Start Appearing to Customers in Search Results on Facebook

Been longing to start appearing in Facebook Search ads? The time has arrived!

When in late 2018, Facebook announced it would be opening Facebook Search Ads again to a select group of industries, many businesses started clamoring to find out when they might also be able to optimize their campaigns with search ad placements. After a year of testing the feature, now all advertisers can appear in search ad placements.

As of October 2019, now any advertiser can opt to appear in search ad placements; the placement is no longer limited to select industries.

Facebook announced:

"All new ad campaigns using Automatic Placements will automatically include the Facebook Search Results placement. You can also manually select the placement when setting up your campaign. Once you opt-in, ads will be eligible to appear on search result pages which includes general search and Marketplace search - and will both respect the audience targeting of the campaign and be contextually relevant to a limited set of English and Spanish search terms."

So what does this mean for advertisers on Facebook?

One factor is that the change benefits businesses who are looking for less intrusive approaches to reaching their customers. Facebook has been carefully tweaking its ad formats to make the newsfeed less overrun by sponsored ads. And many advertisers share their concern; they are hesitant to clog newsfeeds with too many sponsored listings lest it may annoy them. By approaching new and existing customers in their search or marketplace, they can rest easier knowing that customers are seeking sales guidance potentially.

Perhaps far more compelling though is Facebook's opposite assertion: more placement options lead to far more conversions. Their research shows that the more an audience sees your ad, the more they are likely to convert to your brand. Facebook reports:

"In a Facebook IQ study, we found that brands’ audiences who saw ads across Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network had 8x higher conversion rates than audiences only exposed to a single ad on Facebook."

What are the limitations of the new search feature?

For now, ads can only be run for topics with commercial interest. For example, you might appear in search results for jewelry stores, if that is your focus, but you would not be able to appear in result for terms like "Pearl Jam" or other, similar proper nouns. 

The placement is also now limited to mobile searching. Users will have to perform the search on their mobile phone for your placement to appear. Advertisers will still have to wait for the desktop search roll-out on a later date.

The ability to specify your exact search terms is also limited. Users will have to trust Facebook to recommend and assign related search terms to your business placements.

If you're ready to start driving conversions with Search Ad Placements, contact Cote Media today! We can design and manage a campaign for your business to thrive on Facebook and everywhere!

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