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Advertisers, get ready! Threads is launching ads a lot sooner More than you expected
Digiday reported that the tech platform told ad executives recently they would be able buy ads for its text-based rival, X, as soon as this second half of 2018.
This would be a good idea Meta’s latest ad space is just over one year old Launch The Threads. Details on the integration of these ads remain unclear. According to Digiday interviews, Meta’s discussion has centered primarily on the timeline of the ad roll-out rather than its detailed logistical placement.
A Digiday ad executive who spoke candidly to Digiday in return for anonymity said that the beta-testing of ad formats would be happening soon. They and Meta could not give any details on the exact date.
A Meta spokesperson said to Digiday that “since our primary goal is building consumer value, we have no ads on Threads or any monetization tools.” At this point, Meta encourages businesses to use Threads in their organic social strategies where appropriate.
Still, Ad executives in the U.S. are trying to decipher how this ad could be successful.
Colleen Fielder is the group vice president of partner and social marketing at Basis Technologies. She said her team heard that Partnership Ads (which allow brands to run advertisements with other creators, businesses or brands) will be expanded to Threads.
Meta has not yet implemented the Partnership Ads functionality that was promised on Threads. [Meta] Fielder did not know when the software would be released.
The buzz around Threads ads is clearly in its early stages.
It’s therefore safe to assume these ads will appear on Meta’s advertising platform Advantage+. It’s a platform that houses every placement option on Facebook and Instagram. Think image, video and carousel formats, as well as collection formats, for placements like in-feed and search results, and Stories and Reels. The Threads ads are likely to appear alongside current placement options.
I think Meta will prioritize the in-feed position first [on Threads]Fielder added that the format would probably start with images and text.
Jon Molina is the vp for social U.S., Brainlabs. He agreed with Fielder and added that Instagram can also host featured Threads carsousels, similar to what Meta has been doing since August last year, when it displayed to users a suggested carousel to promote its newest app.
The roll-out of Threads ads as planned would indicate that Meta has confidence in its goal to attract one billion users. Prior set up as a requirement For introducing advertising.
The platform has a long way to go before it reaches that figure.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, provided an update about monthly users in the company earnings call held in February. He reported that 130 million people were using Meta. Threads’ growth would have to be eight times higher than the rate of its previous month’s growth in order for it to reach the target of one billion users within a short timeframe.
Timing is crucial when it comes time to introduce ads on any platform. If you launch them too early, it could alienate and disgruntle many of your current users. (Think BeReal). If they are launched too late, the platform may not have enough revenue to pay for the electricity, much less add new features that will keep its users coming back. This is what, for instance, caused the audio-based Clubhouse app to be a victim of its own doing.
To reach this milestone, it was important to have a clearly defined audience prior to introducing advertisements.
Meta needed to open up the surface area of Threads in order to maximize revenue.
This is also in line with the timeline that Threads was on since the beginning. Meta launched the app much earlier than originally planned. Elon Musk has been known to engage in a variety of antics, which continue to push users away from X (formerly Twitter).
https://digiday.com/?p=541411