.
6. One next step: book a consult, with a phone number that is answered.

For the patient-side view of this decision, I keep a page on PRP injection cost compared with surgery that you are welcome to point patients to.

Build the funnel on search and your Google profile, not on ads

Because paid search is unreliable for this service, the program should stand on channels you control.

A dedicated PRP page per condition. One page for knee arthritis, one for tennis elbow or tendon problems, one for the shoulder if you treat it. Each page targets the way patients actually search: “PRP for knee arthritis near me”, “PRP injection for tennis elbow cost”, “is PRP worth it for knees”. These are small searches in each city, and that is fine. A page that ranks first for a small, high-intent search is worth more than a page on page three for a big one.

Your Google Business Profile. Add PRP as a service with a short, factual description. Ask PRP patients for reviews that mention the treatment in their own words. Reviews that say “PRP” are what make you show up for PRP searches on the map.

Your existing patients. The cheapest PRP patient is the one already in your chart. A patient who declined surgery last year, or who had a cortisone shot six months ago, is a better prospect than any ad audience. A short, factual email or letter to those patients from the surgeon is often the best-performing channel a practice has, and it costs almost nothing.

Referring physicians. Primary care doctors and physical therapists get asked about PRP constantly and often do not know what to say. A one-page summary for referrers, explaining who you would and would not inject, gives them an answer and gives you referrals. If referrals have been slipping, I wrote about why orthopedic physician referrals decline and what to do about it.

Skip the seminars. Free “educational seminars” were a core part of the Stem Cell Institute of America playbook the FTC shut down. A seminar is not illegal, but it is the format regulators associate with overselling, and it is expensive to fill.

Price it, package it and script the consult

A few decisions make the program easier to sell:

• Publish a price or a range. In the Long Island study, orthopedic practices clustered around $1,000 per injection. If you charge more, explain why: imaging guidance, surgeon-performed, follow-up included.
• Decide on series pricing up front. If most patients need two or three injections, say so and offer a series price. Surprise second bills are what turn happy patients into bad reviews.
• Give the front desk a script. When someone calls asking about PRP, the first answer should be “yes, Dr. X offers it, and the first step is a consult so we can see if you are a good candidate”, not “I’ll have someone call you back”. The call that goes to voicemail becomes a patient at the wellness clinic.
• Offer financing if you can. Cash-pay patients often decide on the monthly figure, not the total.

Measure it: from consult to paid series

A PRP program needs three numbers, tracked monthly:

1. PRP consults booked, by source: search, Google profile, existing patients, referrals, ads.
2. Consult-to-injection rate. If fewer than half of consults become injections, look at the consult conversation and the price explanation before you blame marketing.
3. Revenue per PRP patient, including the series and any later services.

Set a baseline for the first 90 days. Pick one channel to improve first. Then set a date to check it. If the pages are not bringing consults by the end of that window, change the page or the channel. Do not keep adding services pages and hoping.

If you want a second opinion on whether an orthobiologics program makes sense for your practice, or on what your current site and Google profile are telling PRP patients, book a 20-minute call. I will look at your market and your pages before we talk, and I will tell you if I do not think it is worth doing.

Frequently asked questions

Can an orthopedic practice advertise PRP on Google? Sometimes. Google named PRP as an experimental treatment in its 2019 ad policy update, and PRP ads are still reviewed inconsistently. Plan your program around organic search, your Google profile and existing patients, and treat ad approval as a bonus.

How much do orthopedic practices charge for PRP? In a 2026 study of 64 Long Island clinics, orthopedic sports medicine practices charged a median of $1,000 per PRP knee injection. Prices in your market may differ, so check local competitors.

Is it legal to call PRP a regenerative treatment? The word itself is not the risk. The risk is claims you cannot support, such as regrowing cartilage or avoiding surgery. Have compliance review every PRP page before it goes live.

Should I market PRP and stem cell therapy together? No. They carry different regulatory risk. Keep separate pages and separate claims, and follow the FDA’s position on unapproved cell products.

How many orthopedic surgeons market PRP online? A 2026 study found orthobiologics mentioned on 12.3% of 4,683 hip and knee surgeon websites, which leaves most markets wide open for a practice that explains it well.