Meta will begin rolling out advertisements on Threads to all users worldwide following a year of testing in select markets.
The company announced the expansion on January 21, indicating the deployment will occur gradually over the coming months. Meta began testing ads on Threads in the U.S. and Japan a year ago before opening the platform to global advertisers last April.
The company states that ad delivery will remain low initially as the feature scales to reach users across all markets.
Threads launched in July 2023 and reached 200 million users by mid-2024 and 320 million as of January 2025. The platform added another 30 million users by last April, before reaching its current 400 million monthly active users.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously told investors that Threads “had a good chance of reaching 1 billion users in a few years’ time,” according to TechCrunch.
Ad Formats and Management Tools
According to the announcement, Threads advertisements use Meta’s AI-powered ads system, offering personalization similar to Facebook and Instagram. The platform supports image, video, and carousel ad formats, with recent additions including 4:5 aspect ratio support and Advantage+ catalog and app ads.
Advertisers can extend existing Meta campaigns to Threads through Advantage+ and manual campaign options. Meta now enables advertisers to manage Threads accounts directly within Business Settings alongside Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp accounts, allowing cross-platform organic content posting through Meta Business Suite.
Brand Safety Verification
Meta expanded third-party verification capabilities already available on Facebook and Instagram feeds and Reels to Threads feed through Meta Business Partners. The company states this provides “independent brand safety and suitability verification for Threads feed.”
The verification tools offer advertisers transparency and control over ad placement on the platform.
Ads on Threads appear natively in the feed using familiar formats from other Meta platforms. The company positions the expansion as an opportunity for businesses to “extend the reach of their existing Meta campaigns” and connect with communities on the platform.
Nii A. Ahene is the founder and managing director of Net Influencer, a website dedicated to offering insights into the influencer marketing industry. Together with its newsletter, Influencer Weekly, Net Influencer provides news, commentary, and analysis of the events shaping the creator and influencer marketing space. Through interviews with startups, influencers, brands, and platforms, Nii and his team explore how influencer marketing is being effectively used to benefit businesses and personal brands alike.
