It has almost been a year since Facebook launched Instant Articles and it has been a great way to consume content on the platform. Instant Articles made us realize that we have for so long taken as standard the idea of waiting for a web page to load and it is really hard to come back.
There is an agreement between Facebook and publishers in regards to ads posted on Instant Articles. If Facebook serves the ads, publishers get 70% of the revenue and if Publishers provide the ads, they get to keep 100% of the revenue. The ads we get to see on the Instant Articles are either static or in GIF form and Facebook wants to change that.
WSJ reported that Facebook is making a change on Instant Articles where publishers will be able to place video ads on the platform. The ads will be either autoplay or user initiated and especially for editorials, they can add a pre-roll ad. However, there is a condition where autoplay video ads must have sound disabled by default.
“In our conversations with publishers, these changes popped up as the biggest steps we could take to make the biggest impact” Instant Articles product manager was quoted by the publication. “We care about user experience first and foremost, but we know this doesn’t work if publishers can’t monetize their content successfully.”
This move by Facebook comes at a time where they are about to rollout Instant Articles worldwide on April 12th this year. This was preceded by the move to beta release a WordPress Instant Articles plugin which was major since WordPress holds content for 25% of the web.
