pFacebook is testing a new feature that it lets users to link their accounts to news publishers where they have paid subscriptions. This is aimed to be help Facebook users read news content easily without having to log in again. Facebook users who have subscribed to news publishers require logging in to read content that’s under a paywall. With the new feature, users need not go through the login process again as it will identify that the user is a subscriber of that particular publication. Facebook will take care of the account linking process as it will match subscribers to Facebook users and then invite those users to link their accounts.
Facebook has been testing this new feature with The Athletic, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Winniped Free Press. Based on the test, Facebook said that in last June subscribers who linked their accounts “had on average 111 % more article clicks” as compared to those who were not. Facebook also said that the publishers’ Facebook followers increased from 34% to over 97% in June.
Facebook is adding more partners to its account linking tool product. The company is also working on the figuring more metrics related to subscriber retention based on account linking. It’s basically trying to understand how much does this benefit publishers. Facebook also plans to roll out an account linking tool on the publisher websites so users can do it directly from there. For Facebook users in the US, this account linking will result in more news stories from their publisher appearing in their Facebook News experience. It’s also looking for new places where subscribers can link their accounts within the Facebook app.