Meta on Wednesday announced it’s expanding ads on Threads to all users globally. The expansion, which starts next week, will be gradual, the company says, noting it may take months for the full rollout to complete.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly praised the social app and X rival, which has now grown to over 400 million monthly active users, as the company’s next big hit. Shortly after the app’s debut, the exec told investors that Threads had a good chance of reaching 1 billion users in a few years’ time.
The app has rapidly grown since its July 2023 debut, reaching 200 million users by mid-2024, 320 million as of January 2025, and then adding another 30 million as of last April, before reaching its latest milestone.
Though Threads hasn’t yet hit that milestone, the company has been testing ads for some time. A year ago, Threads began testing ads in the U.S. and Japan, and last April, the platform opened up to global advertisers.
The company has made it easy for existing advertisers to expand their reach to include Threads by allowing them to automatically place ads through both Meta’s Advantage+ program and via manual campaigns. Supported formats include image and video ads, including the newer additions of the 4:5 aspect ratio format and carousel ads. Advertisers can manage their Threads ads alongside those for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in their Business Settings, which simplifies cross-posting.
In addition, Meta expanded the third-party verification already available on Facebook and Instagram (including feed and Reels) to the Threads feed through Meta Business Partners. This provides advertisers with independent brand safety and suitability verification for Threads — a useful feature when Threads’ nearest rival is dealing with a scourge of illegal deepfakes.
The company didn’t share how often users would see ads in their feed but noted that ad delivery initially would remain “low” as the feature scaled to global users.
Originally published at TechCrunch
