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Meta Launches Advertising on Threads: What Marketers Need to Know

Meta has officially expanded advertising capabilities on Threads, opening up exciting new opportunities for marketers worldwide. After a limited testing phase that began in January with select advertisers in specific countries, Meta announced last week that Threads ads are now available to "all eligible advertisers globally."

This development comes as Threads continues its impressive growth trajectory, boasting over 320 million monthly active users as of January 2025. For digital marketers and agencies looking to reach new audiences, this expansion represents a significant opportunity—but requires careful attention to creative formats and specifications.

Understanding Threads Advertising Formats

The introduction of ads on Threads brings both simplicity and specific creative requirements that brands and agencies must understand to maximize their effectiveness on the platform.

Image-Only Support

Currently, Threads advertising supports image-only formats. While this might seem limiting compared to other Meta platforms, it allows for clean, focused creative execution that aligns with the platform's minimalist aesthetic.

According to Meta's official documentation, this focused approach ensures ads blend naturally with organic content while maintaining engagement.

Critical Format Considerations

One of the most important aspects to understand about Threads advertising is the format specifications:

• Meta supports all formats ranging from 9:16 to 16:9 on Threads
• Important warning: All vertical formats (from 9:16 to 1:1) will be automatically cropped
• This cropping can significantly impact your creative's effectiveness if not properly accounted for

This format requirement differs from standard Instagram or Facebook creative specifications, requiring specific attention when preparing assets for Threads campaigns.

Best Practices for Threads Creative Assets

To maximize the impact of your Threads advertising, consider these best practices for your creative assets:

Create a Dedicated 16:9 Format

Our primary recommendation is to create a third creative format specifically optimized for Threads. This should complement your standard "post" and "story" formats used on other Meta platforms.

The 16:9 landscape format has proven to integrate best with the Threads platform. Meta even uses this format in examples within their official announcement, signaling its optimal performance.

Managing Ad Placements

With the addition of Threads placements in your Ad Sets, you have two strategic options:

1. Disable Threads placements if you don't have appropriately formatted creative assets or prefer not to advertise on this channel yet
2. Embrace the opportunity to reach Threads' growing audience by adding properly formatted creative assets to your campaigns

For agencies and brands managing multiple creative formats, implementing a systematic approach to creative management across platforms becomes increasingly important.

Limitations and Considerations

When planning your Threads advertising strategy, be aware of these current limitations:

• Campaign objectives are restricted to awareness, traffic, or sales goals
• If you don't see the Threads option in your Business Manager, this is likely due to these campaign objective limitations
• Destination options are limited to websites only
• Lead generation, app installation, and other destination types are not currently supported

These restrictions reflect the platform's gradual approach to implementing advertising features and may evolve over time.

Why Threads Advertising Matters

With 320 million monthly active users and growing, Threads represents a significant opportunity for brands to connect with audiences in a space that's still relatively uncluttered by advertising. Early adoption could provide competitive advantages as the platform continues to mature.

The text-first, conversation-focused nature of Threads also offers unique contextual opportunities for brands to participate in relevant discussions and trends—provided their creative assets are properly optimized for the platform.

Conclusion

As Meta continues to develop Threads as a key component of its platform ecosystem, understanding the specific creative requirements for advertising on the platform is essential. By creating dedicated 16:9 format assets, marketers can effectively leverage this new channel while avoiding potential pitfalls like image cropping.

For brands and agencies looking to stay ahead of digital advertising trends, now is the time to begin testing and optimizing for Threads placements—keeping in mind both the current limitations and the significant potential of this growing platform.