Instant Articles in Creator Studio: Quick-start guide

This guide outlines the quickest way to set up Instant Articles within Creator Studio, where you can produce, monetise, share and measure the performance of your Instant Articles on Facebook. Please note the initial setup process involves a one-time review by Facebook that may take several weeks because of recent changes to the review process.

1. Setup

Open Creator Studio and go to the Monetisation tab. To be eligible for Instant Articles, you'll need to meet our Instant Articles Policies and Partner Monetisation Policies, as well as have an established web presence for your domain. If your Page meets the eligibility criteria, you'll be able to click Set up. Click Review terms to review the Instant Articles Terms of Service. Then click Agree to terms.

2. Submit ten articles for review

We'll ask you to complete a series of four actions to prepare your articles for Facebook review. During this process, you'll have an opportunity to upload a group of test articles before submitting your publication-ready article set for review. Click Begin to get started.

Claim your domain: Click Claim to register your domain. To connect your site, add the meta tag shown in the black bar below the head tag in your website's HTML code. You can register up to ten domains with Facebook to use for Instant Articles. You'll need to register your site's URL with Facebook, along with any development URLs that you'll use to test your articles. Make sure that you don't include the prefix "www" when you claim your root domain. For more information on what URL to claim, please visit Instant Article publishing tools, under "Types of URLs".



Configure article styles: Click Configure to customise the look and feel of your articles with article styles. Article styles are visual templates that you can create and apply to your articles. For example, it may be useful to apply a different style to branded content so that readers can tell that it's sponsored content. Learn more about how to create and add styles to your articles.

Before you can set up Instant Articles, you'll need to decide which of these three configuration methods best suit your technical resources. You can also see our Best practices for more information on selecting the right method for you.

• Easy: The WordPress plugin is the easiest way to set up Instant Articles, as no coding is needed. This is a great option for bloggers or independent publishers using the WordPress platform.
• Intermediate: If you have some technical experience, you may want to use the Instant Articles Builder, which helps you set up and import your articles using a visual tool.
• Advanced: If you use a custom content management system (CMS), consider using the Instant Articles API or setting up a dedicated RSS feed.

Add ten production articles: Click Add to submit ten production articles that are ready for publication on Facebook. These articles need to be live on your website at the time of submission. Once you've add your articles, refresh the page to view them. Please note that new Instant Articles publishers must be approved by Facebook before publication can begin. During this process, Facebook will review your submitted content to ensure that it aligns with its Instant Articles and Partner Monetisation Policies. Click Confirm once your production articles have been successfully imported.

Your articles will be published as Instant Articles on Facebook once your review is complete.

Add development articles (optional): Before you submit your articles for review, you have the option of uploading a batch of development articles to check for any content, formatting or coding errors. Development articles are simply articles that are used for testing and not for publication. Click Add to get started. Then, you'll need to choose a method to import your articles for testing, review and publication.

Once you've set up the import process, find out how you can test and debug your Instant Articles before submitting them for review or sharing them with your followers.

3. Set up monetisation

Click Begin to get started. Then click Review terms to read the Terms and Conditions. Then click Agree to terms. Click Set up account to start monetising. You can select a pre-existing account if you're already monetising on Creator Studio. You can also create a new account by uploading your tax ID and relevant information and connecting your preferred bank account. Once you've successfully set up your account, the button will say Completed.

Once your Instant Articles have been approved, you're ready to start sharing them on Facebook:

1. Create a new post on Facebook.
2. Include the link to your Instant Article.
3. Click Post.
4. You'll know you've successfully shared an Instant Article if you see the lightning bolt image next to the headline.

Note: Instant Articles are never posted to your Page automatically. You must create a new post each time you would like to distribute your articles.

Best practices and tips

Claim the right domain for your publication

Most publishers register a root domain. This allows you to publish Instant Articles using any of the root domain's subdomains, as well as any path that originates from the root domain. For example, when you register the URL domain.com, the registration includes:

• The root, domain.com (make sure that you don't include the "www" prefix when you claim your root domain).
• Subdomains with prefixes such as brand.domain.com
• Paths delineated by forward slashes, such as domain.com/path or brand.domain.com/path

For more guidance on how to claim subdomains and URLs that include trailing slashes, please visit Instant Article publishing tools, under "Types of URLs".

Ensure that your submitted articles meet Facebook's requirements

We invite you to submit at least ten articles that show your latest implementations and design. Excluding ads, content that appears as an Instant Article must be identical to the content in the web version of the article. Our policies permit exceptions in cases when the Instant Article creative tools enable additional content, or when it is not possible to have identical content from a technical standpoint. Please use our submission checklist, which provides greater detail on passing the review process.

Instant Articles can be created in three ways – choose the right method for you

Easy	Intermediate	Advanced
Wordpress plugin	Instant Articles Builder	Instant Articles API RSS feed
The WordPress plugin is the easiest way to set up Instant Articles. No coding is needed. This is a great option for bloggers or independent publishers using the WordPress platform.	If you have some technical experience, you may want to use the Instant Articles Builder, which helps you set up and import your articles using a visual tool.	If you use a custom content management system (CMS), consider using the Instant Articles API or setting up a dedicated RSS feed.

Note: Using the API allows you to manage articles and receive errors and alerts instantaneously through your own CMS. If you use a dedicated RSS feed, Facebook pulls articles from the feed several times an hour, and you'll need to use the "Publishing tools" section of your Facebook Page to delete articles and see errors and alerts.