Facebook’s Special Ads Category for Housing by Tracy Wisneski
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d targeting abuses on Facebook were brought to light in 2016 and ended in a payout of nearly $5 million to settle several lawsuits alleging ad discrimination in housing, credit and employment on Facebook. In response, Facebook has now rolled out its Special Ads Category that applies to all ads for the three targeted industries. What does this mean for REALTORS®? The Special Ads Category is now part of Ads Manager that requires agents to designate housing ads by using the Special Ads Category, which restricts their access to targeting data. If it is not yet connected to your Facebook Ads Manager, you’ll be getting it very soon. The restrictions are severe and it is questionable if they are all required in order to uphold Fair Housing protections, but that discussion will likely evolve over time. Let’s examine the important aspects of the Special Ads Category and how to make the best use of the tools currently available. At the top of the campaign creation in Ads Manager, there is a box that must be checked when creating an ad that is categorized as housing, credit and employment. Toggle to housing for real estate ads and several settings will then become part of your audience creation. Zip codes, age, gender, behaviors and demographic targeting are not available in the Special Ads Category. Age is set to 18-65+ and gender is set to “all”. Behavior and demographic targeting are completely unavailable. Demographic restrictions can be questionable for various valid objectives, such as targeting homeowners for homeowner ads, and renters for rental and firsttime home buyer ads. Another example would be the objective of targeting people 55 and over for listings in designated 55+ communities. There are several other valid, nondiscriminatory objectives for these categories, but as of now, they are currently unavailable.
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TAMPA REALTOR® • November - December 2019
Redlining is a very serious issue that it is important to prevent. In response to accusations that zip codes were being used for redlining, zip codes are now a restricted target in all housing ads. The minimum area that can be used for targeting is now an address or map pin plus 15 miles. This is to ensure that everyone within at least a 15-mile radius from a listing has access to the ad. At this time, this larger radius applies to all real estate ads, not just ads advertising specific listings, thus making it more expensive for agents to reach homeowners in their smaller farming areas. For example, if your farm area is Carrollwood, your homeowner ads would still be served to homes as far as Seffner (15 miles in a straight line from your pin could potentially translate to as much as 25 miles for the actual drive). Farming is among the oldest and most widely used farming methods allowing REALTORS® to specialize in smaller areas, so I wonder if there may eventually be an approved method for farming ads on Facebook that is in line with Fair Housing laws. Language is still an allowable target Language is open to targeting allowing agents to include the language(s) of their choice. Language can be used as just one setting if you only use one language, and users are also able to create ads in more than one language if desired. Some interests are allowable targeting methods, and others are restricted. Some interest targeting that is still available include such helpful interests as Zillow, Realtor.com, renting, rent.com, homeowner association, home improvement and others. Several interests are not allowable targeting methods, because it is alleged that such targeting may unfairly discriminate against certain audiences. Among the restricted interests are golf and equestrian that could create a