• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 21, 2019

Ads in Facebook Search Results are now open to all marketers for a select group of topics. The ad unit, which appears in Facebook News Feeds and across its marketplace, aims to provide a way for marketers to reach consumers looking for products to purchase.

The option is only available on mobile devices.

The new ad campaign using Automatic Placements automatically will serve up in the Facebook Search Results ad placement and in the general search results pages, unless the marketer specifies otherwise. Marketers can manually select the placement when setting up campaigns, so they appear in one place or the other.

eMarketer released data as early as February 2019 that suggests an increase in Facebook’s U.S. net digital ad revenue share to 22.1%, up from 21.8%, while Google declined from 38.2% in 2018 to 37.2% in 2019.

Amazon is forecast to take a bigger piece, growing from 6.8% in 2018 to 8.8% in 2019.

Google will take 33.0% of all U.S. mobile ad dollars this year, while Facebook will own 30.8%, according to eMarketer. 

Similar to initial tests, Facebook's search ads will serve up for search terms when its technology detects a search for a product connected to a possible purchase in ecommerce, retail or automotive.

Once an advertiser  opts in, ads become eligible to appear on search result pages that includes general search and Marketplace search. Audience targeting then becomes contextually relevant to a limited set of English and Spanish search terms.

The ads look similar to News Feed ads and include a “Sponsored” label to clearly mark it as a paid placement.

Facebook initially launched a small test across the marketplace in December 2018. It was open to select advertising in automotive, ecommerce and retail. At the time, a Facebook spokesperson said only one ad would serve per search and that the advertisers participating in the test would not pay for placement.