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Meta to Introduce Ads on Threads Following Extended Ad-Free Period

Since its launch a year and a half ago, Threads has distinguished itself by maintaining an ad-free user experience, contrasting with other Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram that are heavily populated with advertisements. This unique feature is about to shift as Meta announces its first trial of ads on Threads. Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed this development, revealing the company’s intention to start generating revenue from the platform.

The upcoming ads will take the form of image posts appearing intermittently within user feeds, initially targeting a small audience in the United States and Japan. As stated by Mosseri, Meta intends to collaborate with “a handful of brands” in these regions for this pilot program. He emphasized the importance of user feedback in shaping their advertising strategies, aiming to ensure that ads feel relevant and engaging to users. “We’ll closely monitoring this test before scaling it more broadly, with the goal of getting ads on Threads to a place where they are as interesting as organic content,” he noted.

Meta appears to leverage its established advertising system to facilitate this transition. In a blog post, the company indicated that brands can extend their existing advertising campaigns to Threads simply by adjusting settings in Ads Manager. Additionally, the company will be testing an inventory filter for advertisers, which allows them to manage the type of organic content their ads are associated with. This feature could be particularly significant as Meta revises its content moderation policies, including the reinstatement of more political content in user feeds.

While this initial trial is limited in scope, the integration of its existing ad tools positions Meta to quickly expand the advertising capabilities on Threads, reaching its substantial user base of 300 million. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has expressed a cautious approach regarding the growth of Threads’ advertising operations. “All these new products, we ship them, and then there’s a multi-year time horizon between scaling them and then scaling them into not just consumer experiences but very large businesses,” he remarked last year, suggesting that a deliberate strategy will guide Threads’ monetization journey.

Source
www.engadget.com