Google Ad policy has an interesting new update that ties in with current world events. Google is updating its advertising policies around housing, employment and credit opportunities, the company announced Thursday. The update is planned to roll out in U.S. and Canada this year. The old policy allowed you to include demographic and zip code in your target audience. This audience was used frequently in housing, employment, and credit ads.

The new policy is:

Employment, housing and credit advertisers will no longer be permitted to target or exclude their ads being from being shown based on demographics — gender, age, parental status, marital status — or zip code.

This adds on to existing policies that prohibit targeting based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, national origin or disability.

When is it coming?

U.S. and Canada will be the first to see the roll-out of the new Google Ad policy. Google says this change is coming “as soon as possible” and before the end of 2020 at the latest. Advertisers that are or will be affected by this change will be notified of the update and of the potential impact on their campaigns in the next weeks.

Why is it significant?

This Google Ad policy comes during a very critical time. With a backdrop of a coronavirus-induced recession that is disproportionately affecting minority communities, this change calls for action to address systemic racism by the Black Lives Matter movement. Google says it has “been working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on these changes for some time.” Facebook updated their ad policy  prohibit age, gender and zip code targeting for housing, employment and credit ads more than a year ago in March 2019.

Companies and CEOs around the country are denouncing racism and violence due to the Black Lives Matter movement. Since May 25th, the day of George Floyd’s death, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests have swept a majority of the country and grown into an international movement against racism and police violence.

Read more about how silence is not an option for brands on the BLM movement, especially B2C business here.

More From Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.