Meta has two sets of rules for health advertisers. The first limits data: if Meta classifies your business as health and wellness, it can block optimizing to purchases or bookings, and it flags audiences and conversions that suggest a health condition. The second limits ads: weight loss, supplement and cosmetic ads must target 18+ and can't attack someone's appearance, promise cures or use clickbait claims. Prescription drug and telehealth ads also need certification.
Rule set 1: what Meta lets you track and target
Starting in early 2025, Meta began sorting advertisers into categories, including health and wellness, based on what their business and website are about. Businesses tied to medical conditions, health status or provider and patient relationships are the most likely to be flagged. The category decides how much data Meta will accept from your pixel and Conversions API.
Core setup restriction
Meta stops accepting custom parameters and URL details beyond the domain. Audiences built on those details can shrink or stop working, but you can usually still optimize to conversions.
Lower-funnel restriction
You can't optimize to mid- and lower-funnel events like purchases, registrations or bookings. Upper-funnel events such as page views and content views still work.
Full restriction
Event sharing is blocked entirely. This is mostly applied to sensitive properties like patient portals.
You can check your status in Events Manager under your data source settings. If you think your business was categorized by mistake, you can request a review there.
Audiences and conversions that suggest a condition
Since September 2025, Meta has been proactively flagging custom audiences, lookalikes and custom conversions whose names, rules or underlying data suggest a health condition, including ones that were approved before. Flagged items can't be used in new campaigns and custom audiences stop adding people. Running campaigns aren't paused, but performance drops once the audience or conversion behind them is disabled.
Rule set 2: what your ads can say and show
Meta rewrote its Health and Wellness ad policy in July 2026. It now focuses on the claims and imagery in each ad rather than banning whole product types.
Weight, supplement and cosmetic ads
Ads for dietary, health, weight loss or weight gain products and services, and for cosmetic products, procedures or surgeries, must target people 18 and older.
Claims and images Meta rejects
Negative statements about someone's appearance, close-ups pinching fat on a body area, claims that a wearable alone delivers results, claims to cure listed diseases like diabetes or cancer, and clickbait promises of results in a set time without qualifiers.
Showing results
Weight loss ads can show people using the product, its impact and how long results took. General cosmetic ads can show before and after transformations. Talking about managing symptoms is fine.
General wellness
Fitness services and equipment, gyms, general food and protein products, non-permanent beauty products and dental products like whitening aren't held to the 18+ rule.
Prescription drugs and telehealth
Online pharmacies and telehealth providers that promote prescription drugs must be certified by LegitScript and authorized by Meta. Drug manufacturers can use LegitScript or Meta's own review. These ads can only run in the U.S., Canada and New Zealand, must target 18+ and need a disclaimer to consult a health professional. Ads that promote telehealth in general, or that educate about a drug without selling it, don't need authorization. Prescription weight loss drugs follow these rules too.
What's allowed vs. restricted
| Tactic | Status for health advertisers |
|---|---|
| Optimizing to purchases, bookings or applications | Allowed unless your account has a lower-funnel or full restriction |
| Custom audiences from site visitors or customer lists | Allowed if names, rules and data don't suggest a health condition |
| Lookalike audiences | Disabled if the source audience is flagged |
| Interest targeting on health conditions | Not available |
| Weight loss or supplement ads to under-18s | Not allowed |
| Before and after images | Allowed for general cosmetics at 18+; weight loss ads can show results but not fat-pinching close-ups |
| Prescription drug ads | Allowed with LegitScript or Meta authorization, 18+, U.S., Canada and New Zealand only |
How health brands keep Meta performing
Keep health details out of your data
Condition names shouldn't appear in page URLs, event names, parameters, audience names or conversion rules. Meta scans all of them.
Optimize to the deepest event you can
If lower-funnel events are blocked, pick the upper-funnel event that tracks most closely with real enrollments or sales, and check it against your own data.
Measure results outside Meta
When Meta can't see conversions, judge it on what your CRM, GA4 or enrollment data shows, not what Ads Manager reports.
Don't rely on Meta alone
Search, CTV, programmatic and mail reach people by intent and location without health targeting, and pick up demand Meta can't.
This guide is a general overview, not legal advice. Meta's policies change often, so check the current policy pages and your compliance team before launching. Sources: Meta Health and Wellness policy, Meta Drugs and Pharmaceuticals policy, Meta custom audience and conversion restrictions (via LiveRamp).
We'll review your restriction status, audiences, events and creative and show you where there's room to grow. Healthcare marketing →