Meta is running a limited ad test on Threads with a small number of advertisers, the company announced this week. “As we learn from this test, we will monitor to see how it’s going before filling out more broadly,” Meta said on its company blog.
During early testing, image-based ads will appear between pieces of content in the Threads home feed for a small percentage of people. If ads are officially introduced, brands will be able to extend their existing Meta ad campaigns to Threads without the need of custom creative or additional resources. They will be able to do so by simply enabling the option in the ad manager. “This can help businesses reach more people in more places across Meta’s family of apps and can improve advertiser outcomes,” Meta said.
The company explained that it will provide users with controls over the ads they see in the threads. If users see an ad they don’t like, they can skip it or tap the post’s menu to hide or report it.
Meta says it will also begin testing the inventory filter for ads – a control that is already available for Facebook and Instagram in more than 30 languages – for Threads. Enabled through AI, the filter allows advertisers to control the level of sensitivity of the organic content their ads appear next to. The platform’s monetization policies will also help regulate the content that can appear next to an ad. If any content violates community standards, it will not appear next to the ad.
“People come to Meta for a personalized experience that helps them discover businesses and content they love – ads are an essential part of enabling this,” Meta said. “When delivering ads across our apps, we focus on where people are spending time engaging with content. This personalization ensures the relevance of the ads that people see. We have measures in place, like surveys, to help understand what ads people enjoy and deliver what feels most relevant to them.”
The launch of the ads follows Meta’s unveiling of a new video editing app, following the removal of ByteDance-owned CapCut from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store in the U.S. as part of the TikTok ban. In addition, Meta recently changed the Instagram screen to be vertical, a revamp that makes it more visually similar to TikTok. And it also announced that it will pay TikTok creators who also post on Instagram and Facebook with its new Breakthrough Bonus program. The updates come at a time when some users are looking to exit Meta apps, following the end of its third-party fact-checking program.
