New ad rules for charities: what the changes mean for your appeals

If you run fundraising ads you’ll have had the email by now. Over the last few weeks the major platforms have reclassified a large chunk of charity advertising under their special-category rules, the same bracket as politics and housing. It is not the end of paid social for good causes, but it does change how we plan it. Here is the short version.

What has been restricted

The main losses are in targeting. Interest and lookalike audiences are limited or gone for ads that mention a cause, a campaign or a request for support. Age and location targeting have been broadened, so you can no longer narrow to a postcode or a five-year age band. Some creative formats now need an extra verification step before they can run, and that takes time.

What you can still do

Quite a lot, as it happens. Our charity clients are leaning on:

• Engaged-audience retargeting built from your own followers and video viewers.

• Supporter lists uploaded from your own database, with consent.

• Broad targeting with strong creative doing the work the audience settings used to do.

• Organic-first campaigns where paid simply amplifies the posts already landing.

How we’re handling it at Lido

For every charity we work with, we’ve re-verified ad accounts, re-labelled campaigns under the new categories and rebuilt audiences from first-party data. The early results are encouraging. Broader audiences with sharper creative are costing a little more per click and a little less per donation, which is the number that matters.

If you’re a charity trying to make sense of the changes, email hello@lido.example and we’ll talk you through it.