Brands Face Threads Fatigue as App Loses Nearly 80% of Daily Active Users

The hype surrounding Meta’s shiny new platform has met an awkward reality. Brands, once quick to establish their Threads strategy, tone of voice and regular posting cadence, are scaling back their Threads content. Brands like Anthropologie and Wendy’s last posted to Threads a week or more ago, while makeup brand Rare Beauty posted six days ago. Despite its slowed cadence, Wendy’s hasn’t made changes to its overall Threads strategy, the brand told Adweek. The other brands did not respond before press time. Irregularities in posting cadence are natural from brands figuring out new platforms: Those posting multiple times a day are settling into a different cadence. But this brand slowdown comes after Threads saw a global dip of nearly 79% in its daily active users, according to recent data shared by Similarweb. The amount of time people in the U.S. spend on Threads dropped from almost 21 minutes July 6 to just over three minutes per day as of August 7. Meanwhile, brands that referenced 'Threads' in their tweets also saw a decline from around 200 tweets July 4 to almost none at present, according to data from Emplifi. “We’ve seen posting cadence slow and have had clients postpone Threads content strategy meetings,” said Ellyn Savage, Mindgruve’s vp of media. “It's just not worth the effort if not as many people are using Threads.” Seven of Mindgruve’s brands launched on Threads, and only four are currently active. Brands Use Humor to Find Their Voice, and Followers, on Threads Since its launch, Threads saw a spike of 100 million user sign-ups in its first week, according to the platform. Brands, including Converse, Wendy’s, Rare Beauty, American Eagle and Anthropologie were among the first to adopt the app. However, Threads’ limited features—such as no search function or desktop feature—led some people to quit the app. And the lack of performance data and discoverability tools has left brands with limited opportunities, leading to fatigue, according to Rachel Karten, social media consultant and author of the newsletter Link in Bio. “It’s hard to make a business use case," Karten said. Brands want more tools to play with For those who still post on Threads, it's mostly to use the app as a sandbox to test brand tone and personality, gauging what content drives interaction among audiences. “This could potentially help inform strategies on other platforms,” said Dana Neujahr, svp of strategy & services at We Are Social. “Even if your strategy is different on Twitter or Instagram, there has to be a level of consistency in brand personality.” However, given its lack of paid ads, brands focused on paid social media, where growth and driving sales are tied to spend, don't yet see the value in Threads. “Until Threads incorporates a placement for ads in [Meta's] Ads Manager, or comes out with its own advertising dashboard, many brands just don't care yet,” said Kevin Kovach, director of paid social at ATTN Agency. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last week new features for Threads, including the ability to share Threads on Instagram DMs, add custom alt text to photos and videos on posts, and the ability to mention someone’s account via a “mention button.” “Younger audiences who consume the majority of social media have a preference for DMs and sharing in group chats,” said Jessica Phillips, founder and CEO of influencer marketing agency The Social Standard. “This is a step in the right direction in terms of developing the app to cater to dark social trends.” Still, with a platform largely aping the features of existing platforms like X, formerly Twitter, but with fewer features, the unique proposition is still unclear. “It makes a lot of sense for Meta to want this to work, but that won't drive long-term success,” said Phillips.

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Brands Face Threads Fatigue as App Loses Nearly 80% of Daily Active Users

Anthropologie, Wendy’s and Rare Beauty have reduced brand activity on Threads

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