Meta's New Restrictions on Health & Wellness Ads
Starting around January 6–13, 2025, Meta is introducing a big change to how it handles ads for health and wellness brands. Businesses in this category will no longer be able to share key event data with Meta, so you won't be able to optimize for events like "Purchase" or other lower funnel events.
How do I know if my brand is affected?
You'll receive emails, and in-product notifications in Ads Manager and Events Manager about which ad sets and events are impacted.
You can also check your Data Source Category in Events Manager Meta Events Manager: Data Sources > Settings > Manage Data Source Categories (https://www.facebook.com/business/help/467621355878794).
Types of data source restrictions
- Core Setup Restrictions:
Meta may limit the sharing of custom parameters and parts of URLs after the domain. Learn more about core setup.
- Partial Event Restriction. No Lower-Funnel Conversion Tracking:
Meta may limit the use of specific mid- and lower-funnel events (like "Purchase"). To adapt, focus on upper-funnel events like Awareness or Engagement to keep targeting and optimization effective.
- Full Event Restrictions:
In some regions, Meta may fully restrict all event tracking. This means Events Manager won't support campaign optimization in those areas. If this happens, you might need to adjust or pause campaigns as performance could decline.
Meta Timeline & Review Process
When Meta review, they will only utilize the site and how the product is marketed on the site to guide their enforcement decision on these matters. Thus, you won't be able to submit additional documentation as the domain will be the source of truth.
Want to flag that there is a 30-day cooldown in between review attempts and as far as timelines for enforcement are concerned, please see below.
Jan 6th-13th: Rolling notifications - we will give advertisers (on a rolling basis) 7 days to click a "more time" button in Events Manager to get additional 30 days if they need it to address these changes.
For clients, who have NOT requested more time: Jan 14th-21st: The "more time" button will be gone, and the additional restrictions will be applied for advertisers who did not use this button. Advertisers will receive an email informing them restrictions are now active for their data source.
Feb 14th - 21st: The additional restrictions will start for advertisers who did use the "more time" button. Advertisers will receive an email informing them that restrictions are now active for their data source.
A few things are still ambiguous
A few things are still ambiguous:
- Not all health & wellness brands are equally affected. Meta will only utilize the site and how the product is marketed on the site to decide. So the criteria is not very clear.
- Little information on how the events will be restricted from technical side. What information in tracking will be restricted and how will they be restricted technically.
How can health & wellness brands stay ahead of Meta's restrictions?
1. Review Your Brand's Classification
- Check your Events Manager to see if your website or app is flagged under a restricted category.
- Common categories include health, wellness, financial services, politics, and other sensitive topics.
- If you're wrongly categorized, file an appeal immediately.
2. Clean up your website/ads claims
- Avoid exaggerated statements related to solving health or medical conditions like "cure certain disease" or "heal certain symptoms." Keep it truthful and compliant.
3. [Important!] Leverage Data Compliant First-Party Data
- Create custom events to track lower-funnel events using neutral custom event names.
- Switch the lower-funnel custom conversion event to be the conversion target in your Ads Campaign.
- Plan for conversion optimization using upper-funnel standard events.
4. Monitor enforcement closely
Keep in mind, it will be an increasingly regulated area. Any policy changes may result in technical adjustments.
Need Help?
This update might be tricky for health and wellness brands, but there's still time to prepare. Not sure how it will impact your campaigns? Reach out to us today—we'll help you navigate these changes.
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