Why do you need external Telegram analytics if you have channel statistics?

Channel statistics are available only to its owner. External analytics are needed to evaluate other people's channels - those in which you are going to buy placement. This is the only way to check the site before paying.

How to recognize cheating subscribers in a Telegram channel?

According to the growth schedule. Organic growth is a sloping line with fluctuations, purchasing is a vertical step in one or two days. The step itself is not a death sentence: it can be a successful placement. But if after it the coverage of publications does not increase proportionally, the subscribers are dead.

What ratio of reach to subscribers is considered normal?

There is no universal norm; it strongly depends on the size and topic of the channel: small niche channels usually have higher coverage relative to subscribers, while large ones have lower ones. You need to compare channels of the same size with each other, and not with an abstract norm.

What's more important: views or reactions?

Reactions and comments as a sign of a live audience. Views are gained cheaply and en masse, while meaningful comments are gained expensively and poorly. A channel with thousands of views and a complete lack of discussion is almost always problematic.

How many ads in a channel’s feed is that too much?

If more than a third of the last thirty publications are advertising, the audience has gotten used to it and has stopped reacting. Your placement in such a feed will be lost regardless of the quality of the creative.

How accurate are external analytics services?

They estimate coverage approximately based on visible public data. This is enough to compare channels with each other, but not for accurate calculations. Therefore, the final numbers are taken from internal statistics shown by the channel owner.

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SMMSeptember 5, 20268 min

TGStat and Telegram channel analytics: what to watch before purchasing advertising

External Telegram analytics shows what is not visible from inside the channel: growth dynamics, the real reach of publications and advertising history. I figure out what numbers to check before purchasing, how to recognize cheating, and how external data differs from the owner’s statistics.

External Telegram analytics solves exactly one problem, but one that has nothing else to solve: evaluate someone else’s channel before you pay for it. Only the owner has his own statistics, and taking his word for it in this niche is expensive.

The channel owner will show you the figure that is beneficial to him. External data shows the one that is visible to everyone.

1. Growth chart - the first thing to open

The organic growth of a channel looks like an inclined line with irregularities: somewhere there is a successful post, somewhere there is silence. Purchased is like a step: in one or two days subscribers grew by a noticeable amount, then plateaued.

A step in itself is not a sentence. This may be the result of successful placement on a major channel, and then everything is fair. The check is simple: see what happened to the coverage of publications after the step.

If there are twice as many subscribers, but the coverage of the post has not changed, those who don’t read come. Then the only question is whether they are bots or real people who were driven by the competition; for your placement there is almost no difference.

2. Publication reach relative to subscribers

The main thing is the ratio, and it is this that is most often replaced by absolute numbers. “We have fifty thousand subscribers” means nothing as long as we don’t know how many people open the post.

This ratio needs to be compared between channels same size and same theme. For a small niche channel it is naturally higher than for a large entertainment channel, and this does not make the second bad - they just have different mechanics.

Both extremes are suspicious. Too low a ratio with a large number of subscribers means a dead base. Suspiciously high for a large channel - usually increasing views.

3. Reactions and comments

The most reliable sign of a live audience, because it is the worst to cheat. Views are bought cheaply and in large numbers. Meaningful comments on the topic of the post - no.

What to watch: Scroll through the last twenty posts and evaluate whether there is a discussion under them and whether it looks human. The same monosyllabic comments under each post are the same type of cheating, only more expensive.

A channel with thousands of views and complete silence in the comments is either fake or has an audience that scrolls through. Both options are equally bad for the advertiser.

4. Advertising density

A metric that no service shows and that needs to be counted manually: scroll through the last thirty publications and count advertising ones.

Advertising share	What does this mean
up to 10%	The audience is not used to it, they will notice the placement
10–30%	Work situation, it's worth checking what's going on near you
more than 30%	The feed is burned out, your placement will be lost
three commercials in a row	Refuse regardless of other numbers

The last line is more important than the percentages. If your post is placed between two other advertisements, it will be read on a residual basis, no matter how good it is.

5. How external data differs from internal data

External services evaluate coverage based on publicly visible features. This is an approximation, and it is enough to compare channels with each other and weed out obviously problematic ones.

To calculate the cost of a contact, exact numbers are needed, and only the owner has them. Therefore, the final step is to request a screenshot of internal statistics for thirty days.

Refusal to show statistics is not “we don’t disclose”, it is the answer to your question. The owner of the live channel shows it willingly because it works in his favor.

6. Everything comes down to one number

After checking, arithmetic remains: the placement price is divided by the actual coverage of the publication and multiplied by a thousand. It turns out the cost of a thousand contacts, and only according to this the channels are comparable.

The finished form with this calculation, verification checklist and fact sheet is in media plan for sponsored placements. Methodology and typical mistakes - in analysis of purchases from bloggers.

7. Summary

Half an hour per channel: growth graph, ratio of reach to subscribers, reactions on the last twenty posts, share of advertising in the last thirty, request for internal statistics, calculation of the cost of a contact.

Of the six steps, the most significant is the fourth, and it is the only one that is not automated. Scrolling through the feed by hand takes five minutes and weeds out more bad sites than any service.