June 21, 2023
When running ads that promote lending, employment, housing, or political content, you must declare a special ad category.
This helps you avoid violating Meta's specific rules. However, there’s a downside to these categories. While it’s not explicitly mentioned in Meta’s Help Center, there are observations that ads in special categories tend to perform worse and are shown to a more limited audience.
This creates a so-called gray area regarding whether a special ad category is necessary. If it's not required, you’ll likely want to avoid it.
Meta provides a feature to assist with this. You’ll find the "Indicate Your Ad Category" button in the special ad category section of your campaign.
By clicking it, you’ll be prompted with questions about what you're promoting. This tool allows you to review each category and specify whether what you're advertising might meet the requirements.
It’s unclear if the answers to these questions are used as signals for Meta. However, there’s an occasional issue with Meta’s automated systems incorrectly flagging ads as requiring special categories, resulting in failed moderation.
