Telegram Ads: what it is, how to launch a campaign and what to prepare in your channel first

Published: 3 October 2026

Telegram Ads is Telegram's official advertising platform. An ad is a text of up to 160 characters and a button linking to a channel, bot or post; it appears inside large public channels, under the latest message. The platform states that anyone can advertise: write the text, add a link and choose where to show it. Below is how it works in practice and what to do with your channel before the first launch.

What Telegram Ads is in plain words

Short sponsored messages in channels. No image and no comment thread: text, a button and a “sponsored” label. A user sees the ad when scrolling a channel to the end. By the platform's rules, ads do not use the contents of private chats or contact lists: targeting is built on channels and their topics, not on personal data.

Channel owners take part in the same mechanism from the other side: Telegram gives 50% of ad revenue to owners of public channels with at least 1,000 subscribers where ads are shown. That is why ads live in large channels, and their audience is what Telegram Ads sells.

Where ads appear and who you can target

Specific channels: you choose the channels where the ad is shown. The most precise option: a competitor's audience or a related topic.
Topics and languages: the ad shows in channels of a chosen topic and audience language. Good for reach when you do not know specific channels yet.
Where the button leads: a channel, a bot, a specific post or a website. The button link and the link in the text must lead to the same place: that is a moderation requirement.

Who can advertise and how to get an account

There are three routes with different entry thresholds.

Ways into Telegram Ads
Route	How you pay	Who it suits
The official ads.telegram.org account paid in Telegram's cryptocurrency	Top up in the cryptocurrency Telegram uses (the platform calls it Gram; ads launched in 2024 were paid in Toncoin)	Self-serve without a large deposit
A direct account paid in euros	Euro deposit with a much higher threshold	Large advertisers and agencies
Resellers and agencies	Local currency, their fee, their own minimum	Small businesses that need invoices and local payment

Reseller minimums differ and change; at the time of writing, public terms ranged from a few hundred rubles to 500 euros. Check the exact figure with the reseller: we do not pin it down so as not to mislead.

Telegram Ads minimum budget: how much a test needs

Requirements for the channel you advertise

The channel, bot or account must have a profile image and a complete description.
A channel must have at least one post published within the two weeks before review.
Ad text: no longer than 160 characters including spaces. The button link and the text link lead to the same destination.
The channel topic must not fall under the platform's prohibitions: gambling, political campaigns, predatory financial products, unverified medical claims, weapons, drugs, alcohol and tobacco, adult content, copyright violations, deceptive advertising.

Moderation checks not only the text but also the channel behind the link. An empty channel with five subscribers and no description gets rejected or, worse, approved, and the traffic goes nowhere.

How much does it cost to advertise on Telegram?

You pay per impressions on a CPM model: you set a bid per 1,000 impressions, the platform sets the minimum bid, and the result is decided by an auction for the audience of the chosen channels. So there is no single price: a popular topic in a big language costs more, a narrow niche less. The cost per subscriber is known only after a test: budget spent divided by subscribers gained.

A reference formula: budget = CPM bid × planned impressions ÷ 1,000. 100,000 impressions at a €2 bid cost €200; how many of them subscribe depends on the channel, not on the platform.

What to do with the channel before launch

An ad brings a person to the channel for three seconds. In that time they look at four things: the name, the description, the subscriber count and the latest posts. If the channel looks empty, the impression is paid for and the subscription does not happen.

A name and description with the niche keyword; an avatar that reads in a small circle.
10–15 posts so the newcomer has something to read; a pinned navigation post.
A subscriber count that does not scare people off. A 30-member channel under an ad looks like a mistake; starter members with refill fix that for a dollar or two.
Views on recent posts comparable to the subscriber count: 10,000 subscribers with 100 views look worse than 1,000 with 400.
Reactions and comments enabled: the channel looks alive.
If you want channel stories during the campaign, they need a channel level, which means boosts.

Starter members with refill from $0.455 per 1,000

Views for the last 10, 25 or 50 posts

Boosts for the channel level, 1 to 180 days

How to run your first campaign: the order

Fix the channel using the list above and make sure there is a post from the last two weeks.
Get an account: directly with crypto payment or through a reseller.
Write 3–5 text variants of up to 160 characters: one idea, a concrete benefit, a call to action.
Pick 10–20 channels of a close topic, or a topic and a language.
Set a bid near the minimum and a small test budget, let the ads run.
After 2–3 days compare the cost per subscriber by ad and by channel, switch off the weak ones and move the budget.

Frequently asked questions

Can Telegram ads earn money?

For channel owners, yes: public channels with at least 1,000 subscribers receive 50% of the revenue from ads shown in them, paid in cryptocurrency. There is no fixed rate per 1,000 views; it depends on the topic and on advertiser demand for your channel.

Can I advertise a website instead of a channel?

Yes, the button can lead to an external site. But Telegram's audience subscribes to a channel more readily than it leaves for a website: for cold traffic a channel or a bot usually performs better.

How is Telegram Ads different from paid posts in channels?

A paid post is a message in someone's channel for a negotiated fee, with an image and any length of text, read by that channel's subscribers. Telegram Ads is a short platform ad shown across many channels at once, paid per impression and moderated. Paid posts are more precise and cost more per channel; Ads scale.

How to grow a Telegram channel: 12 ways

Channel audit before launching ads

Telegram Ads vs paid posts in channels: which to pick

Telegram Ads rejected: why and how to pass review