• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 8, 2017

Earlier this year, the social giant began testing ad units in the related articles section at the bottom of Instant Articles to keep publisher partners on board. Now, based on what Facebook calls positive results, it is opening the test to all publishers partners.

“We’re encouraged by the incremental increase that publishers have seen in average revenue per 1,000 page views (RPM) since the test began,” notes Harshit Agarwa, a product manager at Facebook, in a blog post.

The new test includes a native ad unit in Instant Articles, which attempts to serve relevant ads to users.

In aggregate, Instant Articles delivers between 20% to 50% more traffic, compared to mobile Web content. Yet, the initiative has reportedly fallen out of favor with some publishers.

To address concerns, Agarwa said Facebook is developing new features to help publishers build deeper relationships with audiences through call-to-action units and increase ads monetization.

Instant Articles now pays out more than $1 million per day to publishers via Facebook Audience Network, according to internal figures. Further, in the last six months, revenue per 1,000 page views (RPM) that publishers see from Facebook Audience Network in Instant Articles has increased by more than 50%.

Worldwide, more than 10,000 publishers presently participate in Instant Articles, which represents a 25% increase over the past six month, per Facebook.