About 40% of US adults get health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts, according to Pew Research Center's 2026 study of health and wellness influencers. That's the audience healthcare influencer marketing goes after, and it's large enough to take seriously. Whether it converts into booked patients is a different question, and the honest answer depends on who is doing the talking.
Pew surveyed 5,023 adults in June 2025 and 5,111 in October 2025, and it also analysed the accounts of nearly 7,000 prominent influencers. It measures attention and trust. It does not measure appointments, and none of the sources used for this piece does either, so any claim that influencer posts reliably fill appointment books has nothing public behind it here.
Do patients actually get health information from influencers?
Yes, but fewer than the hype suggests. In KFF's July 2025 poll of 1,283 US adults, 55% said they use social media to find health information at least occasionally. Far fewer rely on influencers specifically: a small minority of social media users get health information from them regularly, and that's the audience a campaign actually reaches.
Weight loss, diet and nutrition were the most common topics people saw in the previous 30 days, followed by mental health. Younger adults and Black and Hispanic adults reported higher usage.
So the channel is real, and the topics skew towards wellness and mental health rather than, say, a specialist referral. A practice selling orthodontics or cardiology is borrowing attention from an audience that came for something else.
How much do people trust health influencers?
Not much. Of the people Pew counted as getting information this way, only about 1 in 10 trusts all or most of what they see, and roughly a quarter trust little or none of it. Most land in between, trusting some of it.
KFF found the same suspicion of motive. Among people who regularly get health advice from influencers, six in ten said influencers are mostly motivated by their own financial interests. Just 5% of social media users could name a particular influencer they trust on health.
Influence also cuts both ways. Pew reported that more than half of people who encounter this content said it helped them understand how to be healthy, while about a quarter said it made them more worried about their overall health. Among 18 to 29 year olds the worry figure was higher.
For a clinic, that last point matters. Content that raises anxiety without resolving it sends people to search results, not to your booking page.
So does healthcare influencer marketing work?
It works as a way to put your practice in front of an audience that already looks for health information on social platforms. It does not work as a shortcut to trust, because the data above say that audience is wary of paid voices.
My read: the strongest version is the one where the person speaking has a reason to be believed that has nothing to do with the payment. A clinician explaining a procedure they perform, or a patient-facing educator with real credentials, answers the "financial interest" suspicion before it forms. A lifestyle creator reading a script about your clinic invites it.
Expect it to support the work done by your local search presence and your patient journey, not replace it. We've written about how those pieces fit in patient acquisition strategies that work for healthcare practices, and a healthcare local SEO case study shows what the search side looks like when someone clicks through from a post.
What the FTC requires you to disclose
Any material connection between an influencer and a brand has to be disclosed, and that includes free products, discounts, employment, and family or personal relationships, not only cash. The FTC's Disclosures 101 for social media influencers says the disclosure must be placed so it's hard to miss and should sit with the endorsement itself.
Hiding it in a profile, at the end of a caption or behind a "more" link doesn't count. In a video, put it in the video, not just the description. On live streams, repeat it. On stories and photos, superimpose it long enough to read.
The wording should be simple: "ad", "advertisement" or "sponsored" all work. A hashtag alone doesn't help if it's buried.
Responsibility doesn't stop with the creator. The FTC tells influencers it's their job to disclose and to know the Endorsement Guides, and the guidance notes that brands share the enforcement risk. If you're the clinic paying for the post, check each one before it goes live.
How to run a campaign without wasting the budget
Photo by Gustavo Fring on Pexels
Start small and treat the first round as a test. Based on the trust data, these are the choices that matter most:
- Pick the voice before the platform. A credentialed clinician or educator whose audience already follows them for health content is a better fit than a large account with no connection to your specialty.
- Give the creator something specific to teach. Content that explains a condition or a procedure gives a worried viewer a next step, which counters the anxiety effect Pew found.
- Write the disclosure into the brief. Specify the wording and where it appears for each format so it's never left to chance.
- Point every post at one page. A single landing page for the service, with a booking option, lets you see which creator sent people, which is the measurement the public studies don't give you.
- Review before posting. Check each draft against the brief and the FTC placement rules.
Patient-identifying content such as testimonials or photos raises separate privacy questions that I haven't sourced here, so take those to your compliance lead or counsel before a creator touches them.
Where influencers fit in the patient journey
Influencer content mostly works at the top of the journey, when someone is noticing a condition or a service for the first time. The conversion happens later, on your site, your Google profile and in your follow-up. If those are weak, a good post just sends people elsewhere.
Map that path first. Our piece on customer journey mapping for dental practices applies to any practice, and our digital marketing and growth service covers the pages and tracking that make a campaign measurable.
Frequently asked questions
Do healthcare influencers have to disclose sponsored posts?
Yes. The FTC requires disclosure of any financial, employment, personal or family relationship with a brand, including free products, and the disclosure must be hard to miss and placed with the endorsement itself.
Who is responsible for the disclosure, the creator or the clinic?
Both carry risk. The FTC says the influencer is responsible for disclosing and for knowing the Endorsement Guides, and its guidance notes that brands share enforcement risk, so a clinic should check every post it pays for.
Do people trust health influencers?
Only partly. Pew found about 1 in 10 people who get health information from influencers trust all or most of it, while KFF found 61% of regular users think influencers are mostly motivated by money.
How do I measure results?
Send each creator's audience to its own landing page or tracked booking link. The surveys cited here measure trust and usage, not appointments, so your own tracking is the only evidence of return you'll have.
Cover photo by https://kaboompics.com/ on Pexels
