Facebook Bows To Publishers, Will Serve More Ads In Instant Articles

Facebook is adjusting its advertising policies for Instant Articles, after publishers complained that they were having trouble generating enough revenue from the content posted with the new feature.

The social network will now allow publishers to serve more ads within articles and to sell Facebook-only campaigns, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

The new policy will allow placement of one ad for every 350 words, instead of the 500-word threshold that was previously enforced. Additionally, Facebook has created a new tool that will automatically place ads every 350 words within Instant Article content. That will ensure maximum ad load is reached for each article and avoid publishers “leaving money on the table by under-serving ads,” Facebook Instant Article product manager Michael Reckhow told the Journal.

By dropped the restriction against selling Facebook-only campaigns, Facebook is giving publishers the option to sell Instant Article ads at a premium. Previously, there was no way to single them out; publishers had to package such ads with inventory across their other online properties.

Facebook also is giving publishers the ability to manually control the links to articles that appear below Instant Article content.

Instant Articles, introduced this summer and rolled out to all iPhone users in October, give media companies the ability to publish directly on the Facebook platform rather than posting links leading back to their websites. Publishers get the benefits of faster-loading stories while giving up direct traffic to their properties.

Many publishers are jumping aboard; about 100 have signed up for the program globally, and Facebook is using their feedback to tweak its policies.

“We’re continuing to listen to publishers about what they want from Instant Articles, and we’re going to continue to do this. This is one step forward, but we will continue to listen,” Reckhow said.