Will Facebook Sponsored Results Search Ads Challenge Google?

  • Ads are now coming to Facebook’s search results in a separate section of the typeahead results. The approach could help Facebook challenge Google for search ad dollars.
  • “It lets marketers target users searching for specific apps, Pages, and Places and insert a link into the typeahead results that points to their own app, Page, custom Page tab, or post,” TechCrunch reports. “Businesses cannot direct users off-site with the ads yet, though they can appear above the top organic result making them powerful for diverting traffic from competitors.”
  • The “Sponsored Results” can be purchased in Facebook’s native Ads API tool, Power Editor. In a move that could annoy users, Facebook has somewhat aggressively pushed Sponsored Results above the “organic result for what a user was obviously looking for,” the post states. However, users can click an “x” in the corner to hide the ad.
  • “Unfortunately, Facebook Sponsored Results may still be a lot less helpful to advertisers than those that show up on Google Search. That’s because when people search for an entity on Facebook, they’re typically looking for something very specific, such as a particular game or business, and might be more more likely to bypass ads,” TechCrunch writes. Also, the Sponsored Results “could dilute the feed’s quality, which is core to Facebook’s value to users.”
  • Facebook highlighted three primary objectives for Sponsored Results in an announcement sent to marketers:
  • 1) “Expanded distribution of your message, with placement in one of the most used features on Facebook.”
  • 2) “The ability to target what people are looking for, by appearing alongside related Apps, Pages, and Places.”
  • 3) “Flexibility to customize your landing destination, such as a specific tab on your Page.”

No Comments Yet

You can be the first to comment!

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.