Ads Are Coming To Your Facebook Search Bar

Facebook search, an admittedly tricky beast to tame, might be getting a bit more annoying for some users. That’s because the company is apparently testing a new feature called “Sponsored R...
Ads Are Coming To Your Facebook Search Bar
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Facebook search, an admittedly tricky beast to tame, might be getting a bit more annoying for some users. That’s because the company is apparently testing a new feature called “Sponsored Results.” You would probably understand them to be ads in your search bar.

    According to TechCrunch, the Sponsored Results will appear as users type a Facebook search. For instance, if I’m searching for a Starbucks page I may see a Sponsored Result for “Star Line Coffee House,” or something similar.

    You’ll only see Sponsored Results that are very similar and most of the time in competition with the real results. That’s because they’re not keyword based ads. Advertisers who want to buy a Sponsored Result will have target a specific page that people are searching for.

    Apparently, the Sponsored Results will be sold on a cost per click basis to advertisers and they can choose to direct the ad toward a page search, place search, or app search. Sponsored Results will only appear on the search drop down bar, not on the results page.

    Here’s what they will look like – image via TechCrunch:

    For advertisers, it’s just another way to target Facebook’s user base of nearly 1 billion. For Facebook, it’s a quick and painless way to generate new revenue. For users, we’ll have to see how they feel about it. Google’s been putting ads at the top of search results for years, and people don’t seem to be all that perturbed by it.

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