Meta won't let me optimize for Purchase or Schedule. Which events can I still use?

Which of the two tiers you are in

Meta lists three data sharing restrictions that can come with a data source category. Two of them remove whole events rather than details. "Restriction on certain standard events: Restricts the sharing of specific mid and lower funnel events." And "Full restrictions: Fully restrict the sharing of all events in specific regions or all regions. In these circumstances, Meta Business Tools cannot be used for ads purposes where restrictions are in place." The third, core setup, strips custom parameters and URL paths instead, and is covered in what still works under core setup.

Meta also says these restrictions "can be specific to certain countries or regions, or they could be applied globally." Before you change a campaign, note the tier and the regions it covers, then check which of your events are affected. How to find your tier walks through the screens.

What each tier still leaves you

• Restriction on certain standard events: upper-funnel events stay available. Meta's advice is to "Evaluate which events are restricted and explore alternative events that can help you meet your business objectives, while continuing to ensure you are not sharing potentially prohibited information", for example by "leveraging more upper-funnel events to maintain effective audience targeting and campaign optimization."
• Full restriction: event-based optimization is gone wherever it applies. Meta suggests objectives "that do not rely on data shared through the Meta Business Tools, such as Awareness (e.g., reach, impressions), Engagements (e.g., likes, comments, shares), and Traffic (e.g., link clicks)."
• Custom events, in both tiers: they are blocked until you review them, and under a full restriction Meta says they "may not be available to you" at all. See why Meta blocked your custom events.
• Other platforms: Google Ads, TikTok, Microsoft and LinkedIn apply their own health advertising rules. Meta's category neither carries over to them nor exempts you from theirs.

How to choose a new optimization event

1. List the events your campaigns optimize for today and mark each one that is restricted on this dataset.
2. For each restricted event, find the step above it in your funnel that Meta still accepts, such as a visit to your booking page. Move up the funnel, as Meta suggests. A replacement that fires at the same moment on the same confirmation page is the restricted event under a new name.
3. Check that the replacement carries no condition. Its page URL, parameters and name must not reflect, imply or be based on a health condition, or it will trigger prohibited information notices.
4. Judge the campaign on booked appointments measured outside Meta, not on how often the replacement event fires.
5. Under a full restriction, switch the campaign objective to one Meta lists, such as Awareness, Engagement or Traffic, and measure the bookings that follow in your own reporting.

Count real bookings outside Meta

A restriction changes what Meta can see, not what your business can count. Booked appointments still land in your scheduling or intake tool, and that is where the true number lives. Keep the campaign source attached to every booking, with UTM values that name the campaign rather than a condition, and compare bookings by campaign every week.

That comparison tells you whether the switch to an upper-funnel event changed how many patients you book, and lets you move budget between Meta and the platforms that accept a booking under their own rules.

What not to do

• Don't recreate the restricted event as a custom event or a renamed standard event. Meta says names and criteria "must not reflect, imply, or be based on any prohibited information". See server-side tracking, renaming and Meta restrictions.
• Don't move the site to a new dataset, pixel or domain to get the events back. See whether to open a new ad account after a restriction.
• Don't request a category review because the restriction hurts performance. Request one when the category is wrong for your business: see how the category review works.

Talk to Curve

A standard-event restriction changes what Meta sees, but your bookings are still there to count. Curve's team will review what your site sends with you, rebuild your conversion tracking server-side, and keep attribution through your booking tool so every campaign is judged on real appointments. To see how that would work on your site, book a call with Curve.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Meta Business Help Center: Understand data sharing restrictions based on data source categories
• Meta Business Help Center: About reviewing custom events in Meta Events Manager
• Meta Business Help Center: About prohibited information

Last verified September 29, 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 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 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.
• How to Request a Meta Data Source Category ReviewCan you get Meta's Health and wellness category removed? Who can request a review, the exact Events Manager path, and when a review won't help.
• Meta Conversions Stopped: Restriction or Broken Tracking?Meta conversions dropped. How to tell a data restriction from broken tracking or a page change, event by event, and which layer to fix first.
• 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.