Meta has expanded ad placements on its Instagram Threads app to global advertisers, allowing eligible advertisers to reach over 320 million monthly active users. The expansion follows months of testing ads in select markets, including the U.S. and Japan.
The new ad placement within the Threads feed will be enabled by default for new ad campaigns using Meta’s Advantage+ or Manual Placements. Advertisers on the Manual Placements plan can opt out of the Threads feed. However, ad delivery will initially be limited to select markets and will roll out to more markets over time.
Meta believes its Threads community is now robust enough to compete for advertiser dollars against rival platforms like Elon Musk’s X. The company notes that three out of four Threads users follow at least one business on the app. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously stated that he expects Threads to reach over 1 billion people in the next several years, with the network adding over 1 million signups per day.
Threads’ growth has been fueled by its connection to Instagram, allowing it to leverage Instagram’s existing user base. Meta has also borrowed concepts from emerging social networks like Mastodon and Bluesky, including integration with the ActivityPub protocol and the introduction of custom feeds.
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The ActivityPub integration connects Threads to the decentralized open web, known as the fediverse, which currently has over 16 million users excluding Threads. If fully integrated, Threads could become the largest service operating in the fediverse. Additionally, Threads has introduced features like custom feeds and Starter Packs, similar to those offered by Bluesky.
Despite these advancements, Threads still differs from Bluesky in key ways, including defaulting users to the “For You” feed and not offering user-controlled moderation preferences.
