What is Facebook Instant Article?
Facebook Instant Article is Facebook’s attempt to make a fast and efficient mobile web platform.
Facebook Instant Article was launched in May 2015. The selected publishers like National Geographic and The New York Times were allowed to participate.
Later on, Facebook Instant Article was opened to all publishers in April 2016. Instant Articles features load your posts very fast so that your audience has access to the information.
Facebook Instant Article controls the display of your posts for mobile visitors who click on them inside Facebook.
Instant Articles are HTML5 documents that are optimized for mobile and designed to load immediately in your Facebook feed. The main purpose of Facebook Instant Article is improving the mobile experience.
Facebook Instant Article is a lighter version of articles that shows up in the user’s newsfeed while they’re using the Facebook App and click on the link.
The goal of Instant Articles is to provide a better, faster, and more pleasant reading experience inside Facebook on mobile services.
Facebook Instant Article is like a website/blog. You can create a page and publish it on Facebook. Then Facebook will recognize your page for monetization and advertisements will come on your page.
Facebook has some rules and procedures to follow:
# Website / Blog – You must have a blog or website in WordPress. The same post which you publish in your blog will be published in Facebook Instant Articles.
# Facebook Page – You must have a Facebook Page to publish the same post of your website or blog. Your Facebook page should be 3 months old.
# Copyright Article – You have to write your own article. Facebook doesn’t recognize copyright articles and must be written on its own.
# Make Money – When your page starts getting likes and people read it. Then Facebook Instant Articles will give you recognition. Ads will start showing in your article and you’ll get money.
# Audience Network – Audience network means an ads network like Google AdSense. You’ve to get your website or blog recognized from here and advertisements will come to your page or website called Facebook Audience Network.
Facebook has reported that content published using Instant Articles receive more clicks, shares, and time spent reading.
Facebook Instant Article is also bringing Facebook Ad standardization to blogging. Publishers can monetize their blog by placing ads in the Facebook Instant Articles.
Facebook uses the language that describes Instant Articles along with its features a move towards a more interactive experience.
There are some differences between regular articles viewed on a mobile device vs Facebook Instant Article:
- Facebook Instant Articles content opens directly inside the Mobile App
- In Instant Articles, the content is optimized for viewing only within the platform
- Instant Articles takes only load time of about 300 milliseconds as compared to 3.66 seconds for standard Mobile Web Articles
Facebook gives content producers multiple tools to make articles immersive and interactive:
# Video Playing – Videos will play automatically as you scroll through the article.
# Image Fixation – Readers can zoom into high-resolution images. You can tilt your device to explore the full-width of images.
# Interactive Maps – Locations mentioned all over an article can be displayed on an interactive map.
# Embedded Audio – Snippets of audio can be played alongside any content to provide more contexts to the article.
Pros of Using Facebook Instant Article –
Facebook Instant Articles allows optimizing content for Facebook App users and it’s similar to Google AMP:
- Fast mobile performance
- Offers rich-media options combined with storytelling capabilities (high-resolution photos, videos, interactive maps)
- Branded design and customized visual display
Facebook Instant Article load very quickly which helps to hold people’s attention and people are less likely to abandon the article.
Interactive and immersive tools allow you to deliver a convincing mobile storytelling experience. One of the many advantages of Facebook Instant Articles is that it’ll display content that’s most suited for mobile users.
Facebook Instant Articles traffic can be reported on a daily or hourly basis.
It allows publishers to identify peak times for different types of content and to use this data to improve future content campaign strategies.
Facebook also promotes sharing articles by the readers. It adds strong reminders at the top and bottom of the Facebook Instant Article.
It allows you to link to more articles from your website. You can increase organic reach because more CTA to share could prompt more sharing by users.
Cons of Using Facebook Instant Article –
Facebook Instant Articles are the same cons as Google AMP optimization such as certain types of content not possible which include images enlargement, videos, pop-ups, sign-ups, website impression counts, etc.
How Facebook Instant Article Works –
First, you need to create a Facebook Page and sign up for the Facebook Instant Article and connect to your Facebook Page.
You can create a Facebook App and paste App ID and App secret into the module admin settings.
You can create your Instant Articles using WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor and include your logo and header image.
You can create an animated, video or banner advertisement that will be included in your Facebook Instant Article. You can create your Analytics code that will be used to track the engagement results of your Articles.
You can submit your Facebook Instant Articles to Facebook for approval. You can publish your articles once it’s approved.
Features of Facebook Instant Article –
You can create an unlimited number of Instant Articles.
You can insert animated, video or banner advertisements into your Instant Articles.
You can insert Analytic code such as Google Analytics or any other 3rd party analytics code into your Articles.
You can create and submit your Instant Articles to Facebook for review from your admin panel.
You can view the list of all created and active Instant Articles.
Advantages of Facebook Instant Article –
Instant Articles have multiple advantages for publishers and readers as well:
# User Experience – Facebook Instant Articles loads 10 times faster than regular mobile web articles.
Instant Articles create a very interactive and incredibly fast experience for readers. It’s hard to argue against the benefits of Instant Articles for users.
The best part is that they don’t lose creative control for publishers. Posts can be customized from looks and layout of the content to basic branding.
Publishers can customize the buttons that appear within Instant Articles to give a consistent look. Users can see the link, click and read the content instantly and with no distractions.
Facebook algorithms have already begun to notice the difference between Instant Articles and standard mobile-viewed articles.
Instant Article’s faster page loading and rich interface have resulted in greater engagement. When the content looks great, the users have a great experience interacting with the article and sharing it.
# Loading Speed – Facebook has been trying to improve their experience. Facebook Instant Article loads much faster than regular articles.
Facebook Instant Article removes each and every element which is unnecessary for reading the content. It never uses any JavaScript to load, any website-specific CSS, or any 3rd party Plugins.
You can identify Instant Articles with the lightning bolt symbol on the image. The impact on load speed is undeniable even when compared with websites that are already mobile-optimized.
# Instantaneous – The Facebook Instant Article templates are native to the Facebook App, and users get the feeling of instantaneous experience.
The loading process seems more natural and flawlessly connected to the app experience when users click on an article. Instant Articles are not only about instantaneous access to news.
They are about the new and improved way to share your stories, completely interactive and high-resolution visuals that tell well to mobile users.
# Optimized Content – Facebook Instant Article templates design is clean and minimal. Publishers can’t customize a few options like font family, font size, and colors.
The users’ great reading experience will increase loyalty and brand awareness which leads to users to view more content from publishers.
# Ad Revenue – Facebook Instant Article allows you to insert ads within your content. You can make money by allowing ads to be placed in your published content like Google AdSense.
You can’t directly make money using Facebook and one of the pain points is to generate revenue from your marketing efforts online.
If publishers want to sell ads within their Instant Articles, they have the opportunity to earn whole Ad revenue.
In Facebook Audience Network, publishers make 70% of the revenue while Facebook takes the rest if they decide to monetize the content.
# Rich Interface – Interaction with a platform depends on the experience. The experience will be improved if usage times increase.
Facebook Instant Article has a rich interface. The high-resolution images, videos, and map 3d views are a breath of fresh air when consuming content online.
# Creative Tools – Instant Articles feature introduces a range of powerful new creative tools.
It helps publishers bring their Facebook stories to life in different ways with embedded audio captions, auto-play videos, interactive maps, and high-resolution photos powered by tilt and zoom capability.
# Publish from CMS – Facebook Instant Article can be published directly from an existing CMS like WordPress.
You need to provide an RSS feed of your article to Facebook to get started. You don’t need to learn a new tool or publish articles in a different location.
All the changes, corrections or updates made to the website’s article will automatically be applied to the Instant Articles.
Limitations of Facebook Instant Article –
Promoting Instant Articles can mean that you end up suffering in regards to traffic to your website.
Facebook Instant Article comes with a number of limitations to consider:-
# Eligibility – Websites with less than 50 posts will be rejected. If your website meets the post count then you can join after manual review.
The manual process pushes your way through the inevitable applications takes time and your competitors will take advantage of Instant Articles before you.
# Compatibility – Publishers will need multiple ways out to show the same page via different platforms.
These solutions may not be consistent in their implementation. In WordPress, some plugins may also need more code to be compatible.
# User Interaction – Facebook stated that there will be no News Feed ranking benefits to Instant Articles.
All the interactions like reactions, comments, and shares take place with the Facebook App. Instant Articles could increase your Facebook user engagement but not your reach.
# Future Decisions – Facebook’s terms are favorable for publishers right now, but if Instant Articles has a large adoption rate then these terms may change.
Facebook may choose to remove competitor’s ads like Google AdSense, replacing them with own version and further lock-in content providers.
# Limited Sharing – Facebook Instant Article allows you to share the post on Facebook and Twitter but doesn’t let you share it anywhere else.
You can share it on other networks selecting open in browser and access the social sharing plug-ins within the website to share. It’ll limit the user’s experience and balance the advantage gained by using them in the first place.
Conclusion – Mobile browsing is now dominating but the web content speed is sometimes not enough. Facebook Instant Article is the answer to rapid content delivery within the Facebook ecosystem. Today, you need both Google AMP and Facebook Instant Article to deliver an improved experience to mobile readers. Facebook Instant Article is a great option for any publishers who want increased exposure to new audiences and monetize the content. You should give users the deserving experience which helps build your brand’s credibility with Facebook Instant Article on Facebook and on their mobile devices.