Earlier this summer Google announced that it would be updating its personalized advertising policies sometime before the end of the year to protect user privacy and audience targeting. The time will finally come on October 19, 2020. For multifamily, if your Google ads are currently targeting audiences based on gender, age, parental status, marital status, or ZIP code, you will no longer be able to do so as of October 19th. If any of your campaigns target any of the restricted audiences, your ads will no longer be eligible to serve should you not acknowledge the update. If you haven't heard from your current digital marketing agency regarding this update, it's best to contact them to make sure you're campaigns are in compliance and aren't at risk of going dark come the deadline.
What does this mean for you current search engine marketing, Gmail, YouTube, and display campaigns? It's likely and hopeful that most agencies are not targeting by audience already, so they are in compliance with Fair Housing Laws. If that's the case, your campaigns will not be impacted by this change. If any of your campaigns are utilizing any of these target audiences, you should expect to see some change in performance. With that being said, your agency should be able to adjust the strategy appropriately so your campaigns still achieve your marketing goals. For more information regarding Google's policy update, check out this link.