Meta will impose new restrictions on customer list custom audiences in 2025. Does this apply to you? What should you do?

Let’s get to it…

Whom Does This Apply To?

These restrictions apply to advertisers using customer list custom audiences to promote the following categories:

• Housing
• Employment
• Financial Products and Services (including Credit)

In other words, all of the Special Ad Categories other than Politics, Elections, and Social Issues. Restrictions apply to advertisers based in the US or reaching audiences in the US.

Sharing of Customer List Custom Audiences

The new restrictions apply to the sharing of customer list custom audiences for these classes of business. There are two situations considered:

1. Sharing between ad accounts within the same Business Portfolio.

You will be able to share customer list customer audiences with other ad accounts within the same Business Portfolio (the new-er name for Business Manager) as long as all people with permissions to manage ad campaigns have the same business email domain.

And no, using Gmail, Yahoo, and other generic email domains won’t get around this restriction.

It’s not clear if this is the complete list, but the assumption is that you will use email domains that prove you work for the same employer.

2. Sharing between ad accounts across different Business Portfolios.

You will not be able to share customer list custom audiences in this case, regardless of the email domain. Both ad accounts need to be within the same Business Portfolio.

Meta provides the following examples for ad accounts within the same Business Portfolio…

The first column of email addresses represents all people within an ad account that will share the customer list custom audiences who have permissions to manage ad campaigns. The final column represents those who would receive that audience.

The first example is acceptable because all people within both ad accounts have the same email domain. The second is not because one person within the sharing account who has access to manage the ad campaigns uses a Gmail domain.

Consumer Reporting Agencies

Consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) are not allowed to use any customer list custom audiences, including their own, for targeting. CRAs collect and sell financial and credit information about people.

Yeah, that would be bad in this case. Meta doesn’t want advertisers to discriminate and these lists could be used to do exactly that.

Additional Certification

Beginning in January of 2025, advertisers will begin to see a new certification requirement for customer list custom audiences.

The main points:

1. They are not a consumer reporting agency, nor did they receive the information from one.

2. The audience isn’t based on sensitive information that shouldn’t be used for targeting.

3. They will follow Meta’s advertising policies.

Enforcement Timeline

If you use customer list custom audiences in these categories, here’s the timeline of how enforcement will rollout…

January 2025

New campaigns must use customer list custom audiences that fall within the guidelines mentioned above or you may not be able to publish them. If you published campaigns prior to these new restrictions, they will continue to run, but you may not be able to edit them.

March 2025

Campaigns that were published prior to restrictions that do not follow these guidelines may be paused.

Why is This Happening?

Meta has faced a lot of heat over the years for advertising that falls within sensitive topics. This is why Special Ad Categories exist in the first place.

The Special Ad Category designation is meant to protect the advertiser (and Meta) by preventing them from using discriminatory targeting. Audience selection looks like this:

1. Postal or zip code selections are unavailable
2. Minimum of a 15-mile radius around a location
3. 18-65+ with no ability to limit by age minimum or maximum
4. No ability to limit by gender
5. Some sensitive detailed targeting options are removed

Since these restrictions exist, it’s no surprise that advertisers may attempt to get around them by using custom audiences. They could assemble a list of people who are all within a certain age group or neighborhood. This would violate terms for these Special Ad Categories.

I’m actually surprised Meta doesn’t simply remove the ability to use customer list custom audiences in this case. It would be much easier. But since they haven’t, they’ll need to add more restrictions to make sure that advertisers know the rules and follow them.

The sharing of custom audiences also falls into a bit of a gray area anyway. I’ve long interpreted the rules to mean that you can only target people who have explicitly given you the right to contact them. To a point, these restrictions wouldn’t be necessary if they are interpreted that way by everyone.

What Should You Do?

First, investigate whether this applies to you. Do you run ads for a business that fall in the categories of housing, employment, or financial products and services? Are you or the client in the US?

If so, check your alerts for warnings related to these restrictions. I assume you’d see them on the Audiences page, but you may also see something on Account Overview.

Next, do you share customer list custom audiences for these businesses? If not, this isn’t really an issue.

Finally, consider whether all advertisers on an ad account utilize the same email domain. It’s quite possible they don’t since it’s surely common that advertisers would use “generic” email domains like Gmail. You’ll need to get that corrected, which would likely be a bit of a hassle.

Your Turn

Do you run ads for businesses that fall under these categories in the US? How have you prepared?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Restrictions on Customer List Custom Audiences appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

The Meta Ad Library was introduced in 2019 (then the Facebook Ad Library) in response to pressure faced by the company over misuse of advertising to manipulate elections. Eventually, the library would be expanded to cover transparency in the European Union and all other ads — though the level of detail varies.

The library itself is mostly buried, but there is plenty of useful information that can be found within it.

In this post, I’ll help you understand the following…

1. Meta Ad Library Basics: How to access and use it
2. Social Issues, Elections, and Politics
3. Ads Delivered to the European Union
4. All Other Ads
5. Branded Content
6. How You Can Use This Information

Let’s go…

Ad Library Basics

Go to https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/ to access the Meta Ad Library.

Within the Search Ads section, select a location, ad category (All Ads if it isn’t applicable), and a keyword.

You’ll then get a summary of all of the ads matching those search results.

You can refine your results by applying filters.

• Language: All or select specific languages
• Advertiser: All or select specific advertisers
• Platforms: All or select from Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger
• Media Type: All or select from images, memes, images and memes, videos, and no image or video
• Active Status: Active and inactive or select from one or the other
• Impressions by Date: Select a start and end date

You can find an individual advertiser’s ads by using the search. Another method is to go to the advertiser’s Facebook page (About > Page Transparency > See All > Go to Ad Library).

Social Issues, Elections, or Politics

When you search the Meta Ad Library, you have the option of filtering by Special Ad Category (Politics/Elections/Social Issues, Housing, Employment, or Credit).

If you select the category for Politics, Elections, and Social Issues, you’ll get additional details that can’t be found when viewing other ads (outside of the European Union, at least — we’ll get to that). These ads will be visible in the library for seven years.

Political ads allow for some additional filters for Delivery by Region, Disclaimer, and Estimated Audience Size when searching.

Search results for political ads will include the following details:

• Library ID
• Active or Inactive
• Started Running Date
• Platforms
• Categories
• Estimated Audience Size
• Amount Spent
• Impressions

Click “See Ad Details” for more. You’ll get the following…

1. About the Disclaimer: Disclaimers are required for political ads to declare who paid for them.

2. Ad Audience: The estimated audience size of those who saw the ad.

3. Ad Delivery: This includes the amount spent and number of impressions.

And also the age ranges, genders, and locations of those who saw the ad.

4. About the Advertiser: Additional details about the advertiser page in question, including the amount spent and disclaimers for other ads.

Ads Delivered to the European Union

Due to legal and regulatory requirements, an added layer of transparency is required for all ads displayed in the European Union. When you search for ads that have been delivered to any of these countries, you’ll get access to additional information.

Within the search results, you’ll get the following:

• Library ID
• Active or Inactive
• Started Running Date
• Platforms
• Whether there are multiple versions of the ad
• Number of ads that use the same creative and text

Click “See Summary Details” for more info. This will take you to a summary page with all of the related ads.

Click “See Ad Details” on any of the ads to get further breakdowns.

1. European Union Transparency: Location, age, and gender used in targeting (Facebook was targeting worldwide).

And the total number of people reached in the EU, broken down by country, gender, and age.

2. About the Advertiser: Basic details about the company running the ads.

3. Beneficiary and Payer: Ads that run in the European Union are required to disclose the beneficiary (the name of the business or individual benefitting from the ad) and payer (the business or individual paying for it). In many cases, it will be the same.

All Other Ads

For everyone else, you’ll get an overview of the active and inactive ads, but that’s pretty much it.

You can click “See ad details,” but there’s not a whole lot there.

You won’t get any of the details you found for political ads or those in the European Union related to the amount spent, estimated audience size, breakdown of the audience, and more. It’s mostly just the ad.

Branded Content

There’s also a link in the main navigation to Branded Content within the Meta Ad Library.

Branded Content isn’t “advertising” in the way the rest of these ads are set up. These are paid partnerships where one party creates content to promote another.

Select the platform (Facebook or Instagram), when that Branded Content appeared, and the name of the business or creator.

You’ll get a summary of the Branded Content that was published during that time period for the searched business or creator.

Click “See Post” to see it.

How You Can Use This Information

You’ll see a lot of advertisers talk about using this to “spy on the competition.” Sure. I guess you could do that. It’s not what I do. But, I see this as a far less intrusive tool.

The primary way that I use it is to see how a one-on-one client is currently using ads. When I prepare for a call, I may access their active ads by going to the Page Transparency section of their Facebook page. That helps me get a better sense of what they’re doing now before even getting on a call.

The second could be as inspiration. There are plenty of ad libraries out there used for this purpose (Meta has a separate library for creative inspiration), but you could run a search based on specific keywords related to your industry to see what others are doing.

Of course, you won’t get any details on how much was spent on those ads (outside of the European Union) or how they performed, but it would be asking quite a bit to get that type of info.

Your Turn

Do you use the Meta Ad Library? For what purpose?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Meta Ad Library: A Detailed Guide appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Meta advertisers who promote special ad categories have a challenge. Among the restrictions they face, the biggest complaint is related to the lack of targeting control. But you still can get results using special ad categories.

When creating a campaign, this is one of the first things you’ll need to declare if your promotion falls within one of these categories:

• Credit
• Employment
• Housing
• Social Issues, Elections, or Politics

Once you do, your options within the ad set and ad are adjusted to prevent you from violating rules.

In this post, we’ll discuss the challenges advertisers face when promoting special ad categories and where you should focus to get good results.

The Challenge

One reason for special ad categories is that Meta wants to prevent you from breaking rules that could potentially get them in trouble (and you, of course). We saw this with Cambridge Analytica and the special ad category related to Social Issues, Elections, or Politics. But we also see this regarding discrimination claims related to the special ad categories of Credit, Employment, and Housing.

This post is focused largely on those three since the selection of any of them as a special ad category will significantly impact your targeting control.

Following are examples of how your targeting inputs are restricted:

1. Age: Restricted to 18 to 65+.

2. Gender: Fixed to all genders.

3. Detailed Targeting: Some detailed targeting options will be unavailable. No ability to exclude any detailed targeting.

4. Location: Must include all areas within a 15-mile radius of any location. No ability to target by postal code or zip code.

5. Custom Audiences: You must be sure that your audiences do not discriminate.

6. Lookalike Audiences: Unavailable.

If you found success in these lines of business before special ad categories became a thing, you probably struggled to adjust once these restrictions went into effect. It was a completely different world.

Some failed and gave up. But the reality is that you can still have success with special ad categories. And what’s interesting is that the evolution of Meta ad targeting towards algorithmic audience expansion and fewer targeting inputs may work in your favor.

That said, there are also approaches that are unlikely to work now without some sort of targeting control. But this is true of Meta ad targeting generally now, special ad category or not.

The difference is that while certain strategies no longer work for Meta advertisers generally, you can usually mitigate those issues with targeting inputs. That’s not the case with special ad categories.

Here are some important steps to get the most out of special ad categories…

1. Prioritize Conversions

The challenge faced when promoting special ad categories isn’t uncharted territory. Some of the solutions are rather obvious.

You can’t edit age or gender, you say? No lookalike audiences and limited detailed targeting? That’s… kind of what advertising is now for everyone.

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns don’t allow for any targeting inputs. Advantage+ Audience, which is the default for all objectives, uses your inputs as suggestions before going much broader.

But, just as is the case when using Advantage+ Shopping, Advantage+ Audience, and any audience expansion, you’re most likely to get the best results when optimizing for some sort of conversion — especially a purchase.

If you’re promoting something related to employment, credit, or housing, make sure to set a performance goal that aligns with a conversion event.

Another option worth considering is using instant forms to optimize for a lead.

If you’re skeptical because you’re worried about quality, hang with me. We’ll get to that.

2. Avoid Top-of-Funnel Optimization

This goes hand in hand with prioritizing conversions. Back in the “good old days,” you could probably find some success optimizing for engagement or link clicks while promoting some of these categories because you could restrict who sees your ads. Those days are over.

And because of that, you’re more likely than ever to get low-quality results and reach irrelevant people. Why? Because Meta’s ad delivery algorithm has no concern for finding people who necessarily care about what you’re offering. It’s only trying to get you as many of the actions as possible that match your performance goal within your budget.

Let’s provide an example related to special ad categories…

You’re trying to promote a job opening and you want to get more applicants. If you optimize for leads, the algorithm will optimize and make adjustments based on getting you more leads. If you optimize for post engagement, the algorithm will focus on getting you people who will engage with your ad.

That engagement could come from anywhere, and the algorithm will make adjustments to make sure that you get more of it if possible. But that doesn’t mean this engagement will come from people who are looking for a job. The algorithm doesn’t care.

The algorithm doesn’t technically care if people are looking for a job when optimizing for a lead either. But it will learn from the people who complete that form to show your ads to more people like them.

3. Define Precisely What You Want

This might be the most important secret to Meta advertising success. When advertisers fail to get good results, they’re quick to point the finger at Meta. But the problem starts with you.

Meta couldn’t get you good results partly because you did a bad job of defining precisely what you want. This is absolutely critical. The algorithm is literal.

That’s reflected in the first two steps. Don’t set a performance goal for post engagement if what you ultimately want is a lead. But it goes deeper than that.

What is your end goal of setting up this campaign? Is it getting a qualified candidate for a job opening? A phone call with a potential home buyer? An application completion for a credit card?

When possible, these are the things you should optimize for. You’ll get less volume, so you’ll need the budget to pull it off. And there may be some additional technical steps to set up.

You can optimize for conversion leads instead of leads, for example.

When you do this, Meta will follow leads through your funnel to see if they ultimately perform a conversion (this requires additional setup and patience).

You could potentially optimize for offline conversions that reflect things like a phone call completed or CRM tag added to a contact. Think of what your goal is and how you measure when that goal happens.

4. Lead Quality 101

As I said earlier, much of the responsibility falls on you to help Meta understand what it is you want so that the ad delivery algorithm can optimize and adjust for that action. You can accomplish that with performance goals. But you can also do things that impact who is able to complete your form. Meta will learn from this and it impacts delivery.

For example, you could provide a streamlined form that only requires first name and email address. You will get more volume of leads this way, but you’ll also get lower quality.

Lead Quality 101 is a balance of quality and quantity. Make your form as quick and easy as possible to complete and you’ll get more leads, but most won’t convert. Create an extremely complicated form that takes time to complete, and you’ll get very few leads — but those who do are more likely to be qualified.

Here are a few strategies you can try to increase your lead quality:

1. Ask more questions.

Make sure that you get more of the information that you need to help determine whether this is a qualified lead. Don’t ask questions for the sake of it, but increase quality by making it slightly more time consuming to complete the form.

2. Ask questions that require longer answers.

One of the benefits of Facebook instant forms is that they can pre-fill some of the personal data into the form fields. But that’s not great for lead quality. Ask questions that will require a thoughtful answer.

3. Use Lead Filtering.

You know that some lead characteristics are qualifying and disqualifying. You can use lead filtering so that if someone provides an answer that disqualifies them, they are unable to complete the form.

4. Don’t use the “More Volume” form type.

When using instant forms, there are three different form types to choose from:

• More Volume
• Higher Intent
• Custom (or Rich Creative)

More Volume will give you a streamlined form, Higher Intent splits it into a few steps, and Rich Creative allows you to build out a robust form with multiple sections.

For all of these tips, keep in mind that some special ad categories have rules related to the types of data you can collect in lead forms. In some cases, you cannot collect personal information such as age, gender, relationship status, and location information.

Craft Copy and Creative Carefully

Let’s stick with the theme.

This isn’t about using engagement bait or click bait to get people clicking our ads. It’s about using copy and creative to make sure that our ads attract the people we most want to click on them.

Be clear about whom your ads are for. Address their needs and pain points and show how your product is the solution.

You do not want your ad to attract everyone. If you create a generic ad that could appeal to all people, you’ll get generic and low-quality results.

Special ad categories may prevent you from accessing certain targeting inputs, but your ads can act as your targeting.

Just be sure that you continue to follow all rules related to special ad categories and discrimination.

Your Turn

Have you had success promoting special ad categories? What strategies have you used?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How to Get Results Using Special Ad Categories appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Meta first announced Special Ad Categories in 2019. This was largely the result of legal and legislative pressures on Meta related to the types of advertising that were allowed on the platform.

When you create a campaign, you are required to specify if you are running an ad to promote a Special Ad Category.

Categories include:

• Credit
• Employment
• Housing
• Social Issues, Elections, or Politics

Most ads will not qualify. But if you run ads in any of these categories, your targeting may be restricted to prevent you from discrimination and violating applicable laws. This protects both you and Meta.

Additionally, there may be additional verification required in order to run these ads.

You’ll find that the requirements are mostly the same for Credit, Employment, and Housing. Let’s go through each Special Ad Category and what it entails…

Credit

Select the Credit ad category…

Includes: Ads that promote a credit opportunity (credit card offers, auto loans, personal or business loan services, mortgage loans, long-term financing, etc.). See a full list of what the Credit category does and doesn’t include here.

When:

• You’re an advertiser in the US
• Your target audience is in the United States, Canada or certain parts of Europe

Purpose: Prevent discrimination.

Targeting Restrictions:

1. Age: Generally restricted to 18 to 65+ with no ability to narrow your audience, though there are some exceptions in Europe.

2. Gender: Fixed to all genders and you are unable to edit this selection.

3. Detailed Targeting: Some detailed targeting options will be unavailable. You will not be able to exclude any detailed targeting.

4. Location: Must include all areas within a 15-mile radius of any location. No ability to target by postal code or zip code.

5. Custom Audiences: You must be sure that your audiences do not discriminate.

6. Lookalike Audiences: Unavailable.

7. Saved Audiences: Unavailable.

Form Restrictions: When using instant forms for lead ads, you cannot collect personal information such as age, gender, relationship status, and location information.

Employment

Select the Employment ad category…

Includes: Ads that promote an employment opportunity (part-time jobs, full-time jobs, internships, professional certification programs, etc.). Includes job fairs and boards. See a full list of what the Employment category does and doesn’t include here.

When:

• You’re an advertiser in the US
• Your target audience is in the United States, Canada or certain parts of Europe

Purpose: Prevent discrimination.

Targeting Restrictions:

1. Age: Generally restricted to 18 to 65+ with no ability to narrow your audience.

2. Gender: Fixed to all genders and you are unable to edit this selection.

3. Detailed Targeting: Some detailed targeting options will be unavailable. You will not be able to exclude any detailed targeting.

4. Location: Must include all areas within a 15-mile radius of any location. No ability to target by postal code or zip code.

5. Custom Audiences: You must be sure that your audiences do not discriminate.

6. Lookalike Audiences: Unavailable.

7. Saved Audiences: Unavailable.

Form Restrictions: When using instant forms for lead ads, you cannot collect personal information such as age, gender, relationship status, and location information.

Housing

Select the Housing ad category…

Includes: Ads that promote a housing opportunity (listings for the sale or rental of a home or apartment, homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance, mortgage loans, housing repairs, home equity or appraisal services, etc.). See a full list of what the Housing category does and doesn’t include here.

When:

• You’re an advertiser in the US
• Your target audience is in the United States, Canada or certain parts of Europe

Purpose: Prevent discrimination.

Targeting Restrictions:

1. Age: Generally restricted to 18 to 65+ with no ability to narrow your audience.

2. Gender: Fixed to all genders and you are unable to edit this selection.

3. Detailed Targeting: Some detailed targeting options will be unavailable. You will not be able to exclude any detailed targeting.

4. Location: Must include all areas within a 15-mile radius of any location. No ability to target by postal code or zip code.

5. Custom Audiences: You must be sure that your audiences do not discriminate.

6. Lookalike Audiences: Unavailable.

7. Saved Audiences: Unavailable.

Social Issues, Elections, or Politics

Select the Social Issues, Elections, or Politics ad category…

Includes:

1. Ads made by, on behalf of, or about a candidate for public office, a political figure, or political party
2. Ads about any election, referendum or ballot initiative
3. Ads regulated as political advertising
4. Ads about social issues (sensitive topics that are heavily debated) in any place where the ad is placed

Purpose: Protect election integrity.

Verification: As you can see in the image above, any advertiser looking to run ads in this category must first confirm their identity. Only advertisers that reside in the targeted country at the time they run ads will be accepted.

Disclaimer: Once an ad account is approved to run ads in this category, you will need to connect a page and include a disclaimer to provide transparency about who paid for the ad.

Targeting Restrictions: You can only target a country where you’re authorized to run ads about social issues, elections, or politics.

Targeting Challenges

Make no mistake, targeting will be a more significant challenge than in the past while using Special Ad Categories. You may know who your target market is, but you may not have the ability to isolate that type of person.

This also coincides with an improvement in machine learning and a growing popularity to go broad with targeting. The hope here is that when you optimize for a goal action, Meta’s ad algorithm will do a good job of learning who acts and find more people like that.

While it may be frustrating, these controls are meant to protect you.

A Note on Special Ad Audiences

There was a time when Special Ad Audiences were available as an alternative to lookalike audiences. These were discontinued in 2022.

Know and Follow the Rules

If you aren’t sure whether what you are promoting technically falls within one of these Special Ad Categories, you have two primary options:

1. Contact Meta for confirmation

2. Select the Special Ad Category anyway

What you shouldn’t do is try to get around these rules. It’s the surest way to get your ad account and possibly more shut down. It’s a risk that is not worth taking.

Ultimately, the selection of these categories are meant to protect you. Once you take that step of transparency, Meta will remove certain options from the setup process. This prevents you from accidentally violating rules and possibly laws.

Your Turn

Do you run ads that fall within these Special Ad Categories? What has your experience been?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Special Ad Categories: A Guide for Meta Ads appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

As you likely know, there are special rules that Facebook advertisers must follow to run ads related to politics and social issues. But, if you run ads in the US, you should be aware of a restriction period that is approaching for the midterm elections.

Here’s what you need to know…

The Restriction Period

If you are running ads related to politics and social issues in the US, there will be a special restriction period running from 12:01 AM PT on Tuesday, November 1, 2022, through 11:59 PM PT on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.

No new ads will be approved during this period.

This is important. If you’re running ads for a client, you cannot wait until the last minute to submit them. If they aren’t running prior to November 1, they will not get approved until after November 8.

In other words, this isn’t just about submitting ads prior to November 1. According to Meta, “the ads must be created with a valid disclaimer and have delivered an impression” prior to that time.

Do not wait.

What You Can and Can’t Do

If your ads received an impression in time, you’ll be able to take the following actions during the restriction period:

• Edit the budget, bid, and scheduled end date
• Pause and unpause the ads that were already running

That’s not much. Presumably, you won’t be able to do anything else. But, Facebook specifically lists the following actions that won’t be allowed. You can’t…

• Edit ad copy and creative
• Edit targeting, placement, optimization, or objective
• Remove or add a disclaimer

Get Going Now

Because of the likely increased volume of ad submissions as well as added scrutiny that political and social issues ads will require, you should expect approval time to take longer. As a result, you absolutely need to get going soon to make sure that your ads get approved and get that necessary impression prior to the restriction period.

If you haven’t submitted ads within these categories before, you’ll need to first get authorization to run them. You’ll also need to get a disclaimer approved. Facebook recommends getting this done by October 18.

You should expect delays and possible rejections of your ads. So, build in a week for approval prior to the restriction period. Submit your ad by October 25, if you can.

Additional Resources

If you have questions related to the process of running political and social issues ads, check the following resources:

• Ad Restrictions Best Practices
• Elections Hub
• Elections FAQ

Watch Video

Your Turn

The restriction period makes sense. Facebook doesn’t want to accidentally allow ads that violate rules, potentially impacting elections. This gives Meta time to make sure that what runs during the final week is within the rules.

Have you started the process on submitting your political and social issues ads?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Facebook Ads Restriction Period for Politics and Social Issues in the US appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

If you run Facebook ads under a Special Ad Category, you should know that Facebook Special Ad Audiences are going away.

In this post, let’s shed light on what they are, the timeline for their removal, and what you can do instead.

Let’s go…

What Are They?

Special Ad Audiences are only relevant to those running ads promoting a Special Ad Category. Special Ad Categories are sensitive topics that require adjusted rules. You would declare a Special Ad Category while creating the campaign.

If you run ads for housing, credit, employment, social issues, elections, or politics, you need to declare that. Once you do, your options will change to prevent you from violating certain rules. If you fail to declare a Special Ad Category in order to get around these restrictions, expect to get ads rejected and potentially your ad account shut down.

So, once you declare a Special Ad Category, your targeting for Housing, Credit, and Employment will be significantly restricted. This is to prevent ads that discriminate based on age, gender, and even location. Instead of creating Lookalike Audiences for Housing, Credit, and Employment, you can create Special Ad Audiences (note that Special Ad Audiences do not apply to Elections, Politics, and Social Issues).

As noted, Special Ad Audiences are a lot like Lookalike Audiences in that they allow you to create an audience of people similar to those in a source audience of people who are close to you (you can’t otherwise create Lookalike Audiences for Housing, Credit, and Employment ads).

The difference is that a Special Ad Audience is adjusted to comply with the restrictions related to the Special Ad Category. It won’t use information like age and gender or certain demographics, behaviours, or interests.

Deprecation Timeline

Of course, Special Ad Audiences are going away due to Meta’s settlement agreement with HUD. While this specifically impacts housing, Facebook will be removing Special Ad Audiences for all Special Ad Categories.

Following is the timeline from Meta regarding the deprecation of Special Ad Audiences:

1. August 25, 2022: you will no longer be able to create new special ad audiences.
2. September 13, 2022: special ad audiences will no longer be available for use in new ad creation via the API.
3. October 12, 2022: Special ad audiences will no longer be available for use in new ad creation across Ads Manager and the API. After this date, affected ad sets may be paused for delivery. To resume delivery of the paused ad sets you will need to update them to remove Special Ad Audiences.

Like most changes, this appears to be a rollout considering I’m still able to create Special Ad Audiences through Ads Manager for now.

According to this timelin, you’ll no longer be able to use Special Ad Audiences in new ads via the API on September 13 and Ads Manager on October 12. That said, if you have ad sets running now targeting Special Ad Audiences, they’ll continue to run until October 12. After that point, they’ll pause.

What Should You Do Instead?

Whether you pivot now or wait until Special Ad Audiences are taken away, start preparing now. What should you do?

Facebook isn’t particularly helpful on this point. Their advice is “exploring broader targeting options.”

I don’t run ads promoting Special Ad Categories, so I can’t speak on their effectiveness — or the loss incurred when they go away. But, I have heard from some using Special Ad Audiences who have seen success with them.

The problem, of course, is that your options are limited. While Facebook’s recommendations of exploring broader targeting options feels insufficient, I struggle to provide much more advice here. You can’t use Lookalike Audiences. You can continue to explore the interests and behaviors that are available when using Special Ad Categories. You can go entirely broad without interests and behaviors. But, that’s pretty much it.

The one question I have is whether you will always be running ads under a Special Ad Category or only in specific situations. An example I’ve heard of is related to a car dealership. The dealership business itself isn’t a Special Ad Category, but the credit portion is. They could conceivably run more targeted ads when credit isn’t part of the experience.

Like always, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach here. You should experiment and find what works for you. If you have a sizeable budget, you can experiment with multiple approaches at once. If you have a limited budget, focus on one approach at a time.

I don’t expect this to be a significant loss. Special Ad Audiences were quite broad already and required the algorithm to help isolate an effective audience within it. That will continue to be the case when you go broad.

Your Turn

Do you run ads promoting Special Ad Categories? What will you do instead of using Special Ad Audiences?

Let me know in the comments below!

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