Overcome Healthcare Ad Restrictions on Google and Meta
One of the worst feelings is working diligently on a digital marketing campaign only to experience blocked ads, downtime, and ad account suspensions. Not knowing how to revise healthcare campaigns after rejection is incredibly stressful for marketers. Blacklisted terms, imagery, and even health products and services will stop an advertising strategy in its tracks.
Online advertising platforms have their own set of healthcare advertising regulations designed to prevent promoting illegal, restricted, or unsafe products. These regulations vary by product type: prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, experimental treatments, CBD, supplements, and telemedicine services.
This article explores each platform’s healthcare ad regulations, aiding advertisers like you in crafting effective and compliant healthcare campaigns.
Know the different regulations in healthcare advertising
Regulations can be stringent for prescription drugs, requiring thorough vetting and adherence to guidelines. On the other hand, over-the-counter medications face their own set of limitations, often requiring clear disclaimers. Always check Google’s healthcare ad policies for updates as the rules evolve.
If your ad doesn’t fall under prescription or nonprescription drugs, you might be dealing with speculative medications, supplements, or CBD. While seemingly more relaxed, each of these still requires compliance with regulations regarding health claims and ingredient disclosures.
Sellers may also face restrictions based on geographic location, such as the requirement to have specific certifications to advertise in certain U.S. states or countries.
Prescription drugs
Both Google and Meta prohibit referencing prescription drugs without proper certification.
Healthcare companies that want to advertise prescription drugs must obtain certification through LegitScript Healthcare Merchant Certification or the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) certification. Google and Meta will only accept certifications from these companies.
Similarly, promoting healthcare insurance requires certification by G2 Health Insurance Advertiser, which ensures compliance with platform policies and industry standards.
This list of keywords falls under Google’s prescription drug regulations policy. You must be certified to use them in keyword targeting, ad copy, landing pages, or within three clicks of a landing page.
If you’re not certified, you must use a standalone landing page for your ads that don’t contain the keywords and don’t link to the rest of your website to run ads for other products. You won’t run ads for these drugs but may still be able to for different medicines or healthcare products and services without certification.
You can’t advertise for prescription drug keywords, use them in your ad copy, or have them on your landing page without certification—even if you are not advertising those drugs.
Over-the-Counter (OTC) drugs
Google’s policy on OTC drugs is more lenient. In the United States, advertising OTC medications doesn’t require certification. However, creating separate landing pages for OTC ads is still essential, especially if your website sells prescription drugs. Additionally, OTC products must display their license number to meet compliance standards.
Experimental medical treatments
Experimental medical treatments (or speculative medical treatments) are innovative approaches to healthcare that still need to be fully established or widely accepted within the medical community.
Advertising platforms like Google and Meta have policies prohibiting ads for speculative and experimental medical treatments, including cell therapies and gene therapies. However, there’s an exception for treatments with FDA licenses or approvals, indicating a certain level of credibility and safety. If your treatment includes drug therapy, it must be certified in the same manner as prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, or supplements.
This case study demonstrates the opportunity for improving campaigns through careful healthcare ad strategy and planning from diligent ad campaign planning and management.
CBD, pharmaceuticals, and supplements
CBD, pharmaceuticals, and supplements are becoming more relevant in today’s holistic health world. Unlike Google, Meta Ads doesn’t have a predefined list of restricted items, which leaves the interpretation to Meta’s discretion.
Meta Ads reserves the authority to disapprove pharmaceutical or supplement ads it deems hazardous. Google has a comprehensive list of supplements it doesn’t allow on its platform, including weight-loss drugs, ephedra, and anabolic steroids.
CBD advertisers on Google and Meta must have LegitScript certification, even for non-pharmaceutical, topical CBD products. As of February 2025, California, Colorado, and Puerto Rico are the only United States locations permitting display ads. These restrictions may change over time.
This policy applies to mentioning CBD within three clicks of your landing page for ads for other products. If you mention CBD products on your website, you’ll need to create a standalone landing page for your Google Ads that doesn’t link to the rest of your website to advertise your approved products.
Review Google’s healthcare advertising regulations.
If you are wondering how to use Google Ads to promote your healthcare business, Google’s list of healthcare regulations is valuable. Google Ads are essential to a successful healthcare marketing plan because they allow you to target users looking for your products online. However, you want to ensure Google Ads are approved and avoid account suspension due to restricted drugs.
Along with clarifying the regulations for the drug categories, Google’s healthcare regulations provide more detailed examples of restricted products, such as animal-related drugs, prescription opioids, HIV home tests, birth control, and more. Each has a detailed paragraph and helpful graphics.
Near the bottom of their guidelines are examples of disapprovals and how to troubleshoot them to get your ads approved and your account unsuspended.
In summary, advertisers should:
- Use a standalone landing page if non-approved drugs or supplements appear on the website
- Get certified to advertise for prescription drug services (online pharmacy, telemedicine)
- Make sure the ad targets allowed states or countries
- Include the license number for OTC drugs
Learn Meta’s healthcare advertising policies
Meta is a popular social media advertising platform for healthcare ads. Meta’s regulations differ from Google’s, which can be trickier since Meta doesn’t provide a clear list of restricted drugs and products. In addition to specific drug restrictions, Meta’s Transparency Center has a personal health and appearance section to help advertisers comply with rules.
Meta states, “Advertisers can’t run ads for health or appearance-related products that imply or attempt to generate negative self-perception.” For instance, you can’t tell viewers they need to lose weight with your product (because it implies they’re overweight). Advertisers must also exclude copy like, “We can help you lose weight” or “Do you have eczema?”
Let’s break this down:
- DO use positive photos in your ads. Stick with happy and healthy people enjoying the outdoors.
- Do NOT use “you” in ad copy or copy on images/videos.
- Do NOT use ad copy that suggests a person may have a specific medical condition or a negative body image.
- Do NOT use images or videos with a lot of skin (even of the back, arm, or leg) so it’s not sexual.
- Do NOT use before/after images or images of heavy people struggling to exercise or images of people scratching their skin.
Meta frequently updates its standards for ads and advertisers. Reviewing guidelines regularly is vital for successful campaign management. It’s also helpful to speak to a support representative to determine what part of your ad or landing page caused the ad disapproval or account suspension. Like Google, your ads may need a standalone landing page if your website mentions restricted drugs, supplements, or treatments.
Conclusion: Know your healthcare ad policy
Complying with the nuances and varying regulations between digital platforms in healthcare advertising is no small task.
Google’s detailed guidelines are clear but strict, while Meta’s policies present different challenges. Once you review each platform’s restrictions and define the type of drug you are advertising, you will have a much higher success rate with your digital ads.
Prescription drugs, pharmaceuticals, supplements, and CBD require certification, while OTC drugs don’t (but should still reside on a separate page). Experimental medical treatments are often prohibited unless approved by the FDA. If you mention any of these on your website and are not certified with Google or Meta, you may need to create a standalone landing page to advertise other approved products and services online.
The most successful healthcare campaigns leverage expert support for digital marketing. Working with an agency partner adds years of industry experience to avoid rejections and get your campaign live the first time.
Ready to master the complexities of healthcare ads? Partner with Perfect Search Media to ensure your healthcare campaigns are compliant, efficient, and effective. Contact us today and let’s optimize your digital marketing strategy!