Facebook’s Special Advertising Category

Facebook has recently more widely introduced special ad categories and that is being utilized by every Local SEO Agency. In the past, a specific ad category has only affected campaigns in the U.S. or the U.S. and Canada. Now, according to Facebook’s help website, this policy has been extended to certain European countries, and the policy has entered into force in December 2021.

Many advertisers have recently come across a message stating that an ad has been disapproved for not complying with our advertising policies. This is because the ad in question belongs to a special ad category. These services/products belonging to a special advertising category are Credit, employment, housing. In addition, a special category of advertising includes social issues, elections, and policies that add the payer of advertising to advertising.

When you select a specific ad category, creating audiences is more limited to demographics and interests. These restrictions include age, gender, zip code, restrictive/negative targeting, similarity-based audiences, and saved audiences.

What are the specific ad categories on Facebook?

  • Credit:If you advertise credit-like or credit-comparable services, you’ll need to add a special ad category, ‘Credit,’ in the future. These include e.g. loans (housing and car loans and other personal loan services), corporate loan services, credit card offers and another financing.
  • Employment:Recruitment announcements and other employment-related ads will require a special ad category selection in the future. This includes all job advertisements (part-time, full-time or fixed-term work), internships or various employment-oriented programs or professional certification programs. This special category also applies to service providers that promote employment, such as advertisements that market job search sites or services, job search events, or job benefits offered by a company.
  • Dwellings:In the future, a special ad category will include all dwelling-related ads, such as ads for renting and selling homes. In addition, the special category includes services related to housing, such as insurance (home insurance, mortgage insurance), mortgage, home renovation work and services. However, the guidelines state that this category does not include advertisements that provide information to consumers or service providers about their rights and responsibilities in relation to housing and housing.
  • Societal Issues, Elections, or Politics:This category includes advertisements for all elections, referendums or citizens’ initiatives, polling campaigns, and election campaigns. The category of advertising must be chosen when the advertiser is a candidate, a political person, or a party. Social issues related to advertising that addresses social issues. Find out more about these social issues here. Please note! An advertiser in this special category must be authorized to advertise and add a Payer Ad to their campaign.

How do I choose a specific ad category?

  1. Open Ad Manager. Create a new campaign or edit an existing campaign (if a campaign ad has been disapproved)
  2. In the campaign settings, select specific ad categories.
  3. Under Categories, select the ad category you want to use
  4. Under Countries, select the country location to use.

If you’ve been notified of a disapproved ad, please add a special ad category to your campaign, re-select your audience settings, and request a review of your ad from Facebook again. Do not forget to get it done by any established SEO company.