Massive Changes Coming to Meta Ads in 2025

Hey there, Jackson here from Echelon something a little different today but massively important.

If you work in media buying or run ads for health & wellness, listen up—big changes are coming in 2025 that will dramatically impact how you run Meta campaigns. 

Starting January 6th, Meta is heavily restricting advertisers' ability to leverage standard Meta events related to sensitive topics like specific health conditions.

Meta calls these "Sensitive Topics" and the data sent back "Sensitive Data."

Bottom line—they don't want it in their system at all anymore.

When we looked into what is happening, we found it's because of a few reasons:

1. Meta's Business Tool Team have long prohibited sending sensitive data like health info back to their platform.

   Many advertisers didn't realize how much data their standard pixel/CAPI setups were actually passing through.

2. There's likely some political pressure from figures like Trump and RFK Jr. around the intersection of healthcare and advertising, though specifics are unclear.

Meta's "Signals" team is working with regulators and lawyers to figure out exactly how to move forward. But here's what we know for sure:

Starting January 6th, all standard events from AddToCart and below will be phased out for advertisers in sensitive categories like health & wellness. The impact will trickle in:

Within 7 days, audience sizes will shrink as Meta stops building seeds based on those events.

Within 14 days (around January 20th), campaigns optimizing for restricted events will stop delivering entirely. 

The silver lining? You can still use custom events for upper-funnel optimization—but Meta won't provide any guidance on what's allowed.

You'll have to lean on your legal team to ensure compliance with their vague Business Tool Terms.

I've been saying this for a long time, but there's now never been a more important time to learn Google.

Like this skincare supplement brand:

• $451.4K Google ads sales from $136K spend.

• 1k+ purchases over November.

• Nearly 100K generated just during BFCM weekend

While Meta clamps down on sensitive targeting, Google remains a goldmine for reaching high-intent health audiences.

With the right keyword research, you can still get your products in front of people actively searching for solutions to their health issues.

Plus, Google's first-party data is robust.

You can create similar audiences based on users who've already converted, tap into in-market segments, and layer on demographic targeting—all while sidestepping the sensitive data concerns plaguing Meta.

Jackson

Founder and CEO of Echelonn.

How we can help:

• Get a free Google ads audit: For brands spending more than $20k/mo. or making over 1 million annually, we’ll identify the key bottlenecks in your account, and turn it into a free 90-day scaling plan. Click here.

• Get a 1-time Google ads buildout: For brands that are new to Google or looking to add another revenue model WITHOUT a retainer. We’ll do a one-time buildout over 30 days for you to profit from day 1. Click here for more info.

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