Telegram Ads have now become more accessible. Gone are the days when you had to make a minimum deposit of €2 000 000 to create an advertising account on Telegram (Yes, this was real!). By 2021, they lowered the amount to $2 500, but for many, it was still expensive.
In August 2022, many services made it possible to launch advertising with a balance of $166 or more, and this has already become a more attractive option: affiliates, marketers, media buyers, and channel owners rushed to paid advertising. You could even meet complaints that the cost per click has risen several times due to the influx of applicants.
At the end of August, the minimum amount of the advertising budget was set at €3 000, and it was almost impossible to find cases of successful or unsuccessful promotion.
In this article, we will look at the main service providers that make it possible to run ads on Telegram. We will also share the experience of a media buyer who bought advertising for his channel and a case study from Maria Dorvey who spoke about Telegram ads at the 2022 CPALife conference.
Audience in Telegram
In June 2022, the number of Telegram users reached 700 000 000, with 50 000 000 being Russian users.
In 2021, Telegram entered the TOP 5 most popular applications. According to statistics from Sensor Tower, in the first quarter of 2021 alone, the app was installed 100 000 000 times. Only WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook have more.
For 2021, statistics showed that the main audience of Telegram is men over 18 and under 34 years old. More than half have a salary of $1 000 a month and hold leadership positions.
Statistics show that the Telegram audience is interested in:
- News Channels — 82%
- Industry News — 43%
- Entertainment Channels — 59%
- Educational Channels — 55%
- Political Channels — 59%
- Channels Of Bloggers And Celebrities — 27%
- Company Channels — 11%
- Channels With Goods And Discounts — 16%
- Channels With Vacancies — 15%
- Darkweb Channels — 8%
- Personal Channels Of Friends — 27%
- Internal Channels Of Companies — 13%
Telegram is prohibited from advertising sexual and shocking content, pirated content, weapons, gambling, tobacco and alcohol, illegal substances, political advertising, and fast food. Caps, imperative mood, Unicode and ASCII encodings, and bulleted lists cannot be used in creatives. The full list of bans can be viewed on the official Telegram website.
Services that You Can Use Run Ads in Telegram Ads
Now there are five services on the market that allow you to run ads with an investment of €1 000 or more. These services are:
- E-profit
- Elama,
- AItarget.one
- Click.ru
- Centra
But immediately get ready for the fact that in addition to the amount that you need to put on the balance, you will need at least 35% of this amount on top.
E-profit offers advertising accounts for Telegram Ads, VKontakte, MyTarget, and TikTok. The minimum deposit is €80. You can create your advertising account by applying on their website and communicating with the manager who will check if your channel is compliant with the Telegram rules.
You can contact them via Telegram or this email; ans@eprofit.me. You can only top up the balance only with a bank card, and a commission of 3.5% is charged. The maximum top-up amount per transaction is €3 000 and the maximum top-up amount per day is €9 500.
The minimum amount for Telegram Ads in Click.ru is €3 000. To connect to the advertising account, you need to go through moderation, while the money on balance is reserved immediately. You will also need to provide information about the advertiser: last name, first name, mail, phone number, and country.
You can contact support by mail — support@click.ru, or by asking a question to a personal manager who will be assigned to you immediately after registration.
The minimum deposit amount in Elama is €3 000. This option is available upon the first deposit, and you will not be given access to your account but they will run the ads themselves according to your preferences or settings until you make a second deposit. This service is available only for legal entities and individual entrepreneurs.
You can get access by signing up on the Elama website and making the first deposit of €4050. This is broken down into their €3 000 initial deposit + 15% commission for the service and 20% VAT.
You can top-up the balance using a card, in cash through their offices in Russia terminal, or a Qiwi wallet.
Aitarget One gives access to Telegram Ads at just €3 000 minimum deposit. You can sign up on their website and create an advertising account. According to them, they say that 1 advertising account runs ads for only 1 Telegram channel. So if you have multiple channels, you'll have to pay for more advertising accounts or look for another alternative among those listed in this article.
There is a cashback of up to 5% if you spend more than $10 000 000 on advertising per quarter, as well as a permanent manager who will help with the launch and answer all questions.
When topping up, a minimum deposit of €4 050 is required which can be broken down into the €3 000 deposit amount + 20% VAT + 15% AI target commission. Only a card is available for funding the account. To communicate with support, there is a chat on their website, and you can open support tickets in your personal account.
Centra
The minimum amount required to open an account is €3 000 + 20% VAT, which makes it €3 600 in total for the first deposit. You can get information on the conditions, charges, interests, and other information only through personal communication with the manager on their website. And you can also request a demo version to get acquainted with the site's capabilities. You can contact support via mail at hello@centra.ai.
An Interview with a Media Buyer Promoting His Channel through Telegram Ads
Finding case studies from actual advertisers was not as easy as you may assume. Indeed, there were a lot of advertisements, but the channel owners did not want to share their campaign statistics and results (That's how you know that something is really hot). We managed to find one case after all from Natalya Gritsenko, the owner of the Smart Advertiser Telegram channel.
aNatalya Gritsenko
“I think that you need to go to Telegram Ads now. The CPM is still low and the audience is not yet saturated”.
Hi, could you tell us the niche of your channel and how many subscribers did you have before the launch of the ad, and how many now?
The niche of the channel is online marketing. Before the launch of advertising in Telegram Ads, there were about 43 900 subscribers. Now there are 44 970 members. The campaign was run for 3 weeks. We now have more data as Telegram statistics show us our ad reach and how many subscribers were gained from each creative. We look forward to optimizing for more.
Have you bought advertising in niche channels before?
Now it’s cheaper to buy in Telegram Ads, but it’s easier to make purchases directly to the channel owners. Because with media buying on Telegram, you have to monitor bids daily, raise and lower them, turn off ineffective creatives, and think about new ones. In general, as in any other advertising platform.
Which service provider do you use to buy your Telegram ads? If not a secret, with what budget? How much did a subscriber cost?
I buy advertising through E-profit. In July, they had an entry threshold of €3 000 + 20% commission + 20% VAT. Now, on average, a subscriber costs €0.4. So far, we have spent €500, and each subscriber costs about €0.2.
Were there any problems with moderation?
All creatives had to be redone. They removed calls to action like “Subscribe” and “Read” in the ad copy and changed them to “I explain here... (then link)”. This is all imperative mood according to moderation. Also, they did not like the word “target”, and they replaced it with “targeting.” In general, moderation is stricter than on other advertising platforms.
Do you think it will be possible to promote blackhat niches somehow? Have you seen similar cases before?
I have seen such cases. They make a whitehat channel which is then promoted with ads to gain subscribers. After the ad campaigns are done, they promote blackhat channels to the gained subscribers through the whitehat channel. But I heard they will add the ability to complain about such channels.
What advice can you give those planning to start promoting their channels on Telegram? Are there some life hacks or problems that they need to know beforehand?
You need to go to Telegram Ads now until the CPM has grown and the audience has not been saturated with lots of adverts. If in July CPM was at €2, now in some topics, the rate needs to be raised to €3-€4.
It is more convenient to work with broad interests, and you need to be able to convey the main idea and message in 160 characters clearly.
Be ready for a long moderation, and with any simple change like in the channel name or avatar, everything is sent back for moderation.
Case Study Analysis by Maria Dorvey: A Telegram Ads Master Class
In August 2022, an affiliate marketing conference called the CPA Life Fest was held in Russsia whereby Maria Dorvey, the CEO of GTX and co-founder of the Dorvey Marketing Agency, alongside representatives of the E-profit network, shared their case studies of telegram ads from some of their channels. We will give only the main figures that may interest you.
1. Promoting a Channel in the Financial Niche
- Budget — €5 399
- Views — 2 548 861
- Joined — 19 249 people
- Average cost per subscriber — €0.28
- CPM — €2.09
The channel gained over 19 000 subscribers within 20 days of running the campaign. The marketing team targeted over 200 channels within the Finance niche. The targeting was set up first on the topic of "investment" — and it produced 500 subscribers per day at minimum CPM. Then "Business" and "Finance" were added.
Examples of creatives used:
- "How to develop a business? Where can I find funds to start my own business? Let's talk on the channel.
- "10 Business Thinking Books You Should Start Applying Today."
- How to save up for an apartment in a year? Which banks are not worth working with and where is it better to invest? Channel responses.
These creatives made it possible to get subscribers at €0.32.
2. A channel about cryptocurrency selling access to a VIP group
- Ad Budget — €3 964
- Views — 1 628 192
- Joined — 12 412 people
- The average price of a subscriber — €0.32
- CPM — €2.43
About 900 channels on crypto subjects were targeted and these channels brought about 250 subscribers per day. Also, channels on the subjects of "Cryptocurrency" and "Investments" were added and gave an additional 250 subscribers per day making them 500. 18 advertising campaigns were launched to reach all the 900 targeted channels.
Examples of Creatives Used:
- What you need to know about the cryptocurrency market. The author of the channel will share tips and useful tips.
- Should I buy bitcoin now or later? What coins are worth paying attention to? How to start earning, we tell on the channel.
These creatives made it possible to get subscribers at a cost of €0.32.
3. Fitness Blogger's Channel Selling Courses on Fitness and Proper Nutrition
- Budget — €2 619
- Views — 1 274 874
- Joined — 13 472 people
- The average price of a subscriber — €0.19
- CPM — €2.05
The team organized 12 creatives and grouped them in 3 sets: Proper nutrition, video training, and weight loss. Each creative set was promoted with a daily budget of €20.
Examples of creatives used:
- "Free home workouts on the @name channel. Just 20 minutes of exercise for a healthy and toned body."
- Healthy eating hacks. Recipes for those who want to get a slim figure on the @name channel.
These creatives made it possible to get subscribers at a €0.20 CPA.
Our Verdict
Now advertising through Telegram Ads is relatively cheap, and the audience is not saturated with ads and has a positive attitude towards them. Subscribers are very cheap compared to other sites. It is quite possible to try to promote some gray channels, but you need to understand that if you are caught doing this, then you will lose your budget.
If you want to share your experience with Telegram Ads with us, please get in touch with our editors: We will promptly supplement the article with your case.
