The news: Meta is riding the momentum of Threads surpassing X in daily mobile users to begin showing ads on Threads to all users globally starting the last week of January. Advertising on Threads started in April but was limited to select markets.

Global expansion is Thread’s boldest monetization step to date and will multiply Meta’s ad offerings across new formats and regions as Threads grows from 353 million monthly users in 2025 to 646 million by 2029, per our forecast. That’s an additional 293 million users in four years, even as annual growth slows to 12.3% in 2029 as its base expands. 

Zooming in: Advertisers are being invited to extend their existing Meta campaigns by adding Threads placements automatically across Advantage+ and manual buys. 

• The ad rollout will be gradual and could take months, giving Meta and its advertisers time to calibrate performance and avoid breaking the product experience as it scales.  
• Threads ads could appear as in-feed sponsored posts, in-thread conversation/reply placements, and recommended-feed (“For you”) ads.

Meta is relying heavily on brand safety to differentiate itself from X, expanding third-party verification from Facebook and Instagram to Threads via Meta Business Partners. It will provide independent safety and suitability verification for Threads feeds.

Implications for advertisers: As the text-based social feed pulls share from X, Meta’s trust-first Threads ethos paired with its AI ad stack will make it the easiest new way to extend both existing and net-new Meta campaigns. 

Advertisers should test early, learn quickly, and build creative that feels native to Threads’ infinite scroll interface.

• Short term: Run controlled tests using Meta’s existing creative, then build Threads-native variants that feel like posts, not placements. Track lift versus Instagram placements.
• Long term: Treat Threads as an “always-on conversation layer” for launches, creator partnerships, and rapid-response brand messaging, with governance baked in.