What Meta’s 2025 Data Restrictions Mean for Health and Wellness Brands

Meta announced updates coming in January 2025 that are poised to impact many health and wellness brands relying on direct response (DR) advertising. While the details are still unfolding, here’s what we currently know and how your brand can prepare.

What Type of Data-Sharing Restrictions Is Meta Enforcing?

If your data source falls under certain categories (health and wellness, finance, politics, religion, etc.), Meta may impose one of the following restrictions:

1. Core Setup Restriction

• What Happens: Sharing of custom parameters and URL details beyond the domain will be restricted. For instance, https://jaspersmarket.com/clothes/summer/dresses?item=10 would be reduced to https://jaspersmarket.com/. This may limit custom audiences, data visibility in Events Manager, and other functionalities. You still may be able to send standard parameters that Meta defines.
• Impact: Minor
  • Campaigns can still be optimized for lower-funnel objectives like purchases, albeit with reduced data granularity.

2. Restrictions on Mid- and Lower-Funnel Events

• What Happens: Accounts may face limitations on optimizing lower-funnel events such as Add to Cart or Purchase. Instead, campaigns may need to focus on upper-funnel objectives like Product Viewed, Awareness, or Traffic.
• Impact: Major
  • Advertisers will need to adjust their DR playbooks to prioritize upper-funnel strategies.

3. Full Restrictions

• What Happens: Conversion events could be restricted entirely, potentially across all regions.
• Impact: Severe
  • Few advertisers are expected to face this extreme level of restriction.

Not all health and wellness brands will be affected. The degree of impact seems to vary by business category, ranging from minor core setup limitations to complete event restrictions.

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How to Identify If Your Ad Account Is Affected

Meta will notify affected accounts, and you can verify your status by visiting Meta Events Manager: Data Sources > Settings > Manage Data Source Categories.

If Your Ad Account Faces Lower-Funnel Event Restrictions:

• You won’t be able to optimize campaigns for lower-funnel objectives (e.g., Purchase or Add to Cart). Instead, you’ll be limited to optimizing for upper-funnel actions such as Page Views or Product Viewed.
• While these objectives may increase traffic, they are less effective at driving purchases. Meta's machine learning systems tend to myopically optimize for the chosen event, often targeting low-quality audiences that engage with ads but rarely convert.
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Navigating the Changes: Here’s How Angler Can Help

1. Leverage Predictive Insights with Angler AI

Angler AI’s prediction engine categorizes your site traffic in real time  by intent:

• In-Market Buyers: Likely to convert in the same session.
• Moveable Middle: Likely to purchase within the attribution window (7–28 days).
• Low Intent: Window shoppers unlikely to purchase soon.

By using Angler’s Predictive Conversion API (CAPI), you can:

• Send high-value Page Viewed and Product Viewed events to Meta.
• Filter out low-intent traffic, ensuring your ad spend targets mid- and high-intent audiences.

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This approach maximizes ROI, even with Meta’s new restrictions.

2. Capture Zero-Party Data

If you use onboarding flows or pre-purchase quizzes, collect zero-party data (e.g., preferences, interests) to:

• Segment Product Viewed audiences by intent.
• Feed additional insights into Angler’s prediction engine, refining targeting further.

3. Build and Nurture Your CRM Database

Develop your CRM database with email and SMS signups, gathering relevant zero-party data during the process. Use this to:

• Create high-quality leads via Meta campaigns.
• Nurture these leads through CRM efforts, driving conversions outside Meta’s ad platform.

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The Path Forward

While Meta’s 2025 changes may disrupt traditional DR strategies for health and wellness brands, these adjustments also present an opportunity to refine your approach. By leveraging predictive insights, zero-party data, and CRM nurturing, your brand can adapt and thrive in this evolving landscape.

Ready to future-proof your DR strategy? Schedule a call with Angler AI today.

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