What is Threads?
As mentioned, Threads is the competing platform from Meta (Facebook) to Twitter (or X as it's called now). Users that have an Instagram account can open their threads account with just one simple click, and most influencers and companies have already jumped on the bandwagon!
It is estimated that the platform already has more than 120 million users, which is an incredible number in such a short timeframe. The biggest reason the platform grew so fast is Twitter's downfall as well as the simplicity of making an account on Threads.
The UI is similar to what you might expect from a micro-blog network. It has support for hashtags, text, video, and much more. There are still a couple of expected features missing, but with enough time, the team at Meta will surely iron these issues out and add additional options for users who want them. But as things are right now, the platform is completely usable for regular users, but the issue lies in advertising, as it is simply not supported at the time!
The Power of Advertising on Threads
In today's digital age, advertising has evolved beyond mere exposure; it's about delivering tailored messages to the right audience at the right time. This targeted approach not only maximizes the effectiveness of advertisements but also enhances the overall user experience. This is why ads have become a huge part of social media websites, similar to Threads.
The strength of Threads lies in its user engagement. People actively check their Threads for status updates, news, and interactions, creating a prime environment for advertisements to capture attention. This engagement leads to higher retention rates and better ad recall, amplifying the impact of advertising efforts. Moreover, Threads' connection to the Meta ecosystem could mean that advertisers can tap into a vast user base spread across the globe, expanding their reach and potential customer base with just a few clicks.
All of this sounds incredible, but there must be a hitch, right?! Well, yeah! You can’t run ads on the platform for now!
How To Get Started With Ads?
Launching an advertising campaign on Threads is currently not possible as an advertiser. The platform has announced that there won't be an option to buy ad space for the time being as they want to focus on improving the experience of users and growing as a platform.
There are some rumors that the developers behind it are building a robust ad network and systems that mimic and integrate into the current Facebook and Instagram ad managers. Sadly, until those tools are completed and launched, there is no way to advertise on the platform in the classic sense of the word.
But as with anything, there are exceptions and ways around the rules. Currently, the main way of advertising is through sponsored posts on popular accounts as well as creating your own brand presence on Threads.
This leads to a lot of issues that advertisers usually don’t face on similar big and popular platforms. They have to either organically grow their accounts to reach people and get eyes on their products and services or pay influencers to promote them instead.
Unlike regular ads, there is no way of checking your performance and knowing exactly how well your campaigns work and what your ideal audience is. This means that most advertising campaigns in their current form are expensive or ineffective. This will change when the platform introduces regular ads, but for the time being, we recommend advertisers stay off the platform as the results will be sub-optimal in most cases!
What If You Decide to Advertise on The Platform?
If you really want to be on threads even while it's not ready, get ready to invest a lot of time and effort for subpar results!
Your current options are either to grow your brand through organic traffic (which is impossible for some companies) and hope that your effort pays off or to go and sponsor some influencers that are already popular and have an audience in your niche!
Growing Your Own Brand
Growing your own account is a slow and tedious process that has no guarantee of succeeding no matter how hard you try. Currently, the only way to grow is through organic traffic, and for most advertisers, this is not something that is easily achievable.
The cornerstones of even attempting this are to post interesting content, be regular with your schedule, and interact with the community as much as you can. But even with this, nobody can guarantee that you will see significant views, shares, follows, likes, or any other sort of engagement.
The algorithm is still a mystery, but general rules apply like being unique, creative, and consistent with your posts. Having an established following on other platforms can help immensely.
Sponsoring Influencers
Influencers are the only somewhat reliable options for advertising. Currently, there is no native way of hiring them for ads so you will have to browse hashtags and accounts that are related to your niche find them, and establish contact in any way you know how. This is all a slow and often ineffective way of achieving things as the influencers that are reputable in your niche can always decline your offer, request a lot of funds for sponsored posts, or just be not influential enough to make it profitable for you to even attempt hiring them.
For the time being, we recommend you work with already established influencers from your field and work with people with whom you already have experience. This way you minimize the chances of getting ripped off and you can somewhat have some expectations of how things will develop in the future.
How Does The Future of Threads Look Like?
Surprisingly enough, Threads has already seen a massive decline in active users in its first month of release. Some estimations are that 80% of users stopped being active, but there aren’t trustworthy data points on that for now.
The biggest problem that stifles its growth is the harsh censorship rules that make expressing yourself completely harder than expected. Meta is trying to keep everything family-friendly and the users are not really happy with it for now.
Since there are no ads for now, creators are also not enticed to post as much there as there is no monetary gain from them doing so. This also makes advertisers a rarity on the platform which also proves that the profitability through sponsored posts is just not there yet!
For now, the future of Threads looks solid. They already have a huge user base and with time the platform and its features will improve leading to more users. As advertisers, the platform is basically dead until they introduce native ways of purchasing ad space on it.
Conclusion
Threads is a new and rising platform that is trying to dethrone Twitter (X) from its place. Sadly due to lack of features, ads, and heavy censorship, its massive userbase has fallen off drastically.
Without support for advertising on the platform, big players are avoiding it for now, and thus, it's really a place where ads are complicated to set up and highly ineffective for most use cases.
With how things are right now, we recommend you wait a bit longer before you even try advertising on the platform, but who knows, maybe you will have more luck than most marketers even now!
Have you used Threads? What is your experience with it? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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