The Facebook Instant Articles platform came about from a need to deliver a better experience for mobile users accessing news sites via the Facebook Mobile app.
Since adjusting it’s algorithm in August 2013, Facebook has been the major referrer of traffic to news sites, over and above Google even. But mobile users were having to wait an average of 8 seconds for content from a news site to load.
By hosting the news sites' articles themselves, Facebook were able to significantly bring down the load time, with articles loading almost immediately, thereby delivering a very much improved user experience and less article abandonment.
And now it’s not just for news site …. it’s open to everyone to take advantage of.
Why Use Instant Articles For Business?
Simple – mobile users are much more likely to click on an Instant Article than a normal one because they load 10 x faster than normal articles. No wonder mobile users are actively looking for IA’s before they make a decision to read further. Instant Articles receive 20% more clicks, 30% more shares and 70% more retention.
TIP: You can tell which posts in your App’s News Feed are Instant Articles by the tiny lightning bolt in the corner
Another good reason to use the Instant Articles platform is for advertising and income purposes. Publishers can choose to display ads inside their Instant Articles and are in full control of what ads actually show. If the publisher themselves sell the ads, they’ll keep 100% of the revenue. If Facebook sells the ads through its Audience Network mobile ad network, it keeps 30% and gives 70% to the publisher of the Article.
How To Use Instant Articles
While Facebook Instant Articles are a fantastic concept, they certainly are not simple to get going with because they require a special HTML markup version of your article, and this is a massive problem for the average person.
WordPress plugins are available, but ….. there are plenty of frustrations and problems reported by users, and what happens if your business is based around Facebook Pages only or you just don’t use WordPress?
Then you're going to have to hire a developer to create the right code for each article – an impractical and expensive option for sure.
In Summary
Mobile is the future of the internet, and the Facebook Instant Articles platform is the future of content delivery and distribution. Get ahead of your competitors, get more clicks and shares and expand your reach for greater returns for your business.
Have you used Facebook Instant Articles already? How have you found it? Please share your experiences by commenting below.