In January, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, updated their rules on healthcare marketing and advertising. They began restricting how health and wellness brands advertise and track user behavior on their websites and apps.

More importantly for consumers, Meta’s new rules mean:

• Better protection of sensitive health-related data
• Stronger compliance with state and federal privacy laws in the U.S. and abroad
• Restrictions on targeting and retargeting individual consumers using Meta’s Pixel and Conversions API (CAPI) features based on known health conditions

As a HITRUST-certified agency specializing in digital healthcare marketing, Unlock Health welcomes the changes — regardless of Meta’s underlying reasons. Whether you view Meta’s updated policies as an obstacle or an opportunity, one thing is certain… It is objectively better for consumers.

The blocking of certain tracking tools for healthcare advertisers provides better privacy for users. It specifically does a better job when it comes to protecting sensitive health data of individuals compared to the legacy tracking pixel technology.

Individual tracking down to the level of browsing habits and personal information can lead to data and privacy issues. It can also lead to security issues as third-party advertisers leveraging the ad platform could potentially misuse this information. In contrast, well-intentioned, reputable companies can benefit from the change. Authentic use of advertising and social media can boost engagement with their brands and build communities for those who have shown interest in related services.

What types of companies do Meta’s new rules affect?

The tracking pixel update focused on sensitive industries where privacy concerns over certain advertiser categories are restricted from sharing specific event data for ad optimization. The changes impact healthcare companies including, but not limited to:

• Hospital systems
• Provider groups
• Addiction treatment centers
• Behavioral health specialists
• Health insurers
• Telemedicine

Wellness brands, including e-commerce brands selling health-related products, like tech wearables and supplements, are also affected. Any business that falls into what Meta defines as a sensitive category and is “associated with medical conditions, specific health statuses, or provider/patient relationships” is even more limited in how they can and cannot advertise – and what technology of Meta’s they are able to use (like Pixel and CAPI).

Why is Meta’s update so important – and why now?

Meta shares their new rules as the right thing to do from an ethical standpoint and regulatory perspective. They’re not wrong, even if they were a bit slow in taking action.

The changes create a much more authentic advertising experience for their users and protect their most sensitive data. As Meta reports record-setting profits, rebuilding lost trust is a crucial next step.

So, too, is moving on from the bad publicity of the not too distant past when they treated member data without as much caution. Facebook was implicated when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took legal action against GoodRx and BetterHelp for their use of pixel tracking technology in advertising. According to the FTC, “both cases highlighted the use of third-party tracking pixels, which enable platforms to amass, analyze, and infer information about user activity.”

How did we get here in the first place?

You’re probably familiar with the term “cookie” on the Internet. You’ve no doubt seen consent pop-ups and banners on websites you’ve visited. There’s other tracking technology a bit more insidious on the web and it’s not a cookie. It’s called a tracking pixel, or just “pixel” for short.

This pixel is a snippet of code or a transparent graphic embedded in a website or email that can follow you by generating its own “cookie” to follow a user from one website to the next and across different devices. When you visit a site, a small file is stored on your web browser (a cookie) which can subsequently be accessed by other sites you visit.

Imagine that you click on an ad for a sensitive healthcare matter, and on an unrelated site, hours later, you are served a personal ad about that specific condition. The intent of this technology is to leverage audience behavior for better ad targeting, but it left individuals vulnerable to intrusive levels of tracking in some instances.

Why is this type of tracking bad for consumers?

Take mental health as an example, or a person seeking treatment for a substance use disorder.

Awareness is greater than ever nowadays while remaining a sensitive and often stigmatized topic. You may not mind seeing an ad for an umbrella when there’s rain in the forecast, but having a substance use treatment ad pop-up on your phone when you’re in public? Not as ideal — though it uses the same tracking technology to serve that highly personalized ad. The potential for that to occur was due to a previous search or ad engagement in the privacy of your home.

Whether specific to mental health, addiction recovery, or something else entirely, marketers must handle healthcare messaging carefully and ethically — always.

In the past, however, this wasn’t necessarily the case. Tracking could zero in on vulnerable individuals or serve ads at non-ideal times across devices. Imagine that substance use treatment ad showing up while on a work computer or during a presentation.

Platforms using tracking pixels could generally track:

• What you searched for
• The websites you visited
• The private groups you joined on social media
• Where you clicked “Like” or left a comment

This was essentially an aggregated snapshot on individual behavior right at their fingertips. They didn’t know you. But they knew you.

Unethical marketers could then turn around and use exploitative and fear-based tactics to get their message across or serve ads in somewhat intrusive scenarios. At best, bold claims without evidence for supplements and alternative treatments. At worst, lead generation activities with potentially dangerous outcomes. For example, treatment providers that are less than ideal for your needed level of care, don’t accept your insurance, or perhaps never existed in the first place.

Behavioral health is just one area this took place, but you can easily think of other acute or chronic illnesses where related advertising would be highly sensitive and personal. In nearly every situation, these types of activities were possible because marketers had the individual tracking data obtained via pixel tracking.

Now, they don’t have the ability to take advantage of that sensitive data and are required to provide a much more authentic engagement to users in their advertising. This will prove to be a win-win-win for advertisers, consumers, and Meta’s platform.

Key takeaways and the role of AI in the future of healthcare advertising

Meta’s new rules on healthcare marketing and advertising are a long-time coming. They block bad faith marketers and unscrupulous advertisers (good!). They lay the foundation for trusted companies to consider using Meta in ways they may have historically avoided.

Meta’s recent changes are designed to combat consumer skepticism. They create a better consumer experience. One that is trustworthy, safe, and good for the bottom line. It also charts a path for where they’re headed in the future: privacy-first personalization with the help of AI. AI will inform trending, interests by demographic, and community-relevant engagement for what feels like a personalized experience, but without tracking that follows you as an individual internet user.

For tech companies like Meta, AI is rapidly changing advertising and in powerful ways. Personalized, immersive, and efficient is the future. With privacy and data safeguarding front and center, that future will look different for health and wellness advertisers than those in the retail space. Engaging with an audience now means something different altogether, more realistic, more authentic and often even welcome.

AI will change the future of healthcare advertising to protect consumers while displaying relevant ads through:

• Privacy-first personalization: Goodbye pixel and farewell to tracking individual users across the web for retargeting. Tailored ads based on anonymous data patterns uncovered by AI will deliver relevant ads — across age groups, general health and wellness interests, and habits — without violating privacy rules.
• Trustworthy advertising: No more false or misleading claims. Good riddance pseudoscience. Your uncle’s personal page? Maybe a different story. But when it comes to ads, AI will check copy and imaging to ensure marketing content adheres to Meta’s new rules and restrictions. Try and sidestep the sensitive categorization of your ads and you may find yourself banned.
• A focus on educational content: Instead of promoting specific treatments directly, AI will suggest prevention tips, healthy habits, and the benefits of early screening across a broader spectrum. Landing pages will blossom, but tracking the clicks will take place on the marketer’s end and not within Meta itself.

Final thoughts

Tracking consumers individually and aggregating vast amounts of profiling and data on them may seem like a convenience for advertisers. In reality, the health and wellness sector isn’t the space for it and never was.

The best approach to drive interest from potential patients will always be to alleviate fear and demonstrate respect. Be there as an advocate when consumers are researching sources of care. Engage with a community that’s interested in their healthcare focuses and needs.

Consumer privacy and protecting sensitive data comes first. It may have taken a while, but Meta made the right move — one that will only enhance trust and user experience on the platform as well as with the advertisers who engage with it (alongside the HITRUST certified agencies who help, of course).

Unlock Health is the largest and most awarded marketing and advertising agency exclusively focused on U.S. healthcare providers. Deep expertise in the business of healthcare allows our full-service agency to blend bold creative with data-driven insights to connect consumers with care and make great work easier for our clients.