Ads targeting the United States that feature credit, employment, or housing offers fall into special categories on Facebook. Facebook restricts targeting options for these categories to prevent discrimination on their platform.
If a campaign contains an ad in a special category it must be identified, to comply with Facebook’s advertising policies.
To identify a campaign containing special ads
In AdEspresso, the new campaign workflow includes a Special Category checkbox for campaigns that will contain any special category ads.
- Click New Campaign on the main navigation bar.
- Give your campaign a name, select the ad account to use, and add any tags to the campaign (optional).
- Check the box next to Special category if the campaign will contain any ads in one of the categories: credit, employment, or housing.
- Select the correct ad category from the drop-down.
- Credit (Ads for credit card offers, auto loans, long-term financing, or other related opportunities.)
- Employment (Ads for job offers, internships, professional certification programs, or other related opportunities.)
- Housing (Ads for real estate listings, homeowners insurance, mortgage loans, or other related opportunities.)
Your campaign is now properly identified, and its targeting options will be updated accordingly in the Audience step (3) of campaign creation.
Targeting limitations for special categories
Saved audiences and lookalike audiences cannot be used to target special category ads. Any special ad audiences created on Facebook can be selected from Custom Audiences. Learn more about special ad audiences
The following options are also unavailable:
- Targeting by ZIP code
- Targeting by age (all audiences will include ages 18 through 65+)
- Targeting by gender (all audiences will include all genders)
- Targeting by behaviors and demographics in Detailed Targeting
- Excluding a custom audience
- Excluding a location
- Excluding any Detailed Targeting options
- Targeting expansion
- Split testing multiple audiences
All specific locations will also include a 15-mile radius around the target selected.
Additional resources