What Changed for Housing, Job and Credit Ads in 2019?

Meta announced the change on 19 March 2019. Anyone running housing, employment or credit ads would no longer be allowed to target by age, gender or zip code, and would have a much smaller set of targeting categories overall. The post gives no start date and does not use the term special ad category. Today the same idea works through the category you declare when you create a campaign.

What did Meta announce on 19 March 2019?

The post, written by Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, says the changes came from settlement agreements with the National Fair Housing Alliance, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Communications Workers of America and other groups. It lists three changes:

• Housing, employment and credit ads can no longer target by age, gender or zip code.
• These ads get a much smaller set of targeting categories overall. Multicultural affinity targeting stays unavailable, and so does any detailed targeting option that describes or appears to relate to a protected class.
• Meta said it was building a tool to search all current housing ads in the US, targeted to different places across the country, whether or not the ads were shown to you.

The post also says Meta had already removed thousands of targeting categories related to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion. If you sold homes, jobs or loans, these were the inputs taken away from your ad sets.

Why did Meta make the change?

The post says there is a long history of discrimination in housing, employment and credit, and that this should not happen through Facebook ads. It adds that the NFHA, the ACLU, the CWA and other private parties had filed litigation against Meta “last year”, meaning 2018, saying it needed stronger protections against abuse. Meta also named a civil rights audit and a law firm it hired to review its ads tools.

For you, the reason matters because the rule is about the kind of ad, not the kind of business. A job post from a shop can fall under it, even if the rest of your ads do not.

What did the 2019 post leave out?

Three things. It gives no effective date for the new limits. It does not name the countries they cover, apart from the US housing-ads tool. And it does not use the label special ad category, so you cannot date that term from this page. Meta’s current Help Center is the place to confirm scope and wording.

How do the limits work today?

Meta’s help pages say that when you choose a special ad category at campaign creation, it applies extra audience restrictions as a preventative measure against discrimination. This table sets the 2019 announcement beside the current help page:

Targeting option	2019 announcement	Meta’s help page today
Age	No longer allowed	Generally fixed to 18 through 65+
Gender	No longer allowed	Must include all genders; you cannot edit it
Zip or postal code	No longer allowed	Not available; you can still use country, region, state, province or city
Detailed targeting	Protected-class options unavailable	Some options unavailable; excluding detailed targeting unavailable
Lookalike audiences	Not mentioned	Limited or unavailable; Advantage+ lookalike unavailable

The current page also says city-based audiences get an expanded radius. Its example is a 15-mile radius around Seattle’s city center. Meta says advertisers running credit ads in Europe can pick a different age range. Check the linked help pages before you build, because the country list and options change.

What should you do now?

Decide whether the ad promotes a housing opportunity, a job or a financial product, and declare the matching special ad category when you create the campaign. Meta says an ad may be rejected if you meet the conditions and skip it. Meta also says a saved audience is updated to comply with the restrictions, so re-check any audience you reuse. Plan your audience around location and creative, not age or gender.

FAQ

Did the 2019 changes apply outside the US?

The 2019 post does not list countries for the targeting limits. Today’s help page says the restrictions apply to advertisers based in the US or US territories, and to advertisers showing ads to audiences in the US or US territories, Canada and certain European countries and territories. Confirm your market on that page.

Is a credit ad the same as a financial products and services ad?

Not quite. Meta says the Credit category has been replaced by Financial products and services. That category has been required since 21 January 2025 for advertisers based in the US or showing such ads to US audiences. Meta says its policy for credit ads, a subset of it, does not change.

Can I still choose an age range for a housing ad?

Meta’s page says the options are generally fixed to ages 18 through 65+ for housing, employment and credit ads, and audiences must include all genders. The exception it names is credit ads in Europe, where advertisers can select a different age range to meet industry and local requirements.