Meta Introduces Ads in Threads

Two years ago, Meta launched Threads, a Twitter-like app from its Instagram team. Now, the company has finally introduced ads to the platform.

Threads currently has over 300 million monthly active users and according to Meta, three out of four people follow at least one business. For now, ads are only being tested in select regions with a small number of businesses, but expect them to launch fully in the near future.

"Businesses participating in this test will be able to benefit from familiar brand safety and suitability solutions, and consumers will have access to controls to help tailor their ad experience," the company noted in its announcement.

With these ads, businesses can extend their existing Meta ad campaigns to Threads by checking a box in Ads Manager, enabling them to reach people across a growing number of Meta apps. To start, Threads ads will appear in the main feed, as pictured below.

"People come to Meta for a personalized experience that helps them discover businesses and content they love—ads are an essential part of enabling this," Meta said. "It can be as simple as finding a brand you didn’t know you loved but now follow through ads. To ensure we find the right balance of content people see on Threads, we will monitor this small test closely to see how it’s going before rolling out ads in Threads more broadly."

The company says it ensures relevance of the ads people see by focusing on delivering ads where people are spending time engaging with content. Meta notes that it uses surveys to help understand what ads users enjoy so it can improve their relevance. Meeta also provides users with controls on the ads they see in Threads so they can change their experience if they aren’t satisfied. If a user sees an ad they don’t like, they can skip it or tap the menu on the post to hide or report it.

Meta says it is committed to investing in policies, systems and tools for businesses to manage  brand safety and suitability of their "brand environment" on Meta services, including Threads.  With that, it is testing an inventory filter for ads on Threads. This is a brand suitability control already available on Facebook and Instagram. It uses AI to allow advertisers to control the sensitivity level of the organic content their ads appear next to. Meta says it will have more to share about third-party verification solutions (along with support for more languages) in the coming months.

The company also notes that its monetization policies address the type of content that can show up next to ads. Content that violates community standards isn’t eligible to be next to ads, and this, of course, also applies to the new ads on Threads.

In other Meta ads news, the company is also testing new AI features for its Advantage+ campaigns and expanding its Opportunity Score tool to more advertisers.