Telegram Ads: Expensive but Effective

Advertising on Telegram Ads is costly — but it works. Yes, bids are higher than on TikTok or Facebook, but the audience is high-quality: they stay, pay, and engage. It's especially effective for subscriptions, channels, or bot funnels. And all of it — without shady manual placements, only through Telegram's official ad manager.

In this article, we’ll break down how ad pricing works, what affects CPM, and how to set up and optimize your campaigns.

How Telegram Ads Pricing Works

Telegram Ads uses a CPM model — cost per thousand impressions. Advertisers don’t pay for clicks or subscriptions but for ad impressions in the feed. Telegram shows only one ad per user per day, making each impression a battle for attention.

The platform is auction-based: when a user opens a channel, the system checks which advertisers match by GEO, language, interests — and picks the one with the best combination of bid and relevance. A high bid doesn’t guarantee a win — Telegram also considers previous CTRs and creative quality.

Example in numbers
You bid €2.5 per 1000 impressions, your competitor bids €3.2 — but your CTR is 4% and theirs is 1.5%. You might still win. Telegram wants users to engage, not just glance at a banner. So high-engagement ads are prioritized.

The minimum bid is €1, but realistically, in active GEOs the CPM often exceeds €4–5. In the US or Germany, it can reach €10–12, especially if you promote bots or external websites. For channel subscriptions, bids are lower — but so is user quality (more fraud, less retention).

Important: Telegram is not TikTok — broad targeting doesn’t work here. If your ad loses the auction, it won’t show at all, no matter how big your budget is.

What Influences the Cost

Even though you pay per 1000 impressions, actual CPM is dynamic and auction-driven.

GEO

The most important factor. Telegram categorizes countries by purchasing power:

• Tier 1 (US, Germany, France, UAE) — CPM up to €10–12
• Tier 2 (Poland, Turkey, LATAM) — around €3–5
• Tier 3 (India, Indonesia, Egypt) — from €1.5

Telegram identifies GEO by IP, not just SIM or profile. So if you're targeting Germany, but the user is on a Turkish VPN — they might not see your ad.

Telegram Interface Language

This is a powerful but lesser-known targeting layer. Telegram determines your audience not just by location but by interface language.

One Ukrainian user with English UI may land in a completely different campaign than one with Russian UI.

Smart advertisers use this for segmentation. For example, in Kazakhstan, users with English UI are often in IT and convert better for SaaS or AI products.

There’s also “Target channel languages”, which defines the content language of the channels — even non-Russian speakers in Russian channels can still see your ads.

Campaign Objective

Telegram Ads offers three goals:

• Channel Subscription
• Link Click
• Bot Launch

CPM varies by goal. Subscriptions are cheapest but often lack engagement. Bots are the most expensive — Telegram sees them as active engagement and requires higher bids.

Auction Competition

Because Telegram limits to one ad per day per user, the auction is tight. If you bid €3 and your competitor bids €4.5 — you lose.

Even with the same bid, Telegram favors higher-CTR creatives.

Low CTR not only burns budget but also kills auction chances. The system learns from every click — poor creatives = fewer impressions.

How to Set Up Campaigns Without Wasting Budget

Telegram isn’t for broad targeting. Every setting affects price and result. Skip A/B testing or segmentation — you’ll likely burn budget.

Don’t mix GEO and Language. One country + one language = one campaign. For example, English interface in Kazakhstan usually means higher-income IT users. Target accordingly.

Launch in batches. Don’t run a single test. Telegram prefers internal competition. Run 3–5 campaigns with different:

• GEO + language
• CTA types
• Goals (bot vs sub)
• Budgets

This shows which setup performs best.

Track metrics quickly. Telegram gives impressions, CTR, subs, and cost. That’s enough. If CTR < 2%, kill the ad. You’ll know within 1–2K impressions.

Note: Telegram Ads only works directly with €2M+ budgets. Use resellers to access it.

How to Optimize Costs and Performance

You don't lose money because CPM is high — you lose it with bad creatives and strategy. Here's how to optimize:

A/B Test Everything

1 campaign = 2–3 creatives minimum.

Test:

• Headline (question, CTA, emotion)
• Visual (product, logo, illustration)
• Copy (short offer or pain + solution)

Keep it within 160 characters max.

Clear CTA

“Subscribe,” “Launch,” “Get access” > vague ones.

• ❌ "Try now"
• ✅ "Click to get the bot" / "Launch in Telegram"

Adapt Your Funnel to Telegram

Sending users to a website isn’t always optimal. Telegram is best for keeping users inside the app.

Top-performing funnels:

• Ad → Bot (quiz or lead magnet)
• Ad → Channel (with warm-up posts)
• Ad → Website (mobile-friendly, instant registration)

Test different flows.

Manual Bid Control

Set max bid manually if Telegram spends too much on expensive GEOs. Lower bids for testing. Raise only for proven combos.

Efficiency comes from precision — not large budgets.
Test. Analyze. Kill. Scale.

Is Telegram Ads Worth It?

Yes — if you know why you're using it.

Telegram isn’t about cheap reach. It’s for high engagement, clean traffic, and retention.

Where Telegram Wins:

• Channels & subscriptions — Best platform for growing and nurturing a loyal audience
• Bots — AI, quizzes, utilities, games — anything interactive inside Telegram
• SaaS & IT — Easy to route users from bot to product
• Gray/Sketchy flows — Telegram still allows semi-blackhat funnels without bans if packed well

Where Telegram Loses:

• Direct ecommerce — Just selling sneakers? Go to TikTok or Meta
• Cheap CPL — Need $0.30 leads? Telegram won’t compete

Manual buying used to mean risky DMs with admins. Now it’s better to use the official ad platform:

Pros:

• Transparent analytics
• Budget control
• Scaling potential

Manual buying =

• High risk
• No scaling
• Messy funnels

Conclusion:
Telegram Ads is about quality, not mass. Focus on tight targeting, clean funnels, creative testing, and performance metrics — and you'll get stable, engaged traffic that beats manual buying.