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Meta introduced the special ad categories after complaints in the United States that job and housing ads were shown only to certain groups. In Europe, the UK included, they apply to employment, housing and credit. In 2025 credit was widened to financial products and services. Choose the category when you create a campaign and Meta fixes part of your audience.
Ads that fall under it
| Category | Examples | Not covered |
|---|---|---|
| Employment | vacancies, internships, job fairs, agency work | a course with no job attached |
| Housing | homes for sale or rent, estate and letting agents, landlords | a removals firm, furniture |
| Financial products and services | loans, credit cards, insurance, investments | an accountant offering services, in most cases |
In doubt, choose the category. An ad that falls under it but is not marked as such gets rejected. Political and social issue ads used to be a special category too, but in the EU they disappeared entirely in October 2025; see are political ads allowed in the EU.
Targeting that disappears
- Ageis fixed at 18 to 65+.
- Gendercannot be chosen.
- Locationis a radius of at least 15 kilometres, with no exclusions and no postcodes.
- Detailed targetingon demographics and behaviour is removed, and so are detailed exclusions.
- Lookalikesare not available.
What remains is your region, your own audiences in a limited form, and above all the ad itself. Text and image now decide who feels addressed. A vacancy for an HGV driver with a photo of the lorry and the pay reaches the right people better than targeting ever did.
For vacancies on LinkedIn the Meta category does not apply, but the Equality Act does, in the advert text and in how you pick the audience. A job ad there is still written for the role, not for a type of person.
A property ad in the special category
Who sees the ad
- Category
- Housing
- Location
- Town centre, radius of 15 km or more
- Age
- 28 to 40
- Gender
- All
- Exclude
- Renters
- Lookalike
- Like past buyers
- Custom list
- People who visited the site
A home for sale or to rent counts as housing. You steer with the property, the words and who already visited your site.
An example of what we can build, with made-up names.
What it means for a job ad
In Great Britain an employer could never select on age or sex; the Equality Act 2010 forbids it, in the wording of the advert as well. The Equality and Human Rights Commission explains which phrases count as discriminatory. The special category makes it technically impossible in the audience too. "Young, energetic team member" is a problem in the text, Meta or no Meta. How to make a vacancy work anyway is in recruitment advertising, and an employer brand that people recognise helps, see employer branding.
What it means for property
An agent advertising a flat chooses the housing category. A 15 kilometre radius around a village is wide, so let the ad do the filtering: the price, the area and the number of bedrooms in the first line, with the material information buyers expect. What else works for agents is in Facebook ads for real estate and real estate marketing. Check how the ad looks in the feed with the Facebook ad preview.
Measuring within the limits
Because targeting is broader, measurement counts for more. Load the Meta pixel only after consent, behind a cookie banner that truly refuses, tag your links with the UTM builder, and count applications or enquiries as the result, not clicks.
Job and property campaigns within these rules are part of our Facebook and Instagram ads management.
Questions about the special category
Can I still reach students with a holiday job?
Not through age. Through your text, your image and the placements you choose, such as Instagram and Stories.
Does the category apply when I just boost a post?
Yes. A boosted post about a vacancy or a home falls under the same rules.