What Is the Google Ads Housing Policy?

Google Ads lets Real Estate related businesses and other website owners target ads with advanced targeting options, beyond keywords. Those factors used to include layers of demographics, age, income, zip code targeting, and more. 

However, on October 19, 2020, Google updated its personalized advertising policies. The update focused on introducing new target restrictions. The restrictions most talked about revolved around housing, employment, and credit.

Google released the changes with a statement saying, “We believe access to social and economic opportunities is fundamental for individual wellbeing, social status, and quality of life. We also recognize that historical discrimination and societal biases have resulted in some segments of society of unequal access to these opportunities.”

For housing, any business related to real estate (mortgage, realtors, apartments, etc.) cannot target personalized ads to certain audiences. This also includes housing listing sites, individual homes for sale or rent, and real estate services.

Google Ads and Real Estate Industry

If you’re looking for continued success through Google Ads, it’s important to understand the implications of the housing policy changes and what you need to do to manage them.

Zip code targeting, zip code exclusions, and demographic exclusions are no longer available. To combat those issues, you need to make some changes to your ads.

If you’re using a zip code-based targeting strategy for your ads, remove the zip code and focus on a town, city, large radius or county strategy. As you do, think about how you may need to change your content to match new locations to be more generic, rather than 1 zip code.

Regarding demographics exclusions, age exclusions and gender exclusions are affected. You can’t exclude age groups anymore. So, you might want to consider adding negative keywords to clarify who your audience is. With gender exclusions, ads can no longer target skewed audiences. It’s likely; however, the impact is marginal.

Keep in mind that social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, have different advertising policies. Therefore, it’s a good idea to stay updated on the policies that could affect your website and client base. Facebook Ad made a very similar change – removing pretty much the same targeting options that Google Ads did for Housing.

Learn More From the Online Advertising Academy

The Google advertising game can seem overwhelming at times. If you’re looking to boost client potential via ads, consider going through our training to learn the most up to date methods for Google Ads, even with the new policies for Housing that affect the Real Estate Industry.