Facebook Expands Monetisation Opportunities On Instant Articles

For the past few months, Facebook has been testing ad units in the recirculation section of Instant Articles. The test is now open to all publishers providing them with more opportunities to monetise their content on Instant Articles.

Publishers have said in the past that “ads in related articles are an important monetization driver on the mobile web.” So, Facebook sought to add another ad unit within Instant Articles to serve “relevant and high quality ads from Facebook advertisers.” Facebook has been testing related articles (recirculation) ad units in Instant Articles for the past few months as part of its Journalism Project, and is now opening up the test to all publishers who want to take part.

In a recent media.fb blog post, Product Manager Harshit Agarwal explained that the company will now be looking for more feedback from more publishers following the test. The decision to open up the recirculation test came as Facebook has been “encouraged by the incremental increase that publishers have seen in average revenue per 1,000 page views (RPM) since the test began.”

Facebook‘s priority with Instant Articles is to offer the best reading experience for people who click on them, but also to be able to drive revenue for publishers and provide advertisers with better-performing ads. And this works – Instant Articles currently deliver “between 20 – 50% more traffic compared to mobile web content.”

Additionally, Facebook is boosting Instant Articles with new monetisation solutions for publishers. For example, it launched call-to-action units recently, allowing them to “build deeper relationships with their audience.” Agarwal explained that these – and other recent enhancements – have made a difference, with Facebook’s Instant Articles paying out over $1 million per day to publishers through its Facebook Audience Network. “Flexibility in ad placements and enabling new types of Facebook ads” have led to a 50% increase of revenue per 1,000 page views (RPM), in the past 6 months alone.

Instant Articles currently drive more than a third of all clicks to articles on Facebook

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Agarwal also notes that there are over 10,000 publishers globally (25% increase in six months) using Instant Articles, and the format currently drives “more than a third of all clicks to articles on Facebook.”

To get the most value from Instant Articles, Facebook suggests that publishers use Automatic Ads Placement to optimise “the number and placements of ads on each page,” run direct sold campaigns within their Instant Articles, as well as build CTA Units with the self-serve tools that Facebook already provides.

Image: Facebook