Is Threads marketing the surprise game-changer of 2025?

The social media platform Threads is growing—fast. It recently surpassed 300 million monthly active users, with over 200 million added in the last year. Despite the surging numbers, Threads still lags behind X, TikTok, and Instagram in terms of adoption for mainstream marketing. But is that about to change? Does Threads have the potential to become a marketing powerhouse—especially for designers, creative businesses, and agencies?

Let’s look at Threads’ evolution and how to use It for marketing, with examples from brands that are seeing success on the platform. If you’re looking for an X alternative, Threads marketing could be worth a try in 2025.

With 320 million monthly active users, Threads is growing faster than its rival platforms. At this rate, Threads could soon rival X, which reports 570 million monthly active users. It’s still nowhere near TikTok, with over 2 billion users in 2024. On the other hand, it doesn’t have the uncertainty plaguing TikTok amid the continuing talk of a US TikTok ban.

You may wonder, “Does BlueSky have more users than Threads?” Not entirely: The Bluesky user count is just above 32 million. So, although Bluesky has been gaining users from X, it still doesn’t come close to Threads.

What does the Threads user growth mean for social marketers? It means more opportunities to reach more eyeballs. And unlike other social media platforms, marketers won’t necessarily have to start from scratch.

Going beyond user numbers, Threads has much going for it as a marketing platform.

After analyzing 10.2 million posts on both platforms, Buffer concluded that Threads drives 73.6% more engagement than X. The median engagement rate on Threads was 6.25%, while on X, it was a mere 3.6%. This makes marketing on Threads an obvious choice for marketers who want to maximize audience interaction (and who doesn’t?).

Buffer theorizes that Threads could be seeing higher interaction because it’s much newer than X and much less crowded. So it’s still easier to stand out and gain traction—there’s simply less competition for attention.

Another theory is that the Threads algorithm rewards interactions. Posts that spark conversations get a boost in visibility, which in turn drives more engagement.

Threads is directly connected to Instagram, a member of the Meta ecosystem. This has obvious benefits. First, you don’t need to build a new audience on Threads. Threads users can follow all their Instagram contacts automatically. So if you’re already on Instagram and want to create a Threads account, you can transition without starting from zero—and so can your audience. 

Secondly, you can seamlessly share content across Instagram and Threads. If you’re a small—or one-person—social media team, this is a big help. You can start marketing on Threads and increase your visibility without additional work. It’s easy to post to Instagram, Facebook, and Threads all in one go, especially if you have some flexible social media templates from which to work.

Finally, Threads’ content is promoted on both Instagram and Facebook. Again, you don’t have to do additional work to get your posts in front of more people.

As of this writing, Threads is ad-free. However, Meta has been testing ads in Threads with few advertisers and users. It’s only a matter of time before we see advertising opportunities on Threads. And in all likelihood, this will be integrated into Meta’s Ads Manager—making it easy for Meta advertisers to add it to their advertising campaigns.

Users are still exploring Threads and its potential. But we can already see a few accounts that must be doing something right since they’re getting good engagement on the platform. Let’s see what we can learn from them. Here are five strategies that work on Threads, with real-life examples from the platform.

As with your other social media accounts, Threads is an excellent platform for building and reinforcing your brand identity.

For example, who says a museum has to be stuffy? The Whitney Museum bucks all the stereotypes and uses humor to gain a following and massive engagement. Check out this pinned post:

And why not a thematic Valentine’s Day marketing post with a cheeky plug for the museum?

Although Threads is not an online resume like LinkedIn, it can still be a place where you show people your work.

Jeff Sheldon is a designer of analog things that make people more organized. His posts are concise and slick—just like his products. He’s not shy about talking about the products he creates:

You don’t have to use Threads only to promote your product, brand, or services. You can use it to build support for partner brands and the causes that are important to you.

T-shirt company Cotton Bureau promotes its tees and uses its brand to support other brands and social causes.

Working for yourself as a creative freelancer can be lonely. However, some designers are using Threads to create a community of users who appreciate their work.

Edgykatrina designs “cool” brands for Gen Z and Millennials. On Threads, she shares her work, tutorials, and a behind-the-scenes look at her creative life. She is proof that you don’t have to have a massive following to have a community on Threads.

It doesn’t have to be all business on Threads! In fact, your followers probably love to get personal with you. By drawing the curtain and showing the real you, whether you’re an individual, an agency, or a large organization, you will likely drive real and meaningful engagement.

Personal chef and cookbook author Chef Bai shares the behind-the-scenes highlights of her professional—and personal life.

Have we inspired you to build a brand presence on Threads? If so, maximize your marketing efforts. Keep the following best practices in mind:

As with other social media platforms, posting regularly on Threads will go a long way towards attracting an audience and building a loyal community. People need to consistently see you on their feeds, or else they’ll forget about you. Consistency keeps your followers engaged and attracts new followers by staying active for the algorithm.

If you’re active on Instagram and repurposing your posts, you’re probably already doing this anyway. Visual content captures attention more effectively than text alone. It communicates ideas much faster, increasing the likelihood of your followers interacting with you. Need help creating your visuals? Start with a template or graphics from the vast library at Envato.

Here, @infobeautiful demonstrates the power of visuals to communicate.

Hearing crickets? Not getting engagement? Sometimes, you have to give first to receive. This means interacting with other people’s posts first. It also means responding to the comments and messages you do get. Engaging with other accounts fosters community and makes your followers feel valued. Also, to get engagement, ask for it: ask questions and provide prompts to encourage followers to interact.

Threads offers insights into your total views and interactions. It also lets you know your most viewed and most liked posts. You can also get insights on your followers: not only how many they are but also their ages, location by city and country, and gender. 

Use the analytics on Threads to tweak your post strategy and get even better results. Experiment with different content types, posting times, and engagement approaches to see what works best for your audience.

Need creative inspiration? Here are just a few examples of social media graphics available on Envato:

Threads’ continued rapid growth is catching the attention of social media marketers. Right now, the space is not yet crowded. There are lots of opportunities to grow your audience, build a community, and drive meaningful interaction before hard-core marketers spoil it for everyone. 

If you haven’t done so, why not create an account and dip your toes in? At the very least, follow your favorite brands and see how successful accounts are doing it. You’ll see that Threads is ideal for being authentic and starting conversations.

As with other platforms, high-quality visuals are essential. Envato has a wide range of creative assets, including graphics, fonts, and icons that you can use to create visually appealing Threads content. And get inspiration for your content from our posts on social media marketing trends and offbeat brand collaborations.