How Meta's Strict Ad Policies Affect Health & Wellness Brands

In this episode of The Fake Marketer, Nick and Michael dive deep into the growing frustrations health and wellness marketers face with Meta’s increasingly strict ad policies. From blocked domains to failed retargeting attempts, they unpack why Meta seems to be making it nearly impossible for genuine wellness professionals to reach the people who need them most. We also get a surprise cameo from James with a Rupert update, some ads we liked and Nick's organic content has finally broken the '200 view' barrier.

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https://youtu.be/t23X9Cmca_I

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Transcript

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topic for today Michael something a thorn in my side warning to anyone in health and wellness industry trying to advertise on Facebook. certain date is not being sent back to meta Which means that they're not getting as many leads sales, Is there any sort of way do you're able to get around. It No, we recognize that you're in the health market. We are blocking your domain from sending data back. it's just protecting people on these platforms. But from an advertising point of view, it's an absolute pain in the ass. if you're actually trying to help people, you can't now reach the people that you want to be able to help. one of my clients actually got, an alert the other day from meta saying, we're unable to retarget It's like, we can't get it to work. It's just doesn't work. That that's the biggest thing with matter, isn't it. nothing is straightforward That's awesome. clever that it Immature. So He. Good afternoon. Welcome back to the fake marketer with myself Nate Boddington and Michael Harris here again intro in James intro music deleting things. Welcome back Michael. I thought I'd host today, but we just had the conversation. Who's hosting the James and and you've you taken the limelight for the last two days. So James in here for this one as well. Well, he's three in a row. He's here, but he's not here. It's three in the row that he's not giving his time to the audience. Remember what he said he was doing? But giving is he's not giving. Any time is the audience. Yeah. So, what you been up to, Michael? Just editing. I'm already ahead. I'm getting trying to get ahead because next week's another bank holiday, and James loves that. Next week is another bank holiday, and I'm away. That's Tuesday. So the vlog normally goes out on a Tuesday. So the vlog for next Tuesday is already done. Ready to go? So are we good? Yeah, it's a similar situation how it was with the Reaper originally, where it was like every week James would come on here and be like, Ruth, it's going to be live like Rupert's live roof is about to be live. And it just kept going on and now it's now Reaper to me, I see it's, But now I think it's actually here or nearly here. So it's. Yeah. And it's very cool. Yeah. Last night it looks cool. Yeah. Well, I just, I just asked you about weather. My. So we've, we've been doing my podcast haven't we, in the podcast room and they've been pretty successful. They look cool and you've been cutting them up and put them back on my socials because you and James to came with my 200 views. And I've just seen my TikTok one, and the first one is had 691 views already. Already. Now when was this posted? Ten different. Does it say a post? Should down, down in the bottom. I mean social media and I don't know what how many hearts this got. It's got quite a few hearts, you know it's good coming. Seven. That's not bad. Yeah. So I don't know when this was posted so I can't say. literally taking me out the two hundreds, straight up towards trial. And so, one day ago is us. Okay. So we got time to go yet. So I and it's hard to sort of bookmark as well. Somebody bookmarked. Yeah. Watch this space. I thought I'll come back to this. This has got a lot of things to, some of our clips have gone out for, I think our first one that we did for we talked about Royal Garden Clown. This had London that was had 900, 9000. Yeah. I thought it would because I've put like hashtags for, like, mobile games and like Royal kingdoms. So I thought it would say so. Yeah. Right. Yeah, absolutely. James's old hat now we did also I mentioned this to James, but this guy replied again, we got a message from a guy. We did a we did a podcast with Matt from the office here who works in vet marketing. And we posted those clips and this guy basically said that he watched all of the clips because he's what he said on the vet with skin in the game as a practice owner and was just asking like, why we got into vets as a topic. But James had said for like if he was marking a vet, he'd do something like he'd send like a postcard with a picture, like a dog's Bommel on it and just be like, I want to thingy your dog or something. Just really outlandish to try and get people to notice it. Or you could so or another one of Shane's to make it a little bit better than get. Yeah. My dog's fingers. Pink, which is awful. He could. So my dog, rolled his bum against the floor. You know how dogs like. Yeah, yeah. And that's because he's got older now, and he needs his glands squeezing. You know about that. They did speak about that briefly on the episode. Oh did they not? Not. So why don't you go why don't you have the dog's asshole? But then you just have. When was the last time you squeezed it's glands? Yeah, something like that. I think James thinks that, like, what he thinks is funny. Like everyone will think is funny. So he's like, oh, if I just put that on a leaflet, everyone would be like, that's class. But I like the be some people probably wouldn't be like, that's class. But this guy did quite well. He said that they've got a board at a local football ground that says Wallace vets tackling bowls since 2004. So obviously it's like neutering balls but also football. And I was on it. That's very good. Yeah. So not quite the fingering your dog tango. I love the way you look at the industry. Yeah. So we, I send it over to Matt and he said, you know, share my email with the guy. And then he just said, just said, thanks. So there you go. So people are good, people are saying other things and. Yeah. And value from it obviously. But yeah. Brilliant. Thank you. Okay. Social media topic for today Michael is something a thorn in my side to do to talk with about privacy on Facebook. So it's basically about warning to anyone he could use this hook warning to anyone in the health industry, health and wellness industry trying to advertise on Facebook. It's become harder and harder and harder. So I don't know the exact lore behind it, but in the EU, as you know, we've got GDPR, we've got all these data policy stuff that's going on and has been for a number of years, but keeps on getting, you know, just harder and harder. If you're if you're so inclined to look into data policies. But meta has decided that it wants to even though Mark Zuckerberg put up that post while two months ago where he's talking about easing off. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because anything happened with that. Yeah. Contrary to that. Well I don't think so. No, no, as far as obviously that's got worse. So contrary to that, they've gone every account I've got and including some big accounts and they're in the health and wellness. So we've got Emma's diary, we've got Chloe who does like how to, how to talk to how to become a better, speaker on stage, which also leads into a bit of meditation and therapy and stuff of that. You've got the functional medicine guy, but he's in the States. So it's only so even though you're running out, it's it's only when your events manager now it will say basically what started to happen a week. You have a graph in ads manager. Well in your events manager and your business tools, which is basically like all the data point. So someone sees your ad, that person clicks over to your website or your landing page or whatever, data is collected there. And then that data sent back to meta. Yeah. So that's the what your pixel is. It's talking to us to each other. And now they've done something else because we had the problems with iOS 14 that's now service server. So Shopify server talks to meta through the service to try and get around some of these things. But anyway, if you now fall into any of those health industries and bear in mind you can't go, you can't go and change your category. You know, they just tell you what it is. They it's so clever with their computer that they look at your website, read it, look at your domain name, look at what you're up everything and go, no you, you can't lie. You can't go like I'm, I'm teach people how to meditate. Bob and me, the automotive industry it's like it knows but now they won't send certain date is not being sent back to meta which matters. Which means matters. Brains. Not knowing who to go and show the ad to is precisely. Which means that they're not getting as many leads and sales, which means that targets that, you know, the ROI is going down the leads and go around, the sales are going down, are going down. So it's a bit of a nightmare. I why that is or just following just paranoid over, data protection basically. So we've got data protection like in the database industry when I was involved in that, that was, you know, you had to be opt in for certain things. So, yeah, for an email, essentially there's, there's a it's a gray area. Yeah. But people essentially what we're saying is they need to opt in to email. So you double up ten. So if you hit on say I want to subscribe to this, you're then get another notification underneath it saying, are you sure you want to subscribe to this? Yes I am. So you're doubling opting in. And then when we used to sell email addresses, you were you didn't actually have to. But a lot of people thought that you had to be double opted in to buy an email address. Marketing purposes. Now basically all those rules didn't apply. They've obviously done something in the health sector. I don't know what it is. All I know is, from a Facebook point of view of going blocking content, this we recognize that you're in the health and health market. We are blocking your domain from sending data back. That's weird, isn't it? Yes. Pain. It's only that industry from what you said well beforehand that was to that's that's what's data blocking. There is another one which happened a year ago where if you were in a housing financial, you had to actually build your ads in a different way, which meant you had to click. If you didn't click that you were in housing or recruitment when you actually built your ad, it would then you put it, try and put it live, publish it, and then it would just say error. And then it'll be like, we recognize that you're in the housing or financial, which means that essentially it's going to show people the should see that, it's just protecting people on these platforms. But from an advertising point of view, it's an absolute pain in the ass. Yeah. Especially if you're not if you're trying to sell something that's actually like beneficial. Obviously, if you're trying to sell like a scam product, I get it. But if you're actually trying to help people, you can't now reach the people that you want to be able to help. But exactly. Which is what. So it's a bit of a pain. So that's that's a big thorn in my side. Is there any sort of way to do you're able to get around. It is just is what it is. No, the other thing is one of my clients actually got, an alert the other day from meta saying, hey, we have problems with this for. And luckily it's well, it's actually there are their ads and they spend a lot of money are doing fine. It's actually they're having a really good time at the moment. So some things work on that. But we've had but we're unable to retarget now. So retargeting used to be a really good thing. Let's say we were getting someone's subscribing to their service for 1.70 pound. If we retargeted everyone who's gone to that landing page or website who hadn't already registered. And then we reached out to them and say, hey, don't forget to do this. That would then go down to about one month, 30, and we'd probably spend quite a lot of day, you know, a few hundred pounds a day on on that retargeting campaign. It then just stopped. It's like, we can't get it to work. It's just doesn't work. That so that's gone off so they can't retarget anymore. Well, which is a, which is a pain, which is a pain. But I think, I think that's the biggest thing with matter, isn't it. From what I obviously I don't run the ads, but from what I know, when you talk about it, it's like nothing is straightforward or like they don't send you a memo and go, oh, by the way, we're just about to change this thing. It's just what they did then. No, they usually don't. You're absolutely right. But on this one they have well this is so it kind of answers what just goes along with what you're saying. They send us an email saying we are going to we're going to get a bit tighter on the data that is going back. So well, some of your events that are set up in an event is basically something that fires when someone goes somewhere and they submit that event, fires, sends it back and we we you'd we optimize based on those events. Some of your events are going to get blocked in 60 days. Click here to learn more. Okay. But the Learn More just takes you to a page documenting standard procedures for anyone. It doesn't tell you what events are going to get blocked. Yeah. Just as well that's really. Yeah. So it's completely it could be our main event. It could be one of the. No. If it's our main event, there's a chance we're we're we're kind of screwed. Yeah. And that's yes. For me that's bad because it's revenue of a client. Secondly, it's worse for them because they, they have problems. We, we we obtain a lot of registrations. And if, if meta was to go down, we'd have to replace that with tick tock. And TikTok is working for them. It's a different beast altogether. So is the advertise. I've never really seen that advertised on TikTok. Is it very different? Well, you're not having a baby. Oh, so you wouldn't said no, I don't mean they're advertising. Oh yeah. You haven't seen advertising on TikTok. No I have I'm saying I've never seen like the back end of when you're building ads saying it looks the same. There's like a TikTok ads manager because they all have their own ads managers, and they're all built to to kind of mimic meta in a way. I think really, because it's probably they're all stating each other stuff. They've probably all just basically owned all that one works. It's really successful. Let's just copy the way they've done it. So they all look, if you go into any of them, they're all kind of the same. Google is and Google pretty different, but the rest of them are all pretty much same TikTok, LinkedIn, they all look the same. So if you went into TikTok, one, can you do similar? Is this I do exactly the same. The exact same. So we use the same videos, everything. It's just a mimic in a different platform. Yeah, I don't know if it would be, but it's taken a while to get the results we're getting now. We took a different learning. We've had to optimize differently. It's just a bit different. But no. So, so it's it's hard for some people, people who are listening to this for, you know, people in health and fitness and, or health and you know, meditation, whatever it might be. It's harder, a lot harder for them to actually run ads. Oh yeah. Especially you can't really pick what sector you're in like, it tells you you're in this sector and this is what we're going to do because you're in a sector. It's not there's nothing you can do that is. Yeah, absolutely. So that's so that's the biggest thing that's going on at the moment. For me. I didn't I didn't know about that. I remember you spoke a while ago before about like how Facebook or like look at stuff and like with guttering where it was like, oh, that's a gun. Now you're. Yeah, yeah. You were. Yeah. You were involved in that weren't you? I don't think I was involved in it. I remember spoke about it on here. Yeah. So that's just that, that's just a computer or the I at the time thinking that, a corner of guttering that goes on a house looked like a gun. It's crazy. So the whole account got abandoned to outsource and that took about three weeks to get out. So it's out. And it was just like, continue to put human on this to go. Yeah. Just like, oh yeah. It's not a guns look for him. We had to take it. We had to take that product out of their actual product catalog in matter. They get. It was honestly bizarre. So some of the things are just a bit crap, but, otherwise good. But one of the things completely changed topic. But go back to our podcast. So I've been I've been just it's complete change here now. But first we want to talk about. So we've been we've recorded a few different ads for the absolute day and two months ago, just before I went away to South Africa, I turned my ads down because I was away. So I wouldn't I wouldn't be able to utilize them as much. So I turned them down and the lead stopped coming in. They just weren't coming in as free. Well, they weren't coming in at all really. I was just like, what is going on with this? And I've changed. We've done some new videos and things of this. So now I've been literally pulling my hair out changes. So what have you got left? Yeah. Immature. So because I realized her. But so and so I was just, I deliver about maternity for them. I said I live like I need another pair of eyes in this. I don't know what's going on. So anyway, she did some simple things I thought I hadn't done. And she went back to a video that was running last year, which I didn't think was a successful video, and she was like the data saying that this was a video that you were getting leads from. So we've read that we've taken that video as it was and put it back into the ads and leads coming in again. And I had to took it in 5 or 6, maybe seven different types of creative since then. None. We can get leads, but I think I'm on the same topic. I think I'm leading with good hooks. Public don't think it isn't that mad how it's all just come back. Yeah. Around just from that, let me slightly, let's suppose a bit like everything you don't really known to try. And it's the same with all of our TikTok ones moms I think like all this video is going to go out and this will be on a topic that people will be interested in, and then people will watch that one and then it doesn't get any views and then some other random one. Okay. So what have you learned? What have you learned about from that? Just put everything out in there. From what I've done with most of the with like the vlog and with the podcast. Now, if it's just like if it's a clip and it's like a coherent thing that people can follow, just put it out because people like, as I say, with the higher ups, one like that episode and it's in the episode itself, got loads of ease because I thought this is quite a niche sort of topic because you have to kind of know about you have to care about marketing and also higher ups like, yes. So I we put the episode out, I didn't do. Amazing. I think it got about the views that normally get and downloads and stuff. And then it was just when we put the clips out, some of them just went to the moon. So I think it just happened to catch people who were already thinking about that sort of thing or something. And so the most part now I'm just like, if it's a clip and it works, just put it out. One of the things we had said, was before this podcast was you you'd seen on my TikTok that one of the well, when we're doing the text overlays now, like we could do 20 text, different text overlays for that same video. This in fact, this is what I am left doing. It should just go ChatGPT 10 or 20 text overlay onto those and create videos. And it doesn't really matter, because the thing with TikTok is unlike UN, unlike Instagram, with Instagram you kind of people are still very much on that feed. Yeah, what their reels look like and all that sort of stuff. Whereas TikTok is just put it up. I don't know, many people actually go to the people's actual feeds and go, oh, let's have a look. So they might see the same video, repeat it. But even if it even if it is repeated, but it's got a different tagline until you until you get the interest to look at the tag or, sorry, the text overlay and go, oh, that one's of interest. You're not going to play the video anyway because they're auto autoplay. So you just keep on. Mr. beast was in an interview with someone who has like get has a serious amount of followers on TikTok. And they said, oh, we just posted the same video, but we just change the text and they just we just follow them out like 100 today. Some of them just like, yeah, I think there's from what I've seen, I think that there's really like a disadvantage to just putting as many out as you can. No, I think no. Oh, we've got a visitor here is go visit her special guest, James, in the house. I don't think the camera can see out show. Now, just want to say, you know, there's coffee, right? Yeah. Of coffee for the sake of coffee. Thank you very much, mama. Very particular. Nice basket. All right. Is that how we put two? When I was about to go live, we were just saying, actually, it's like, Michael saying when the reboot was being launched, it was like this week or we launched, we found out that his time, Rupert Toilet 2.0. So, Interesting. Yeah. I now know, like, very few such platforms make it. Yeah. We don't one of those so it's not going to be one of those. It's not like yes. Oh my cat chimes his new role as like a barista busboy, busboy looks like a busboy. Yeah. All right, I was going to say, when you're talking about that are like Reaper. TikTok just looks like a mess. But, yeah, obviously it's majority of them. Is James. His head, but there's no, like, rhyme or reason to them or any. But yeah, a lot of them, they stop it. You know what though I obviously I know, I know, but I like I like the way when I see them as shorts, they're all over my YouTube shorts. And I like the way they, they sit there as shorts. It gets my attention, actually. Yeah. So as I say, with days of not really like I think back into the start, I was trying to put a lot of thought into how they were going to work, but for now I just kind of if I this pulls it out and, you know, has a starting and then that makes sense, I'll just stick it up. So but if I think if you put a text overlay, so when someone goes onto that screen or if I just see it in their thing, it's that it's that text overlay which makes them think, yeah, look, look, see what it's about. Listen to this. Yeah, I still do that with the fake marker ones. Like I still put these like things which yeah I think it looks a lot because then you can if you're back. But look how many more views you get to that other people. Yeah. You could just be like oh I'm interested in, you know, ad targeting problems or my dad learns ChatGPT it. Like whatever it might be, can it gives you a bit of a sense of what they're clicking on type thing. But I think from the Rupert one, it's just it there's the time aspect. Normally it's just we want to just get him out. Well do you see any marketing Michael I've had a few that I've. I tend to save them up now when I'm, when I'm interested. I saw, I don't know what an name is. I don't want to let me look up her name, so I don't just say that lady. Rose. Ayling-ellis. I don't know if you've seen this woman. She's. She did, like, Strictly Come Dancing, but she's Def Jam on about this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's some show like that is either coming out or has come out on, ITV where I think, her role is that she, like, comes in to help an investigation, because she can, like, lip read. She, like, helps them so she can lip read it. Yeah. Because she's deaf. And then you give it a go to see if you can. Yeah. The whole ad was basically like, you know, see if you can figure this out. And I was like, oh, this be all right. And then could you figure anybody out? No, no, no. And then they show like the subtitles at the end. Watch closely. Can you see? Did you get to see what I mean? Like apparently someone could just watch that and just get what those guys sign. Can you see what I signed up? Did you catch up? I'm not. Even close. To. Did you get it? It doesn't matter. It does show it. Now, with the, So it was actually say, let's say. And they check the because I can't read as it was in. So they've got and they've got air lock systems. The vault is deep in the ground. Okay. So now if we go back, can you see where I said. So get it when the first part they've got. I can see where the hole is deep underground. Like you can get it once they've given you the thing. But I'm like, because I watch this out a few times because I was like, oh, I've got to be able to work this out. I thought, I thought, that's quite good. That's quite a good ad for because it's an ad for the show. But yeah, it's also like because people rewind and want to pull is the ad is actually only got 349, but it's got a few people saved it. Yeah. And there's some comments of people talking about like how I tried and but yeah, the, the point of the show is that they like bring her in because she's deaf and she cannot look at CCTV. Might work out what people are saying when the CCTV is never audio. I thought it's quite a different way to do an ad for show, but yeah, I didn't. I didn't have a Scooby with that. So yeah. Okay. So is this going to be a new TV show? Yeah a start 18th of May. It started a few days ago. By the looks of that, we're going to do like watch the screen and try and figure out, you know I think like I think they're like trying to do an investigation and they're like oh you know, we've got footage of these guys, but we can't figure out what they're planning. And then this, as a deaf person comes in and can like read what they're saying and to help us, then I don't really know. And it's her in the program. Yeah. Yeah. She's that actress like that. That's quite cool. Not so little bit different. Yeah I just saw that one was a slight noise coming back to my coffee. That gum busboy said you got a new role now. So I'm coming from podcast on table. So, on my last week, wait a minute. On my first video of the new podcast style 691 views, I've. I've gone straight out of the two hundreds and gone straight into six, nine, one with a text overlay. So watch this space every week. I was a little update when that. So you need to catch us off not far behind. You know the old, the old. Well, got you a time. Yeah. Oh, I got more cons on this one. Hopefully. Yeah. I like the old content. Oh, I was the only one you knew. The only one he liked. Yeah. That's why I heard you got two interviews. I mean, I blow. Yeah, I think it's good. The new stuff's good. Better. It's just it's just how it looks. And it's got text overlay and looks a bit more use note as far. Yeah. Let me put that. We're putting tax overlays over the top. We've got multiple camera angles. That's perfection. You know two angles. See what I mean I made a comment earlier on tonight about something you had to say. You were pulling your hair out. I mean, it's not much. Let's not pull out, Let's take a picture of my hair up on the screen again. Just. Just come in. Just to be a minute. Right. Well, that's it. That isn't fucking any of you you've seen. Oh, I haven't saved any. No, this is a man I know. I haven't saved any ads, but I tell you what. I get a lot of these computer games you're all over. That is. Yeah. Oh, well, I mean, I might as well just burn this other one when I'm here. I had a I saw this thing on LinkedIn that made me, stop the scroll, as they say. It was like, some guide, like, I don't know how they fully did it. He, like, this is how it looked in my feed. I don't know if it's just going to start automatically. he. I think he like 3D animated something where, like, the video comes out of the video on LinkedIn, you'll see I'm like, scroll back to it. This is how it looks on feed. Go. Okay. That's awesome. So obviously when it's in your feed it looks like it. So this is on Facebook now this is on the LinkedIn. This is on LinkedIn right. How they made that come out. So that so this this is the post at the top. Yeah. And then this bit underneath is part of the vertical video as well. The very clever if you see it like looks. Yeah. Looks like it looks like it's his. Yeah. He's that. So this bit at the top where it says like 200 million views and stuff for that. That's like a fake part is. But then this whole square is the post isn't it. Yeah, yeah. What I, I think I make it full screen at one point where I sort of ruins the illusion. But yeah, it's when you make it full screen, you see that it cuts off the top bit, but obviously that bit then fades into the next clever that it so I, I don't really know how people could use that, but I suppose V like what a great advert. Just clever. So stop scrolling. Seriously, I've seen a lot of post length about this one. Just a cool idea. And so you could have like a video where it starts as a video and then the thing comes out of the video. Cool idea. I'm sure some brand will work out how it be. Like, I can imagine something where it's like, you know, someone's got like a product or whatever, and then they push it like through the video screen, like out onto the feed or something to the high, or I climb out trying to sell. Yeah, it does smell. I don't know. Yeah. It's I wonder if that cost a lot of money. I don't know, I don't I'm trying to work out from a video perspective because I always see these and I always think I can understand it. And it's like, so you'd need a, you'd need a for quite a few people because I lost it and then I had to go back and find it. So it's like you'd have to, he basically this is the post. And then this bottom bit is just a screenshot. So making it look like it's leading. Yeah. Make it look like he's walking onto someone. Yeah. So you'd have to screenshot I think like the top of your feed or top of another post. Bring it up into the video and then you've got your video here. But then like it's like an overlay with this. Well, so is harsh. Gupta I think the guy originally posted it was this chase guy, which is why it's Chase underneath. Yeah, it's very good. Cool idea. As I said, I don't know how rapid replicable it will be, but quite hard to replicate that. Okay, cool. Well thanks for thanks again everyone for listening. Thank you Michael, we've had a James cameo. We've had an ad we've had. Yeah. Met our update. We've got it. Oh yeah. See you next week Thanks for tuning in to the podcast. Make sure to drop a like and a comment to let us know your thoughts. Also, be sure to follow this page so you never miss a new episode.