How to advertise healthcare products on Google and Facebook?
In healthcare marketing, it has become unavoidable if you wish to promote your product and service online to follow certain rules and respecting the user’s personal and health status.
Probably no one needs to prove how important this topic is, no one should be toying with people’s health status, giving misleading or misinformation on any health topic.
As a highly ethical online marketing agency, we feel responsible for informing our clients in all cases about exactly how we may run online advertisements ethically on a given health topic, in full compliance with Google- and Facebook advertising policies and current regulations. This is a complex issue: on the one hand, it means compliance with the regulations of the Hungarian Economic Competition Authority, the National Consumer Protection Authority and, if applicable, Facebook or Google.
In our blog post, we specifically address the advertising policies of Google and Facebook, specifically the regulations regarding personal health- and medical conditions.
Both Google’s and Facebook’s advertising systems place great emphasis on protecting users: ads have to go through a very serious review process. And if we want to advertise on the topic mentioned in this post’s title, we need to pay even more attention to following the rules.
The review process of health-related online ads
For both Facebook- and Google ads, a rigorous automated system first scans our ad’s text- and visual elements, as well as the landing page, for a variety of complex criteria. If there is the slightest suspicion of unfairness, our ad will be disapproved. With just a few clicks, we can initiate a manual review if we believe our ad has been disapproved by mistake. This will be personally reviewed by Google or Facebook specialists in the second round.
We are talking about a relatively subjective, swampy soil. It often happens that the automated system is more stringent – or not entirely accurate – and the human review finds that our ad has been disapproved falsely. The point is to take action as soon as possible, re-submitting your ad for review, so that you can launch your online campaign as soon as possible or find out if there is a real problem and need to make further changes in ad creatives to comply.
Basically, the policies of the two advertising systems are very similar, but in our experience, Facebook is stricter in terms of text and image elements for health-related ads, while Google is more rigid in its product approval process and website review (placing the necessary obligatory text elements on the website). It should be added that the regulations described in our article apply specifically to Hungary. In other countries, there are stricter but more lenient control systems, and in such subjective matters it is often up to the inspector to decide what to accept and what not.
In our blog post, we divide the issue into two categories:
- Ads of health-related services (e.g. beautification, rejuvenation, consumer treatments, plastic interventions)
- Product-related health ads (e.g. weight loss products, supplements, vitamins, and minerals)
The rules below apply to all ads, but we’ve tried to group and highlight the differences between them to make them easier to digest.
Advertising of health-related services
- It is forbidden to refer to any personal characteristics (e.g. overweight, wrinkles, hair loss, pregnancy) in the ads.
- The ad may not contain “before and after” images.
- The ad is not allowed to contain unexpected or unlikely results (e.g. absurd weight loss).
- The advertisement must not cause negative self-esteem in the viewer (e.g. one may feel overweight or not attractive).
- Clickbait advertising is prohibited (we don’t sell miracle cures, don’t try to involve everyone with excessive claims).
Advertising of health-related products
- Misleading, false statements are prohibited.
- The composition and beneficial effects of the product must be proven.
- Intimidation is forbidden (e.g. if you do not buy our product there may be some kind of trouble).
- The ad is not allowed to contain misleading, confusing results.
- Advertising is not permitted to point out health-related personal conditions (e.g. illness, health problems).
How to make sure that your ppc ads don’t get disapproved?
- Use an ad image that is definitely not in violation of the advertising policies (no pre- and post-image, no zoom in on any part of the body, no naked body, no ideal body image, no tape measure / scales / outgrown pants, etc.).
- Do not write ad text that refers in any way to the reader’s health or personal status (e.g. if you want to lose weight, if you are overweight, if your teeth are bad, if you need a dentist etc.).
- Do not make the reader feel afraid that if they do not buy our product / service, it will have a negative effect on their life.
- The website must also comply with the advertising policies, as the text content is checked by Google and Facebook systems, in case of a problem this may be the reason for the rejection of the ad.
- As the number of characters in the ads are limited and this is not the main message, it is always necessary to indicate in large, clearly visible letters on the website that the results are not guaranteed, the effect of the treatments / products differs from person to person.
- For Facebook ads, be sure to choose the appropriate sensitive ad category, which in our case is a health-related ad, or the ad will be automatically disapproved. Once you’ve selected a sensitive ad category, you’re missing out on a number of ad targeting options, but unfortunately you have to live with that!
+1: If it’s important for your ads to start running at a certain date, it’s a good idea to go through the approval process as soon as possible. In practice, this means uploading the ads a few days earlier than planned, but not launching them. Facebook and Google will perform checks, list critical errors, and you still have time to fix them. So when your PPC ads need to start, they’ll be ready to go.
If we advertise a health-related product, what should we pay close attention to?
- The first and most important thing is not to try to circumvent the advertising systems, it will not succeed in the long run! if you try to circumvent the system with a trick and start running illegal ads, your ad account will be disabled. At this time, you will not be able to create a new advertising account using your Facebook page, credit card, payment information, or website, because this will be disabled immediately. So, is it worth the trick? We don’t think so!
- If online advertising is significant in your marketing mix, don’t limit your ads to a single digital channel! This is because if your ads are blocked from time to time (or, worse, an ad account, such as Google, a website hacking is enough), you will be left without ads until they are reinstated! Use at least two high-reach online advertising platforms!
- Health advertisements are not only subject to the Advertising Act, consumer protection regulations, and the advertising policies of Google and Facebook, but we must also observe and comply with other current laws regarding health care products (such as a code of ethics) in our online communication. We can also only place the communicable elements of a product category (medicine, medicinal product, food supplement, medical device, etc.) in online advertisements (e.g. a healing effect can’t be communicated with a food supplement!).
Summary – How to advertise health-related products with digital ads?
At this time, there is no proven recipe for the digital advertisements of health-related products and services that, if followed, will not let Facebook or Google to block your ads. It is an issue that is not set in stone and contains a great deal of subjective elements. the only good advice is to respect the rules and regulations. Let’s try to imagine ourselves in the place of a potential buyer, and don’t try to make them feel bad about themselves, plus don’t try to fool them with exaggerated statements, unfounded promises!
If you act ethical, fair, and prudent during the preparation of your digital ads, you can confidently request a review in the event of any disapproval, which you will use on a “sooner, better” basis.
People’s health and personal safety is one of the most important and complex issues on Earth. It is very true that the two largest online advertising platforms, Facebook and Google, are making this a priority now and are placing serious demands on health-related ads. In our view, these controls and restrictions are actually needed! There is simply too much information from dubious sources presented in Facebook news feeds, so it would by no means be healthy if it could appear without enough strict control.