Meta Advertising Policy Changes in 2025

What Religious, Health, Political & Advocacy Organizations Need to Know

In early 2025, Meta (Facebook and Instagram’s parent company) enacted major changes to its advertising platform that significantly impact organizations in sensitive sectors—namely health, religion, and politics. Other affected categories include race, gender identity, sexuality, nationality, and trade union affiliation, among others.

These changes alter how data is tracked and used to optimize ads, and some common objectives are no longer permitted when using Meta’s Pixel (a.k.a. Dataset) or Conversions API. If your organization runs campaigns that generate leads or drive sales, here’s what you need to know—and how you can adapt.

🚫 What’s No Longer Allowed?

Organizations categorized under Meta’s “Special Data Categories” can no longer use Pixel or Conversions API data to optimize campaigns for the following standard conversion objectives:

Sales (e.g. purchases)
Lead generation (when the form is hosted on your website)
Complete registration and other lower-funnel actions

This limitation also affects the ability to build retargeting and lookalike audiences from these events—reducing the effectiveness of many previously high-performing campaign types.

Meta is doing this in an effort to enhance user privacy, especially in cases where sensitive data might be inferred or used for ad personalization.

✅ What’s Still Allowed?

While these changes may seem sweeping, not all tools or tactics are off the table. Here’s what you can still use:

1. Instant Forms (In-App Lead Forms)

These are still permitted for lead generation—as long as the entire interaction stays within the Facebook platform.

What are Instant Forms?
Also known as in-app lead forms, Instant Forms let users submit information directly within Facebook or Instagram without leaving the app.
Privacy Requirement:
To use Instant Forms, your organization must provide a link to your privacy policy.
Delivering Value:
You can offer downloadable assets (like an eBook, guide, or checklist) as an incentive. This can either:
- Be delivered within the Facebook platform after the form is submitted.
- Or sent via transactional email from your CRM or ESP (email service provider).
Customization:
Instant Forms allow a mix of pre-set fields (like name, email, phone number) and custom questions, tailored to the specific needs of your organization.

2. Catalog Ads (with Restrictions)

You can still run Catalog Ads—but not with the “Sales” objective. Instead, use:

Landing Page Views
Link Clicks
Engagement or Awareness Objectives
Custom Conversions

Note: Meta is also making substantial changes to its Shop functionality, meaning no more in-app purchases are possible even within Catalog Ads.

3. Landing Page View Objective for Lead Gen

If your organization hosts its own landing pages, you can still send users there using the landing page view objective. However, these campaigns historically underperform compared to conversion-optimized lead gen campaigns. This makes creative quality and landing page optimization more important than ever.

💡 Workarounds and Strategic Shifts

To thrive under these new limitations, organizations will need to get more creative and deliberate. Here are some effective strategies:

Use Custom Conversion Events

Optimize for non-sensitive actions such as:

Button clicks to accept a special offer
Video views or video completion
Clicks to access a PDF

These can be tracked via custom browser-side or server-side events, and are currently compliant with Meta’s new restrictions.

Strengthen Retargetable Audiences

Shift budget toward campaigns that build warm audiences:

Video view campaigns
Page likes or follower campaigns
Website traffic campaigns (with compliant custom events)

These users can later be reached via compliant campaign types and Lookalikes can be built off of them.

Maximize Email Marketing

With limited ability to optimize for direct conversions, email becomes an even more valuable channel for nurturing leads and closing donations or purchases.

Build high-quality lead lists with ads leveraging Instant Forms.
Segment and personalize follow-up sequences.
Use email as a place to make “the ask.”

Refine Your Ad Creative & Landing Pages

The changes increase pressure on your creative strategy and landing page experience. Best practices should now be standard, not optional:

Clear, benefit-focused headlines
Engaging visuals and videos
Fast-loading mobile pages
Minimal friction for completing forms or actions

What Else Is or Isn’t Affected?

Geo-targeting remains intact. You can still run location-based campaigns.
Ad approvals are still subject to Meta’s policies, but the new restrictions focus specifically on optimization and data use, not content.
Campaign objectives like traffic, engagement, and awareness are still fully available to affected sectors.

A full list of potentially restricted categories includes:

Health & wellness
Religion
Politics
Race
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Nationality
Personal hardship
Trade union affiliation

View Meta’s full policy documentation here:

📈 Final Thoughts

These new Meta ad policies require a shift in mindset—from direct conversion targeting to audience building, nurturing, and conversion optimization off-platform. Religious, health, and political organizations must now double down on what’s still available: