With Meta’s new data-sharing restrictions rolling out in January 2025, we’re committed to helping you navigate the potential impact on your campaigns. This blog is where we’ll share updates, insights, and any solutions we’re exploring to help you adapt to these changes.

Latest update: 29 January 2025

Recap of the situation

Meta’s new data-sharing restrictions, which began rolling out in January 2025, are changing how data is tracked and used in advertising campaigns. Many of our charity partners have taken advantage of the 30-day extension offered by Meta to delay the full impact of these restrictions, but some have already been affected.

These changes are particularly disruptive for websites and apps classified under sensitive categories such as health, finance, or gender identity. While we’re still assessing the full implications, we’ve identified key actions you can take to minimise disruption.

What you can do

1. Check if your sites are flagged
Log into your Meta account to see if your website or app has been classified as a restricted category. If possible, submit an appeal promptly.

2. Consider using custom tracking events
If you’re confident your data collection practices comply with Meta’s terms (see here and here), you may want to implement custom tracking events to better align with the conversions you’re tracking. Keep in mind that additional steps are required for setting up custom events: Meta's guide.

3. Set up alternative standard tracking events
Depending on your campaign goals, consider shifting towards broader conversion events for optimisation—such as Landing Page Views or ViewContent—as alternatives to lower-funnel conversions. Current insights suggest the Donate event is still permitted (though this may change). Adjusting your conversion events could help maintain campaign performance while staying compliant with Meta’s guidelines.

4. Explore the ‘clean microsite’ strategy
An emerging approach is to separate your fundraising campaigns from your main brand website by creating a standalone ‘clean microsite.’ This site would focus solely on fundraising and minimise the use of sensitive health-related terms or data collection.

Meta appears to be crawling site content and metadata to determine restricted categories. While their classification process remains unclear, avoiding certain terms may help prevent unnecessary restrictions.

5. Test a two-step registration process
Some charities are successfully adapting by implementing a two-step registration process. This involves using a lead gen form on Meta to capture initial interest (e.g. offering a t-shirt or incentive), followed by directing participants to complete their full registration on your website. This strategy can help drive lower-funnel conversions while accommodating Meta’s restrictions.

What we’re learning

• Meta’s restrictions are complex and evolving, with little transparency around how classification decisions are made.
• We’re actively testing solutions to better understand the impact and potential workarounds for these changes.

If your organisation has been significantly affected or if you have any questions, please reach out to us at analytics@funraisin.co. 

13 January 2025

What’s changing?

Meta has started implementing new advertising data restrictions that impact how data is tracked and used in advertising campaigns, particularly for websites and apps categorised under topics such as health, finance, politics, race, religion, sexuality, and gender identity.

Meta will limit or block tracking events associated with websites or apps in these restricted categories. This change will significantly impact how campaigns are optimised and measured, particularly for lower-funnel conversion events like 'registrations' or 'purchases'.

In simple terms: Meta will limit or block tracking events associated with websites or apps in these restricted categories. This change will significantly impact how campaigns are optimised and measured, particularly for lower-funnel conversion events like 'registrations' or 'purchases'.

What action to take

If your website or app is affected by these restrictions, Meta will have sent you an email between 6 and 13 January 2025.

1. Check your classification: Log into Meta to see if your website or app has been classified under a restricted category.
2. Appeal if needed: If you believe your classification is incorrect, submit an appeal. You will have 7 days to request a 30-day extension after notification and file your appeal to Meta.

In simple terms: Check if Meta has flagged your website or app as restricted, and act quickly to appeal within the given timeframe if necessary.

How these changes may affect charities

Here’s a breakdown of the restrictions Meta is implementing and what they could mean for your organisation:

Core setup restrictions

Meta is changing how it tracks website activity through its tools, such as the Meta Pixel or Conversions API. These tools currently collect detailed information about what users do on your website, including which specific pages they visit. Under the new restrictions, Meta will only track the main domain of your website (e.g., healthcharity.org), without capturing specific page paths or parameters.

Minor impact: You might lose insights into whether a donation came from a specific appeal page or a general homepage visit. 

What this means for impacted charities: Campaigns can still optimise for lower-funnel goals, such as donations or registrations. Third-party tools like Google Analytics won’t be affected. Website visitors won’t notice any change in their browsing experience. However, Meta won’t be able to build Custom Audiences based on detailed URL parameters. For example, you won’t be able to create a Custom Audience of users who visited a specific page like healthcharity.org/patient-support/mental-health.

Restrictions on mid- and lower-funnel events

Meta may limit optimisation for lower-funnel events like “Purchase” or “Register.” Charities may need to focus more on upper-funnel objectives like Landing Page Views, Traffic, or Awareness.

Major Impact: Direct response strategies optimising for donations or registrations may need to be adjusted to prioritise audience-building instead.

What this means for impacted charities: Organisations relying on conversions like registrations or purchases may need to engage audiences earlier and look for alternative ways to measure success.

Full restrictions

In rare cases, Meta may block all conversion event tracking, meaning no data from lower-funnel activities like donations or sign-ups will be shared.

Severe Impact: For these organisations, performance-driven advertising on Meta could become infeasible.

What this means for impacted charities: If this applies to your organisation, you may need to shift away from Meta for performance-based campaigns and explore other platforms or tracking methods.

If you are impacted

If your website or app remains in a restricted category after an appeal, here are some potential steps to help minimise the impact on your campaigns.

While we understand these options may not be ideal, they can help maintain some level of performance while we all adapt to Meta’s changes:

1. Explore alternative events: Use broader standard events such as Landing Page Views or ViewContent for tracking and optimisation. These events are less likely to fall into restricted categories but may not fully capture the actions most important to your goals.
2. Adjust your campaign goals: Shift your focus to upper-funnel objectives like awareness, engagement, or traffic. While this may not directly drive conversions, it can help sustain your brand presence and audience reach.
3. Monitor performance and stay flexible: Track your campaign performance closely and be prepared to adjust your strategy as more information about these restrictions becomes available.

In simple terms: We know these solutions might not be perfect, but using broader tracking events, focusing on awareness, and monitoring your performance can help you adapt for now. If your appeal was unsuccessful and you're expecting significant impacts, email us at analytics@funraisin.co—we may have solutions to support you.

Recap: What you should do next

1. Log in to Meta to check your data classification and see if your account is flagged under the new rules.
2. Appeal the classification if necessary. 
3. Share this email with stakeholders in your organisation to ensure everyone is informed about these changes and their potential impact.

We're here to help

If your appeal was unsuccessful and you're expecting significant impacts, email us at analytics@funraisin.co—we may have solutions to support you.

We understand these changes are complex, and while Funraisin cannot directly prevent these restrictions, we’re committed to helping you navigate them. We’ll continue to monitor Meta’s updates and share insights, recommendations, and solutions as they emerge. We're proactively investigating solutions. We hope this information is helpful, and we’ll provide updates as we learn more.