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In late May 2016, we’ll update our policy for advertising based on interests and location.
Which Google Ads features will be impacted
All the current Google Ads features that comply with our interest-based advertising (IBA) policies must continue to comply with upcoming policy changes. These features are:
- Remarketing
- Affinity audiences
- Custom affinity audiences
- In-market audiences
- Similar segments
- Demographic and location targeting
This will be a global policy change.
As announced on 1 November, 2022, Similar Audiences will be transitioned to more durable solutions. Starting 1 August 2023, similar segments will be gradually removed from all ad groups and campaigns in Google Ads and should be completed by the end of the month.
- Display, Discovery and video action campaigns that are still using similar audience segments after 1 August 2023 will be opted into optimised segments.
- Learn more about how to Use optimised segments.
- Video campaigns with 'Product and brand consideration' or 'Brand awareness and reach' objectives will be opted into audience expansion.
- Learn more about using audience expansion.
- If you opted out before 1 August 2023, ad groups and campaigns targeting similar segments will be paused. Make sure that you unpause them and add relevant targeting criteria.
Learn more about the Changes to audience segments.
What this means for you
We want to provide increased accessibility, clarity and understanding of our interest-based advertising policies for advertisers and users alike. You’ll notice the following changes to the IBA policy:
- more transparency into why we have each content policy
- additional policy examples for added clarity
- increased detail in our policy definitions
In addition, we’ll introduce some new IBA content policies that no longer allow advertisers to create interest-based ads on the following:
Example: bereavement products or servicesExample: domestic abuse shelters or victim advocate servicesExample: immigration services or legal services for refugeesExample: information about gender transitioning or transgender discrimination lawyers
- Content that reveals personal hardships related to relationships and family
- Content that reveals personal hardships related to victim support
- Content that reveals the user’s identity related to potentially marginalized social groups
- Content that reveals the user’s identity related to transgender identification
After the new policy goes into effect, the policy description will be updated to reflect this change.
(Posted March 2016)