Our Meta conversions stopped arriving: restriction or broken tracking?

Three causes, three different patterns

• A data restriction. There is usually a message: a data source category, core setup, blocked parameters or blocked custom events. Meta says that when it limits or fully restricts a data source, "we will inform you via email and notifications in Meta Events Manager." The drop tends to start on a specific date and hit specific events, often mid and lower funnel ones like Purchase, while upper-funnel events keep flowing.
• A tracking break. Events Manager receives fewer events, often every event at once or every event on certain pages. Meta's list of common causes includes base code that is "missing, erased, or incorrectly placed in your website header, often due to recent website changes", broken event code, moved or renamed pages, website downtime and allow or block list mistakes.
• A page or funnel change. Events Manager receives about what your site sends, but real outcomes fell, or conversions now happen in a booking tool the tracking no longer follows. Nothing is being rejected. Fewer conversions also give Meta less to optimize on, so costs can climb for a while even after the page is fixed.

Run the comparison

1. Check for notices first: the dataset's Diagnostics tab and data source category settings in Events Manager, the email address on your business portfolio, and Business Support Home. Screenshot anything you find, with the date.
2. Count what actually happened. Pull real bookings, purchases or qualified leads from your own system for the same days. That number is the ground truth, and neither Meta nor any tracking tool can give it to you.
3. Compare it with what Events Manager received, one event at a time. Meta says Events Manager "shows both attributed and unattributed events", including organic traffic and traffic from other platforms, so it should track your own count closely.
4. Compare that with what Ads Manager credited. Ads Manager shows events "attributed to a person who was shown your ad, after discarding events potentially due to duplication, data policies or regulations", so it is always lower. What matters is whether the gap changed on the day the drop began.
5. Put the date next to every change you made: a website release, a new booking or checkout tool, a form edit, a campaign change, or a Meta notice.

Reading the result

• Your own count held, Events Manager fell: a tracking break or a restriction on those events. A notice tells you which. No notice, plus a drop across every event on some pages, points to the code or the pages.
• Your own count held, Events Manager held, Ads Manager fell: attribution. Look for a handoff to a booking or checkout tool that loses the click, or a change in how conversions are deduplicated.
• Your own count fell too: the funnel or the traffic. Look at the landing page, the offer, the form and the targeting before you touch tracking.

Fix the layer you found

For a restriction, go to the page for the message you have: purchase events restricted for health and wellness, core setup, blocked custom events or prohibited information removed. Sending the same events server-side does not change a restriction, because it applies to the data source and the data, not to the route the data takes. Why server-side tracking does not undo a restriction explains this in full.

For a tracking break, Meta's own checklist is sound: confirm the base code is on every page, check events with the Test Events tool, and use the Diagnostics tab to find affected URLs. Recheck after every site release, because Meta names recent website changes as a common cause.

For a funnel change, fix the page or the handoff first, then give the account time. The signal rebuilds only as new conversions arrive. For a worked example in one vertical, see why peptide therapy conversions stop arriving.

What this looks like in practice

One recent case, with details changed: a telehealth practice watched its cost per patient climb several times over within a few weeks and concluded that Meta must be rejecting its events. Events Manager showed the opposite. Events were arriving with almost no errors. The cause was a change to the landing page, followed by the thinner conversion signal that change produced. An appeal or a new tracking vendor would have fixed nothing. The comparison above is what found it.

If you want that comparison set up so it is always there, book a call with Curve.

Talk to Curve

If conversions dropped and you are not sure why, Curve's team will walk through what your site sends to Meta, Google and TikTok with you. Curve then sets up HIPAA-compliant conversion tracking that keeps your campaigns optimizing, with attribution through your booking tools and a BAA signed on every plan. To get started, book a call with Curve.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Meta Business Help Center: What to do if there's a drop in website events from the Meta Pixel
• Meta Business Help Center: Differences between event counts in Meta Ads Manager, Ads Reporting and Events Manager
• Meta Business Help Center: Understand data sharing restrictions based on data source categories

Last verified September 28, 2026

Related pages

• Meta Restricted Purchase Events for Health and WellnessWhy Meta restricts Purchase and other lower-funnel events for health and wellness sites, what still works in each tier, and the compliant way back.
• Meta Blocked My Custom Events Until I Review ThemWhy Meta blocks every custom event once a dataset has data restrictions, which events to confirm, which to keep blocked, and why renaming is not a fix.
• Meta Core Setup for Health Businesses: What Still WorksMeta core setup strips custom parameters and everything after the domain. What still works for a health business, why it happened, and what to fix first.
• Meta Removed Potentially Prohibited Information: Next StepsWhat Meta's prohibited information notice means for a health business, where to find what was removed, how to fix it, and why you must never re-send it.
• Does Server-Side Tracking Get Around Health Restrictions?No. Meta restricts health data by data source, not by route, and forbids re-sending removed data. Here is what server-side tracking is really for.