NEW: OVME Case Study

Tips on Navigating Healthcare & Wellness Restrictions for META Ads

 In Business Insights, PPC

Over the last month, META has begun notifying advertisers in the Health & Wellness category on policy changes set to commence January 2025 onwards. First off, there are likely more questions than answers at this point. “What is happening? What restrictions are coming? Is my brand impacted? Can I still run META ads? What should I do right now?” These are all very real and impactful questions that could be circling in your mind.

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, META has not released official guidance aside from this page in the Business Help Center, which was published in November 2024, as a warning of things to come. Luckily, OpenMoves has worked hard to piece together information from different sources alongside “hints” META has been dropping in Platform which should help you navigate these early days of change.

Sound good? Let’s dive into it.

What is happening?

It is no secret that META has been facing increased regulatory pushback on the information they collect via Pixels and data sharing, especially when data collection violates HIPAA guidelines. At its most basic, META servers are not HIPAA compliant, nor will they be. Their response appears to be proactively limiting functionality within the Ad platform where violations are most likely to occur and also forcing advertisers to acknowledge that they are only sending data that adheres to META terms AND any legal requirements they face. Perhaps this is a move of self preservation on META’s part, but ultimately the final onus falls on advertisers to ensure they are complying to privacy and legal requirements. HIPPA completed a study where they identified one third of all Healthcare websites still use the META Pixel and data-sources in a way which are not HIPPA compliant despite the risk of lawsuits or legal action, so this is a big deal and perfect example of CYA (cover your a**).

What restrictions are coming?

META has begun the process of classifying advertisers within the broader category of Health & Wellness. From there they will further group into a subcategory of “Provider” or “Patient Portal” based on what information is being shared from the META Pixel, other connected data sources and overall website structure. The latter is expected to see the most restrictions given almost all patient portals/booking systems exchange personal sensitive information. The most extreme outcome would be that some advertisers face Full Restrictions and are unable to use any Meta tools for tracking or optimizing (including Pixel, CAPI and other tools). We do not foresee Full Restrictions being a common outcome, rather Partial restrictions would be put in place around the core items below:

  • Standard Lower Funnel Events: depending on classification, some advertisers may not be able to track or optimize towards Standard lower funnel conversion events. In this situation you could still run efforts like website conversion efforts but you would have to optimize to a more upper funnel event like click or a page view.
  • Custom Events: unless fully restricted, custom events should still be possible, but this will depend on what data is being passed into META. Upon rollout it seems that many (it not all) custom events will be blocked until the advertiser reviews and confirms the setup is HIPAA compliant. This puts a premium on solutions like Server-Side Tagging or 3rd party tools.
  • Audiences: This bucket is very interesting and one of the largest question marks. Native in platform targeting should still be possible (Interests, Demos etc) but any off META and imported audiences will likely be subject to scrutiny. There is a chance that uploaded or imported first party audiences will no longer be usable, if this is the case Lookalike Audiences will take a huge hit alongside things like suppression lists of existing customers.
     
  • Core Setup: Unless you had it enabled already, META is very likely going to enable Core Setup for many advertisers proactively. This essentially will strip transmission of any data through a UTM and only pass the root domain which could cause some headaches depending on your setup.

Is my brand impacted?

META’s definition of Health & Wellness transcends the 4 buckets below, if you fall within one of these categories you will very likely be impacted. The exact impact will depend on your current setup, what data is being shared etc.

  • A medical practice, facility or provider group (hospitals, clinics, urgent care or outpatient care).
  • Medical professionals and services (physicians, specialists, therapists or care givers).
  • Telemedicine products, procedures or treatments (medications, testing, treatments or devices).
  • Other healthcare or healthcare and wellness providers, products or services.


Where can I check?

To check the status of your account, login to Events Manager Overview, where you will find notifications with links to specific restrictions, how you are classified, timelines and other supporting info from META. Manage categories will allow you to see the category META has assigned alongside an option to Request an appeal if you think you are not classified correctly. This section will help dictate actions so check early and often.

To see any specific restrictions on events navigate to your Data Sources and select review under Manage event blocking. Any impacted events will be called out here and bucketed by action needed. Action required will identify events that are in violation of META policy and need to be updated. As mentioned earlier, an advertiser could “confirm” an event without doing anything but this would be an extremely risky thing to do and not advised, these are being flagged for a reason. If an event is blocked fully there does not yet appear to be an appeal option but we expect this to come as things progress.

What should I do now?

Do not panic! There are many unknowns here and early indications are that META will be giving advanced warning within the platform for impacted brands.

  1. Keep an eye out for notifications from META and check Events Manager.
  2. Make sure you have been classified correctly, if not appeal.
  3. Review any events that are currently flagged as action required or blocked and make changes.
  4. Take inventory of your current campaign strategies, audiences and conversion settings.

The warning has been issued and knowing what you currently have in place will allow you to create workaround plans where needed without leaving to the last minute. Good luck navigating these fluid changes and if you want to talk to an expert contact OpenMoves today!

Recent Posts