Is Facebook quietly becoming a new revenue stream for publishers again?

Of the 10 publishers Digiday spoke to for this article, several are on track to make between six and seven figures this year from Meta’s latest content monetization program, which was introduced last October. 

The program pays creators based on engagement with photos and videos posted on the platform. It merges Facebook’s in-stream ads and performance bonus programs into one, effectively simplifying its creator monetization process. 

Last year, Facebook moved away from a revenue-share payout model — which paid publishers based on the performance of ads in content — to a model that pays creators and publishers based on the performance of their content, with rates varying based on region, content and other signals.

An exec at a news publisher who asked to speak anonymously said they are seeing some of their pages bring in revenue through this program, without having changed the volume or type of posts they publish on Facebook.

Posts with photos are generating most of the revenue, which has been calculated based on how many interactions their posts get, according to the exec. The publisher is on track to bring in seven figures of revenue from this program this year, they said.

The exec estimated that so far, that is six to eight times more money than previous Facebook monetization programs — at least for this publisher, which produces more images and text content than video.

Publishers have learned the hard way not to rely on consistent revenue or traffic referral from Meta. Facebook stopped paying publishers in 2022 for their content to appear in its curated Facebook News tab and removed Instant Articles, which helped publishers monetize their content in Facebook’s mobile app, in 2023. So publishers know it’s no long-term lifeline, but in a cash-strapped moment, even a fleeting bump in traffic and revenue is hard to ignore.

Another exec at a lifestyle publisher who requested anonymity told Digiday that the bonus program brought in “low six figures” last year. They described the revenue as “inconsistent” because Meta decides which pages will be monetizable through the program, and for specific periods of a month or two, they said. 

But when that does get turned on, they amp up their production. The exec estimated they produce about 25% more videos during these bonus periods. “It’s been a decent amount of … ancillary revenue. But it’s not something we count on,” they said. 

However, compared to other content monetization programs for publishers like Facebook Watch, which were flat-fee rates for video series, this “performance-based revenue” has been a more dependable source of revenue — so far, they added.

Both publishing execs said they have no control over which pages or posts are enabled by Meta to make them money, though. And publishers interviewed for this story said they had not received any explanation from Meta reps when they queried why they were seeing more money from Facebook.

Meta did not respond to a request for comment before the story’s publishing time.

It’s a similar phenomenon to what’s happening with referral traffic. Digiday reported earlier this month that some news publishers were starting to see Facebook referral traffic return this year. Similarweb data showed 75% of the top 68 biggest news sites saw the share of total desktop Facebook referral traffic increase in March year over year, according to a Press Gazette report published this month.  

But for other publishers, money from Facebook remains elusive. During a closed-door town hall session at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Vail, Colorado in March, a publishing exec said they made $500.00 a month from the content monetization program. Others agreed that the earnings from the platform were negligible.