Key Point 1: Meta Begins Testing Ads on Threads, Reaching Over 300 Million Monthly Active Users, Emphasizing That Advertisers Can Extend Existing Meta Ad Campaigns to Threads.
Key Point 2: Threads Ads Will Introduce Brand Safety Tools and User Personalization Control Options, Announcing Plans to Compete with Social Platform X for the Digital Advertising Market.
Meta Launches “Threads Ads”
Meta announced on Wednesday that after months of testing in specific markets such as the United States, the advertising feature on its social platform Threads will expand to all advertisers globally. This expansion plan aims to reach over 320 million monthly active users on Threads and provides advertisers with an “inventory filter” feature to control the sensitivity of the content adjacent to their ad placements.
According to a report by TechChurch, this global advertising expansion indicates that Meta believes the community scale and user engagement on Threads have reached a sufficiently robust level to begin monetization, and it possesses the capability to compete for advertising budgets with major competitor X, owned by Elon Musk.
Meta data shows that three-quarters of Threads users follow at least one business account, highlighting its commercial potential. Initial ads will appear in a mixed format within users’ Threads home feeds, and Meta will closely monitor the effectiveness of the tests to determine the scope of future promotions.
Meta noted 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 choosing the manual option will have the right to opt-out of Threads placements. Initial ad placements will be limited to specific markets and will gradually expand to more regions over time.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated during the earnings call in January that he expects Threads to surpass one billion users in the coming “years” and mentioned that the network was “adding over a million new registered users daily,” reflecting an optimistic attitude towards 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 emphasizes that it will introduce existing brand safety and suitability solutions to Threads. Initially, it will test AI-supported ad placement filtering tools, allowing advertisers to control the adjacency of their ads to what types of user-generated content. This tool is already available on Facebook and Instagram.
At the same time, to safeguard user experience, Threads users will have control over ads, with the option to skip, hide, or report ads they are not interested in, and to understand how their personal information is used for ad placements. Meta stated that it will continue to invest resources in relevant policies, systems, and tools to balance commercial needs with user experience.
Meta’s Concerns! Growth Strategy Faces Antitrust Challenges
The rapid accumulation of users on 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 existing 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, is also the core controversy 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 the growth of Threads, Meta is 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 world 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 a collaborative reprint from: Digital Age
The initial draft of this article was written by AI, organized and edited by Li Xiantai
Sources: TechChurch, Meta