Meta Special Ad Category vs. Sensitive Ad Category - What's the difference?
There’s been a LOT of gray area, misunderstandings, and simply an utter lack of communication with Meta’s Sensitive Ad Category that was announced in late 2024 and rolled out in January 2025. On top of the hush-hush nature of Meta and unclear documentation, the name is eerily similar to another restricted category within Meta, called Special Ad Category. The closeness in name, as well as some overlap in restrictions within the two categories have left marketers and ad buyers questioning what in the Meta could all of this possibly mean?
We’re here to help. Huge shoutout to the Foxwell Founders Membership of 500+ expert ad buyers from 30+ countries around the world who have helped to decipher everything that these new (and old) restrictions mean for advertisers and how we can navigate moving forward.
What are Sensitive Ad Categories and Why did Meta enact them?
Meta’s updated ad policy via Sensitive Ad Categories specifically target websites (i.e. domains and the information on those landing pages) and apps categorized under sensitive topics. Sensitive topics include:
Health and Wellness
Associated with medical conditions, specific health statuses, or provider/patient relationships (for example, a patient portal or wellness tracker for depression)
Financial Services
Provides financial tools, consultation and/or services, consumer credit reports
Unsuitable Content
Contains topics related to unsuitable content, including content that violates our Community and Advertising Standards (examples include hate speech, violence and illegal activities)
Politics
Associated with members of a specific political party, political position or contains topics related to a political issue
Race
Religion
Sexuality
Gender Identity
Nationality
Trade Union
Personal Hardship
Read more in Meta’s Help Document here regarding Data Source Category designations
These restrictions stem from a combination of legal and privacy concerns (and lawsuits) aiming to eliminate the sharing of sensitive user data. How we’re explaining it to our clients: basically, Meta doesn’t want to get sued (anymore) for owning or having access to restricted data, such as patient health data that is restricted by HIPAA. Meta is categorizing brands, their websites, and the content on those website landing pages based on whether they associate user interactions with sensitive conditions, such as medical issues or provider-patient relationships.
How will you know if your brand is affected?
Within Meta Business Center, navigate to Events Manager → Data Sources → Settings → Manage Data Source Categories → Manage
If you see your domain(s) listed in that screen, it will indicate the Status (4th column) as restricted. See screenshots below:
If you’re in the clear and NOT restricted at all by Sensitive Ad Categories, it’ll look like the below:
For advertisers in the US, EU and UK that are affected, this translates into reduced functionality of Meta’s Business Tools, including blocked Events, meaning mid and lower funnel events (Add to Cart, Purchase) will be restricted. There will also be CAPI (Conversions API) Limitations and even server-side APIs will be unable to share or track restricted events.
These updates differentiate between partial and full restrictions.
Read the full report on Sensitive Ad Categories from our Foxwell Digital blog here. Many of these insights came to light because of collaborative efforts inside the Foxwell Founders Membership. If you’re not a member, join us today.
What are Special Ad Categories and Why did Meta enact them?
Special Ad Categories within Meta have been around since 2019 and were enacted in order to prevent discrimination (think - redlining). This indication is put onto the advertiser as a voluntary designation at the campaign level within Ad Manager when building a new ad campaign.
Special Ad Categories include:
Financial Products and Services
Formerly just “Credit”
As of 2025 includes: Ads for credit cards, long-term financing, checking and savings accounts, investment services, insurance services, or other related financial opportunities.
Employment
Housing
Politics
Once a campaign is designated as Special Ad Category, some audience targeting options cannot be edited or changed, such as:
Location targeting:
Postal code or ZIP code selections are unavailable. Location selection must include all areas within a 15-mile radius of any selected city, address or dropped pin.
Limited custom audiences
Custom audience selections must not discriminate against people based on certain personal characteristics
Limited interest targeting options
Per Meta: “Some detailed targeting options, which may include demographics, behaviors or interests, are unavailable. Excluding any detailed targeting selections is unavailable.”
Age range
Must be 18-65+
Gender
Must target both Men & Women
If Meta’s algorithm or human reviewers find an account with content that IS in a restricted category that isn’t indicated as a Special Ad Category, first the individual ads will be rejected in review (this could happen at any time, not just on first review upon launch), but if this keeps happening where an account should be designating their ads as a Special Category and they are not, the ad account could get shut down/banned. In extreme cases, the ban could also stem back to the Business Manager and/or users that are associated with that account.
What are the main differences between Sensitive Ad Categories and Special Ad Categories?
In the simplest terms, Sensitive Ad Categories affects the data being passed back to Meta — particularly conversion data that shows intent to purchase or could indicate information about a user that Meta should and cannot have access to. This restriction can be a partial or full restriction and is specifically designated at the domain level.
Special Ad Categories has been around since 2019 and specifically affects the audience targeting within Ads Manager at the ad set level. These topics were enacted by Meta voluntarily in order to to prevent discrimination and manipulative advertising.
There’s some overlap between the two — so technically a brand/account in an overlapping category such as “Financial Products and Services” could be in both, or they could just be in Special Ad Category and not Sensitive Ad Categories.