Marketing Land reports that Facebook won’t be including advertiser ads on its newly launched Facebook News Tab, but publishers will be able to monetize content in the same way they do within other areas of the platform.


”Facebook-News-Tab”


In a nutshell, the content featured within the new dedicated Facebook News section may contain Instant Article ads, but advertisers who’ve been hoping to get a feed ad placement option within Facebook News are going to be disappointed – for now. Facebook has confirmed it won’t be distributing ads to the new section. If you’re one of those hopeful advertisers, however, all is not lost. There’s still a chance that Facebook will decide to insert ads around curated news stories at some stage in the proceedings. Facebook’s recent development of the Groups tab and search results features saw them take a step-by-step approach to ads, and we may well see ads get tested on the News tab too.

In case you somehow haven’t heard, Facebook News is a new, dedicated space on the platform. It will highlight top news stories from national and local publications. By way of an introduction, Facebook had this to say:

“At launch, this tab is very much an alpha test as we figure out what will provide the best experience for people,” said a Facebook spokesperson, “Part of that testing includes partnering with some publishers who are required to build tools with us.”

How Facebook eventually decides to proceed with advertising options within Facebook News Feed should be of particular interest to marketers. Why? Well, the fact is Facebook News could be a big hit and attract consistent, high-value engagement. If that happens, it’s very likely going to be opened up to advertisers like us.

Interestingly, Facebook reckons it surveyed over 100,000 users when determining the content for inclusion in Facebook News. The signs, if advertisers do eventually get access to the section, are good. There are four categories in terms of publishers: general, topical, diverse and local news.

Warrior Forum members will no doubt also be interested to know that Facebook will be employing machine learning to personalize content in Facebook News, and articles will be curated by, as Facebook puts it, “A diverse team of journalists.” What this all boils down to – for adverstisers everywhere – is that Facebook News is one to watch.