TLDR
- Starting in January 2025, Meta rolled out new restrictions that block health and wellness brands from using events like “Purchase” or “Add to Cart” for optimization.
- Brands are now being forced to rely on non-restricted events like “Landing Page Views” or “Engagement” to keep campaigns running.
- Meta’s rules are vague, and their algorithm has already miscategorized some brands that aren’t directly tied to health and wellness.
- If you lose access to high-intent events, you’ll likely see a dip in performance—especially if your strategy depends on purchase-level tracking.
- You’ll get flagged in Events Manager if you’re impacted. Check your account regularly, pivot your campaigns fast, and request a review if something looks off.
- There are workarounds—custom-coded events, cleaner URLs, server-side tracking, and native lead forms are all in play. We broke them down step-by-step in this post.
Table Of Contents
- What’s Happening
- How This Affects You
- Meta May Miscategorize Your Account
- Quick Fix Guide for Meta’s Health & Wellness Ad Restrictions
- Quick Disclaimer
- Need Help?
What’s Happening?
Meta has shaken 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 are no longer able to share key event data with Meta, so you aren’t 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 in January 2025, Meta has categorized websites and apps based on the products or services they offer. If you’re in the health and wellness industry, your products may now be considered a “sensitive category”, and lose access to key event tracking like “Purchases” & “Add To Cart”.
Instead, businesses selling health & wellness products 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 might 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 Affects 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 is not pausing 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.
Quick Fix Guide for Meta’s Health & Wellness Ad Restrictions
These new Meta rules are a pain, but there are some ways to work around them. If you’re running into issues getting your ads approved, here are a few ideas to test:
Switch from integrations to custom-coded events:
Skip the default platform integrations and set up conversion events manually outside of Facebook’s Conversions API (CAPI). Call it something safe like “View Content” or another upper-funnel action Meta still allows. It’s not guaranteed, but could give you more control over what’s being tracked.
How to do it:
- In your site’s source code, add manual event triggers using the fbq() function (e.g., fbq(‘track’, ‘ViewContent’);)
- Avoid using ecommerce-specific labels like “Purchase” or “AddToCart” in your event names if you’re trying to fly under the radar
- Use a developer or tag manager like GTM to manage where and when these events fire
- Test the events in Facebook’s Event Manager to make sure they’re firing correctly
Audit All URLs & Pixel Triggers:
Look closely at your site URLs and how your pixel events are firing. If a product page URL says something like purchase=orthopedic_shoe, try changing it to purchase=shoe. It sounds small, but that kind of language cleanup could help you pass Meta’s review process.
How to do it:
- Crawl your website or use Google Analytics to pull a list of your site URLs.
- Search for any URLs with words like “orthopedic,” “medical,” or anything that might raise a red flag.
- Update product slug naming in your CMS (like Shopify or WordPress) to be more generic.
- Double-check that your Facebook pixel is firing on the correct updated URLs and not breaking.
Use Video Views to Build Warm Audiences
Run video ads and retarget folks who watch 50% or more with a simple link click ad. It’s not perfect, but if someone watches a full video on orthopedic shoes, there’s a solid chance they’re interested.
How to do it:
- Launch a video campaign in Meta Ads Manager using an Awareness or Engagement objective.
- Choose “ThruPlay” as your optimization event for better audience quality.
- After running for a few days, create a custom audience of users who viewed 50% or more of the video.
- Create a retargeting campaign targeting that warm audience with a link click ad pushing them to a landing page.
Send Server-Side Events Instead of Using the Facebook Pixel:
This one’s tricky. You’d lose a chunk of tracking data, but you’d also avoid sending restricted info through the pixel. Server events give you more flexibility in what’s being sent to Meta.
How to do it:
- Set up Facebook’s Conversions API manually using server-side scripts or through a backend framework like Node.js, PHP, or Python.
- Make sure to pass less sensitive event names and parameters — avoid anything medical-sounding.
- Use event IDs to de-duplicate between server and browser events if both are running.
- Test server-side events using Meta’s Event Testing Tool to verify they’re received.
Try Using Facebook Form Submissions Instead:
You can likely still collect lead info directly on Facebook with their native form tool. Frame it like a special offer or a first-time discount. Then follow up via email to close the sale. Not ideal, but it gets you past the ad approval stage.
How to do it:
- In Meta Ads Manager, create a Lead Ad campaign.
- Use Instant Forms and design them with minimal friction — only ask for what’s necessary.
- Offer an incentive like “Get 10% Off Your First Pair” in exchange for an email.
- Connect your CRM or email platform (via Zapier or a direct integration) to follow up with personalized offers.
⚠️ Quick disclaimer:
These tactics may help you work around current Meta ad restrictions for health-related products, but at the end of the day, Facebook wants you to play by the rules. There’s always a chance the platform could crack down and block these methods later. Use with caution.
Need Help?
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.
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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?
We have a wellness clinic where we offer weight loss treatments like injections, etc. I have noticed our ads are restricted and posts cannot be boosted like we normally would be able to. Do you know any work around to this? Thank you in advance. This has affected our marketing ability tremendously.
Hey Lola! So sorry to hear that you can no longer boost posts. I’d recommend trying to boost your posts for engagement – video views in particular. The restriction is on the domain level, so keeping the engagement on platform will likely get approved and still allow you to build brand awareness.
Hi Kaylee. So my company has not yet started a campaign. But have plans to do so soon. We are an Insurance agency and enroll people in health insurance through the Federal and State marketplace’s. We are currently purchasing live transfer leads from lead companies. My goal is to eliminate the need for this. I don’t need a buy now option necessarily but do need those interested to either fill a form out or call us direct. Are these new policies a lead killer from the get go?
Hey Joe! That’s an interesting one. I take a look at your website and make sure that you’re not calling attention to specific ailments. Then look at your URL structure to make sure you’re not passing any values in them related to medical conditions. Hope that helps!