Facebook’s Crack Down on the Health Industry

08 August 2019

Nutrition, fitness, health and well-being issues are widely discussed and promoted on social media platforms. From delicious smoothie bowl recommendations to fitness empires posting about their next 8-week challenge – it’s unusual if you don’t have a post like this hit your Facebook feed. If your own business is in this industry however, you’ll need to take care.

Click here to skip the story and find out what to do.

Facebook recently released an announcement titled ‘Addressing Sensational Health Claims’, to improve the quality of information in this industry and stop bogus health claims. Facebook will be reducing distribution and visibility for the following:

Posts with exaggerated or misleading health claims – for example, claims regarding a miracle cure.
And posts attempting to sell products or services based on health-related claims – for example, selling a pill claiming to cure cancer.

The reduction of low-quality content such as clickbait has also been tackled in the same way by identifying phrases that were commonly used in the posts. The algorithm will predict which posts might include too good to be true health claims or promotions.

Don’t stress, we have the answers you want to know.

Does this have an impact on nutrition, fitness health and well-being business pages?

For most pages, no.

However, if you do have posts with false bizarre health claims or endorsing a product using health-related claims. These pages will see significant change to their reach in the Facebook news feed as a result of this update.

Anyone discussing health and wellbeing topics should monitor the performance of their Facebook posts closely over the next few weeks.

What do you need to do to be not filtered out?

The advice from Facebook Product Manager, Travis Yeh is pretty simple:

Avoid posts about health that exaggerate or mislead people. For example, falsely declaring a miracle herb can cure disease such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.
Don’t post to try sell products using health related claims. For example, selling a miracle pill that cures diabetes or cancer.

If you are a health practitioner in Australia it is worth checking out the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) Social Media Policy. This policy outlines your obligations when using social media.

2019 has been a big year for Facebook announcements with one or two updates being released monthly. With Facebook being under the spotlight by various groups and individuals, there is no slowing down with these changes.

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What This Looks Like in Practice

For example, when working with Great Southern RV, the focus wasn’t simply creating more ads. The strategy centred on positioning their caravans and motorhomes around a clear lifestyle promise – the freedom to travel and explore Australia on your terms. That clarity shaped campaigns, show promotions and social content that resonated strongly with buyers already dreaming about the road.

With St Patrick’s Technical College, the challenge wasn’t marketing activity – it was perception. By repositioning the brand to highlight the strength of vocational pathways and industry partnerships, the messaging shifted from “alternative education” to a powerful career pathway, changing how the college is seen by parents and students.

And for Succoris Psychology, the work went beyond promotion. It involved clarifying how the brand speaks to both clients and clinicians across multiple clinics, creating a structure that supports long-term growth rather than just short-term marketing activity.

In each case, the goal wasn’t simply “more marketing”. It was better-aligned marketing built on clear strategy.

The Pitstop Approach

At Pitstop Marketing, we believe marketing should be a growth engine for the business, not just a collection of activities.

That’s why we focus first on understanding the commercial goals, the audience and the positioning — and then build marketing that supports those foundations.

If you want your marketing to stop feeling like guesswork, get in touch. We want to work with businesses who want to grow.