Compliance FAQ

Real Estate Ad Approval FAQ

Direct answers to the two questions agents, loan officers, and title reps ask most: how to get a real estate ad approved on Facebook, and how to run a Special Ad Category campaign correctly the first time.

Updated September 1, 2026

How do I get a real estate ad approved on Facebook?

Declare the campaign under Meta's Housing Special Ad Category before you build the audience, remove age, gender, and ZIP level targeting, use a location radius of at least 15 miles, and keep the ad copy focused on the property or service instead of the kind of person you want to reach. Campaigns that follow those rules clear review in a few minutes to 24 hours.

  • The Special Ad Category is set at the campaign level and cannot be added after publishing.
  • Housing covers listings, buyer and seller campaigns, and title marketing.
  • Copy that describes an ideal buyer by family status or background is the most common rejection cause.
  • The landing page has to match the offer in the ad.

How do I run a Special Ad Category campaign?

Pick the category that matches the offer before the audience step: Housing for real estate and title, Credit for mortgage and rate campaigns. Meta then strips out the restricted targeting options and enforces the 15 mile minimum radius for you. Everything else, including custom audiences from your database and retargeting from your ads, still works within those limits.

  • Housing: listings, open houses, buyer and seller lead campaigns, title marketing.
  • Credit: pre-approval, rate, and refinance campaigns from loan officers.
  • Allowed: 15 mile or wider radius, broad interests, custom and retargeting audiences.
  • Removed: age, gender, ZIP code, and detailed options tied to protected characteristics.

On Walled Garden HQ the correct category is applied automatically to every campaign, so there is no checkbox to forget and no rebuild when you get it wrong.

Pre-launch approval checklist

  • Declare Housing or Credit as the Special Ad Category before building the audience.
  • Set a location radius of at least 15 miles and remove age, gender, and ZIP targeting.
  • Write copy about the property or the service, never about who should live there.
  • Point the ad at a landing page that matches the offer word for word.
  • Keep lead form questions to contact details and timeline.
  • Launch at least 24 hours before you need the campaign live.

Why real estate ads get rejected, and how to fix each one

Category not declared

Rebuild the campaign with Housing or Credit selected at the campaign level. The category cannot be added after publishing.

Restricted targeting

Remove age, gender, and ZIP level selections and widen the radius to 15 miles or more.

Discriminatory phrasing

Rewrite lines like "perfect for young families" as a description of the home itself.

Landing page mismatch

Make the headline and offer on the page match the ad, and confirm the page loads on mobile.

Every question, answered

Declare the campaign under Meta's Housing Special Ad Category before you publish, keep the audience free of age, gender, and ZIP level targeting, use a radius of at least 15 miles, and keep the copy focused on the property or the service rather than the type of person you want to reach. Ads that follow those four rules are approved in most cases within a few minutes to 24 hours.

Choose the Special Ad Category that matches your business before the audience step: Housing for agents, brokerages, and title, and Credit for loan officers. Meta then removes the restricted targeting options automatically. On Walled Garden HQ the correct category is applied to every campaign for you, so there is no setting to forget.

The common causes are a campaign that was never declared under the Housing Special Ad Category, targeting or copy that implies who should or should not see the listing, a landing page that does not match the ad, or a lead form asking for sensitive information. Fix the cause and request review rather than duplicating the ad, since repeated rejections put the ad account at risk.

You can target by location using a radius of 15 miles or more, and by broad interests and behaviors that Meta still permits. You cannot target by age, gender, ZIP code, or any detailed option Meta considers related to protected characteristics. Custom audiences from your own database and retargeting audiences are still available with the same restrictions applied.

No. Housing applies to listings, buyer and seller campaigns, and title marketing. Credit applies to mortgage, rate, and pre-approval campaigns run by loan officers. Both remove the same targeting options, but the declaration must match the offer in the ad.

Most campaigns clear review within a few minutes to 24 hours. Reviews take longer when the ad account is new, when a campaign was recently rejected, or when the ad points to a landing page that Meta has not crawled before. Launching a day ahead of a listing event avoids the delay.

Yes. Meta restricts targeting and copy that suggests who is welcome, not the presence of people in the creative. Keep the message about the home, the neighborhood, or the service, and avoid language that describes an ideal buyer by family status, national origin, or any other protected characteristic.

Meta can reject the ad, pause the campaign, restrict the ad account, or disable it. Repeat issues also carry fair housing exposure for the agent or the brokerage. This is why Walled Garden HQ applies the category automatically instead of leaving it to a checkbox in Ads Manager.

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