TLDR
- Starting January 2025, Meta will restrict health and wellness brands from using key event tracking like “Purchase” or “Add to Cart” for ads.
- Businesses must shift to non-restricted events such as “Landing Page Views” or “Engagement” for campaign optimization.
- Meta’s rules are broad, and their algorithm could miscategorize accounts, even for brands not directly in the health and wellness space.
- Losing access to high-intent events will cause a drop in ad performance, especially for campaigns relying on those events for targeting or measurement.
- Check your Events Manager for flags, adapt your strategy to focus on non-restricted events, and request a review if your account is flagged incorrectly.
What’s Happening?
Meta is shaking things up with a big change to how it handles ads for health and wellness brands. Under a broad new definition, 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 “Add to Cart.” Instead, you’ll have to focus on traffic or engagement campaigns.
The details are vague, but starting in January 2025, Meta will be categorizing websites and apps based on the products or services they offer. If you’re in the health and wellness industry, your products will now be considered a “sensitive category”, and lose access to key event tracking like “Purchases” & “Add To Cart”.
Instead, businesses selling health & wellness products will need to optimize their campaigns to non-restricted events like “Landing Page Views” or “Engagement”. While Meta says these changes aim to protect user privacy, their broad definitions mean brands not directly tied to these industries could get flagged by mistake as well.
These changes could impact a range of industries, particularly those connected to health and wellness. Here are some examples:
- Health and Wellness Brands: Companies selling supplements, fitness programs, or wellness products.
- Pharmaceutical and Medical Services: Telemedicine platforms, pharmacies, or healthcare providers.
- Legal Firms: Personal injury law firms may fall under broader health-related restrictions.
- Fitness and Lifestyle Apps: Apps focused on workouts, dieting, or mental health.
If your business operates in or near these categories, it’s important to stay informed and review your account status.
How This Effects You
If you’re a business in health-adjacent industries—like fitness, supplements, or even personal injury law—this could have a big impact on how you run your campaigns. Losing access to high-intent events like “Purchase” means you will see a dip in ad performance, especially if your campaigns rely on those for targeting or measurement. You may even need to start from scratch, with entirely new campaigns with new objectives to drive your business forward.
It’s worth noting that Meta won’t pause your active campaigns because of these restrictions. However, you will receive notifications via email, Ads Manager, and Events Manager detailing which ad sets and events are impacted. These updates will help you stay on top of what’s changing so you can adjust accordingly.
Meta May Miscategorize Your Account
Meta’s categorization process isn’t perfect, and their algorithm could misclassify your account, leading to unnecessary restrictions. This means your campaigns might be flagged for limitations, even if your business doesn’t truly fall under the sensitive categories they’re targeting.
Via Foxwell Digital
Since Meta’s system relies heavily on automation, errors can happen—especially for businesses in industries that are loosely related to health and wellness. It’s crucial to regularly check your Events Manager to see if you’ve been flagged by mistake. If you spot an issue, act quickly to request a review and prevent unnecessary disruptions to your campaigns.
How to Respond
To navigate these changes and keep your campaigns on track, here are a few recommendations:
- Shift to Non-Restricted Events
If your site or app falls under Meta’s sensitive category, start focusing on events like “Landing Page Views,” “Search,” “ViewContent,” or “App Install” for targeting and optimization. These events aren’t restricted and can still drive strong results. - Review Restricted Events
Identify which events are restricted in your account and explore alternative standard events that align with your business objectives. Adjust your strategy to prioritize these non-restricted options. - Avoid Using Custom Workarounds
Don’t create custom events that mimic restricted ones. This could violate Meta’s policies and lead to further issues with your campaigns. - Evaluate Your Categorization
If you believe your website or app has been miscategorized, submit a review through Events Manager. This process can take time, so act quickly to ensure your campaigns aren’t unnecessarily impacted. - Request a Review if Necessary
If you believe your business was miscategorized, use Events Manager to request a review. This process takes time, so don’t delay.
By staying proactive and adapting your strategy to these new guidelines, you can minimize disruptions and continue reaching your audience effectively.
Let’s Talk
This update could cause headaches for businesses, but there’s still time to adapt. If you’re unsure how these changes might impact your campaigns—or need help reworking your strategy—we’ve got you covered. Contact us today to chat about how to keep your campaigns on track despite these new restrictions.
I am interested on this future s
This is so helpful thank you – do you know how this might impact health charities?
Hi Alice! Based on the information currently available and without knowing the specifics of your website/charity I think you’re probably safe. Check your events manager to see if you’ve been flagged. If so, you can submit an appeal.
where did this information come from? It is not anywhere????I have done en extensive search, asked chat GBT and even gone to Meta support – who said: “Please disregard that or get rid of it. Don’t believe anything you’re seeing online. Only trust what is being published from our platform. If there are any changes it’ll be published within our platform and we’ll notify all our Advertisers accordingly”
Hey Lou – We have confirmed this information with our Meta reps. If you don’t see the flag in your events manager, then it’s not impacting you at this time. Here is some additional information directly from Meta: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/511197658391698?locale=en_US&draft=511197658391698
Do instant forms seem to be allowed? I’m not seeing restrictions on those campaigns (yet).
Hey EH – I think forms are fine at this time.
We are affected by this and it hit us very hard as our main income stream, especially for new customers are meta purchase campaigns. Is anybody else around here that also has to change the marketing strategy for their business now? How are you managing around this?
Hey Alina! I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been impacted. Book a discovery call at the bottom of this page. I’d love to chat about what you’re experiencing and strategize about your options. There’s no pressure; I just want to help you out!
Hi Lou,
My colleagues and I work with Health and Wellness and CBD/THC types of Ads and were wondering if there are any key terms we should avoid in regards to those topics. Thanks!
Hi Kaylee,
My colleagues and I work with Health and Wellness and CBD/THC types of Ads and were wondering if there are any key terms we should avoid in regards to those topics. Thanks!
Hey Brendan – I would try to keep your ad and website copy from putting too much emphasis on conditions. For example, I would maybe say something about “calming effects” but not say treating anxiety. It’s my understanding that the primary issue stems from being able to identify medical conditions about someone based on their browsing data.
But feel free to book a no-pressure discovery call and we can chat through what you’re experiencing.
Hello,
Thank you for this article. I sell ergonomic pillows and I got flagged and restricted by Ads Manager for faller under the “medical equipment” category. How can I solve this issue and run my ads? Thank you for your guidance!
Hi Gianluca!
That’s tough, sorry you’re dealing with this. First – I’d start by reviewing your website and landing pages. Look for any language that may speak to a specific medical concern or may make your product sound prescriptive to AI. Once you’ve made adjustments to any potentially flagged language, then I’d submit an appeal in Events Manager. While you are under review, reach out to Meta support and ask them to include some information about your case. Give a brief overview of why you believe you’ve been incorrectly flagged.
Good Luck!
Hello Kaylee,
Many thanks for Your information. Looks that in EU described META policy change effected since start of February. Ads dont generate results anymore despite the fact that there are no selling items. It seems that ads audience has been cut in huge amount. What to do?
Hey Kalle!
To give you a good understanding of what to do next we would need to know a bit more about your business. Feel free to book a strategy call to talk through the issues you’re facing.
We sell downloadable PDFs. All created by our licensed psychologists. Can’t track add to cart, purchases initiate checkout etc. Such a blow to our business. That’s what we get for being dependent of these online giants like META.
Hey Marc!
I’m sorry to hear you were impacted. For a brand like yours, it may require a pretty aggressive website pivot, but you may still be able to get around this. If you pivot those downloadable ebooks to be more education-based and don’t link them specifically to any medical conditions you may have a path forward.
You could also try using on-platform forms. As far as I know, these haven’t been limited. You can use various automation tools to bring those leads from Meta directly into your CRM or email platform and then have the download emailed to them.
Hope that helps! Book a free growth call if you want to talk through any next steps with our team.
Hi Kaylee!
Indeed the article is very helpful and completely accurate and true.
I also fell into the health and wellness category.
That’s a really big problem with evaluating the effectiveness of my campaigns. Currently 30 of my campaigns are affected and it’s completely impossible to evaluate them on the system I use and the results are starting to get very bad.
This is insane. For people who are regular payers and bring in huge revenue for Facebook. This if can be called an affiliate relationship (I wouldn’t say).
Kayleigh, I would love with your expertise and professionalism to be able to provide a solution to this problem with which businesses like ours put into this insane novelty of Facebook and the categorization in question. So that we can continue to create new campaigns and optimize existing ones without having major crashes and losses on ineffective ads.
Thanks in advance!
Hey Krasimir! So bummed to hear your campaign performance is impacted. Feel free to book a free strategy call to talk through the next steps with our team.
Is this applicable worldwide?