As part of our ongoing efforts to promote fairness and equity in our advertising platform, starting October 2024, Meta will introduce a new Special Ad Category "Financial products and services" for advertisers promoting financial products and services. In early 2025, using this category will be required for financial products and services campaigns for advertisers based in the United States or showing ads to audiences in the United States. Ads may be rejected if an appropriate category is not chosen. Learn more about the update here.
For API developers
FINANCIAL_PRODUCTS_SERVICES
will be available for the special ad categories field. This input will eventually replace the CREDIT
input in Q1 2025.CREDIT
input will be deprecated, and developers must have migrated to the FINANCIAL_PRODUCTS_SERVICES
input. It is recommended that you prioritize this update well in advance of the deprecation date to minimize disruption for your customers.CREDIT
input is deprecated, both CREDIT
and FINANCIAL_PRODUCTS_SERVICES
inputs are available. It is important to note that CREDIT
and FINANCIAL_PRODUCTS_SERVICES
cannot be selected at the same time for a single campaign. Only one (CREDIT
or FINANCIAL_PRODUCTS_SERVICES
) may be used of the two choices.HOUSING
, EMPLOYMENT
, and CREDIT
special ad categories inputs will also apply to the new FINANCIAL_PRODUCTS_SERVICES
input. All businesses using the Marketing API must identify whether or not new and edited campaigns belong to a Special Ad Category. Current available categories are: housing, employment, credit, or issues, elections, and politics. Businesses whose ads do not belong to a Special Ad Category must indicate NONE
or send an empty array in the special_ad_categories
field.
Note: When any special_ad_categories
are selected, you must also set a special_ad_category_country
.
Businesses running housing, employment, or credit ads must comply with audience restrictions. Audience options for ads about social issues, elections or politics are not affected by the special_ad_categories
label.
All advertisers are required to specify special ad categories in their advertising campaign creations. The special ad category field can contain one or more of the following:
HOUSING
CREDIT
or FINANCIAL_PRODUCTS_SERVICES
EMPLOYMENT
ISSUES_ELECTIONS_POLITICS
NONE
Even if the campaign does not contain ads that include market housing, employment, credit, or issues, elections, and politics, advertisers must still specify a category by choosing NONE
or sending us an empty array.
If selecting housing, employment, or credit, the set of targeting options available for ads in these campaigns will be restricted.
If selecting issues, elections, or politics, you will be asked to select the country in which you want to run these ads. You are required to be authorized to run ads about social issues, elections, or politics in the specified country.
All campaign creations require the special_ad_categories
field. If your campaign does not need a special ad category, you can pass in an empty array or use NONE
as the value.
curl -X POST \
-F 'name="My special category campaign"' \
-F 'objective="LINK_CLICKS"' \
-F 'status="PAUSED"' \
-F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
-F 'special_ad_categories="[\'EMPLOYMENT\']"'\
https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0
/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/campaigns
Learn more about Special Ad Categories, Ads Help Center.
ISSUES_ELECTIONS_POLITICS
OptionAdvertisers running ads about social issues, elections, and politics need to specify special_ad_categories
when creating an ad campaign. In addition, they also have to set the authorization_category
flag at the ad creative level: use POLITICAL
for political ads, and beginning January 9, 2024, use POLITICAL_WITH_DIGITALLY_CREATED_MEDIA
for ads containing media that is digitally created or altered.
You can create entire campaigns with ads about issues, elections, and politics, instead of individual ads displaying this type of content. Inside a single ad campaign, you can no longer mix ads about issues, elections, and politics with ads not related to these topics. In addition, you can no longer mark individual ads as belonging to issues, elections, and politics.
To create an issue, elections, or politics campaign, pass ISSUES_ELECTIONS_POLITICS
inside the special_ad_categories
field. Advertisers are allowed to combine this category with others by passing multiple values into the field.
When any special_ad_categories
are selected, you must also set a special_ad_category_country
. This is the country you want to run ads about social issues, elections, or politics. The special_ads_category_country
:
To run issue, elections, or politics campaigns:
To create an issue, elections, or politics campaign:
curl -X POST \
-F 'name="My special category campaign"' \
-F 'objective="LINK_CLICKS"' \
-F 'status="PAUSED"' \
-F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
-F 'special_ad_categories="[\'ISSUES_ELECTIONS_POLITICS\']" '\
-F 'special_ad_category_country="[\'US\']" '\
https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0
/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/campaigns
To create a campaign with multiple categories:
curl -X POST \
-F 'name="My special category campaign"' \
-F 'objective="LINK_CLICKS"' \
-F 'status="PAUSED"' \
-F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
-F 'special_ad_categories="[\'EMPLOYMENT\', \'ISSUES_ELECTIONS_POLITICS\']" '\
-F 'special_ad_category_country="[\'US\']" '\
https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0
/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/campaigns
All current campaigns are assigned a default of NONE
to special_ad_category
. If you run ads in a Special Ad Category, you need to update as follows:
Re-create your campaign and specify special_ad_category
. See Create a new campaign for details.
Update your targeting settings and change your special_ad_category
:
tune_for_category
at the ad set level. When you use tune_for_category
, you are immediately compliant with the new restrictions:
curl -i -X POST \
-F 'tune_for_category=EMPLOYMENT'
https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0
/<ADSET_ID>
special_ad_category
with a POST
request to /<AD_CAMPAIGN_ID>
. Include your category information:
curl -i -X POST \
https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0
/<AD_CAMPAIGN_ID>?special_ad_category=EMPLOYMENT
When you use tune_for_category
, the result for your ad campaign and ad sets is as follows:
Supporting Features | Removed Features |
---|---|
|
|
Updated Features | Removed Features |
---|---|
|
|
To create an Ad Campaign with a special_ad_category
, follow the standard campaign creation flow and add special_ad_category
. Here is an example:
curl -X POST \
-F 'name="My special category campaign"' \
-F 'objective="LINK_CLICKS"' \
-F 'status="PAUSED"' \
-F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
-F 'special_ad_category=EMPLOYMENT' \
https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0
/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/campaigns
To create a campaign with NONE
as special_ad_category
:
curl -X POST \
-F 'name="My campaign"' \
-F 'objective="LINK_CLICKS"' \
-F 'status="PAUSED"' \
-F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
-F 'special_ad_category=NONE' \
https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0
/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/campaigns
See the [Campaign reference](/docs/marketing-api/reference/ad-campaign-group) for more infomation.
Advertisers running ads about housing, employment and credit need to specify special_ad_categories
while creating an ad campaign. When special_ad_categories
are selected, you should also set a special_ad_category_country
. The special_ad_category_country
for housing, employment, and credit ads:
Businesses outside the U.S. and targeting audiences outside the U.S., Canada, and Europe, where these restrictions currently apply, must also pass the Special Ad Category field, but can choose to opt-in or opt-out of targeting restrictions. Regardless of whether the campaign offers housing, employment, or credit opportunities, these businesses can either opt-out by indicating NONE
in the Special Ad Category field or opt-in to Special Ad Category targeting by designating your ad as offering housing, employment, or credit opportunities.
Learn more about compliance and enforcement.
If you want to target Europe and run ads related to credit, employment, or housing opportunities, you will be required to declare the relevant Special Ad Categories. Ads that fall into special ad categories have a smaller set of available targeting categories.
Advertisers running housing, employment, and credit ads, who are based in the US or running ads targeted to the US, Canada, or Europe have the following limitations on the ad set and ad levels:
HOUSING
under special_ad_category
.Advertisers offering housing, employment and credit opportunities, who are based in the United States or running ads targeted to the United States, Canada, or Europe have a limited set of targeting options to choose from. For example, targeting options describing or appearing to relate to protected classes which may include demographics, behaviors or interests, are unavailable.
These are the restrictions:
Options are generally fixed to include ages 18 through 65+ for housing, employment and credit ads. However, advertisers running credit ads in Europe can select a different age range in order to meet their industry and local requirements for this Special Ad Category.
Specific gender cannot be targeted. You have two options:
genders
parameters.genders
defaults to all genders.subcity
neighborhood
metro_area
small_geo_area
subneighborhood
electoral_district
zips
Unavailable. To reach new people, create a Special Ad Audience.
Beginning with the release of Marketing API v15.0, you will no longer be able to create Special Ad Audiences. This deprecation affects the following endpoints:
POST /{ad-account-id}/customaudiences?fields=subtype
POST /{custom-audience-id}
POST /{ad-account-id}/adsets?fields=subtype
POST /{ad-campaign}?fields=subtype
GET /{ad-account-id}/customaudiences?fields=operation_status
Please update your code to avoid errors.
Advertisers running housing, employment and credit ads do not have access to Lookalike Audiences. Instead they can create a Special Ad Audiences which will have more restrictions in terms of the factors that will be considered.
Create a new audience with a POST
request to /act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences
. subtype
should be set to REGULATED_CATEGORIES_AUDIENCE
.
curl -X POST \ -F 'origin_audience_id=<SEED_AUDIENCE_ID>' \ -F 'subtype=REGULATED_CATEGORIES_AUDIENCE' -F 'regulated_audience_spec={"country": "US", "ratio": 0.1}' \ https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences
Load your Special Ad Audience with a GET
request. Specify the information you want under fields
:
curl -X GET \ -d 'fields=regulated_audience_spec' https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/<AUDIENCE_ID>
Your results look like this:
"regulated_audience_spec": { "country": "US", "origin": [ { "id": "<SEED_AUDIENCE_ID>", "name": "My Seed Audience", "type": "custom_audience" } ], "ratio": 0.05, "type": "custom_ratio", "target_country_names": [ "United States" ] }
A campaign, ad set, or ad can be set to WITH_ISSUES
, if it can't be delivered for any reason. When reading an object, you can dig into WITH_ISSUES
to troubleshoot any problems with that object.
A call to an object with "effective_status": "WITH_ISSUES"
returns a field called issues_info
, with information related to the issues found. While working with Special Ad Category, you may see the following issues:
error_code | error_message | error_summary |
---|---|---|
| Certification Required | A business admin must review and accept our non-discrimination policy before you can run ads. They can find it by going to Business Settings, then System Users. Help Center link: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/338925176776440 |
| Custom Age Selection Is Not Available | The age range you selected for your audience isn't available when running ads in this Special Ad Category. Select the age range that meets your local and industry requirements for this Special Ad Category. |
| Saved Audiences Are Not Available | Using Saved Audiences is unavailable when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please remove all selected Saved Audiences. |
| Lookalike Audiences Are Not Available | Using Lookalike Audiences is unavailable when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please remove all selected Lookalike Audiences. To reach new people, you may create a Special Ad Audience. |
| Location Radius Selection Is Not Available | {category} is an unavailable location radius selection when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please select a location radius larger than the minimum required from your custom location. |
| Detailed Targeting Selection Not Available | The detailed targeting selection {name} ({id}) is unavailable when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please remove this targeting selection. |
| Location Exclusion Is Not Available | Excluding specific locations is unavailable when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please remove all location exclusions. |
| Custom Gender Selection Is Not Available | Custom gender selection is unavailable when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please update your audience to include all genders |
| Location Selection Is Not Available | {category} is an unavailable selection when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please remove this location selection. All location selections must include a minimum radius from any selected city, address or custom location. ZIP code selection is unavailable. |
| Detailed Targeting Exclusion Is Not Available | Excluding any behaviors, demographics or interests is unavailable when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please remove all detailed targeting exclusions. |
| Targeting Expansion Is Not Available | Using Targeting Expansion is unavailable when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please remove your Targeting Expansion selection. |
| Interest Selection Is Not Available | The detailed targeting selection {category} is unavailable when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please remove this targeting selection. |
| Cannot Use Bid Multipliers | You cannot use bid multipliers under a Special Ad Category. |
| Excluding Certain Audiences Is Not Available | Excluding Lookalike audiences and Special Ad Audiences is unavailable when running ads in this Special Ad Category. To resolve this issue and finish creating your campaign, please remove all Lookalike audience and Special Ad Audience exclusions. |
For help reading warnings and errors see our developer blog post about the subject.
Since December 4, 2019, businesses located in the US or targeting users in the US are required to identify new and edited ad campaigns that offer housing, employment, or credit opportunities, or their ads are not allowed to run. Since this date, businesses located in the US or targeting users in the US must specify a special_ad_category
for new and edited campaigns and use the limited audience criteria available for such campaigns. This applies across all ad buying surfaces, including the Marketing API.
February 11, 2020 is the milestone for active ads offering housing, employment, or credit opportunities.
Since March 31, 2020, all new and edited ads using the Marketing API, including all businesses that do not offer housing, employment or credit opportunities, which must specify NONE
under special_ad_category
.
Starting December 3, 2020, advertisers targeting Canada and running ads related to credit, employment, or housing opportunities are required to declare the relevant Special Ad Categories.
Starting December 7, 2021, advertisers targeting Europe and running ads related to credit, employment, or housing opportunities are required to declare the relevant Special Ad Categories.
In addition to requiring advertisers to self-identify their campaign category, we continue using human reviewers and machine-learning to identify these kinds of ads. If you send us an incorrect special_ad_category
, there is a risk your ads will be paused until the campaign is adjusted.
If you select HOUSING
, EMPLOYMENT
, or CREDIT
as special_ad_category
, all targeting restrictions will be enforced with a hard error.
Facebook is committed to protecting people from discrimination, and we are continually improving our ability to detect and deter potential abuse. It’s against our policies to discriminate by wrongfully targeting or excluding specific groups of people.
As part of a historic settlement agreement, we made changes to the way we manage housing, employment, and credit ads. Special Ad Categories were created to support that commitment. Advertisers offering housing, employment, or credit ads have limited targeting and audience selections.