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The landscape of digital advertising is shifting once again, and health and wellness brands—whether they’re eCommerce businesses or companies offering medical devices—will need to adapt. Starting January 2025, Meta (formerly Facebook) will introduce significant changes by classifying health and wellness as a "sensitive vertical." This will bring new restrictions to how these businesses can advertise, with implications for both direct-to-consumer sales and lead generation campaigns.
Here’s what’s changing, what it means for your business, and how you can navigate these updates while maintaining a strong advertising strategy.
What’s Changing?
To improve user privacy and comply with global regulatory standards, Meta is tightening its advertising policies for health and wellness brands. These changes primarily affect tracking and optimisation capabilities, which will impact both businesses selling products online and those generating leads for high-consideration offerings like medical devices.
- Restricted Data Sharing and Event Tracking
- Conversion Event Limitations: Businesses will no longer be able to track lower-funnel events such as “Purchase” or “Lead” for campaign optimisation. Instead, they will have to focus on upper-funnel events like “Landing Page Views,” “Engagement,” or “View Content.”
- No Server-Side Data Sharing: Meta’s Conversions API (CAPI), which enables server-side tracking, will also be restricted for this category, reducing the ability to send detailed event data back to the platform.
- Conversion Event Limitations: Businesses will no longer be able to track lower-funnel events such as “Purchase” or “Lead” for campaign optimisation. Instead, they will have to focus on upper-funnel events like “Landing Page Views,” “Engagement,” or “View Content.”
- Broad Categorisation of Health and Wellness
Meta’s criteria for classifying brands as part of the health and wellness sector are broad. In addition to traditional health and wellness products, businesses offering solutions for medical conditions, wellness programs, or even fitness-related offerings could fall under this category.
What Does This Mean for Different Types of Businesses?
Supplement and other eCommerce Brands
If you sell health or wellness products online, these changes could disrupt the way you optimise your campaigns and measure sales performance. The loss of lower-funnel tracking means it will be harder to attribute ad performance directly to purchases, leading to less precise budget allocation.
Medical Device Companies and Lead Generators
For brands offering medical devices or services, that depend on ads to generate leads for high-value products or services, these changes present unique challenges. Without the ability to optimise campaigns based on "Lead" events, businesses will need to find alternative methods to track and improve the quality of leads.
Brands Misclassified as Health and Wellness
Companies that don’t traditionally see themselves as part of the health and wellness space—such as fitness programs or apps—may find themselves inadvertently impacted. Regular audits of your Meta account categorisation will be essential.
How Can Your Business Adapt?
The good news is that there are actionable strategies to navigate these changes and maintain effective advertising campaigns. Here’s how to adjust your approach:
- Shift to Upper-Funnel Objectives
With lower-funnel events restricted, businesses must optimise for upper-funnel actions such as traffic, engagement, or landing page views. This shift will require a focus on building strong customer journeys that nurture potential customers toward conversion.
- Strengthen First-Party Data Collection
Collecting and leveraging first-party data is now more critical than ever. Encourage website visitors to share their contact details through gated content, newsletters, or offers. For lead-generation brands, invest in high-quality landing pages designed to capture detailed information while providing valuable content.
- Utilise Third-Party Analytics
While Meta’s tools may become less reliable for measuring conversions, platforms like Google Analytics can provide additional insights into how users engage with your site and move through your sales funnel.
- Enhance Creative Strategies
With restrictions on tracking and targeting, the quality of your creative assets becomes even more important. Focus on storytelling that resonates emotionally with your audience, particularly for brands generating leads for high-consideration purchases like medical devices.
- Diversify Your Advertising Channels
Consider expanding your advertising efforts to include platforms like Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, or Pinterest. Each platform offers unique targeting options that can complement your Meta campaigns and reduce your reliance on a single channel.
- Review Your Meta Categorisation
Proactively monitor how Meta classifies your business. If you believe your brand has been miscategorised, request a review promptly to avoid unnecessary restrictions.
Why Meta is Making These Changes
These updates are part of Meta’s broader effort to prioritise user privacy and align with global regulatory frameworks. While these changes may initially feel like a setback, they also present an opportunity for brands to reassess their advertising strategies and strengthen their overall marketing approach.
For health and wellness brands, this shift could foster innovation in how they connect with their audience, particularly for those offering high-consideration products like medical devices. With a renewed emphasis on storytelling and customer engagement, brands can maintain strong results despite the new limitations.
Find Out if You Are Classified as Health & Wellness by Facebook
Open up Facebook Business Manager and navigate to Events Manager. Select your pixel, go to the pixel settings, and click the 'Manage' button under the Manage Data Source Categories heading. If you see 'Health & Wellness Condition' listed next to your domain name, under the Category heading, you are affected by this Meta update.
Need Help Navigating These Changes?
Whether you’re an eCommerce business selling wellness products or a company generating leads for medical devices or services, adapting to these changes will be crucial to your success in 2025 and beyond. At Intentional, we specialise in helping businesses in the health and wellness space navigate shifts in the digital advertising landscape.
From optimising creative strategies to developing robust data collection processes and diversifying advertising channels, we provide tailored solutions to meet your unique needs. Our expertise ensures you can focus on growth while minimising the risks posed by these updates.
If you’re feeling uncertain about how these changes will impact your business, we’re here to help. Book a discovery call today to explore strategies that will keep your campaigns effective and your brand competitive in this evolving landscape. Together, we’ll ensure you stay ahead of the curve.
