Last updated 20 October 2026
Massage therapist leads: what Fresha, Treatwell, Urban and a Google click cost over a regular client's first year.
A client who books a clinic hour of sports massage every month brings in about £660 over a year: 12 hours at £50 to £60. Fresha charges 20% of the first of those hours if they found you on its marketplace, Booksy's Boost 30%, and Treatwell 35% plus VAT. Urban, the mobile massage app, keeps 30% to 40% of all 12. Win the same client from your own Google ad on "massage near me" and they cost about £17, once, with the other 11 hours booked straight into your diary.
"massage near me" gets 550,000 searches a month in the UK, "sports massage near me" 27,100 and "reflexology near me" 14,800. Below is what a session is worth on therapists' own price pages, what each route takes from a monthly client's year, the London licence that catches clinics out, and what the ASA lets a massage or reflexology ad say.
Straight from Urban's therapist page
"Keep 60-70% of each booking (depending on treatment and city), plus 100% of client tips."
That is from Urban's page for therapists, read on 20 October 2026. On a £58 mobile hour booked monthly, 12 visits come to £696, and £209 to £278 of it goes to Urban.
Where we stand
We don't sell massage leads. We help you get your own.
This guide is the honest version of what buying massage leads costs, and who else gets them. What we do instead is build massage therapists a website that turns visits into calls, and run Google Ads in an account in your own name, so every lead that comes in is a customer who found you, and nobody else was sold it.
What a session is worth
A monthly client books 12 hours. Price them on all 12, not one.
On their own price pages, an hour of sports massage in a clinic outside London is £50 to £60, and £70 to £94 in London. Mobile therapists outside London charge £45 to £70 an hour and usually travel free for 10 to 20 miles. A half hour is £35 to £42, and an hour of reflexology £45 to £60. A block of five hours paid up front runs £275 to £325, from a reflexologist in Chesham to a London sports clinic, and a Bath mobile therapist sells six hours valid for six months, which is one a month. At that pace a clinic client is worth about £660 a year.
From your own ad, the online booking is the sale. Nobody is quoting against you, so there is no win rate to divide by: a booked client costs the click price over the share of clicks that book. On "massage near me", at Keyword Planner's high top-of-page bid of £1.28, that is about £17. The table sets that against what each app's terms take from the same monthly client, a £55 clinic hour 12 times, or a £58 mobile hour for Urban.
| Route | To win the client | On the next 11 hours | What else the terms say |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own ad on "massage near me" | About £17, once | Nothing: they rebook on your number or your link | No other therapist listed on your booking page |
| Fresha | £11 (20%, min £4) | Nothing on a returning client | Charged as new if they viewed your Fresha profile, then booked on your website; 195 London sports massage venues on the same app |
| Treatwell | £23 (35% plus VAT) | Nothing, until 365 days pass without a completed visit | Best price on Treatwell; no other third-party booking software |
| Booksy, Boost on | £17 (30%, min £5) | £40 a month plus VAT, £480 a year | Boost off: no commission on any client |
| Urban, mobile | £17 to £23 | £17 to £23 again, every visit | £209 to £278 across 12 mobile hours |
Session prices are from therapists' own price pages in Kenilworth, Robertsbridge, Rosyth, Leatherhead, Derby, Bath, Burneside and London, read in October 2026, worked at the middle of each range. The year is arithmetic, 12 monthly hours, because no massage body or app publishes how long clients keep booking. Fresha's fee has a cap it does not publish. The ads figure uses Keyword Planner's high bid and WordStream's conversion rate, both explained further down.
Our rough rule is that winning a piece of work should cost 10 to 15 percent of what it brings in. Against a £660 year that is £66 to £99 to win one monthly client. The £17 from "massage near me" is about 3% of the year, and the dearest search on this page, "sports massage therapist" at £3.21 a click, works out at about £44 a booked client, still inside it. What separates the routes is the right-hand half of the table: who the next 11 bookings go through, and on whose terms.
Fresha and Treatwell: the strings sit on the rebooks
Fresha, Booksy and Treatwell all charge nothing on a returning client. Their rules on who counts as new are where a monthly client's year gets caught. Fresha charges if the client looked at your Fresha profile before booking on your own website. Treatwell counts a client as new again after 365 days without a completed visit, so a client who drifts off for a year and comes back is charged £23 again. The three are set side by side in Fresha vs Booksy vs Treatwell.
Mobile therapists: Urban takes a share of every visit
On a £58 mobile hour, Urban's share is about £17 to £23. A client you see at home every month for a year hands Urban £209 to £278 of the £696 they spend. From your own ad on "mobile massage near me", at £1.19 a click, that client costs about £16 to win, and the 12 home visits carry no share after it.
Your numbers
What can you spend to win a client who books you every month for a year?
Start with what the apps take. Put in how many new clients an app sends you a month, what your hour costs and how many times a client books in a year. It opens on Urban, at 4 new clients a month, a £55 hour and 12 visits each, against about £17 a booked client from your own ad on "massage near me". Switch to Fresha, Booksy or Treatwell and the sum changes shape, because those three charge once on a new client's first booking and nothing on the rebooks, with Treatwell charging again after 365 days without a visit.
WHAT DO THE APPS TAKE FROM A MASSAGE THERAPIST'S YEAR?
Put in your own numbers
Urban keeps a share of every booking. Modelled at 30%, the least it says it takes.
Over a year, Urban takes
£9,504
from 48 new clients, £198 each
- Those clients spend with you
- £31,680
- Urban's share of it
- 30.0%
- Same clients from your own ads
- £816
- Share of what they spend
- 2.6%
Then the other side of the sum. The second calculator opens on that monthly clinic client, 12 hours worth about £660. Enter what an app's commission or your own ad costs to bring one booked client in, about £17 on "massage near me", and it shows whether that fits the year. If your clients buy blocks of five or London hours instead, pick those.
WHAT CAN YOU PAY TO WIN A MASSAGE REGULAR?
Pick a job, or type in what yours are worth
You can pay up to about
£99
to win that client
- Healthy range, per new client
- £66 to £99
Put in what a booking costs you, from an app or your own ads, and this will tell you what each new client costs against their worth.
The 10 to 15 percent target is our own working rule, and no massage body or booking app has tested it against real diaries.
Who sends you clients
Three apps charge for a new client. Urban charges on every booking.
Massage clients are sold through booking apps, one mobile platform, a quote marketplace and directories. Every cell was copied from the platform's own pricing or help pages on 20 October 2026. Booksy and Urban publish nothing on how many other therapists a client is shown, so those cells read "Not stated".
| Route | Price | Who else sees the client | In their words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresha | 20% of a new client's first appointment, min £4 | 195 sports massage venues in London | "20% one-time commission" |
| Booksy | £40 a month; Boost 30%, min £5 | Not stated | "2nd visit and beyond: 0% commission" |
| Treatwell | 35% of a new client's first booking, plus VAT | 2,416 massage venues in London | "0% commission for repeat bookings" |
| Urban | You keep 60% to 70% of each booking | Not stated | "No hidden fees or contracts." |
| Bark | Credits at £1.80, priced per lead | Up to 5 professionals | "The average price of Reflexologists is £35 per session" |
| FreeIndex | Free, or £9.95 a month Premium | A directory listing | "Listed above non-premium members" |
Fresha: free for regulars, if they never saw your profile
Fresha lists 195 sports massage venues in London and 134 offering reflexology. Its pricing page charges 20% of a brand new marketplace client's first appointment, at least £4, and nothing on returning clients. Its help centre adds that the fee applies to a client who viewed your Fresha profile first and then booked on your own website or social media, and that you can't unlist from the marketplace without switching off all online booking. Add every existing client to your Fresha client list before they book, because a client already on it isn't charged.
Treatwell: the biggest shop window, the tightest contract
Treatwell lists 2,416 massage venues in London and takes 35% of a new client's first marketplace booking, with VAT charged on the commission even if you aren't VAT registered. It doesn't publish its monthly fee. Its supplier terms ask you to offer your Treatwell prices as the best price on your website, not to use other third-party booking software, and not to steer clients to book outside it. Bookings through Google's Book button on your Treatwell listing carry marketplace conditions.
Booksy: a monthly fee, and Boost only if you switch it on
Booksy has a massage category and costs £40 a month plus VAT. With Boost off it takes no commission. With Boost on, a new marketplace client's first visit costs 30%, at least £5, about £17 on a £55 hour, and clients from Google, Instagram or your own link stay free.
Urban sends the work, and keeps a share of it
Urban books mobile therapists into clients' homes, pays weekly and asks for a Level 3 qualification. You keep 60% to 70% of each booking depending on treatment and city. On a £58 hour that is £17 to £23 to Urban every time, 12 times a year for a client you see monthly.
Bark prices reflexology below what reflexologists charge
Bark has massage, sports massage and reflexology categories. Its reflexology page puts the average price at £35 a session, while reflexologists' own pages charge £45 to £60 an hour. You buy credits at £1.80 to reply, and up to 5 professionals can respond to the same person. FreeIndex has a massage therapists category, free, with Premium at £9.95 a month. Before buying credits to answer a reflexology request, read is Bark worth it on what happens when the lead goes nowhere.
Everything here about Treatwell's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 20 October 2026. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.
Everything here about Fresha's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 20 October 2026. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.
Rather have massage leads that are yours alone?
That's what we do. We don't sell leads. We build the website and run the Google Ads that bring customers straight to you, in an ad account in your name that stays yours if you ever leave.
See pricingWant to know how many people near you search Google for what you do each month? Message us your town and we'll send you the real numbers.
Check my areaBuying the click yourself
Sports massage clicks cost nearly twice a plain massage search.
"how to get more massage clients" gets about 10 searches a month and "massage booking app" 30. "massage therapist insurance" gets 480 at a high bid of £32.04, because insurers want the therapist. Clients search on another scale entirely: "massage near me" alone runs at 550,000 a month, with a high bid of £1.28. Each figure per booked client assumes 7.33% of clicks book, with no win rate on top because an online booking is already the sale. That rate is one WordStream measured on American home improvement ads rather than on massage, so it ranks these searches against each other better than it predicts your spend.
| Search | Searches a month | High bid per click | Per booked client |
|---|---|---|---|
| sports massage therapist | 2,400 | £3.21 | £44 |
| sports massage | 18,100 | £2.54 | £35 |
| sports massage near me | 27,100 | £2.40 | £33 |
| sports massage london | 2,400 | £2.35 | £32 |
| sports massage therapist near me | 1,000 | £2.33 | £32 |
| reflexology near me | 14,800 | £1.86 | £25 |
| deep tissue massage near me | 8,100 | £1.86 | £25 |
| massage therapist near me | 6,600 | £1.51 | £21 |
| lymphatic drainage massage near me | 12,100 | £1.41 | £19 |
| massage near me | 550,000 | £1.28 | £17 |
| massage london | 18,100 | £1.27 | £17 |
| pregnancy massage near me | 6,600 | £1.24 | £17 |
| mobile massage near me | 2,900 | £1.19 | £16 |
| mobile massage london | 9,900 | £1.03 | £14 |
| massage manchester | 18,100 | £0.83 | £11 |
Every row came out of Keyword Planner's UK data on 20 October 2026. The click price shown is its high top-of-page bid, the dear end of what advertisers pay, so most clicks will cost less. Keyword Planner groups close variants of "massage near me" under one figure.
The sports searches cost the most: "sports massage therapist" is £3.21 a click and "sports massage near me" £2.40, about £33 a booked client. "reflexology near me" is £1.86 and "mobile massage near me" £1.19. Per booked client, the rows run from £11 for a Manchester search to £44 for somebody asking for a sports massage therapist by name.
The massage searches that will never book you
"massage gun" gets 40,500 searches a month from people buying a gadget. "massage spa near me" is 14,800 people who want a spa day, and "sports massage course" costs £5.57 a click for people who want to train. Some massage searches carry no bid at all, because Google's ads policy bans ads for "intimate massage and similar services" while its sexual content policy allows "non-sexual massage or therapeutic touch". Load the gadgets, the courses and those searches into the campaign's negative keyword list on day one.
| Search | Searches a month | High bid per click | Who is searching |
|---|---|---|---|
| massage gun | 40,500 | £1.08 | Buying a gadget |
| massage chair | 14,800 | £1.35 | Buying furniture |
| massage spa near me | 14,800 | £1.05 | Wants a spa day |
| massage course | 2,900 | £2.45 | Wants to train |
| sports massage course | 2,400 | £5.57 | Wants to train |
Where an ad you run yourself differs from an app booking for a therapist:
- Your ad, with no other therapist listed beside it
- Bids on the towns you travel to
- No share taken off a regular
- No rule about which link they clicked first
- The click price is the whole bill
- An ad account that leaves with you
Massage has no category on Google's UK Local Services Ads list, so standard search ads are what is left. Google's Book button on your Business Profile does cover massage therapists, through a booking provider or your own link, and Reserve with Google explains which providers charge for those bookings. If you have never run a campaign, start with our Google Ads guide, then set a budget a sole therapist can carry using how much to spend on Google Ads.
Before you advertise a room
In London, the room needs a licence before the advert goes live.
Across most of England and Wales there is no licence for massage or reflexology. London is different. Under section 4 of the London Local Authorities Act 1991, premises used for "massage" need a special treatment licence from the borough, and section 14 makes it an offence to use them, or to represent them as being used, without one, with a fine of up to level 4. That word "represents" is why Tower Hamlets says it is an offence to "provide or advertise" the treatments unlicensed. Open a new room, sort the licence or the exemption, then switch the ads on.
Members of listed bodies are usually exempt
The Act exempts bona fide members of practitioner bodies that meet its tests. London's boroughs share an exempt bodies list that includes CNHC, the FHT (full and associate members only), the Association of Reflexologists (not student or friend members), the Sports Massage Association and the ISRM. It is "for recommendation only", so a borough can still ask you to apply.
Mobile work is mostly outside it
Richmond and Merton say you don't need a licence if you only treat clients in their own homes, and Southwark exempts treatments "outside of a fixed location". Some boroughs still register mobile therapists: Bromley charges £76 and Lewisham does it free.
What a room licence costs
Southwark charges £365.40 for one treatment or one to two therapists. Richmond charges £430 to apply and £306 more on grant. Lambeth charges £521 for commercial premises and £237 for a room in your own home. Bromley is £616 and Tower Hamlets £732. Merton and Bromley renew every year.
Outside London, check Nottinghamshire
England's 1982 registration rules cover tattooing, piercing, acupuncture and electrolysis, not massage, and Wales's special procedures leave it out too. Nottinghamshire is the exception: Nottingham licenses massage under a 1985 Act, and Bassetlaw puts the fine at up to £2,500.
A membership that pays for itself in London
"Massage therapist" isn't a protected title. The Professional Standards Authority accredits registers of practitioners "not regulated by law", and CNHC holds one, with registration at £75 a year. The FHT is £89.25 a year with insurance extra, and it left the PSA programme in 2022. The Sports Massage Association is £125 a year and the Association of Reflexologists £80. Against a London licence fee, the right membership is the cheaper route, and the register badge is something a client can check. Cover itself starts low: one insurer puts its basic premium at £67.80, with sports massage needing an endorsement. If your work is closer to physiotherapy, physio leads covers the HCPC side.
What your ad can say
Sell the relaxation. Leave the conditions off the advert.
The ASA's guidance on massage says it is likely to accept claims that massage helps relieve everyday stress, helps relaxation, aids sleep and promotes a sense of wellbeing. Anything further needs solid evidence, Anything further needs robust evidence, "most likelyquot;most likely in the form of clinical trials". For reflexology it accepts that the treatment feels relaxing and can improve mood, aid sleep and promote wellbeing, and says it has "yet to be provided with clinical evidence" for anything more.
| Instead of | The ASA's wording |
|---|---|
| "Aromatherapy massage can help people suffering from insomnia" | "Aromatherapy massage can aid restful sleep" |
| "Reflexology can be used by people suffering from any medical condition" | "Reflexology can be enjoyed by people of all ages, from children through to the elderly" |
Both pairs are from the ASA's general guidance on health therapies.
The rulings show where the line sits. A reflexologist whose site listed fertility issues, IBS and migraine was found to have made unsubstantiated, misleading claims. Another swapped "can" for "may" and lost anyway, because "may" still implied a benefit. A clinic selling fertility massage was told difficulty conceiving is a condition for which medical supervision should be sought. Under CAP rule 12.2, an ad must not discourage essential treatment.
The demand is still there: "reflexology for fertility" gets 720 searches a month at a high bid of £4.57. You can bid on it; the ad and the website it lands on can offer a calm hour and nothing it can't prove. The same goes for reviews you publish: the ASA says testimonials shouldn't imply a condition can be treated. How to get more Google reviews covers asking for them.
Once they book
An empty hour costs you the session and the lead. Charge for it fairly.
Twenty-four hours' notice is the norm on therapists' own pages. What happens inside it varies: a clinic in Rosyth charges a £20 fee, a reflexologist in Wantage 50%, and a Fulham clinic takes a £45 deposit from first-time clients and charges 100% for a no-show. For a mobile therapist the journey is lost too, which is why some London mobile services charge once the therapist has set off.
- Put the notice period in the booking message
- Take a deposit from first-time clients
- Keep the deposit a small share of the price
- Send the 14-day cancellation information
Pitch the first-visit deposit at a slice of the hour, not most of it. The CMA's unfair terms guidance accepts keeping a genuine deposit that holds the slot, and adds that such a deposit "will not normally be more than a small percentage of the price". A session booked online or by message usually carries a 14-day cancellation right, and under regulation 36 you shouldn't start inside it unless the client expressly asks. The fuller guide is how to reduce no-shows, and if you are picking the software that takes the deposit, online booking systems for small businesses compares the ones with no commission.
Through the year
Sports massage searches peak in spring and dip at Christmas.
No booking app publishes when its massage diaries fill, so Keyword Planner is the nearest measure. UK searches for "sports massage near me" fell to 18,100 a month in December and climbed to 33,100 in March and April, about 1.8 times the low. "massage near me" held at 550,000 a month from October to April and rose to 673,000 from May to September.
UK searches for "sports massage near me", by month
October 2025 to September 2026. Google Keyword Planner, United Kingdom, rounded bands.
Sell vouchers in December
"massage voucher" reached 4,400 searches in December and 2,400 in November, against about 1,000 most months, roughly 4 times as many. A voucher page and a small December budget fill the January diary while the sports searches are at their lowest.
Budget up for March and April
Sports massage searches jump in March and hold through April, so raise the budget before then and turn those clients into blocks. One clinic in Kenilworth gives running club members a discount, which is a cheap way to meet that crowd.
Which way to go
Win the client once, then keep all 12 hours in your own diary.
A monthly sports massage client is about £660 a year in a clinic and £696 at home. What holds that year together is what happens at the end of the first hour:
- Book the second session before they get off the couch
- Offer the block of five, £275 to £325 up front
- Send rebook reminders from your own diary and number
- Put existing clients on Fresha's client list if you stay on it
- Raise the ad budget before the March and April peak
- Sort the London licence or exemption before the ads go live
Fresha, Booksy and Treatwell take their cut from the first hour and set the rules for the 11 after it; Urban takes its share from all 12. A client who found you through your own ad pays for one click and then books you direct. The same sum for another hands-on clinic is in chiropractor leads, and for another business sold by the session in personal trainer leads. What sharing one client with several sellers does to your price is in the shared-lead trap, and how other businesses buy their leads is in our guide to trade leads.
Our sources
Where every massage figure here came from.
We sell Google Ads and websites to therapists. Fresha, Treatwell, Booksy and Urban are quoted from their own pricing and help pages, so every term above can be checked against the company that wrote it.
Keyword Planner gave us the massage searches on 20 October 2026, and the platforms' terms were checked on 20 October 2026. Session prices come from therapists' own pages, including Nordic Balance in London, Knead Mobile Massage in Bath and Sports Therapy One in Kenilworth. Licensing comes from legislation.gov.uk and the councils linked above, advertising rules from the ASA and CAP, deposits from the CMA, and cancellation from the Consumer Contracts Regulations.
Questions massage therapists ask
Massage therapist leads, answered.
- How much do massage therapist leads cost in the UK?
- From your own Google ad, a booked client costs about £17 on "massage near me" and up to £44 on "sports massage therapist", paid once, at Keyword Planner's high bids of £0.83 to £3.21 a click. Fresha charges 20% of a marketplace client's first completed appointment, never less than £4. Booksy's Boost takes 30% of a Boost client's first visit, at least £5, on top of £40 a month for the software. Treatwell takes 35% of a new marketplace client's first booking, with VAT added. Urban leaves you 60% to 70% of every booking. Measure each against what the client books over a year: 12 monthly clinic hours come to about £660.
- Do I need a licence to do massage in the UK?
- In most of England and Wales, no. In London, premises used for massage need a special treatment licence from the borough under the London Local Authorities Act 1991, unless you are a member of a body the council exempts, such as CNHC, the FHT (full and associate members only), the Sports Massage Association or the Association of Reflexologists. Fees run from £365.40 in Southwark to £732 in Tower Hamlets. Nottinghamshire has its own Act too. Check with the council where your premises is.
- Is it legal to do massage at home in the UK?
- Yes. Richmond and Merton say you don't need a licence if you only treat a client in their own home, and Southwark exempts treatments "outside of a fixed location". Some boroughs still want mobile therapists registered: Bromley charges £76, and Lewisham registers them free. A treatment room in your own home is premises, so in London it can need a licence: Lambeth charges £237 for a domestic one.
- How much is a 1 hour massage in the UK?
- On therapists' own price pages, an hour of sports massage in a clinic outside London is £50 to £60, £70 to £94 in London, and £45 to £70 from a mobile therapist outside London. An hour of reflexology is £45 to £60. Mobile therapists usually travel free within 10 to 20 miles and charge by distance beyond it.
- Is Treatwell worth it for a massage therapist?
- Read its terms against the client you hope to keep, not the first booking. Treatwell lists 2,416 massage venues in London and charges 35% plus VAT on a new client's first marketplace booking, about £23 on a £55 hour. Repeats carry no commission until 365 days pass without a completed visit, when the client counts as new again. The supplier terms ask you to make your Treatwell price the best price on your website, not to use other third-party booking software, and not to steer clients to book outside it, and those terms sit over all 12 hours of a monthly regular's year, about £660 of sessions.
- Can I advertise reflexology for fertility?
- Not as a treatment. The ASA has upheld complaints against a reflexologist whose claims included fertility issues, and against a clinic advertising fertility massage, because difficulty conceiving needs medical supervision. Its guidance accepts that reflexology can feel relaxing, improve mood, aid sleep and promote wellbeing. "reflexology for fertility" gets 720 searches a month, so the demand exists; the ad just can't promise the result.
- When is the busiest time of year for sports massage?
- Spring. In the last 12 months UK searches for "sports massage near me" were lowest in December at 18,100 a month and highest in March and April at 33,100. Searches for "massage voucher" went the other way, reaching 4,400 in December against about 1,000 in most months.
- Do Bark or Checkatrade send massage leads?
- Bark has massage, sports massage and reflexology categories. It puts the average price of a reflexologist at £35 a session, below what reflexologists charge on their own pages, and sells credits at £1.80 each to reply. Checkatrade is a trades directory and Google's UK Local Services Ads have no massage category.
Keep reading
More straight answers for trades.
A diary of regulars who found you, not an app's listing page.
We build your website and run Google Ads from an account in your own name, aimed at people searching for a sports massage or a reflexologist in your town rather than scrolling a marketplace of other therapists. See what it costs, then tell us about your practice and we'll build the campaign around the sessions you want to fill.