As Meta rolled out new data restrictions in early 2025, healthcare advertisers are facing a pivotal shift in their approach to digital marketing.
In response to heightened privacy concerns, Meta will limit pixel-based tracking and web conversion collection for sensitive categories, forcing healthcare marketers to pivot from traditional conversion-focused strategies toward broader awareness and engagement campaigns.
For healthcare marketers, these changes bring both challenges and opportunities. The restrictions push advertisers toward more privacy-conscious strategies that align with evolving consumer expectations and regulatory requirements.
Why is Meta tightening data controls?
According to the HIPAA Journal, 711 data breaches involving healthcare providers were recorded in 2023, compromising the personal data of 51.9 million people. Although Meta has not given an official explanation, these modifications most likely result from an effort to reduce legal concerns.
HIPAA infractions regarding sharing protected health information (PHI) have resulted in severe penalties for healthcare advertisements. Tracking conversions via Meta pixels often inadvertently transmitted PHI—such as IP addresses, emails, or names linked to health-related actions—to Meta, resulting in legal breaches.
In this regard, Meta’s 2025 data restrictions are a significant step in strengthening digital advertising privacy, especially for healthcare marketers who must balance sensitive health data and campaign success.
What’s changing? Meta’s new data restriction tiers
Under the new policies, Meta is categorizing healthcare advertisers into three tiers, each with varying levels of restriction:
1. Core setup (Default for most healthcare advertisers)
Restrictions: Advertisers cannot transmit custom parameters, such as specific treatment-related actions.
Impact: Event tracking will be more limited, requiring a focus on broader engagement metrics.
2. Mid-restricted properties (Affects large health systems and broad-service providers)
Restrictions: Limits mid- and lower-funnel tracking, affecting conversion optimization and retargeting.
Impact: Retargeting efforts and data-driven optimisations will require alternative approaches.
3. Full-restricted properties (Affects condition-specific providers)
Restrictions: No tracking of mid- or lower-funnel events. Custom conversion events are entirely blocked.
Impact: Healthcare brands in this category must shift strategies entirely, as conversion tracking is impossible.
How will this impact healthcare advertising?
With these restrictions in place, healthcare advertisers must prepare for several key impacts.
-Loss of lower-funnel conversion tracking
Healthcare advertisers have traditionally relied on Meta’s Pixel and Conversion API (CAPI) to track user actions, such as form submissions and appointment bookings. The new restrictions will prevent these lower-funnel events from being used for optimisation, making it harder to measure conversions.
-Reduced retargeting capabilities
Retargeting audiences based on previous website interactions will be limited or impossible due to the restrictions placed on event tracking. This implies that website visitors who did not convert will not be able to be re-engaged by marketers.
-Shifting focus to lead forms
Since Meta is restricting data shared from external websites, lead forms within the platform will become more valuable. These forms allow users to submit their information without leaving Meta, making them a compliant alternative to traditional landing pages.
-Greater dependence on AI and probabilistic targeting
With tracking and retargeting restrictions, traditional audience-building techniques will be less efficient. Advertisers will instead have to use Meta’s AI-driven targeting tools to discover relevant audiences.
Future-proofing healthcare advertising
Notwithstanding these modifications, Meta’s healthcare advertising is still a useful medium, especially for connecting with passive consumers who might not be actively looking for medical services. Instead of abandoning the platform, a change in approach is necessary to adjust to the new environment.
Here are some strategies to future-proof healthcare advertising on Meta:
Data categorization review
Advertisers must verify how their data sources are categorised within Meta’s system. They can file an appeal if the categorisation is inaccurate.
Custom event audit
All custom events must be reviewed and confirmed to ensure compliance with Meta’s updated policies. Sensitive data, such as health information, should be avoided, and URL parameters should be hashed.
Third-party audiences
Utilising claims-based audiences from third-party data providers can allow for precise targeting without directly handling sensitive health information. These audiences can be deterministic (verified healthcare data) or probabilistic (modelled lookalike audiences).
Lead forms
Using lead forms ensures compliance and enables data collection inside Meta’s ecosystem, bypassing the need for external data transmission. By optimising these lead forms using conditional logic, marketers can further enhance the lead quality.
Campaign objective shift
Healthcare advertisers must shift to other measuring techniques, concentrating on upper-funnel metrics like traffic, awareness, and engagement, as Meta diminishes the capacity to target groups using conversion data. They might need to monitor high-intent actions like “click to call” or “schedule appointment” button clicks rather than optimising for full-form submissions.
The data flow and user consent
The rationale behind these restrictions lies in how data enters Meta’s ecosystem. Data from external sources (websites, apps) is being targeted due to the potential presence of sensitive health information.
Data generated within Meta (lead forms, engagement with video ads) is compliant as users voluntarily provide this information under Meta’s user agreement.
Pros and cons of Meta’s data restrictions
Like any significant policy change, Meta’s data restrictions have positive and negative implications for healthcare advertising. Let’s consider the pros and cons.
Pros
- Greater privacy protection
The restrictions align healthcare advertising with industry regulations and consumer expectations while prioritising user privacy and control over sensitive health information.
- Promotes first-party data strategies
Instead of depending on Meta’s tracking, brands must concentrate on gathering and using their consumer data.
- Encourages innovation
Compels marketers to investigate novel approaches to interaction, including AI-powered audience growth, lead forms, and alternate ad placements.
- Emphasis on ethical data practices
The modifications push for more conscientious data handling by healthcare marketing.
Cons
- Loss of precision targeting
It diminishes the capacity to retarget users or optimise depending on conversion events.
- Higher expenses for testing new strategies
To sustain performance, advertisers may need to spend more on experimentation and AI-driven optimisations.
- Short-term performance declines
As they adapt to new tactics, brands that depend on current tracking and retargeting techniques will initially experience reduced ad efficiency.
The path ahead
Increased scrutiny of health-related digital marketing, spurred by a 2022 Markup investigation, suggests platforms are beginning to take responsibility for data privacy.
Meta’s recent changes, along with LinkedIn’s similar actions, indicate a trend toward platforms proactively limiting the sharing of potentially sensitive health data.
This shift challenges established measurement methods while opening the door for innovative, privacy-first approaches prioritising audience engagement and strategic content placement.
The bottom line
As other platforms, including Google, face pressure to act, the industry anticipates further policy changes as ad platforms acknowledge their role in safeguarding patient data.
Healthcare advertisers who adopt these changes early and adapt their detailed analytics practices will remain compliant while maintaining their effectiveness in reaching and converting the right audience amid growing privacy concerns.
-By Alkama Sohail and the AHT Team
