Telegram Ad Platform Explained
This document explores the Telegram Ad Platform in greater detail, for basic information about sponsored messages, please see this page.
Getting Started
The Telegram Ad Platform is a tool to create sponsored messages in public one-to-many channels with 1000+ subscribers. With this tool you can easily manage your ads and budgets, choose where your ads will be displayed and monitor their performance. For step-by-step instructions on how to create, publish and manage your ads, continue reading below.
Logging In
To start creating ads on the platform, you must first log in. This requires that you have an existing Telegram account – if you do not yet have an account, download one of our mobile apps for Android or iOS and sign up. Once you have an account, enter the account’s phone number on the login page, after which you instantly receive a message in Telegram (from our verified service account) to confirm your login to the platform.
Choosing an Account
Once you've logged in on the platform, you can proceed either with your Personal Account or by Creating an Organization.
Organizations are built around Telegram Groups and Channels – linking your group or channel as an organization gives all admins of that chat the ability to manage advertisements created by the organization.
Only the owner of the Group or Channel is allowed to create an organization for that chat.
After logging in, you can click Create Ad to start designing a sponsored message or Manage Budget to add funds to your account.
Creating an Ad
Click ‘Create a new ad’ to start building your advertisement. There you will see a template with several fields to fill in – such as giving your ad a Title, Text, and URL.
All links included in the Text and URL field must link to a channel or bot on Telegram, using the format t.me/link or @link. Links to external sites are not allowed.
The link entered in the URL field will be added to a button underneath your sponsored message. If you include a link in the text as well, it must go to the same destination as the link in the URL field.
CPM and Ad Budget
Once the text of your sponsored message is completed, you can set a CPM (Cost-Per-Mille) for the ad, which is the price for one thousand views of your ad. The minimum CPM for a sponsored message is €2.
Your ad budget is the amount of funds you are willing to spend on a particular sponsored message. The sponsored message will continue to be shown until it reaches this amount.
To increase an ad's budget, open it or click the budget field right from your homepage.
To decrease an ad's budget, stop and delete the ad – the remaining funds will be returned to your overall budget.
Language, Topics and Target Channels
Sponsored messages are displayed in public channels with 1000+ subscribers. To better customize which channels can host your advertisements, select languages and topics that suit your audience – for example English and Spanish channels related to Movies and Music. You are able to combine several languages and topics, or even leave the fields blank if you prefer.
If there are individual channels in which you would specifically like your sponsored message to appear, you can include them via their unique link, such as t.me/durov. Certain topics and channels can also be excluded, giving even more customization. When you are ready, check the box to confirm you have read the Ad Platform Terms of Service and click ‘Create Ad’.
Note that once your ad is created, its targeting parameters can’t be changed. But you can always use the 'Create a similar ad' function to quickly create a new ad with the same parameters and tweak whatever you wanted to change.
Copying Ads
When you open any of your existing ads, you can use the 'Create similar ad' link next to its name to create a new ad with the same text and parameters. This can be handy if you want to create several ads with slightly different targeting parameters, change targeting parameters in an ad you created, or lower the budget of an ad.
Adding Funds
If you are creating an ad for the first time, you may not have funds in your account yet. When you try to create your ad, you may see a ‘Your balance is too low’ message under the Budget field. Click ‘Add Funds’ to put money on your account – the ad will be saved as a draft so you can easily publish it later.
You can also publish ads without a budget to get a feel for the platform – then return when you’re ready to launch them.
You can also access the interface by opening the Manage Budget page and clicking Add Funds.
Fill in the details about your company on the page that opens and click ‘Send Request’ – our team will review your information and contact you via a verified service account on Telegram with the necessary documents for our advertising agreement and deposit transfer.
You will receive a confirmation in Telegram each time funds are credited to your account.
Managing Your Ads
Ad Status
Once you have submitted an ad, you will see it listed on your account’s homepage. An advertisment can have the following statuses:
- Stopped. This is the default status shown for all new ads without a budget. This status is also shown when the ad's budget has run out.
- In Review. Our team is currently checking the ad content before it can be displayed in channels.
- Declined. Your ad must be changed before it can go live. Open the ad to see a more detailed explanation and a link to the relevant guidelines.
- Active. Your ad is live, and sponsored messages are appearing in Telegram according to your parameters
- On Hold. You have paused the ad, but it's ready to become active again whenever you're ready.
Ad Info
Click any of your ads on the homepage to make changes to its content and CPM, increase its budget, or see statistics. The title, text and URL of your sponsored message can be updated at any time (but not its targeting parameters) – to see a preview of how the sponsored message looks inside a channel, click ‘Preview Ad’.
If you would like to change the targeting parameters, click ‘Create a similar ad’ – this opens a new template with the same content so you can quickly make a new version.
Ad Budget
To increase the budget of your ad, click the ‘Current Budget’ field. You can also change the CPM to be higher or lower from the ‘CPM’ field. If you need to delete your ad (perhaps to resubmit it with new targeting parameters or a lower budget) tap ‘Delete Ad’.
It is not possible to decrease the budget of an ad once it has been submitted – in this case, it is best to use ‘Create a similar ad’ and submit a new ad with a lower budget.
The budget can also be increased from the ‘Budget’ tab. This tab also contains the ad’s Transaction History, showing the ad's spending as well as any increases to the budget – including the amount and time of the increase.
Statistics
The ‘Statistics’ tab has an overview of your advertisement, such as the date it was created, CPM, budget and overall views. Underneath, you will see a detailed graph showing views of your sponsored message and the number of times a user joined your channel or started the bot after viewing the sponsored message, able to be displayed in increments of minutes or days.
Your Account and Organizations
Click your name in the top-right corner to open a menu – here you can edit your account info, create a new organization, switch accounts, or log out. On the ‘Edit Account Info’ page, you can change your personal info, such as your email. You can also click the ‘Budget’ tab to see the full transaction history of your account.
The Telegram Ad Platform allows you to be simultaneously logged in to multiple organizations, as well as your personal ad account. To switch accounts, simply click your name in the top-right corner and select ‘Switch to …’ from the menu.
Further Questions
The platform is currently running in test mode. We will be expanding this document with more details.
Once you've added funds to your account, you will get access to Telegram's dedicated Ad Platform Support.