Key Point 1: Meta Begins Testing Ads on Threads, Reaching Over 300 Million Monthly Active Users, Emphasizing That Advertisers Can Expand Existing Meta Ad Campaigns to Threads.
Key Point 2: Threads Ads Will Introduce Brand Safety Tools and User Personalization Control Options, Announcing Competition with the Social Platform X for the Digital Advertising Market.
Meta Launches “Threads Ads”
Meta announced on Wednesday that after several months of testing in specific markets such as the United States, the advertising functionality of its social platform Threads will be expanded to all advertisers globally. This expansion plan aims to reach over 320 million monthly active users on Threads and offers advertisers an “inventory filter” feature to control the sensitivity of content surrounding ad placements.
According to a report by TechChurch, this global advertising expansion demonstrates Meta’s belief that Threads’ community size and user engagement have reached a sufficiently robust level to begin monetization and compete for advertising budgets with major competitor X platform, owned by Elon Musk.
Meta’s data shows that three-quarters of Threads users follow at least one business account, indicating its commercial potential. Initial ads will appear in a mixed format within users’ Threads home feeds, and Meta will closely monitor the test results to determine the scope of future promotions.
Meta indicated that for all new ad campaigns using its Advantage+ or Manual Placements, the new ad placements on Threads will be enabled by default; however, advertisers opting for manual placements will have the option to exclude Threads placements. Initial ad placements will be limited to specific markets and will gradually expand to more regions over time.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, stated during the company’s earnings call in January that he expects Threads to surpass one billion users in the “coming years” and mentioned that the platform was “adding over a million registered users daily” at that time, reflecting an optimistic outlook on its growth potential.
Will Users Be Overwhelmed by Ads? Meta: Users Will Have Control Over Ads
To ensure the quality of the advertising environment, Meta emphasized that it will implement existing brand safety and suitability solutions on Threads. Initially, it will test an AI-supported ad placement filtering tool, allowing advertisers to control how their ad content is displayed alongside various types of user-generated content; this tool is already available on Facebook and Instagram.
At the same time, to protect user experience, Threads users will have control over ads, with the option to skip, hide, or report ads they are not interested in and understand how their personal information is used for ad placement. Meta stated that it will continue to invest resources in relevant policies, systems, and tools to balance commercial demands with user experience.
Meta’s Concerns! Growth Strategy Faces Antitrust Challenges
The rapid user accumulation of Threads is largely attributed to its deep integration strategy with Instagram. By leveraging Instagram’s existing large user base and social network, new users can quickly get started and follow their original friends, creators, and brands, making Threads almost seamlessly an extension of the Instagram network.
However, this strong competitive advantage, built on an existing large social network foundation, is also the core point of contention in Meta’s current antitrust lawsuit with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
If the government wins, this case could ultimately force Meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp.
To continue driving Threads’ growth, Meta is also actively borrowing successful elements from other emerging social networks, such as integrating the ActivityPub protocol promoted by Mastodon, connecting Threads to a broader, decentralized network known as the “fediverse.”
At the same time, Threads has also referenced popular features from Bluesky, such as allowing users to create custom feeds outside of algorithmic recommendations and launching curated user recommendation lists similar to Bluesky Starter Packs.
This article is collaboratively reproduced from: Digital Age
The initial draft was written by AI and organized/edited by Li Xiantai.
Source: TechChurch, Meta