Telegram Ads: sponsored placements and official account

Telegram has become the main platform of Runet in 2026 - about 90 million active users per month, the average user spends 41 minutes per day in the application. For performance these are two different channels under one roof: official Telegram Ads (sponsored messages in other people’s channels) and channel placements (agreement directly with channel admins). This chapter is a working guide to both.

official telegram ads: entry rules

Telegram Ads is an advertising account that Pavel Durov launched in 2021 through the Swiss structure TG Sponsored Messages AG. Format: short sponsored message that appears at the bottom of public channels with an audience of 1,000 or more subscribers.

Entry conditions are strict: minimum deposit €2,000, holding turnover requirement from €2M, KYC via Swiss account. Russian legal entities do not allow direct entry - you need to go through a certified partner (for example, eLama, Click.ru, OneSpot, they lower the threshold to €1,000–€1,500 and charge a commission of 10–15%).

What can be advertised: only links to Telegram channels, chats or bots. Direct access to the site is prohibited. This turns Telegram Ads into an acquisition channel subscribers, and not “leadgen in its pure form” - you need a well-thought-out funnel through a bot.

targeting in telegram ads

Targeting is built along two axes: the subject of the channel (24 categories, from “Business” to "Cryptocurrencies"), or a manual list of channels (you enter the @username of the channels where you want show up). Geo-targeting works at the country level, but not at the city level. Age and There is no half-target at all - Telegram does not collect this information.

Price – CPM 1.5–3.5€ for most categories, up to 5–8€ for “Business” and “Finance” in high season. Creative - text up to 160 characters, no picture, no link in text. Header only + Go button.

sponsored placements: how to buy advertising from channels directly

Seeds are an agreement with channel owners directly or through an exchange. The main thing advantage - you can drive traffic anywhere (site, bot, landing page, any link), and Free advertising format: text, photo, video, voice.

The price depends greatly on the subject of the channel and the audience:

• Lifestyle, humor, news — CPM 200–500 RUB
• Experts in the niche (marketing, IT, psychology) - CPM 400–900 ₽
• B2B channels (for entrepreneurs, for CEOs) — CPM 1,500–3,000 ₽
• Premium experts with a loyal base - individually, upon audit

seed exchanges 2026

Through the exchange - faster and safer, through direct transactions - usually cheaper.

• Telega.in. The largest exchange, ~15,000 channels. Convenient search by topic, rating, statistics. Commission 10%.
• TGStat Ads. Integration with TGStat analytics - you can see the real channel coverage and activity. Commission 5–7%.
• Combot. Fewer channels, but high-quality selection, especially in the B2B niche.
• Direct negotiations. We contact the admin, agree, send PAYMENT ONLY AFTER THE POST IS RELEASED (or through escrow).

pre-purchase channel audit checklist

50% of sponsored placements are lost due to poor channel audit. Minimum checklist:

1. Check the promotion using TGStat: ratio of subscribers to post views (normal - 15–40%, below 10% - high probability of cheating).
2. Subscriber dynamics over 90 days: steady growth or surges? Jumps of 2–5k per day - cheating.
3. Quality of comments: real discussion or monotonous “Thank you! 🙏"?
4. Post topics are relevant to your audience.
5. Ratio of advertising and content: more than 30% advertising - advertising is lost in the noise.
6. Request statistics for a native post that the channel prepares itself (and not “creative” send yours")

ORD and ERID marking

From September 2022, all advertising on the Runet is subject to marking through ORD (Operator advertising data). For Telegram this means: get an ERID token in the ORD (for example, ORD VK or ORD Yandex), insert it into the text of the post in the format erid:XXXXXXXXX, report on placement.

Without ERID - fine from RUB 100,000 for individuals to RUB 500,000 for legal entities for each placement. In practice, exchanges (Telega, TGStat) have already built ODS into the flow: when loading creative system automatically generates ERID and inserts it into the text. For direct transactions you will have to work with the ORD yourself.

how to calculate the effectiveness of telegram

The main problem of Telegram traffic: attribution through cookies does not work (no session cookies, no referrer). Ways to measure:

• UTM tag in the link + UTM parsing on the site. The most basic method. Works if the user follows the link. Does not take into account those who clicked on delayed link via copy-paste.
• Promo code for post. Unique promotional code for each crop. B The moment you apply the promotional code, we see where the client is from.
• Funnel bot. The link leads to the bot, the bot asks “how do you feel about us? did you find out? (or assigns source automatically via the start parameter t.me/bot?start=channel_name).
• End-to-end analytics with post-player attribution. Roistat, CallTouch, PrimeGate tracks visits from Telegram through JS tags, bypassing cookies.

typical funnel for b2b via telegram

1. Purchase in 3–5 channels of our niche (CPM 1,000–2,500 RUB).
2. Creative - a long post with expertise, at the end a link to a lead magnet (PDF, checklist, mini course).
3. A lead magnet is issued through a bot in exchange for a phone number.
4. The bot sends the first warm-up chain for 5 messages every 7 days.
5. The manager hires a lead through CRM.

The cost of a lead in B2B channels in Telegram is 1,500–4,000 rubles, 1.5–2 times cheaper than the same lead through Yandex Direct. CPL calculator with benchmarks for niches.

in the next chapter

Chapter 7 - Retargeting. Pixels, audiences, frequency cap, and what to do when iOS blocks cookies, and Metrica loses half of the sessions.