Facebook Boosts Ad Revenue for Publishers of Instant Articles

In response to feedback, Facebook has changed its advertising policies for Instant Articles, to help publishers generate more revenue. Publishers can now include more advertising in each article and control the links to other articles at the end of theirs. Instant Articles, which debuted in October, allows media companies to publish content directly to Facebook instead of posting links to their sites. Meanwhile, Amazon has been developing and testing Expert Articles on topics of interest to the site’s consumers.

The Wall Street Journal says Facebook will now give publishers the option to “highlight and link to specific content hosted on their own sites from the ‘related articles’ section at the bottom of Instant Articles templates, including branded or sponsored posts.” Facebook is also permitting one ad every 350 words, as opposed to every 500 words.

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Also new is the removal of the restriction to “package Instant Articles ad space with other inventory across their websites or other properties,” allowing publishers to pitch Instant Articles ads at a premium. Currently, about 100 publishers are using Instant Articles on a daily basis and about 300 are enrolled.

Amazon has been developing content via its Expert Articles initiative, reports TechCrunch. Still in its early stages, Expert Articles does have some notable names attached, including home improvement celebrity Bob Vila, floral designer Lila B. Design, home style blogger Laura Trevey, curated Amazon shop Canopy and interior design resource Remodelista. Contributors are not paid for their articles, but earn more exposure by being featured on the site.

For its part, however, Amazon is still mulling over how and where to promote the articles. “We’ve seen little to no traffic from this yet, after having published about a week ago,” one source told TechCrunch. “But we understand it’s early in the beta and are hoping they’ll find new ways to promote us and this content in the new year.”

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