Telegram Ads: How to Advertise and Promote Your Business on the Messenger
Discover the ways to create ads and buy placements in public channels.
As one of the most popular messaging apps globally (over 1 billion active users), Telegram is also one of the most functional. From extensive message formatting to mini-apps and channels, there are plenty of options for diverse, effective communication.
For a Telegram marketing strategy, official ads on the platform can be an effective solution for businesses to attract new customers: the pricing is competitive compared to other social media and the channels where ads are placed boast a high-intent audience that is more attentive than the average scrolling social media user.
In this Telegram ads guide, we will explore how the platform works and provide a step-by-step walkthrough for creating your first ad and finding the perfect placement.
How Telegram ads work
There are two main ways to approach Telegram business promotion using paid placements.
Official Telegram Ads are short, sponsored messages that appear in public channels with at least 1,000 subscribers. They can include brief text, a single call-to-action (CTA) button, and an optional image or video. This minimalist format allows ads to blend into the channel's content without inducing "ad blindness" among users. However, this also means that every word must be strong and benefit-driven.
Direct channel placements are full-format sponsored posts in Telegram channels.
They offer much more creative freedom, supporting long-form text, rich media, polls, and interactive buttons. If you look at successful Telegram advertising examples, many brands combine both approaches. They use official ads to scale and attract new audiences, alongside direct placements in trusted channels for deeper engagement and credibility.
Also, there are alternative promotional methods.
- Bots and Mini Apps enable automated lead funnels, customer support, and even in-app commerce without requiring users to leave the app.
- Organic channel growth allows building your own subscriber base through consistent, valuable content.
Telegram ad targeting
Advertisers can select broad channel topics or specific public channels where their Telegram sponsored messages will appear. Refinement by audience language, geography, and interests is also available. This makes Telegram advertising particularly effective for niche products in finance, technology, education, crypto, and professional services.
Telegram doesn’t use private messages for ad delivery. This helps maintain a high trust level among users but requires advertisers to have an accurate understanding of their audience and to select the right channels.
Telegram ads cost and budgets
The Telegram ads cost depends on your chosen format. The official platform operates on a CPM (Cost Per Mille) model, where advertisers pay per one thousand impressions. Pricing is auction-based and fluctuates based on competition in your business niche, geography, and targeting precision. When managed well, Telegram's CPMs are often much more affordable than those of large social media platforms.
For direct channel placements, the pricing model depends on the channel's owner. Usually, it is a fixed rate per post, per placement package, or per custom project. The figures depend on audience size and quality, average post reach, subscriber engagement, and the channel's reputation.
When planning a budget for a campaign, always take into account other expenses besides ad placement: content creation, hypothesis testing, and analytics. Sometimes it takes time to find the right format and placements, but when it happens, Telegram ads often outperform alternative channels.
Most suitable businesses for Telegram ads
While advertising in Telegram channels can be beneficial for a wide variety of organizations, the messaging app is especially effective for the following business types.
- Fintech and crypto. Telegram is a global hub for blockchain enthusiasts, so it is arguably the best platform for promoting decentralized finance and investment projects.
- SaaS and B2B tech. Software providers targeting early adopters, developers, or marketers can place sponsored messages directly inside professional channels focused on business, coding, and design.
- Digital creators. Influencers, coaches, and bloggers can efficiently drive targeted traffic to their own channels to grow their subscriber base.
- Niche interests. With targeting based on specific channel topics rather than broad demographics, businesses catering to specialized hobbies or professional groups can reach highly relevant users.
Telegram Ads are less effective for hyper-local businesses requiring precise geographic targeting, isual-heavy consumer brands relying on photos or videos to drive impulse purchases, and mass-market commodity products needing broad demographic reach. Businesses with long B2B sales cycles may also find them less effective due to the short, text-only ad format, which limits detailed explanations and visuals.
How to run Telegram ads step-by-step
Step 1. Check against Telegram ads requirements
Before creating an account, confirm your products and services with Telegram's content policies. The platform does not allow advertising for: adult materials, narcotics, firearms, unlabeled political campaigns, products of questionable legality, or unconfirmed medical claims.
The promoted channel or bot must be credible. Moderators reject ads that point to empty channels with no avatar or empty ‘about’ and ‘description’ sections, as well as those with no activity at least once in the two weeks prior.
Step 2. Register on Telegram Ads platform
Visit ads.telegram.org and log in with your Telegram phone number. If you plan to use a third-party reseller (eLama, Click.ru, Smit.Link, and others), register on their site instead.
Choose an account type during registration:
- Personal — single-user access for individual campaigns.
- Organization — linked to a channel or group, which allows adding other team members to manage ads. The setup can only be initiated by the channel owner.
Step 3. Fund your ads account
Navigate to the "Manage Budget" section and tap "Add Funds". Available payment methods include:
- Euro account. Direct access requires a €2M commitment, which is why most advertisers partner with resellers to start advertising with a €500–1,000 budget.
- TON account is funded with Toncoin via a verified Fragment account and a TON wallet. Minimum first deposit is 20 TON (~$6–16).
- Stars account. Provides entry at 1,000 Stars (~$17). Stars must be earned on your channel and held for 21 days before transfer. Offers a limited set of ad features compared to others (text-only, no geo/interest targeting), but lenient moderation.
Step 4. Set up UTM tracking
Spending on ads without analytics is a waste of budget. Always add a UTM tag to the link in a sponsored message so you can connect dashboard impressions and clicks directly to signups or purchases.
Most reseller platforms include built-in UTM generators. A typical link looks like: http://t.me/yourchannel?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=ads&utm_campaign=launch_may26
Step 5. Create Telegram ad
Click "Create a New Ad" and fill in the following fields:
- Title: internal label for your reference.
- Ad text: the sponsored message users see. Reviewed by moderators before publication. Max. number of characters — 160.
- URL: a Telegram-internal link (channel, bot, or specific post). External URLs are prohibited. The CTA button is auto-generated by Telegram.
- Media: optional image (JPEG/PNG, 16:9, less than 5 MB) or video (MP4, shorter than 60s, less than 20 MB).
Study competitors' sponsored messages in the channels they target and prepare 4–5 variations with different angles to run them as an A/B test.
Step 6. Choose target channels
To find the right channels to show your ad:
- Search using relevant keywords and browse public channels with consistent posting.
- Use platforms like Telega.io, TeleTarget, and TGRM.SU that offer curated catalogs of channels organized by topic, audience size, and engagement.
- Consult reseller's tools to pick channels based on your target audience.
When evaluating potential channels, prioritize audience quality and engagement over vanity metrics. Analyze the ratio of subscribers to post views; a massive disparity often hints at bot-driven traffic.
Step 7. Set budget & frequency
Before submitting for moderation, configure spending controls for your ad.
Set a frequency cap. The platform allows up to 4, but it’s better to start at 1–2 views per user per day, as higher caps rarely improve results for new campaigns. Also, set a daily spending cap to prevent budget drain on a single underperforming placement.
How Telegram's CPM auction works
You pay for every 1,000 impressions, not per click. As your ad competes with others targeting the same channels or topics, a higher bid increases delivery speed and reach, but does not guarantee better results if copy or targeting is weak.
- Euro account type – starts at €1.50–2.00
- TON – starts at the default 0.1 TON
- Stars — starts at 75–100 Stars
Click "Create Ad" to submit. Manual reviews take 2–24 hours (complex cases up to 3 days). Frequent reasons for rejection include imperative language, superlatives, and underdeveloped destination channels.
For example, an ad promoting a chess competition with clear context and realistic framing will pass. An ad promising instant cash for clicks with no explanation will be rejected. Repeated violations can affect your account's standing with the moderation system.
Note: do not change your channel name, avatar, or description during review as it resets moderation for all linked ads.
Also, grouping multiple channels within a single ad usually results in unreliable insights and budget waste. Adhere to the principle of one ad per channel, bot, or keyword target, ensuring that each placement can be clearly measured, analyzed, and optimized for audience engagement.
Step 8. Track performance
Getting consistently low-cost, high-quality results from advertising comes down to data. Start broad and gradually narrow down the selection of channels for placement. Test multiple channels and review results after 48–72 hours.
- CTR (Click-Through Rate): Aim for 0.5–2% (text only) or 1–3.5% (with media). A lower rate means your message doesn't resonate.
- CPC (Cost Per Click): €0.15–0.80 is a healthy benchmark.
- CPA (Cost Per Action): Varies by niche. If this is unsustainably high despite a good CTR, work on your landing page/channel content.
Don’t raise bids to fix weak performance, but rather focus on improving targeting and copy. Also, do not forget to rotate creatives every 5–7 days to avoid ad fatigue.
Rules for copy
As Fairfax M. Cone, a founder of the FCB advertising agency, once noted: “Good advertising is written from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions, it rarely moves anyone.” When creating ads, it is essential to maintain a human-to-human tone rather than a “corporate-to-audience” approach.
To successfully pass manual moderation and increase conversion rates, follow these Telegram marketing tips:
- Value through facts. State specific numbers, conditions, or pricing. "Weekly reports from 140+ data sources" works better than "The most insightful analysis" does not.
- Concrete use cases. Signals immediate relevance and makes it easy for potential customers to convert.
- No imperative verbs. "Buy," "Subscribe," "Click," "Download" will get your ad declined.
- Minimal formatting. Max 3 emojis. No exclamation marks, ALL CAPS, bullet points, or line breaks.
- Avoid superlatives. "Best," "ultimate," "incredible," "maximum" are non-verifiable claims and usually lead to ad rejection.
Alternative ways to promote business on Telegram
Besides official Telegram ads, there are other ways to advertise on the messaging app.
Influencer marketing
Directly purchasing an ad placement in an influencer's channel can sometimes result in better performance than an ad placed through the CPM auction. A highly-engaged channel with 15,000 subscribers will almost always outperform a disengaged 100,000-subscriber channel. The approach offers creative freedom, since you can negotiate with the owner not only the price, but also long texts, images, video, polls, and inline buttons.
Cross-promotion
Mutual shoutouts between two channels with complementary audiences are a great way to advertise with zero budget. For example, a freelancing channel can partner with a design software channel; the audiences overlap meaningfully but do not compete.
Bots and mini apps
Bots allow brands to set up complete marketing funnels inside Telegram without sending users to an external site. For example, a B2B brand can launch a bot that delivers a free webinar series. Afterward, the bot asks qualifying questions and routes high-intent leads directly to the sales team, streamlining your Telegram lead generation.
Building your own channel
To grow a Telegram channel organically, consistency is key. A proprietary channel is an owned marketing asset immune to algorithm throttling. Telegram channel promotion relies heavily on shareability, so aim to deliver three high-quality posts per week and track which posts get forwarded. Forwarding is Telegram's strongest signal of genuine value.
Tools and automation for Telegram marketing
Running campaigns at scale is much easier with the right tools:
- Telemetr.io provides detailed data on channel growth, engagement rates, ad history, and audience overlap.
- TGStat is a widely used analytics tool offering public data on subscriber growth, post reach, and citation indexes.
- Telega.in is an advertising marketplace connecting advertisers with channel owners for direct bookings.
- Bothelp is a no-code platform for building automated Telegram bots and lead generation funnels.
- Combot is a popular community management tool providing anti-spam filters, user analytics, and moderation rules.
Frequently asked questions
Here are the answers to common inquiries about advertising in Telegram channels.
What are ads in Telegram?
Telegram ads are sponsored messages appearing in public channels with over 1,000 subscribers. Because they appear where users are already consuming relevant content, they are highly effective for brand awareness and lead generation.
How much do ads cost on Telegram?
They run on an auction-based CPM model. A Euro Account starts at €1.50 CPM, while a TON Account begins at 0.1 TON (~$0.30–$0.50), making it a budget-friendly option for testing.
How to get money from Telegram ads?
You can monetize by driving traffic to an affiliate website, selling your own products, or selling sponsored placements in your own growing channel. To get the best ROI as an advertiser, ensure your destination channel is optimized for conversions, your chosen placement has a highly relevant audience, and your copy strictly adheres to Telegram's guidelines.
What to do if a Telegram ad is declined?
When an ad is marked as declined, it is usually for one of the following reasons:
- Editorial issue — wording, tone, grammar, or formatting.
- Link formatting — URL structure problem.
- Destination issue — the landing channel, bot, or website doesn't meet standards.
- Prohibited content — the ad or destination contains restricted material.
Fix the issue and resubmit. Don't leave declined ads sitting in your account, as multiple unresolved rejections may affect account trust.
Summing things up
Telegram ads can be a highly cost-effective solution for advertisers who prepare thoroughly and understand their target audience. When planning a new campaign, ensure compliance before buying placements, write copy focused on clear facts, select channels popular with your specific demographic, and let analytics guide your budget.
For more effective customer communication on Telegram and other social media and messaging apps, consider Telegram integration by Umnico. The omnichannel communication platform combines 25+ popular channels in a single interface, provides automation capabilities and robust integrations with CRM systems. Link your Telegram with Umnico to get your customer communication under control and turn chats into deals easily.
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