Instagram Threads is getting video ads

Instagram Threads will begin testing video ads, Meta announced on Thursday. The test, which will make Threads look more like its competitor X, is an expansion of Threads’ advertising initiatives, which began last month with the opening up of ads to global advertisers.

The news was announced at Meta’s presentation at the IAB NewFronts, where a number of social media companies pitch themselves to advertisers.

On Threads, Meta says a “small number” of advertisers will test 19:9 or 1:1 video ad creatives that will appear in between pieces of organic content in the Threads feed. The company didn’t share other details around pricing or frequency of those ads, however.

The update follows Meta’s recent announcement that Threads now reaches over 350 million monthly active users. The app has also seen a 35% increase in the time spent on Threads as a result of improvements to the app’s recommendation systems, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also told investors on Meta’s earnings call in April.

Meta announced the news around Threads, among other updates to its ad products, at the NewFronts.

The company says it’s also testing a new short-form video solution, Reels trending ads, that will be shown next to the most trending Reels from creators.

Rival TikTok this week had also introduced an expansion of its similar offering, called Pulse Suite, which will now let advertisers market themselves next to trending content by category, holiday, tentpole moments, cultural events, and evergreen, always-on content from sports, entertainment, and lifestyle publishers.

Meta will also begin to test Trends in Instagram’s Creator Marketplace to help advertisers find popular trends, and it will test the Creator Marketplace API to help businesses find and connect with quality creators at scale.

The company is also rolling out Video Expansion on Facebook Reels, which adjusts video assets by generating unseen pixels in each video frame to expand the aspect ratio for a more native experience.