Threads was one of the platforms that gained traction in the wake of Twitter’s usability decline. Along with alternatives like Bluesky, these options have seen a notable increase in users. 
 
Since then, ads were introduced to Threads starting in January 2025 to a limited group before becoming available to “eligible” advertisers in April 2025. Currently, advertising on Threads isn’t available to everyone — Meta’s stated they intend to roll it out for more advertisers and agencies in the coming months — but at Fujisan our clients have been able to run ads on Threads in addition to Meta’s other platforms like Facebook and Instagram. 
 
Here’s what you need to know about Threads itself, and how to reach users on it through thoughtful advertising. 

Threads usage 

In some ways it feels hard to believe Threads has already been around for over two years (as of writing this in the fall of 2025). It launched in July 2023 as Meta looked to take advantage of Twitter’s decline after being purchased and its infrastructure and workforce stripped by Elon Musk — a sequence that led to a noticeable increase in spambots, worse functionality, and led both users and advertisers elsewhere. 

According to stats gathered from Backlinko and DemandSage, Threads has more than 400 million monthly active users and a bit over 115 million daily active users. It reached 100 million users in two days — for context, TikTok took nine months to reach that mark, and Instagram took almost three years. 

One very important caveat here though that means you should take certain numbers regarding Threads with a grain of salt: Meta automatically made profiles for some users and in other cases made it very easy to simply create a Threads account directly from your Instagram. 
 
The ease of that — practically being able to one-click create a Threads account — means that there’s a not-insignificant portion of Threads users who created an account initially due to the ease but aren’t necessarily very active (or active at all). 
 
Still, it has become a player in the social media ecosystem, and should be monitored and utilized accordingly. 

Benefits of leveraging Threads 

Meta points out a few key benefits of using Threads to advertise your business — we’re inclined to agree with the general principles behind these points, but at the same time are approaching them with that same grain of salt. (After all, this is Meta advertising to advertisers, so it’s smart to approach their selling points with healthy skepticism.) 

The two primary selling points of using Threads are twofold: 

• You can reach a growing community on a stable social media platform, and 

• You can do so by extending your other Meta campaigns seamlessly 

The second is really key to being able to genuinely take advantage of Threads. On one hand, there is a larger portion of Threads users who created an account because it was so quick and easy but ended up less active — on the other, you can extend your other Meta campaigns to Threads without having to devote a lot of time and manpower to do so. 

Basically: You can extend established Meta campaigns to Threads with relative ease — so even if there’s a notable proportion of inactive users, the efficiency with which you can create a campaign means it’s still likely worth your while. 

In particular, when you add Threads to an existing (or new) Meta campaign, you can use existing ad creatives designed for single image or video formats. 

The other point Meta points out as an advantage of Threads advertising is its brand suitability controls. Meta’s inventory filters and brand-safety controls help you limit ad delivery next to more sensitive content across eligible placements, including threads.  

Fujisan’s point of view? Once again, we think those are all worthwhile points but to take them with that same grain of salt since their advantages are being sold to you by the platform that has a vested interest in your advertising dollars. 

We’d suggest that it is worth getting a foot in the door — the best advantage is being an early adopter in many cases, and this one’s no different — and experimenting a bit with how you can make Threads ads work for you. But we’d caution against putting too many chips on the table here. 

As a sidenote, one advantage to advertising on Meta platforms including Threads: It can be a very helpful way to learn about the people to whom you’re advertising. 

It’s no secret that Meta collects a huge amount of data about its users — while most individuals tend to agree the magnitude of this is intrusive, there are still ways to get insights about your target audience here without crossing the line into violating reasonable ethics practices. (This data gathering by Meta is one of many reasons why the EU has started taking steps towards protecting user privacy.) 

More on Threads’ inventory filter 

We mentioned this feature above, but the inventory filter provides you with extra control over where your ads are served. Specifically, there are three levels of control here to which you can opt in. 

These three levels are the following: 

• Expanded inventory: Per Meta, this “shows ads adjacent to content that adheres to [their] Content Monetization Policies.” Advantage-wise, this gets you the most reach. 

• Moderate inventory: This “excludes highly sensitive content.” Obviously there are good reasons for this depending on your business and brand, but it does lower your reach and can increase costs accordingly. 

• Limited inventory: This setting is for when you want the strictest exclusions on being placed next to additionally sensitive content, plus live videos. This of course gives you a further layer of control, but also further lowers reach. Costs will likely raise accordingly, too. 

So, what does this mean in practice? 

Well, as we mentioned in our Advantage+ article earlier, we don’t suggest allowing Meta to take full control in automating your ads’ placements. The main reason for this is you want to be sure your own creative is appropriate for the placements on which it appears — for example, you wouldn’t select a landscape video to appear on an Instagram Story. 

For Threads, you can manually select these placements— however, if you do, it will automatically include Instagram feeds as well. In this case, you will not be able to do a true A/B test (at least until things change). As you know if you’re familiar with Fujisan, we’re always harping on the importance of testing, so that’s not an ideal scenario! 

Also worth noting: If you’re running ads on other Meta platforms, there’s a chance you could be running Threads placements without knowing it. 

Open the reporting manager pivot table and add “placement” — this will show you how much you’ve spent and other relevant metrics related to your campaigns. (As with most newer platforms, CPMs can often be lower at the beginning of an ad run.) 

Tips and additional things to note 

It’s worth mentioning that, as we’re presumably all familiar, Meta has in the past been known to have a less-than-stellar track record where transparency and privacy are concerned. While they’ve been trying to demonstrate improved transparency with brand safety and suitability partners DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, and Zefr, this history is still probably worth keeping in mind. 

For now, though, these partners are selectively testing verification for Threads with certain advertisers to provide transparency reporting potentially including safety and suitability feedback. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction, but it’s worth taking things with a grain of salt. 

Otherwise, a couple more tips: 

First, you should know that Threads, with its medium constraints, doesn’t support the following ad formats: 

• Carousels 

• Collection ads 

• Partnership ads 

• Destinations other than to a website 

• Boosts 

Also, although the sizing and formats are, for the most part, the same as other inventory options on Meta, it’s worth exploring other creative tests. With Threads being first-and-foremost a text-based app in ways that Instagram and Facebook aren’t, you’re likely to unearth some valuable lessons by testing out different creative accordingly. 

The bottom line is that Threads, being a newer platform that went from zero-to-sixty quite quickly, is a new opportunity with which you should definitely familiarize yourself. 

At the same time, have realistic expectations for its limits and user base and how that impacts your performance potential. And of course, don’t just copy-and-paste copy and other creative from Instagram or Facebook and throw it onto Threads — it’s a completely different context for advertising and deserves to be given the corresponding attention-to-detail. 

Do that and measure it against other placements, and you’ll be putting yourself in a position to both learn more about what works, and have productive results in their own right.