Today, it was announced by Facebook that they would begin offering “Sponsored Results” that would appear when consumers are searching within Facebook. These results will appear above the organic results. The “results” can then be driven to a Facebook page, tab or canvas application but not off-site. Depending on the geo-targeting capabilities, this could mean that someone who types “ford dealer” into the search bar within Facebook could end up seeing Sponsored Results which include Ford dealers in their area.
Does this pose a threat to Google Ads? I certainly don’t think so but with almost a BILLION users, it certainly might be worthwhile to appear in these results or, at the very least, to test them and see if they are appropriate for your business. Many people “search” on Facebook. It’s the types of searches that are occurring that will dictate whether appearing in those results are worthwhile or not. Facebook does have some pretty healthy data that can help you make that decision but you’ll probably have to try it to see if it works.
This is an example image from the TechCrunch article showing the search results for a dating app named OKCupid with Match.com showing as a Sponsored Result.
