Meta special ad categories: credit, employment, housing and social issues

This guide is built from the Meta Business Help Center: How to choose a Special Ad Category, Special Ad Categories have expanded and now include financial products and services, About ads for housing, employment or financial products and services, About audiences for housing, employment or financial products and services campaigns, Upcoming restrictions on customer list custom audiences, About ads about social issues, elections or politics, Availability for ads about social issues, elections or politics, About social issues, How ads about social issues, elections or politics are reviewed, Get authorized to run ads about social issues, elections or politics, Confirm your identity, Create disclaimers and link ad accounts and About Meta Ad Library, plus Meta's Discriminatory Practices policy and the Marketing API page on Special Ad Categories. Checked on 10 November 2026. Meta notes that its examples are not a full list and are not legal advice, and neither is this page. The short overview of the categories is in our Meta ads basics guide; this page covers what each category changes and how to set it up.

What a Special Ad Category is

When you create a campaign in Ads Manager, Meta asks whether it promotes a Special Ad Category. There are four:

• Financial products and services, which includes credit.
• Employment.
• Housing.
• Social issues, elections or politics.

The categories do two different jobs. For housing, employment and financial products and services, Meta limits the audience options "to help protect people from unlawful discrimination across our platforms". For social issues, elections or politics, Meta requires authorisation and a "Paid for by" disclaimer, and the ads go into the public Ad Library. Picking the right category is part of following the Advertising Standards, and Meta says ads may be rejected if an appropriate category is not chosen.

Behind the housing, employment and finance rules sits the Discriminatory Practices policy: ads must not discriminate against people based on personal attributes such as race, ethnicity, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family status or disability, and advertisers may not use the audience tools to wrongfully target or exclude specific groups.

Which ads count

Meta's examples are the best guide to where the line sits. In short, an ad counts when it promotes or links to an actual offer; general advice on the same subject does not.

Category	Covered (examples from Meta)	Not covered
Financial products and services	In the US, Canada and certain parts of Europe: brand ads for credit cards, loans (auto, mortgage, personal or business) and debt consolidation and relief. In the US also banking services such as checking and savings accounts, brand ads for financial products and services, pension or retirement funds, and 0% APR instalment payments including buy now, pay later. Meta's update notice also lists insurance, bank accounts, investment services and payment services.	Business-to-business-only financial products and services; tax and accounting services.
Housing	Sale, rental or temporary housing listings; homeowners, renters and mortgage insurance, including as part of bundles; mortgage loans; home equity or appraisal services; real estate and house hunting services.	Tips on homeownership or home buying; education about rights and responsibilities under fair housing laws.
Employment	Full-time and part-time jobs, apprenticeships, professional certification programmes, job boards, guaranteed interviews or career placement, and company perks promoted alongside job openings.	General work or career advice unrelated to specific listings; talking about a company without sharing job openings or perks.

The employment row catches more businesses than people expect: a restaurant or shop advertising its own vacancy is running an employment ad, whatever its usual industry.

Where the rules apply

The housing, employment and finance rules depend on where you are and who you reach. Meta's audience page says the limits apply to:

• advertisers based in the US or US territories, and
• advertisers showing ads to people in the US or US territories, Canada and certain European countries and territories.

Financial products and services is narrower. The category replaced the old Credit category in October 2024, and since 21 January 2025 it has been required for advertisers based in the United States or reaching audiences there. Outside the US, the existing credit rules still apply: credit ads reaching the US, Canada or certain parts of Europe must use the category. So a European bank advertising savings accounts only to a European audience is not in scope, but a European lender advertising loans to the same audience is.

For a business outside the US that only reaches audiences outside the US, Canada and Europe, the Marketing API documentation says the campaign must still pass the category field but can opt in or out of the audience restrictions.

Declaring the category

In Ads Manager the steps are short:

1. Create a campaign or open an existing one.
2. Select Special Ad Categories.
3. Below Categories, choose the category that applies.
4. Below Countries, choose the country or countries where the campaign will run.

Meta's housing, employment and finance page adds that choosing a category "doesn't impact how long it takes for us to review your ads", and that your audience does not become limited to people interested in housing, jobs or finance.

If you create campaigns through the Marketing API, every new or edited campaign needs the special_ad_categories field. The values are HOUSING, EMPLOYMENT, FINANCIAL_PRODUCTS_SERVICES and ISSUES_ELECTIONS_POLITICS; campaigns outside the categories send NONE or an empty array, and one campaign can carry more than one category. When a category is set, special_ad_category_country is needed too. For housing, employment and finance it defaults to your tax country; for politics it has to be a country where you and the Page are authorised.

What changes in your audience

Once a campaign is declared as housing, employment or financial products and services, these audience options are limited or removed:

• Age is generally fixed at 18 to 65+. Credit ads in Europe are the exception and can use a different age range to meet industry and local requirements.
• Gender: audiences must include all genders.
• Location: you can target a country, region, state, province or city, but not a ZIP or postal code, and you cannot exclude locations. City, address and pin drop targets get a wider radius: 15 miles (25 km) in the US and Canada, and 10 miles (17 km) in the listed European countries, which include the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland. Meta's example: target Seattle and you also reach people within 15 miles of the city centre.
• Detailed targeting: some demographic, behaviour and interest options are unavailable, and excluding detailed targeting is not possible.
• Lookalikes and saved audiences: lookalike audiences and Advantage+ lookalike are unavailable. If you use a saved audience, Meta updates it to comply.
• Catalogue ads: Advantage+ catalog ads get the same limits.

Meta's own advice is to "broaden—not restrict—your audience". In practice, the creative, the landing page and the conversion event do much of the work that targeting would do elsewhere, which is one more reason to have the Meta Pixel and Conversions API set up properly before launch. Our lookalike audiences guide covers how lookalikes work in campaigns where they are allowed.

Customer lists

In October 2024 Meta announced extra limits on customer list custom audiences for US housing, employment and finance ads, including a certification step and a ban on lists shared from other business portfolios. Meta's notice now says "We will not be rolling out these previously announced restrictions" and that no action is required. It also points out that its terms have not changed: you are still responsible for following the Business Tools Terms and the Advertising Standards when you upload a list.

Social issues, elections or politics

Meta treats an ad as being about social issues, elections or politics when it is made by, on behalf of or about a candidate, political figure, party or political action committee, or advocates for an election outcome; when it is about an election, referendum or ballot initiative, including "go out and vote" campaigns; when it is about a social issue in the place where it runs; or when it is regulated as political advertising.

Social issues are judged on the content of the ad and vary by country. Meta's review examples show the line: "We need better policies in place to make education affordable." needs authorisation and a disclaimer, while "Come to our job fair tomorrow! Doors open at 8am." does not. An ad celebrating a day or month such as Pride does not need a disclaimer unless it advocates on a social issue. Ads whose main purpose is selling a product or service may not count either, unless the product or service is about politicians, political parties, elections or legislation.

Two points matter for planning:

• Declare it up front. If you do not select the category and Meta decides the campaign includes such ads, the campaign is disapproved. A campaign cannot mix these ads with ordinary ads.
• The EU is closed to them. In response to the EU's Transparency and Targeting of Political Ads regulation, advertisers cannot create or edit ads about social issues, elections or politics in the European Union. The Marketing API page dates this from 6 October 2025.

Every one of these ads is added to the Ad Library, even if the advertiser has not finished authorisation, and stays there for seven years with details such as spend and the disclaimer. Our Ad Library guide explains what is shown.

Getting authorised

Meta says its ads transparency tools are available in 243 countries and territories, and it lists which countries require authorisation for social issue ads and which require it for election and political ads. The process is open to people who reside and are located in the country they want to target at the time the ads run, and the documents must be issued by that country or state and not expired. Meta also checks signals from people, ad accounts and Pages; if the person creating or editing an ad appears to be outside the targeted country, the ad is disapproved.

Using the US as Meta's worked example, the checklist is:

• Be an admin or advertiser on the Page that will run the ads, and have at least one Page admin with a confirmed identity.
• Turn on two-factor authentication and keep it on. If you turn it off, your authorisation is revoked and your disclaimers and ads are disabled until you go through the process again.
• Have an unexpired US passport, driver's licence or state ID card, and a US residential mailing address.

You confirm your identity from the Page's settings (Issue, electoral or political ads), at facebook.com/id or in the Facebook app. ID images must be JPG or PNG and under 20 MB. Once confirmed, you link the ad account and set up a disclaimer.

"Paid for by" disclaimers

The disclaimer must accurately reflect the organisation or person paying for the ads, and it does not replace any disclaimer the law requires. In the US Meta offers five ways to get one approved:

• Three give a "Confirmed Organization" label: an Employer Identification Number, a .gov or .mil website and email address, or a Federal Election Commission registration number, each with a US street address, phone number, business email and matching website.
• Two are for smaller businesses or local politicians without those credentials: an organisation name with contact details and a matching website and email, or your Page name with contact details. These give an "About this Ad" label.

Disclaimer review can take up to 24 hours. The details (except the EIN) are shown publicly with your ads and for seven years in the Ad Library. Meta checks the website, phone number, email and address periodically, and if they appear invalid or unavailable the ads are taken down. Only a Page admin can create or edit disclaimers, but other advertisers on the Page can use them. Meta warns that repeatedly running these ads without authorisation can lead to restrictions, which could become permanent; what that means for your account is covered in our guide to a restricted Meta ad account.

If an ad is rejected

The causes Meta names on these pages are a missing or wrong category, a political or social issue ad without authorisation or a disclaimer, and an ad created or edited from outside the country it targets. Fix the cause first, for example by setting up the campaign again with the right category or finishing authorisation. If you believe the ad was rejected by mistake, Meta says you can request a review in Business Support Home.

How we handle it

This part is our own practice, not Meta's guidance:

• We decide the category at the brief stage, before anyone builds an audience, because changing it later means rebuilding the targeting. Job ads for a client's own team count, and we treat them that way.
• We keep special-category campaigns separate from the client's other campaigns, with their own naming, so reports and reviews stay clear.
• We plan these campaigns around location, creative and a well-tracked conversion rather than demographic targeting, since that is what the category leaves you.
• For social issue work we start authorisation weeks ahead, make sure the person who will run the ads lives in the target country, and keep the disclaimer contact details current.
• Where the rules touch on law (fair lending, fair housing, employment law, election law), we ask the client to check with their own legal adviser. Meta's category is a platform rule, not legal clearance.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Special Ad Category for a job ad for my own business?

If the rules apply to you, yes. Meta's employment examples include full-time and part-time jobs and company perks shown alongside job openings, so a vacancy ad is an employment ad in any industry. The rules apply to advertisers based in the US and to ads reaching the US, Canada and certain European countries.

Which targeting options do I lose?

For housing, employment and financial products and services: age (generally fixed at 18 to 65+), gender, ZIP or postal code targeting, location exclusions, detailed targeting exclusions, lookalike audiences and some interests. City and pin drop targets get a minimum radius of 15 miles in the US and Canada and 10 miles in the listed European countries.

Does choosing a Special Ad Category slow down ad review?

No. Meta says choosing a Special Ad Category doesn't impact how long it takes to review your ads. Political and social issue ads do need authorisation and a disclaimer first, and disclaimer review can take up to 24 hours.

Can I run political or social issue ads in the EU?

No. In response to the EU's Transparency and Targeting of Political Ads regulation, Meta does not let advertisers create or edit ads about social issues, elections or politics in the European Union.

Is a bank or insurance ad outside the US a Special Ad Category?

Only partly. The wider financial products and services rule applies to advertisers based in the US or reaching US audiences. Credit ads, such as loans and credit cards, are also covered when they reach Canada or certain parts of Europe.

For more on Meta advertising, see our guides to Meta ads basics, the Ad Library, restricted ad accounts, business verification, lookalike audiences and placements. We set up the tracking these campaigns rely on as part of our website development work. See all our services, or browse more guides.