The lack of organic growth is what sets Telegram apart from other social networks. The messenger does not have an “algorithmic feed” and therefore posts cannot be recommended to users. That makes promotion only through quality content impossible. The only working method is advertising in channels and bots. In this lesson, we will learn how to set up an advertising campaign on Telegram.
Targeting
With an understanding of your target market and target personas. Depending on your resources, this could be a:
- Detailed persona—For example, your #1 customer, Tom. Tom is 33 years old. He works as a software engineer at an IT company, and he loves to play computer games in the evenings. He uses carsharing to get to work, and he also tries to invest his money.
- General persona—For example, your target persona is a middle-aged woman who ranges anywhere from 35 to 50 years old.
In any case, at this stage, you should describe the target audience you plan to broadcast your ad to.
In the second step, you should understand what kind of targeting on Telegram will help you find your target audience.
Interests
Telegram lacks geotargeting, and it’s not possible to advertise by location. However, all channels and bots are divided by topics. For example:
- fashion and style
- business and startups
- marketing and PR
A Channel owner personally specifies the channel topic at Telega.io.
Languages
In addition to interests, you can target your audience by channel language. You should launch ads in different countries if your product is relevant worldwide. A language filter is a great tool for targeting a specific country. After all, if it is an Italian-speaking channel it is very likely that channel subscribers live in Italy.
Geolocation
We have already mentioned that Telegram does not track channel subscribers by geolocation. Because of this, segmenting users by location is next to impossible. A small life hack may help: search by city name. Some channel owners incorporate city names into channel titles.
Advertising types
Integration advertising is a special ad integration into a channel's content that is more interesting to the channel’s audience. Native ads can be divided into 3 types:
- Advertising post
- Native integration or Native post
- Forwards
Let’s take a closer look.
Advertising post
We will thoroughly explain sponsored (advertising posts) in the next lessons. For now, we will touch on this topic briefly. Advertising posts are made up of three main parts: text, picture, and link.
Post text may also be subdivided into 3 parts:
- Heading — one sentence that should grab the reader’s attention right away.
- Main body — describe the benefits of your product.
- Call to action — invite users to buy your product.
The maximum number of characters you can use in a text message:
- 1024 characters, if your post contains an image at the start of the text.
- 4096 characters, if your post does not contain an image or image is in preview below the text.
Heading - grab the interest of the reader
- It could be a question. For example, “How can I make money on Telegram channels in 2022?” or “Do you have a Telegram channel or chat and want to earn money on it?”
- It could be an interesting statement. For example, “Reach a Targeted Audience on Telegram Cheaper Than Instagram.”
- It could be a personal opinion if you place a native post and the channel owner will edit an ad post themselves.
Common Rule: Try to highlight the title in bold or add emojis. Try to avoid too aggressive ad texts. It would be great if your post is similar to other native posts in the channel.
Main part - explain the benefits of a subscription
The easiest way is to ask yourself: Why should someone subscribe to your channel? And these advantages are described in the text.
Call to action - encourage the subscriber to complete the subscription
You have to place a link on a channel or website here.
Image
The image should be informative and highlight your style. Under no circumstances you should post the first image that you find in Google search. You can add one image or gif to your promotional post and it should not exceed 5 MB (channel owners may not like larger images). This will help you complement the advertising offer visually.
The picture can technically be attached both above the text and below.
Link
You can put more than one link in your advertising post. But keep your text volume in mind: if your post has less than 200 characters - one link is enough. If you have more, then you may want to put 2-3 links in different parts of the text. You can:
- fuse your links with the text like this — Welcome to the catalog
- add ‘naked’ links like this — Go to our catalog: https://telega.io/catalog
- add links as reactions below the post (but some channel owners may be unable to implement this)
Don’t forget to add UTM tags (UTM-parameters) to your links if you advertise an external source. It will help you track analytics using the Google Analytics service.
Use Invite Link if you advertise a Telegram channel. It will enable efficient subscriber tracking with every channel or bot.
Forwards
Since the beginning of 2021, the “Forward” format has been gaining popularity among advertisers. With this tool, advertisers launch Telegram campaigns to get a broader reach and attract a new audience.
Generally, these ad campaigns are aimed at several targets. Firstly, it increases brand awareness of some products. Secondly, it is news spreading as a part of PR strategy. And finally, an ad campaign can be launched to get more views on YouTube during the first hours after posting.
What Are the Advantages of the “Forward” Format?
- a quick launch of an ad campaign
- a broader reach compared to the campaigns, which calls customers to action
What Are the Features of Forwards on Telegram?
- A link to the news or video must be published in the “parent” channel first. This is the post other channels will be reposting in order to attract more views.
- For mass publications of your post and getting a broader reach, it is necessary to choose broader topics when selecting Telegram channels.
Native post
Native integration is a post that organically combines useful information for subscribers with a mention of the advertiser. Its advantage is a useful material that does not lose value, even if the mention of the sponsor is excluded. Users are more loyal to this format of advertising due to its informative content.
Advertising budget
Allocate the usual amount you would spend on new projects if it is your first time running an advertising campaign on Telegram. Each campaign has a different test budget. Try to start with an amount that you are not afraid to lose.
The average CPM on Telegram is from $2 to $56 in 2021. CPM is the cost per thousand impressions on an ad post. If you bought an ad for $14, and your post was viewed by 2,000 people, then CPM = $7.
How to place an ad
There are 3 ways to place an ad on Telegram
- Manual
- Exchange
- Official
Official
Let's start with official Telegram advertising. To use the built-in Telegram advertising account, you need to top up your balance for 2 million euros. In this case, the first million can be used in an advertising campaign, and the second will serve as a deposit. If you terminate your contract with Telegram before spending 10 million euros on advertising in the last 12 months, Telegram takes the deposit.
Manual
You can set up advertising on your own. To do this, you need to find active channels that do not have bots. The main criteria are channel growth and post coverage.
You can use special services to analyze Telegram audience, for example, Telemetr.io or Telega.io analytics
Regardless of the service, you should be able to spot anomalous activity by looking at how spasmodic channel subscriber growth statistics look.
Spike growth
The subscriber growth chart should be ascending and smooth. Spikes show that there were actively unsubscribing users. This also may be caused by the bots leaving.
A sharp subscriber growth from advertising
A sharp increase in subscribers is a worrying sign. If the source of traffic cannot be defined then it is very likely a cheat of subscribers.
Uneven post reach statistics
The reach of advertising posts should be descending. Advertising posts gain the maximum number of views in the first 24 hours of publication. The number of views generally decreases over the next five days. The example shows that the reach was boosted on the second day after publication.
Advertising via an ad exchange
The most convenient way to advertise is through an advertising exchange. Channels at the exchange are pre-moderated. Channel owner applies for moderation, we evaluate the channel and decide if it fits our catalog. About 30% of all applied channels are added to the catalog. The exchange has already collected active channels, and will save you a lot of time.
You can select Telegram channels and publish your advertising message with ease using convenient filters by category and language.
Check yourself
Complete a short quiz to remember the main points of the lesson. It will help you prepare for the certification test.
In the next lesson, we will talk about how to choose Telegram channels for advertising.