The key details

• First and foremost, there’s (more) money to be made on Instant Articles. RPMs on Instant Articles rose 48% year over year for the top 100 publishers using the format in the U.S. and Canada, and 27% for the top 500 publishers using them globally, Facebook said.
• The number of publishers using Instant Articles grew this year, with more than 5,700 publishers either starting to use or returning to the format. Overall, around 50,000 Facebook pages worldwide use Instant Articles, according to Facebook
• Facebook said it has plans to build out even more features next year, including expanded video ad capabilities and more in-depth analytics — the platform will provide more information about articles such as scroll depth, top-performing articles, via its creator studio.

This is the second major announcement Facebook has made about Instant Articles this year. In January, the platform shared news about several improvements to the product, including an automated ad yield tool that inserts either a CTA button or an ad in various parts of an article, depending on which is likely to yield more revenue for publishers.

The January announcement also mentioned a pair of changes designed to integrate Instant Article content more tightly into the rest of Facebook. For example, Facebook added a new recirculation button to the bottom right of the Instant Article template designed to keep readers engaged with publisher content for longer periods of time. It also added support for Instant Article pages to Facebook Stories, which Facebook says is used by 300 million people every day.

A second half surge
There is no clean explanation for the improved revenue performance; a Facebook spokesperson said different things drove improvements for different publishers but did not elaborate or provide specifics.

Facebook’s RPM calculation does not calculate value from CTA buttons, which might generate revenue off Instant Articles themselves, the spokesman noted.

Advertiser-specific demand for Instant Articles was not part of the picture. “We are cautious about investment [on IA] unless it’s direct or we include a partner to ensure contextual brand safety,” one media buyer said, explaining that because Instant Articles remains open to all publishers, clients remain wary of it.

Regardless of the reason, the uptick began in the second half of 2020. Justin Wohl, the chief revenue officer of Salon, noted that the RPMs on Salon’s Instant Article pages sat steady at about $8 through most of the spring, then began rising in August.

Thanks to another substantial jump over the past 90 days, Salon’s RPMs on Facebook Instant Articles now sit north of $15, 30% higher than its mobile site RPMs. “I have no complaints,” Wohl said.

Demand via Instant Articles right now is so strong, Wohl said, that Salon is using the format purely for ad revenue, rather than as a tool to capture email addresses or drive subscriptions, a priority many publishers …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron