Facebook Ad Changes for the Housing Industry

Facebook has officially rolled out its revised advertising platform for the housing industry. This is in response to the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) complaint against Facebook alleging that Facebook’s targeted advertising platform violates the Fair Housing Act, “encouraging, enabling, and causing” unlawful discrimination by restricting who can view housing ads.

Updated for 2024:

Meta (formerly Facebook) recently implemented significant changes to its advertising policies for the housing industry, primarily driven by a settlement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). These updates are designed to reduce discriminatory practices and ensure housing ads reach more appropriate audiences.

Key changes include:

1. Elimination of Special Ad Audiences: Meta has removed Special Ad Audiences, which allowed advertisers to expand their reach based on lookalike audience features. This change began in mid-2022 and was fully implemented in October 2022. Housing advertisers now need to explore new audience strategies to comply with these rules​(Carrot).
2. Restrictions on Audience Targeting: Advertisers can no longer target users based on age, gender, ZIP code, or other personal characteristics. Instead, location targeting must cover a minimum radius of 15 miles. This ensures broader, non-discriminatory outreach, impacting how real estate agents and developers approach their ad campaigns​(SageAge).
3. Increased Transparency: All active housing-related ads must be included in Facebook’s Ad Library, allowing the public to view the ads, even if they weren’t part of the advertiser’s intended audience​(SageAge).

To adapt, housing advertisers are encouraged to focus on more general targeting methods and test different strategies, such as optimizing top-of-funnel and middle-of-funnel campaigns​(

Carrot). Additionally, advertisers need to invest in accurate keyword targeting, content, and landing page optimization to maintain ad effectiveness in this new landscape.

Special Ad Category

Facebook has added a new “Special Ad Category” that each housing industry advertiser must adhere to by August 26, 2019.

Facebook has stated that “if you’re based in or intend to target audiences in the US and want to create an ad campaign that relates to credit, employment or housing, you must choose the category that best describes your ads. These are special categories for which audience selection tools are limited to help protect people on Facebook from unlawful discrimination.”

Facebook Audience Targeting Options

Facebook does provide guidance for Housing advertisers on what has changed with its platform. Facebook has stated previously that it was removing ad target options to “help prevent misuse.” Changes to targeting options include the ability for advertisers to exclude audiences that relate to ethnicity, religion, employment, age, gender or zip code.

For housing ads, the following audience options changed or are unavailable: 

• Locations: You can target your ads to people by geographic location (such as country, region, state, province, city or congressional district), but not by ZIP code. Specific locations you select will include a 15-mile radius around that targeted city, address or pin-drop.
• Age: You can’t edit this option. Audiences must include ages 18 through 65+. 
• Gender: You can’t edit this option. Audiences must include all genders. 
• Detailed Targeting: Some demographic, behavior and interest options are unavailable. Excluding any detailed targeting selections is also unavailable.

Source: Facebook Housing Guidelines As part of our ongoing efforts to promote fairness and equity on 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 targeting audiences in the United States. Ads may be rejected if an appropriate category is not chosen. Learn more about the update here.

The net result: advertisers in the housing sector will have a much smaller set of targeting options to use in their campaigns than they did previously. Advertisers will have to work harder and get more creative with their advertising in order to reach their intended audience.