What’s happening?
Meta is introducing new data-sharing restrictions for advertisers in industries including Health & Wellness, Financial Services, and more, with most accounts set to be notified in early December 2024, leading into 2025.
On the Richter scale, this is a little higher than the Apple iOS 14 update for certain advertisers – though this time, it’s Meta itself causing the disruption.
What type of data-sharing restrictions is Meta enforcing?
Basically, if your app/website is deemed to fall into one of these categories (and any review process is unsuccessful), one of three things could happen:
- Core Setup may be implemented; this does not stop you running campaigns on any particular objective, but will restrict the sharing of custom parameters and anything in URLs after the domain (think domain.co.uk/category/subcategory?=item becomes domain.co.uk). This can cause issues with custom audiences, limit data in your Events Manager and more
- Restrictions on mid- and lower-funnel events: Meta may restrict your account from running campaigns on lower-funnel events, notably Add To Cart, Purchase. Campaigns should still run, but on objectives such as awareness, engagement and traffic.
- Full restrictions: All conversion events may be restricted in certain (or, presumably in extreme circumstances) in all regions.
What do I do if my ad account is categorised?
Should your data sources be categorised, you should be notified, and can double-check this in Meta Events Manager (go to Data Sources > Settings > Manage Data Source Categories).
You should then be able to request a review if you think you’ve been mis-classified; this could take up to 30 days to be reviewed. If unsuccessful, you’ll need to begin planning for a new Meta campaign structure.
