Meta, the parent company of social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, plans to debut advertisements on its social media app, Threads, in January 2025.
This move will allow a select group of marketers to start publishing ads, a critical stage in Meta’s Threads monetization strategy.
According to a Reuters story, Meta intends to enable a limited number of advertisers to begin running adverts on Threads in January 2025.
The initiative will be managed by a team within Instagram’s advertising division, which is spearheading the project. However, Meta has clarified that monetization features will not be a priority in the early stages of Threads’ development.
Launched in July 2023 as a competitor to X (formerly Twitter), this development signals a new phase in the platform’s growth and evolution
Despite the upcoming ad rollout, Meta’s CFO, Susan Li, stated that Threads is not expected to be a “meaningful driver” of revenue in 2025 and that the company’s priority for Threads is to focus on building consumer value.
“Since our priority is to build consumer value first and foremost, there are no ads or monetization features currently on Threads,” she stated.
Li also mentioned that Meta plans to introduce more features on the app over time, which may help increase its potential as a revenue-generating platform in the future.
Threads’ advertising strategy could give it an edge over X, which has struggled to maintain its advertiser base since Elon Musk took over.
In August 2024, X filed a lawsuit against major companies like Mars and CVS Health, accusing them of conspiring to boycott the platform, leading to a drop in ad revenue.
Advertisers have raised concerns about brand safety, especially with the platform’s shift in content moderation policies under Musk.
As Meta gets ready to introduce ads on Threads, it will be interesting to see how this move shifts the dynamics of the social media advertising landscape.
