ReferenceGoogle Ads disapproval
Housing, employment and consumer finance targeting
Google limits audience targeting for housing, employment and consumer finance ads in the US and Canada. Gender, age, parental status, marital status and ZIP code targeting are not allowed. Remove any advertiser-curated audience, set the demographics to Enable, replace ZIP code targeting with city, country or a radius of at least 1 km, then save.
At a glance
- Where it shows
- The Status column on the Ads & assets page, as Disapproved under this policy.
- What stops
- The flagged ad stops serving until the targeting meets the rule.
- How serious
- Low on its own. Google warns at least 7 days before any account suspension, but repeated violations can lead to one.
What it means
In the US and Canada, Google treats housing, employment and consumer finance as access-to-opportunities categories. The same limits apply to all three, so the same fix applies to an employment ad or a consumer finance ad.
Place targeting is still allowed: city, country and radius. A radius must be at least 1 km. In Canada, the first three characters of a postal code, the FSA, are acceptable. Predefined Google audiences are allowed, with the restricted demographics excluded.
What actually triggers it
ZIP code targeting
ZIP code targeting is not allowed for these categories. A radius under 1 km is not allowed either. Check the location settings first.
Gender, age, parental or marital status narrowing
These demographic settings cannot narrow the audience for these categories. The demographic setting must be Enable, so the ad is not limited to one gender or age group.
An advertiser-curated audience
The policy names predefined Google audiences as the allowed type for these categories. An uploaded customer list or another advertiser-curated audience is not on that list.
Fix it in this order
- Open the ad group, asset group or campaign that holds the disapproved ad, and remove every advertiser-curated audience from it.
- Set the demographics setting to Enable, and remove any gender, age, parental or marital status narrowing.
- Remove ZIP code targeting. Replace it with city, country or a radius of at least 1 km.
- If the ad text or the site it links to refers to the category, change it. Hover over the ad, select Edit, make the change and select Save. Google reviews the ad again after the edit.
If the policy does not apply to the ad, appeal from the account. If the targeting cannot be changed to meet the rule, remove the ad.
When to appeal
Appeal when the targeting already meets the rule and the ad was still flagged. An appeal does not change the targeting, so fix that first.
Often confused with
Restricted targeting in Personalized advertising
The sensitive interest list, which applies in every location and covers categories such as health, alcohol and religious beliefs. This page covers only the three categories above, and only in the US and Canada.
Location specific financial services verification
A verification step for financial services ads in Australia. This page is about the targeting limits on housing, employment and consumer finance ads in the US and Canada.