|
I spent the first 15 years of my career in consumer marketing, and marketing in women's health is the hardest job I've ever had.
Why?
I started when DTC was in its heyday. Just run some ads on Facebook at a low CPM, make sure your CAC worked with your economics, make sure your retention or basket size was long enough or big enough, and you were good to go.
But it was never that simple in women's health. Even after I worked at WPP and Omnicom on the buying side, I still went through agency after agency who promised to have "deep relationships at Meta, so running women's health ads won't be a problem." Truth is, everyone ran into the same problem, no matter how deep your relationships are. Even Hillary Clinton couldn't make them change.
Why women's health companies have to raise more
It's why DTC women's health companies have to raise more venture dollars. They have to put those dollars not only into acquisition, but also into education, category creation, and creative production that may or may not be allowed to run on digital platforms.
I've long believed that women's health marketers are some of the most creative out there. Being creative in women's health marketing isn't just a prerequisite, it's a business imperative.
I recently chatted about the creativity required of women's health marketers with At The Moment Media and the Clio Awards.
The censorship is measurable
Those coming from other DTC or even healthcare industries don't believe it until they experience it themselves. But digital platforms censor this category more than almost any other. A 2025 report by the Center for Intimacy Justice analyzed 159 women's health businesses, nonprofits, and content creators across 180+ countries and found suppression on every platform they looked at: 84% of businesses had ads rejected on Meta, 66% on Google, and 48% on TikTok, with account suspensions and shadowbans piled on top.
Ads sit in "learning mode" for weeks longer than they would for almost any other category, because the algorithm has never seen your product before. You learn to write "seggs" instead of the real word just so an ad gets approved. You get barred from talking about advocacy and political power on TikTok, like reproductive health policy is a niche interest instead of something that touches half the population.
You build the creative for an Oscars ad only to be told it can't run. You create an entire NYC Subway campaign only to be told at the last minute that it's against the rules. You finally get an ad up in Times Square, but you have to take it down within 48 hours. These are real stories from women's health marketers.
|
"Turns out, the delivery of healthcare isn't the only thing stacked against us in women's health."
|
The good news: this isn't going unanswered. The Center for Intimacy Justice has taken its findings to the FTC and to Congress, and got Meta to publicly revise its ad policies, even if enforcement still lags. In the UK, CensHERship has built a coalition of major femtech brands filing formal complaints under the EU's Digital Services Act, and their research just drove a debate on the floor of UK Parliament this spring.
What you need to know to make it work
There isn't enough space in this newsletter to go through all the case studies, what we are doing about it as an industry, and what it means for you as a women's health marketer. But if you want to work in women's health marketing, there are key rules and case studies you need to know. Rachel Braun Scherl and I thought it would be easier to go through them tomorrow. Join us.
Here's a small preview in case you can't make it. This is just the start of what you need to know to make marketing in women's health work:
| • | Own your first-party data. A platform can take your audience away overnight. Your email list can't be censored. Build it from day one, before you need it. |
| • | Never bet on one platform. Any single channel can be flagged, banned, or shadow banned tomorrow. Run multiple accounts, build email-first, and lean into channels that are harder to censor: Substack, YouTube, podcasts, LinkedIn. |
| • | Meet her where she already is. Women's health consumers find each other before they find brands. Show up in the communities that already exist: Reddit, condition-specific Facebook groups, wherever your customer is already talking. |
|
So what does this mean for you? If you're trying to get a job in women's health marketing, comms, or growth, this is the stuff nobody puts in the job description, and it's exactly what will make you stand out in an interview. Join us tomorrow to learn more.
|
|
