Ad Formats⏱️ 8 min readFor advertisers and media buyers
Telegram ads let you put an offer inside the channels people already open several times a day. There’s no feed algorithm to fight and no ad blocker in the way. Your message sits in a conversation the reader chose to follow. For media buyers who work with push, pop and native, Telegram is one of the most useful channels to add, as long as you treat it as a different format with its own rules for creatives and testing.
This guide explains how Telegram advertising works, the main ways to buy Telegram traffic, how to write sponsored posts that earn the click and how to read and optimize your results.
🔑 Key takeaways
- Telegram ads are short sponsored posts or messages shown inside public Telegram channels, usually bought on CPM.
- You can buy Telegram traffic through Telegram’s own ad platform, through direct deals with channel owners, or through an ad network that sells channel inventory.
- The channel’s topic and language do most of your targeting, so choosing the right channels matters as much as the creative.
- Write one clear promise per post, link to a fast page, and judge channels on cost per conversion, not just views.
What Are Telegram Ads?
Telegram ads are paid messages that appear inside Telegram channels. A channel is a one-to-many feed: the owner posts, and subscribers read. That makes channels a natural home for advertising, because the audience is already grouped by interest, such as crypto, sports, tech, finance, gaming or news, and by language.
The scale is large. According to Telegram’s official ad platform, 1 billion Telegram users generate 1 trillion views in public broadcast channels every month. TechCrunch reported in March 2025 that Telegram had passed 1 billion monthly active users.
For an advertiser, Telegram ads usually take one of two shapes:
- Sponsored messages are short text ads that Telegram’s own platform shows in public channels. Telegram says you only need to type up to 160 characters, add a Telegram link and choose the channels.
- Sponsored posts are full posts published inside a channel, often with an image, a longer text and an external link. These are bought from channel owners directly or through an ad network.
How to Buy Telegram Traffic: 3 Options
There’s more than one way to advertise on Telegram, and each suits a different stage of testing.
| Option | How it works | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telegram’s own ad platform | Short sponsored messages shown in public channels you select | Promoting Telegram channels, bots and links | 160-character limit; check the platform’s own requirements first |
| Direct deals with channel owners | You agree a price and publish a post in a specific channel | One-off placements in a channel you know well | Manual work, hard to compare channels, no shared tracking |
| Ad network | The network sells sponsored posts across many channels, often on CPM | Testing several channels and scaling with one budget and one dashboard | Ask how channels are vetted and what targeting is available |
For performance campaigns, an ad network is usually the quickest route. You get one account, one budget and the same reporting you use for your other formats. On Rawbitads, Telegram ads are sold on CPM as sponsored posts inside Telegram channels, targeted by topic, language and audience size.
Which Offers Fit Telegram Ads?
Telegram works best when the offer fits the conversation already happening in the channel. A sports channel reader is in a good mood for a match-day angle. A crypto channel reader expects market and tool content.
- Crypto and finance: tools, apps and services that fit channels where readers already follow markets.
- iGaming: sports and community angles, such as match previews or tipster-style content, can work well in sports channels. Our iGaming traffic sources guide compares Telegram with push, pop and native for casino and betting offers.
- Software, utilities and apps: anything a tech audience would try, from VPNs to productivity tools.
- Telegram bots and channels: growing a Telegram property from inside Telegram keeps the whole journey in one app.
- eCommerce and deals: discount and deal channels are built for offers.
If your offer needs a long explanation, use the Telegram post as a teaser and send readers to a pre-lander. That’s the same logic as native ads, which we compare in push vs pop vs native ads.
How to Write Telegram Sponsored Posts That Get Clicks
A Telegram post competes with the channel’s own content, not with other ads in a sidebar. It needs to read like something the subscriber would want to see.
- Lead with the hook. The first line is what shows in the preview, so put the benefit or question there.
- Match the channel’s voice and language. A post written for the channel’s audience beats a generic banner text translated word for word.
- One promise, one link. Several offers in one post split attention and make tracking harder.
- Use an image that explains the offer. Show the app screen, the product or the match, not a stock photo.
- Make the call to action specific. “Get the match preview” or “Open the app” tells the reader exactly what happens next.
- Respect short formats. On Telegram’s own platform, the whole message has to fit into 160 characters, so every word has to earn its place.
💡 Pro tip
Write three versions of the same post with different first lines, such as a question, a number and a direct benefit. On Telegram, the opening line usually decides whether anyone reads the rest.
How to Launch a Telegram Ads Campaign
Define the conversion.
Decide what counts as success: a registration, a purchase, a bot start or a channel join. Set up S2S postback tracking for anything that happens off Telegram.
Pick the channel topics and languages.
Start with two or three topics that clearly match your offer, in the language of your landing page.
Prepare the creatives.
Two or three post versions with different hooks, plus an image for each. Keep one variable different per version.
Set a CPM bid and a test budget.
Give each channel group enough impressions to show a trend before you judge it.
Use tracking links.
Pass the channel or placement ID in your URL so you can see which channels convert.
Launch and watch early signals.
Look at CTR in the first day, then conversions as they come in.
Cut and concentrate.
Pause channels that spend without converting and move budget to the topics and creatives that pay back.
If you’re new to postbacks, our iGaming CPA offers guide walks through S2S tracking step by step, and the setup works for any vertical.
Optimizing Telegram Ads Campaigns
Telegram ads are usually bought on CPM, so you pay for views, not clicks. That makes your creative and your channel choice the two biggest levers on cost per conversion.
- Track by channel, not just by campaign. Two channels on the same topic can perform very differently. Keep the ones that convert and drop the rest.
- Compare effective CPC and CPA. Divide your spend by clicks and by conversions for each channel. A cheaper CPM means nothing if nobody clicks.
- Refresh creatives regularly. Channel audiences are loyal and see the same posts, so a winning post can fade. Rotate in a new hook before CTR drops too far.
- Test the landing page as hard as the post. Telegram opens links in an in-app browser on mobile, so a slow or heavy page loses people fast. Google’s Web Vitals guidance suggests keeping Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds.
- Expand by topic, then by language. Once a topic works, try neighbouring topics before you add new languages, so you change one thing at a time.
💡 Pro tip
Keep a simple channel log with topic, language, CPM, CTR, conversions and cost per conversion. After a few weeks you’ll have your own shortlist of channels to start every new campaign with.
Telegram Ads vs Other Ad Formats
Telegram doesn’t replace your other formats; it complements them. Push and in-page push are great at reaching a lot of people with one short line. Pop sends full landing pages at volume. Telegram adds context: the channel’s topic and the reader’s trust in it.
- Push and in-page push: short, fast hooks across many sites. See our in-page push ads guide.
- Pop: full-page reach and fast volume for landing-page tests. See what popunder traffic is.
- Telegram: topic communities, targeted by language, where a recommendation-style post can do well.
Running Telegram alongside push or pop from the same account makes it easy to compare cost per conversion across formats and move budget to the winner.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Telegram ads?
Telegram ads are paid messages or sponsored posts shown inside public Telegram channels. They let advertisers reach channel subscribers by topic and language, and they’re usually bought on a CPM basis.
How much do Telegram ads cost?
Telegram ads are usually priced on CPM, so the cost depends on the channels, topics and languages you target and on how much competition there is for them. Start with a small test budget per channel group and judge it on cost per conversion.
How do I buy Telegram traffic?
You can use Telegram’s own ad platform, make direct deals with channel owners, or buy sponsored posts through an ad network such as Rawbitads, which lets you target channels by topic, language and audience size from one account.
What makes a good Telegram ad creative?
A strong first line, one clear promise, an image that shows the offer and a specific call to action. Match the channel’s language and tone so the post reads like something its subscribers want to see.
Can I track conversions from Telegram ads?
Yes. Add tracking parameters to your link and use S2S postback tracking for conversions that happen on your site or offer page. Pass the channel or placement ID so you can compare channels and cut the ones that don’t convert.
Start Testing Telegram Ads
Telegram gives you something most formats don’t: an audience grouped by interest and language, reading content it chose to follow. Pick two or three channel topics that fit your offer, write posts that sound like the channel, track every conversion, and let channel-level data tell you where to scale.
📚 Related guides
Run Telegram ads on Rawbitads
Buy sponsored posts in Telegram channels on CPM, targeted by topic, language and audience size, from the same self-serve account as your push and pop campaigns.
Start a Telegram campaign →