Arjun Desai

I've helped 50+ brands navigate Facebook's health & wellness restrictions in the past 60 days. The crackdown is accelerating, and the categories are expanding. What every advertiser needs to know. Facebook's health and wellness enforcement has fundamentally shifted. What began as targeted restrictions on medical devices has broadened into health-adjacent commerce categories. The results of getting flagged are often confusing and devastating. A brand was spending $450K/mo through Facebook ads. Basically overnight, their daily spend dropped from $15,000 to $800. They were categorized, lost their appeal and their spend cratered. The penalties seem to come in a few different varieties 1. Spend craters 2. Spend continues but performance craters 3. Spend is soft and Performance is soft. Secondary metrics often don't make sense. You may have one or more of the following things... 1. true HW categorization on primary domain 2. HW categorization on secondary or subdomain 3. HW categorization from non-related domain, but product is HW related 4. Shadow banned or account penalization -- happening more on the CBD side, but can happen to both The last few weeks have been an absolute deluge of brands falling into one of the above categories. This represents a broader pattern of affected brands: Phase 1 (Nov 2024): Medical devices, pain relief products Phase 2 (Jan 2025): CBD, targeted supplements Phase 3 (Mar 2025): General vitamins, wellness products Phase 4 (May 2025): Protected categories like children or pregnancy Phase 5? The underlying issue isn't advertising policy per se. When the Meta pixel tracks users purchasing health-related products, this generates what could legally constitutes medical records. Medical data and PHI falls under strict data regulations.... Meta is proactively preventing this data from being collected to avoid legal ramifications. The enforcement mechanism operates through Events Manager "Categorization", Once restricted, standard lower funnel and purchase events cease functioning, attribution collapses, and campaign optimization fails. Standard appeal success rate: < 5% Compliance is nuanced but generally - * Server-side only tracking - Eliminate browser-based data collection so you have complete control over what is sent to Meta * Custom event setup - Bypasses blocked standard events through compliant alternatives * Domain aliasing - Routes lower funnel standard events through non-flagged domains to maintain purchase optimization (optional, mixed results) Once implemented timeline for recovery is quick and back to scaling 7-10 days. Some brands have even noticed that performance improved substantially compared to previously, indicating that a potential shadow ban / throttle in effect. Proactive measures for non-flagged brands, that are HW products is to go into HW container with compliant events. Proactive measures for ALL brands is to ensure you have an allow list setup in events manager

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Most agencies know just enough about Yelp to be dangerous. They understand the high level. But they miss the tiny levers that quietly drive: • CPC • Conversion rate • Lead quality • Ranking relevance We don’t guess. Our founders spent 15 years, combined, inside Yelp actually learning the system. We’ll share a few of the insights that most agencies simply don’t know. 📅 Dec 5 🔗 youngcowmedia.com/webinar

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99% of founders let their best ideas die before anyone even sees them. You understand the problem. You see the solution clearly. You write a PRD ( as a product manager I used to write all the time). You prep a deck. And after all that? You still have nothing to show. That gap is where fits. Here’s the simple workflow that makes your idea come true 🔹 1. You drop your idea into a prompt. 2. You upload any docs or context. 3. UX Pilot generates a wireframe or polished screen. 4. You select a reference and auto-build the full flow. Minutes later, your idea is visible. Not buried in docs anymore This matters more than it sounds 🔹 Research on cognitive load shows that visual artifacts speed shared understanding by 30–40% compared to text-only specs. Less explanation = Better decisions. Try UX Pilot for free here:

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Excited to have been featured on Intuit Mailchimp's new Ecommerce Playbook. This is a full end-to-end guide on how to scale an eCommerce brand featuring other experts like Nik Sharma, Rabah Rahil, Mehtab S. Bhogal, Dylan Ander, Sarah Levinger, Aaron Orendorff, Cherene Aubert, Drew F., and more. I've never seen something so comprehensive and detailed on what's working right now across TikTok Shop (as described by yours truly), organic social, email marketing, unit economics, CRO, paid ads, finance, and so much more. Find the link to the full guide in the comments!

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Product marketers are often told to “test and validate messaging,” but rarely given a realistic way to do it when research budgets, time, and perfect data aren’t available. This post shares a practical approach to message testing that focuses less on activity and more on decisions, like how to identify what actually matters to test, use the signals you already have, and move forward with confidence instead of waiting for certainty. https://lnkd.in/gfe9PArt

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June 2025 was our best month ever, whether we’re talking new sites connected, new members, or MRR growth. 📈 3,444 websites connected to WP Umbrella. 🙌 196 new premium members joined our community. 💸 MRR increased by $7,347 ⬇️ Churn of 1,62% 🛡️ 2232 sites activated our Site-Protect add-on powered by Patchstack 📍 We sponsored 2 WordCamps (WordCamp Europe & WordCamp Kraków) 🔍 Key Updates & Highlights: 1️⃣ Site-Protect & Changelog Enhancements In June, we launched Site-Protect, our proactive security add-on powered by Patchstack. Unlike traditional security plugins that only detect issues after they’ve occurred, Site-Protect actively prevents vulnerabilities with virtual patches before attacks happen. If you’re managing WordPress sites professionally, it’s a game-changer. We also upgraded our changelog feature and 99% of premium plugin changelogs are now seamlessly retrievable within WP Umbrella. 2️⃣ Team & Community IRL In June, our team connected twice in person and interacted directly with users at WordCamp Europe and WordCamp Kraków. It’s incredibly motivating to see the shift over the years: from (1) introducing WP Umbrella, to (2) handling support, to now (3) hearing how our platform genuinely makes your lives easier. This is what building in public is all about. 3️⃣ Market Shift Traditionally, our growth came largely from ManageWP users switching over. Now we’re seeing a clear trend of agencies moving away from self-hosted solutions to WP Umbrella. While we might be pricier than DIY setups, the reliability, security, reporting and convenience we offer make the value obvious. And increasingly worth it. Happy July, everyone! 🌞

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I’m starting a short series called PMM, Unfiltered. Not theory. Not frameworks for the sake of it. Just real lessons from building Product Marketing in fast-moving, sales-led SaaS environments. I’ll write about what actually works (and what doesn’t) across positioning, launches, GTM, and leadership—especially the things you only learn by doing the work. If you’re a PMM, founder, or GTM leader navigating ambiguity and scale, this one’s for you. More soon.

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