March 14, 2017

Facebook is like your own personal genie: your wish is its command. Once again, Facebook heeds publishers’ request for more ways to monetize their articles by adding more ads into Instant Articles. Previously, publishers could only insert ads every 350 words. Now, however, they can place ads after every 250 words. To do so, publishers can either manually place the ads within the article (you must have some HTML knowledge to do this) or choose between three options for automatic placements: ads every 250, 350, or 500 words.

This isn’t the first time Facebook updated Instant Articles—and it won’t be the last. Facebook is still exploring additional ad placements and formats within Instant Articles that help drive revenue for both publishers and advertisers. Here are three features Facebook is currently testing.

Native Call-to-Action In-Line Units: Facebook is testing CTAs for email sign ups and page likes within Instant Articles.

Link Covers: Facebook is experimenting with link cover attachments in news feed.

Recirculation: Facebook will soon roll out horizontal scrolling.

These tests, if they roll out, will add to Facebook’s long list of Instant Article updates. Here’s what Facebook has done to Instant Articles so far, in case you missed them.

Automatic Ads Placement: In November, Facebook reordered ads within Instant Articles by moving the first ad slot higher on the page and changing the way ads are placed on the bottom of the article.

Direct Sold Campaigns

Facebook made two changes to direct sold campaigns:

1. Direct sold campaigns can support video and animated ads, as well as ads with custom units of up to 2:3 aspect ratio.

2. On October, Instant Articles supported multi-sized units.

Audience Network: Facebook redesigned Audience Network units to fit seamlessly into the Instant Articles experience.

Branded Content: Facebook altered the article style editor so that publishers can visually distinguish their branded content from editorial content.

What do you think of Facebook’s update to Instant Articles? Let us know on the comments section below.

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