Publishers want Facebook to make ad changes with Instant Articles

Dive Brief:

Facebook is still working out the ad revenue kinks with its Instant Articles publisher partners.
The app, which went live for Apple devices last month, hosts publishers’ content rather than sending traffic back to their websites and comes with restrictive advertising policies set by Facebook.
According to the Wall Street Journal, insiders say publishers aren’t generating as much revenue from Instant Article ads as they do on their own websites.

Dive Insight:

Facebook is likely going to have to reconsider some its restrictive advertising guidelines on its Instant Articles app after its publisher partners are already pushing back. The guidelines include no “rich media” ads, and one banner ad of 320 x 250 pixels for every 500 words of content. Most publishers would run three or four of that sized ad for every 500 words.

The Washington Post was one publisher that went all in with Instant Articles, running its entire 1,200 daily articles and wire reports on the app. Jed Hartman, chief revenue officer at the Washington Post told the Wall Street Journal, “You have to analyze many factors to determine the monetization potential. You have fewer impressions per page view than we presently do, so you have to balance that, and you don’t have all the animation we can sell on our own site.”

In the same article WSJ Michael Reckhow, Facebook’s Instant Articles product manager, said, “It’s early days with Instant Articles, but one of our principles from the beginning has been to work collaboratively with our publishing partners to understand their needs and shape the product. We’re currently working closely with publishers to understand how their advertising in Instant Articles compares to the mobile web so we can deliver results, while maintaining a great reading experience for people. We’ve made numerous improvements to the advertising capabilities over the past few months and will continue to iterate based on publisher feedback to improve the product.”

Meanwhile, the NewsWhip shared early data on The New York Times' performance on Instant Articles, revealing that stories on Instant Articles are three times more likely to be shared.