How to Create General Searches
What are General Searches?
If you're searching for an item that doesn't fit into the car, RV, iPhone, or couch categories, you'll need to use a general search.
From the homepage, tap Create Search, then tap Anything. Now, let's pause for a moment and plan the search properly.
Understanding Keyword Matching
The most important thing to understand is that you must search for the exact word sellers actually use in their listings.
That often means creating multiple searches for the same type of item. Facebook relies heavily on exact keyword matches to surface items quickly.
For example, if you're searching for a printer, you might need to add a search for "printer," a search for "Brother," a search for "Canon," because sellers don't all use the same wording.
For example, let's say you're looking for mid-century tables. You might plan to create separate searches for table, Herman Miller, Knoll, and mid-century.
This is because sellers don't always include the word "table" in the title. They may list the item as "Herman Miller" and only mention that it's a table in the description.
1 Create Your Search
Once you know what search terms you need to use, you can proceed with creating the search.
You must enter only one search term, then repeat the entire search creation process for each additional term.
2 Set Location and Platform
Next, set your location and platform. We recommend using multiple platforms if they're available to you.
You'll need to repeat the entire search creation process for each additional platform.
3 Configure Search Settings
If this item really matters to you, choose your fastest search speed.
Set your minimum and maximum price.
Set your maximum search radius.
For Facebook searches, we recommend adding searches in all the main cities you want to search from. Results appear more slowly the further away they are, so adding multiple locations significantly improves speed and coverage. You can ask us to do this for you at any time.
If you've set this up yourself, your searches may appear separately, or they may appear as a group search.
Once you have set your radius, tap Save to create the search.
Note: You can't add keyword filters until after a search has been created.
4 Add Keyword Filters
Once the search is created, tap the pencil icon on the search, then tap Add Keyword Filters.
You'll see some pre-added filters. If there are any you don't want, tap the X to remove them.
Next, work out the filters you need before adding them.
Two Types of Filters
There are two types of filter: positive filters, which must be in the title for a listing to appear in your feed, and negative filters, which block listings when a specific word or phrase appears in the title.
Understanding Positive Filters
Positive filters look for words in the listing title and can be part of a larger word. For example heat will match to heat, heater and heating.
You can also use multi-word positive filters. For example, if you use "wood heater" as an includer, both words must be found in the title. The order does not matter. The words may appear separately or joined together.
Understanding Negative Filters
A negative filter must match the title exactly, and if it uses multiple words, they must appear together and in the same order.
Negative filters do allow simple English plural forms, but they do not match partial words or reordered phrases. This keeps exclusions precise and prevents you from blocking valid listings by accident.
Used together, positive and negative filters give you fine-grained control over what appears in your feed.
Real-World Examples
Let's look at some practical scenarios to understand how filters work in practice.
Example 1: Mid-Century Tables
Let's look at a case where someone only wants mid-century tables. If they add "table" as a positive filter on its own, they'll see a lot of irrelevant results.
Instead, use more specific filters like "MCM table," "mid-century table," or "designer table."
This way, you're still searching broadly for "table," but only allowing listings through that match the styles you actually want.
If you didn't include one of these terms and a seller listed the item using that wording, you wouldn't see it. That's because sellers usually use very specific titles for their items.
Example 2: Canon Printers
Let's say you're looking for printers, and you've added extra searches for printer brands, one of them being Canon.
The problem is Canon makes a wide range of products, so that search is going to return a whole heap of unwanted results.
If we only use "printer" as an includer, we might miss listings that are printers but don't actually have the word "printer" in the title.
But if we use "Canon" and "printer" together, we'll still pick up Canon's other products.
The better solution is to find common printer model names like "Maxify," "PIXMA," or "large format," and use those alongside "printer" as includers.
Notice how now we're no longer seeing all the camera gear.
At this point, you might be wondering why we didn't just use excluders. In scenarios like this, where there are so many variations that you'd need hundreds of excluders, it's usually smarter to solve the problem with includers first.
Pro Tip: Managing Filters
When working with filters across multiple searches, a good approach is to write them in your notes app as a comma-separated list.
This allows you to paste the same filters into each of your searches, saving time and effort.
Finally, repeat this process for any other search terms you planned.
Key Takeaways
- Use general searches for items outside of car, RV, iPhone, or couch categories
- Search for exact words sellers use in their listings
- Create multiple searches for different terminology (e.g., printer, Brother, Canon)
- Facebook relies heavily on exact keyword matches to surface items quickly
- Enter only one search term per search
- Use multiple platforms if available
- Choose fastest search speed for important items
- Set minimum/maximum price and search radius
- Add searches in multiple cities for better Facebook coverage
- Keyword filters can only be added after search creation
- Words with 4+ characters match partially; 3 or less must match exactly
- Multi-word positive filters require all words present (any order)
- Negative filters must match exactly in the same order
- Use specific includers (e.g., "MCM table") to narrow results
- Use includers instead of excluders when dealing with many variations
- Save filters in notes app for easy reuse across searches
Need Help?
You can book a call with an expert or message a specialist via chat for additional help.