In June we reported that Google will prohibit targeting ads based on employment, housing, and credit. Google now said this is going into play in 60-days from now, on October 19, 2020. Google said "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."
Here are some examples of impacted products or services according to Google:
- Housing: Housing listing sites, individual houses for sale or rental, real estate services
- Employment: Ads for jobs, job recruitment sites, job listing sites
- Credit: Credit cards, loans including home loans, car loans, appliance loans, short-term loans
This policy change will apply in the U.S. and Canada only. "All advertisers using personalized ads to target audiences in the U.S. and Canada must comply with these changes," Google wrote.
Google also wrote what this will mean for advertisers promoting housing, employment, or credit:
- Potentially impacted advertisers will receive notifications in their Google Ads account prompting them to acknowledge these policy changes and to agree to comply with relevant local laws. Advertisers who have not acknowledged these changes when the policy goes into effect on October 19 will be unable to create any new campaigns until they click to accept the changes.
- Additionally when the policy goes into effect on October 19, advertisers promoting housing, employment, or credit products or services will no longer be able to target audiences based on gender, age, parental status, marital status, or ZIP code. Any existing campaigns featuring housing, employment, or credit products or services that target the newly restricted audiences will no longer be eligible to serve. Advertisers should update their campaigns before this policy goes into effect to ensure they aren’t negatively impacted.
Google added a lot more detail with this FAQ document around this policy change.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
