Facebook To End Sponsored Search Ads — For Now

Facebook has said that it’s getting rid of sponsored search results for the time being. It’s not walking away from “search advertising,” however. In the future, there will be ads in Graph Search. But, the company is still in the process of working all that out.

Facebook told me this morning that, as a practical matter, most of the sponsored results in search were for app installs. Accordingly, Facebook wants marketers to use mobile app install ads and Page post link ads for the time being as alternatives to sponsored results.

The following is a statement issued today by Facebook:

In keeping with the goal of streamlining our ad products, starting in July advertisers will no longer be able to buy sponsored results. 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.

Sponsored search results were originally developed before Graph Search. And, as mentioned, Facebook wants to rethink search ads for its new Graph Search offering.

This move is also consistent with Facebook’s recently announced effort to simplify and streamline its ad products.