New 2020 Targeting Restrictions for Google Ads: What You Need to Know

On October 19, 2020 Google will update its Personalized Advertising Policies with new targeting restrictions for housing, employment and credit related ads. According to Google, they are making the updates in “… an effort to improve inclusivity for users disproportionately affected by societal biases; housing, employment, and credit products or services can no longer be targeted to audiences based on gender, age, parental status, marital status, or ZIP code.”

Many are wondering – how will these changes affect my ads? Here’s what you need to know…

Who will be affected?

• Housing: Any ads related to housing, including real estate services, home builders and developers, home listing sites, etc.
• Employment: Any ads related to employment, including ads for job openings, job listing sites, job recruiters, etc.
• Credit: Any ads related to credit, including ads for any type of loan (car, home, appliance, short-term, etc.)
• These policy changes apply to the U.S. and Canada only.

How will they be affected?

If any of your ad campaigns have the potential to be impacted by this new policy update, you will receive a notification in your Google Ads account that asks you to acknowledge and agree to comply with the new policy update. The new policy will go into effect on October 19; if you haven’t agreed to comply with the policy update by then you will be unable to create new campaigns until you accept the changes.

What are the changes?

Any advertiser running housing, employment or credit related ads will no longer be able to target audiences based on the following:

• Gender
• Age
• Parental Status
• Marital Status
• Zip Code

This means that any existing, active campaign that includes targeting for any of those areas will become ineligible and stop running once the new policy activates on October 19.

In order to prevent your ad campaigns from being negatively affected, you should check all your campaign settings and make sure the audience targeting on all your active campaigns are in compliance with the new policy BEFORE October 19, 2020.

Reach out if you need any help!