Facebook’s advertising policies specify criteria for running ads on the platform, including targeting options / limitations for certain types of ads and placements. Before planning your next Facebook ad campaign, it is important to understand the social media platform’s Special Ads Category requirements concerning credit, housing ads (real estate), employment, social issues, elections and politics. If your Facebook advertising falls within these categories, you must report this within Facebook’s Ads Manager when building your campaign.
Facebook enforces ad category restrictions to deter demographic discrimination in advertising. For example, ads promoting job opportunities, credit offers, or home or rental availabilities cannot exclude certain age groups or income levels.
WHICH TYPES OF ADS MUST HAVE SPECIAL AD CATEGORY APPLIED TO RUN ON META?
Credit
Ads that promote or directly link to a credit opportunity, such as 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, part- or full-time jobs, internships or professional certification programs. Related ads that fall within this category include promotions for job boards or fairs, aggregation services or ads detailing perks 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 listings for the sale or rental of a home or apartment, 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. Social issues are sensitive topics that are heavily debated, may influence the outcome of an election or result in/relate to existing or proposed legislation.
UNDERSTANDING AND IDENTIFYING META AD CATEGORY LIMITATIONS
When ads land in these buckets, there will be limitations set on targeting certain audiences vs. what you might be accustomed to with unrelated ads, such as:
Location
A minimum 15-mile-radius must be applied to location targets. ZIP code targeting is not available. Locations cannot be excluded.
Age
Audiences must include ages 18-65. This cannot be edited.
Gender
Audiences must include all genders. This cannot be edited.
Detailed targeting & exclusions
Some demographic, behavior and interest options are unavailable. Excluding any detailed targeting selections is also unavailable.
Audience expansion
The use of advanced detailed targeting or lookalike audience expansion options is unavailable.
SOCIAL, ELECTIONS, POLITICS: KNOW YOUR COUNTRY REQUIREMENTS
Even more, any ads that are about social issues, elections or politics, you are required to get authorized in the country you want to run the ads in. For example:
Identity confirmation
Advertisers must confirm their identity and provide more information about their organization.
Disclaimers
“Paid for by…” disclaimers will be applied on ads within the category.
Public library ad
Ads will be entered into the Public Ad Library for seven years.
Advertiser location
Facebook will determine whether the ads are coming from an authorized user in the same country they’re trying to run issue, electoral or political ads in. If there is a discrepancy in this information, or the user is located outside the targeted country, the ad will be rejected.
NEXT STEPS
It is important to keep in mind that what matters is your ad’s content, not the category or nature of the customer’s business! On the platform in the Lab section of the tool, there is a dropdown just below the ad preview to flag an ad. If a campaign is flagged correctly, it will not be rejected by Facebook. Valpak also checks and applies relevant flags where needed for our social media advertising clients.
From Facebook to Snapchat to TikTok, there are a lot of social media platforms and advertising options to choose from when building your ecommerce / digital marketing strategy. So, what are the most cost-effective social networks to get your business noticed, drive conversions, ROAS? build brand awareness? When you partner with Valpak on your social media ad campaigns, we can help you with questions like these and more when deciding which social networks will best perform for your small business. For example:
- Selecting and reaching the best target audience / demographic
- Ideal creative: news feed ads, carousel, video ads, etc
- Choosing the right social media strategy and messaging / design before launch
Apart from Instagram and Facebook advertising, Valpak offers a full suite of digital marketing solutions. Contact your local Valpak office today! Our reps will help you make the most of your social advertising.
