Facebook Property Audience Adjustments

As of the 7th of December, Facebook are adjusting their targeting options for any ads that directly link to a housing opportunity or related service. This includes removing age, gender & postcode targeting, as well as limiting the interest targeting & location targeting.

This is a Facebook Policy change which is already in place in US & Canada and is now rolled out across Europe.

The Media People team have been working on introducing other interest filters and profile data, to ensure that the audiences we have been previously using are replicated, making them as targeted and effective as the old profiles.

The Insight and Data team have been busy re-creating the audiences and introducing them into your campaigns, to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible.

Please see our FAQ’s below and do not hesitate to contact your account managers for more information.

What ads are affected?

Any ads that sit within the following “Special ad categories”

Credit: Ads that promote or directly link to a credit opportunity, including, but not limited to, credit card offers, car loans, personal or business loan services, mortgage loans and long-term financing. This also includes brand ads for credit cards, regardless of a specific offer.

Employment: Ads that promote or directly link to an employment opportunity, including, but not limited to, part or full-time jobs, internships or professional certification programmes. Related ads that fall within this category include promotions for job boards or fairs, aggregation services or ads detailing perks that a company may provide, regardless of a specific job offer.

Housing: 
Ads that promote or directly link to a housing opportunity or related service, including, but not limited to, listings for the sale or rental of a home or flat, homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance, mortgage loans, housing repairs and home equity or appraisal services. This does not include ads designed to educate consumers or housing providers about their rights and responsibilities under fair housing laws.

Social issues, elections or politics: Ads made by, on behalf of or about a candidate for public office, a political figure, a political party or advocates for the outcome of an election to public office. Or, about any election, referendum, or ballot initiative, including “go out and vote” election campaigns. Ads regulated as political advertising. About social issues in any place where the ad is being placed.

To find out more about these special ad categories, please visit here..

Define what comes under “Housing”

– Rental or sale listing: Houses, apartments, condos, open houses, land, business or commercial real estate
– Temporary housing
– Real estate and house hunting services: Realtor and self-service
– Housing and rental insurance offers
– Comparison or aggregators of housing or rental insurance offers

What are the new targeting restrictions?

Ads that contain housing, employment and credit opportunities targeting people in select countries in Europe will have a restricted set of targeting options. Specifically:
– Advertisers will not be able to target by age, gender, or postal code.
– Advertisers will see a limited set of detailed targeting options.
– Location target will have a set minimum radius of 15km or 9 miles. This applies to all location targeting, including when an address, city/town or “pin drop” is selected by the advertiser.
– Advertisers will have access to Custom Audiences, and Lookalike Audiences will be replaced with a Special Ad Audience – which will create an audience based on similarities in online behaviour and activity but does not use age, gender, postal code or other similar categories.

 As part of the Special Ad Create flow, advertisers targeting European residents will not be able to collect certain personal information in a lead ad or lead generation ad in Messenger when promoting housing, employment and credit opportunities. This includes fields, such as: date of birth, gender, street address, city, postal code, marital status, relationship status, and military status among others.

What countries does this apply to?

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, All Channel Islands (Guernsey), All Channel Islands (Jersey), Isle of Man, Monaco, UK sovereign bases in Cyprus (Akrotiri and Dhekeli), Andorra, San Marino, Vatican City, Switzerland, Martinique, Mayotte, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Saint-Martin, Madeira, The Azores, and Canary Islands

Why is Facebook adding these restrictions?

The reason these changes are being made is to protect against potentially wrongful discrimination in Housing, Employment, and Credit opportunity ads.

To find out more, please view the details here.

Are there any ads that do not fall within the housing policy?

Yes:
– Hotels, resorts, retreats and vacation rentals
– Content centred around tips relation to homeownership or home buying, without a service or product provided (however, if the landing page is still selling properties, the ads will be rejected).