Facebook Kills Sponsored Search Results

Facebook recently announced it was going to simplify its advertising options due to feedback it collected from marketers over the span of a year. Just last week, Inside Facebook revealed sponsored search results were among the features to be cut.
“In keeping with the goal of streamlining our ad products, starting in July advertisers will no longer be able to buy sponsored results,” Facebook told Inside Facebook. “We’ve seen that most marketers were buying sponsored results to advertise their apps and games, and we already offer mobile app install ads and Page post link ads on desktop to achieve these same goals.”



Advertisers can still buy search products with ads on search results pages, according to the report. However, in his post, Justin Lafferty wondered why sponsored results of all features would be cut:

”It’s a little odd why Facebook is eliminating this now. Advertisers have said that the sponsored results offered a high clickthrough rate at a low cost-per-click. Nanigans wrote in September that the clickthrough rates of sponsored results were 23 times greater than those of marketplace ads, with a 78 percent lower cost-per-click.”

Do you use sponsored results, and if so, what do you think about this cut?