Sponsored stories application programming interface (api)

A method comprising:

• storing, in a social networking system, a user profile associated with a viewing user, the user profile identifying one or more other users of a social networking system who are connected to the viewing user in the social networking system;
• receiving a story request for a sponsored story unit from an advertiser, the story request identifying one or more properties of content to be included in the requested sponsored story;
• identifying one or more actions performed by the other users connected to the viewing user, the actions stored by the social networking system;
• accessing data in the social networking system describing at least one of (1) properties of the one or more actions and (2) properties of one or more objects associated with the one or more actions;
• selecting an action from the one or more actions based on matching the properties of content identified by the story request to at least one of the properties of the one or more actions and the properties of one or more objects associated with the one or more actions for the selected action;
• generating a sponsored story unit based on the selected action, the sponsored story unit describing the selected action performed by another user connected to the viewing user;
• providing the sponsored story unit for display to the viewing user.