View Housing Ad Changes
View Employment Ad Changes
View Credit Ad Changes
View HEC Ad Targeting Changes
View Updated Timeline for HEC Ad Changes
In Q3 of 2019 Facebook is making drastic changes to Facebook Ads Manager’s targeting options for ads serving the housing, employment, and credit industries (HEC ads). These changes are due to several lawsuits Facebook settled in Q1 of 2019 where several organizations brought forward examples of discrimination in Facebook’s targeting options within the HEC ad categories. Here’s what marketing agencies and companies need to know about the upcoming changes.
Infinity Marketing was updated in June of 2019 by Facebook on the specific changes within each HEC category. Those changes are listed below.
Here’s the specific triggers for Housing, Employment, and Credit in the HEC ad categories. Your ads will be limited by targeting options if your ad includes any of the following:
Full Explanation of Limited Targeting Options in HEC Ads
What this means for advertisers is these basic targeting options within Facebook Ads Manager will not be available for HEC ads. In the image below, everything in red will be unavailable. Also remember that while these basic options are going away, so is “multicultural affinity targeting,” which has yet to be clearly defined by Facebook.
Facebook HEC Targeting | Infinity Marketing
The timeline for implementation for these changes had been fluid and is subject to change, but here’s what we as of June 2019:
July — API Documentation will be available
August — 100% availability of new flow in Ads Manager, enforcement for all new and edited ads created via Ads Manager.
October — 100% availability of all surfaces, enforcement for all new and edited ads created via any surface. Facebook defines a surface as any tool managing a Facebook ad that is not created or managed within the Facebook Ads Manager.
End of Year —Rollout of new functionality for Housing ads in Ad Library. This will be a new view for users to scroll through any housing ad running on Facebook or Instagram.
Facebook News Release from Sheryl Sandberg: Doing More to Protect Against Discrimination in Housing, Employment and Credit Advertising
Facebook Does Have to Respect Civil-Rights Legislation, After All