Meta is implementing significant changes to how health and wellness brands can use its advertising platform, with new data restrictions set to take effect in January 2025. The move represents a major shift in how these businesses can track and optimize their advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.
The Announcement
In mid-November 2024, Meta informed advertisers that it would begin implementing additional restrictions on certain business categories using Meta's business tools. This change particularly affects brands in the health and wellness sector, potentially limiting their ability to use lower-funnel tracking data for conversions.
What We Know
The restrictions will affect businesses categorized under "health and wellness," which Meta defines as those "associated with medical conditions, specific health statuses or provider/patient relationship." The impact varies by business:
- Some brands may face complete restrictions for full-funnel advertising, while others might only lose access to certain platform features
- Brands can still retain their purchase pixel in some cases, allowing for basic performance marketing tactics
- The policy appears to be a reinforcement of existing rules regarding sensitive data sharing with Meta's business tools
The Gray Areas
The extent of these restrictions remains unclear for many products, with advertisers and brands struggling to get clarity on how Meta will implement these restrictions. As Marketing Brew reports, buyers told them "that they are not entirely clear on how Meta plans to determine which advertisers fall under the health and wellness category and which brands could face additional restrictions."
- Vitamins marketed for specific medical conditions like arthritis may face restrictions
- General vitamin products not tied to medical conditions might be exempt
- Skincare products treating conditions like acne could be restricted
- Cosmetic procedures might be treated differently than medical treatments
Impact on Advertisers
"From my understanding, there's going to be a lot less conversion data being passed through, which, for businesses that base their investment strategy from a performance perspective, is incredibly scary," one performance marketing media buyer told Digiday. The changes could significantly alter advertising strategies on Meta platforms:
- Reduced ability to track conversion data
- Limited access to campaign optimization tools
- Potential need to shift from performance marketing to brand awareness campaigns
- January 2025 implementation timing is particularly challenging for wellness brands during their peak season
What This Means for Ecommerce Owners
The situation continues to evolve, and many technical details about implementation remain unclear. However, at Aimerce we are proactively preparing for various outcomes by diversifying our customer's data strategy.
A few ways we are approaching this:
- Implementing a backup pixel – By sending data to a redundant pixel, we will be able to leverage this pixel's backup data to backfill any necessary data to your ad account if it gets flagged. Meta enables Aimerce to backfill data from our pixel up to a certain timeframe.
- Set up a custom events strategy – Meta announced that properly registered and compliant custom events are accepted for ads optimization, even with the new restrictions.
If your brand is potentially impacted by these policy changes, please directly reach out to us so we can implement backup solutions for your Shopify store.