Telegram is gaining more and more popularity every year, and more and more businesses are choosing it along with other social networks. Why Telegram? It is a convenient and effective way to interact with the audience. The messenger, launched by Pavel Durov more than ten years ago, today has more than 900 million users worldwide. One of the unique features of Telegram is the high reach of messages: depending on the topic and activity of the audience, one post can reach from 20% to 70% of subscribers.
This material presents several of the most effective methods of promoting a channel in Telegram, including both free and paid solutions. It also considers new approaches, such as targeted advertising within Telegram. I hope that this article will help you master the basic principles of promotion and offer practical advice on growing your audience.
Main types of promotion:
- Free methods: This is the initial stage, which allows you to gain up to 2,000 subscribers without significant costs. Even if you don't plan on making large investments, free approaches will help increase the visibility of the channel and the activity of its audience.
- Paid strategies: Include more advanced methods, such as targeted advertising, contextual advertising and promotion through other social networks. These methods accelerate audience growth and allow you to attract target subscribers faster.
Now that you know the basic principles of promotion, you can move on to a more detailed examination of specific methods
Free channel promotion
Tell your friends about the channel
Start with the most basic steps: share information about the channel with friends, colleagues and even relatives. This can be a message in a messenger, a call or a post on personal social networks. Tell them why the channel might be interesting and ask them to subscribe.
For example: “I launched a new channel about marketing, I’m sure it will be useful!” Such subscribers are usually more willing to recommend the channel to their friends, which contributes to additional organic growth. Simplify the process by inserting a link to the channel directly into the message.
• Tip: create a QR code with a link to the channel that can be easily shown in person or printed on a flyer.
Announcements on other social networks
Your personal profiles on other social networks can be a great promotion tool. Post announcements of new posts and promotions on the channel, highlighting the uniqueness of the content. For example, on Odnoklassniki, it is worth leaving a link in the first comment to avoid coverage restrictions. On VKontakte, you can use the “what to expect next” post format to generate interest from your audience.
• Tip: regularly remind your subscribers on other social networks about your channel by adding fresh features and benefits.
Paid promotion of Telegram channels
Effective paid advertising requires a serious budget for promotion. Telegram differs from other platforms in that users rarely click on links to third-party sites and vice versa. Therefore, it is important to remember two main requirements for the target audience: advertising should be visible to people who already use the messenger, not only for communication, but also as a source of content.
The most effective way to promote is advertising in other Telegram channels, chats and bots. This is where your target audience is already located.
Tip: Use exchanges and directories, such as Tgstat.ru, to find channels for advertising. Also analyze channels through analytics services, such as Telemetr.me, to choose the most suitable platforms.
Adding a channel to directories
There are many Telegram channel directories where you can register for free. Such resources include Tgstat.ru, Telega.in, Telega.io. To improve the visibility of your channel, optimize its description by adding keywords that match the main topic. This will not only increase the chances of finding the channel, but also attract more target audience.
• Tip: track the number of clicks from directories and update the description in a timely manner to keep it relevant.
Mutual PR
Mutual PR (or “collaborations”) involves exchanging subscribers between channels with similar topics. For successful cooperation, find channels with a similar number of subscribers and topics. Agree on mutual mentions in posts or stories, for example: “Our partner channel shares useful marketing cases.” Make sure that such advertising is beneficial for both parties.
• Tip: Create a “channel stack” where you group multiple channels by topic to help expand your reach.
Content Marketing
Create a quality article where you organically mention your channel. Publish such articles on resources like Medium or vc.ru, adding a link to the channel as a source. For example, in the article you can mention: “To study this topic in more detail, follow our channel on Telegram.” This will attract more readers and increase the credibility of your channel as an expert source.
• Tip: choose sites with high traffic and relevant topics to increase the number of clicks on the channel.
Paid promotion of Telegram channels
Effective paid promotion requires significant investment. Telegram has its own characteristics: users are reluctant to go to third-party sites, preferring to stay within the messenger. Therefore, advertising should be aimed at those who already actively use Telegram as a source of information.
The most effective method of paid promotion is advertising on other Telegram channels, in chats and bots, where your target audience is concentrated.
• Tip: Use platforms and directories, such as Tgstat.ru, to find suitable channels for advertising. Analyze channels through analytical services, such as Telemetr.me, to choose the most relevant platforms.
Advertising campaigns in the messenger itself
The success of an advertising campaign in Telegram depends on three key factors:
• Which platform is being advertised. Consider the specifics of the promoted channel: topic, content format, and target audience.
• Where exactly the ad is placed. Channels with a high level of engagement and thematic similarity are more effective for placement.
• What advertising message is used. The content of the message should be adapted to the interests of the audience so that it arouses interest and calls for action.
Ways to Find Channels for Advertising
1. Internal Keyword Search in Telegram: You can use keyword search in the messenger itself to find suitable channels on topics of interest. This is a quick way to identify channels for possible advertising.
2. Telegram Channel Exchanges and Catalogs: Platforms such as Tgstat and Telega allow you to search for channels based on statistics and topics. This helps you choose the most relevant channels for advertising.
3. Telegram Channel Analytics Services: Analytics tools such as Telemetr.me provide detailed information about channels, including their growth dynamics, number of views, and subscriber engagement. This allows you to assess how well the channel meets your goals.
Key Criteria for Choosing a Channel for Advertising
1. Number of Unique Views. It is important not just to look at the total number of subscribers, but to evaluate the audience activity. Unique views show how many people are actually seeing the content. Since advertising posts are usually deleted after 24 hours, analyze the number of views in this time window.
- Views to subscribers ratio (ER). Audience engagement is measured by ER, a metric that shows the percentage of viewers out of the total number of subscribers.
• If ER is more than 51%, this is considered a high level of engagement.
• The average indicator ranges from 25% to 50%.
• If ER is below 10%, you should consider whether such a channel is suitable for advertising, as this may indicate low audience activity.
- Channel topic. The effectiveness of advertising directly depends on the relevance of the channel topic to your content. For example, advertising a marketing channel on a fashion resource is unlikely to bring the desired results.
- Average number of reposts. The number of post reposts is an important indicator of channel quality. The higher the shareability of posts, the more likely it is that subscribers are actively interacting with the content.
- Frequency of advertising posts. Channels that post advertising too often can cause audience fatigue. Optimally, advertising is published 1-2 times a day, alternating with regular posts. This helps the advertising to be more noticeable and not get lost among the large number of messages.
- Sources of subscribers. It is important to find out where subscribers to the channel come from. Were other channels, social networks or other methods of attraction used? This will help to understand how loyal and active the audience attracted by advertising will be.
- Estimated cost of one subscriber. To estimate the estimated cost of a subscriber, study the data on previous advertising campaigns. Consider not only the costs of placement, but also the number of new subscribers that advertising brings.
Want our team to promote your Telegram channel with this type of advertising?
Our Telegram: https://t.me/SpainDios
Check for cheating
Before placing an ad, be sure to check the channel for possible cheating of subscribers. Here's what you should pay attention to:
• Unnatural subscriber growth dynamics. If the channel has not launched advertising campaigns, but the number of subscribers has increased sharply in a short period of time, this may indicate the use of cheating.
• Sharp fluctuations in the number of subscribers. For example, if a channel with 15,000 subscribers has a significant number of unsubscribes per day, this raises doubts about the honesty of audience attraction.
• Lack of reposts. If the channel has a large number of subscribers, but receives almost no reposts, this indicates possible cheating.
• Abnormal dynamics of views. Ideally, posts should gain the largest number of views on the first day of publication, after which their number gradually decreases. If the number of views suddenly drops to zero, this may indicate manipulation of statistics.
Types of advertising messages
For advertising messages to be effective, they need to be adapted to a specific audience. Here are the main types of sponsored posts:
• Regular sponsored post. This is a short text of one to three paragraphs with a call to subscribe to the channel and an explanation of its value.
• Clickbait post. Uses sensational headlines to attract attention. It is important that the content does not distort the information, as this can cause distrust.
• Author's sponsored post. Written by the channel owner, it is perceived by the audience as more personal and credible, which improves trust in advertising.
• Post with links. Contains links to selected materials from the channel with their brief descriptions, which helps to show the value of the content and interest users.
• Forwarding a popular post. Forwarding one of the channel's best posts to demonstrate its appeal and interest new subscribers.
• Minimalist sponsored post. This is a short text without additional visual elements, which can still be noticeable and attract attention.
Targeted Advertising in Telegram
Targeted advertising in Telegram is one of the most powerful tools for attracting a new audience. This feature allows advertisers to target users based on their interests, geographic location, and behavior in the messenger. This means that ads will be shown to those who are already potentially interested in your content, which significantly increases the chances of a subscription.
Ad example:
• Targeting settings: It is important to set up targeting parameters correctly. For example, if your channel is dedicated to cooking, you can select users interested in recipes, healthy eating, and cooking blogs. This will help ensure that your ads are highly relevant.
• Ad formats: Telegram Ads offers different ad formats, including text and image ads. Text ads should be short and concise, while image ads can include attractive images or videos. Visuals are especially effective in attracting attention and creating a desire to subscribe.
• Budgeting: The minimum bid is €1.50 per 1,000 impressions. However, depending on the topic and competition in your niche, the cost may increase. It is important to test different formats and targeting parameters to find the optimal combination that will give the lowest cost per subscriber.
• Efficiency: One of the main advantages of targeted advertising is the ability to quickly track results. You can analyze which ads attract the most subscribers and adjust your strategy in real time. In addition, Telegram allows you to interact with subscribers, which can increase their engagement.
Want our team to promote your Telegram channel using targeted advertising?
Our Telegram: https://t.me/SpainDios
Contextual advertising
Contextual advertising through the Google Ads and Yandex Direct platforms is a powerful way to attract traffic to your Telegram channel, although it requires the creation of an intermediate landing page. This is due to the fact that most advertising platforms do not support direct advertising to Telegram channels.
• Usage strategy: To effectively use contextual advertising, you need to create a landing page that will attract attention and explain why users should subscribe to your channel. The landing page can contain information about the content they will be able to receive, for example, tips on a certain topic, unique recipes, or access to exclusive content.
• Types of Advertising: Contextual advertising can include text ads that appear on search engines and graphic banners on websites. The main goal is to create attractive and informative content that encourages users to take action. Use clear calls to action, such as “Subscribe now!” or “Find out more!”
• Tracking Results: Analyze conversions from your Telegram landing page and channel subscriptions. This will help you evaluate the effectiveness of your ads and make the necessary changes. Regularly check which ads are performing better and use this information to optimize your campaigns.
• Challenges and Opportunities: Contextual advertising requires careful preparation and testing. However, it offers flexible targeting settings and allows you to achieve a wide audience reach. This is a great way to attract attention and generate interest in your Telegram channel.
• Tip: Create a simple and clear landing page that will direct users to Telegram. Use invitation links to track the number of new subscribers.
• Approximate growth: Up to 2,000 subscribers, depending on the quality of the ad and the effectiveness of the landing page.
Advertising on TikTok
TikTok is a platform with a large reach that allows you to quickly attract subscribers. Work with TikTokers to make short videos recommending your channel. Even without clickable links, interesting content and a clear explanation of how to find the channel can be effective.
• Tip: Make sure the channel is easy to find by name and add search instructions in the ad itself. This will increase the likelihood of click-through.
• Estimated growth: Up to 10,000 subscribers with successful collaboration with a popular TikToker.
Advertising in YouTube videos
YouTube advertising provides ample opportunities for promoting your Telegram channel. This platform allows you to attract a new audience, and it can be used not only for online schools and financial organizations, but also for a variety of channels on any topic. The key point is not to forget to add a link to your Telegram channel in the video description so that viewers can easily click and subscribe. The huge number of YouTube channels allows you to choose the most relevant ones in terms of topic and target audience.
• The cost of integrating into YouTube videos can be significant, so it’s important to carefully select the channels you partner with. This will help ensure reasonable subscriber acquisition costs and improve the overall effectiveness of your campaign.
Key things to consider:
• Analyze the number of views of your channel’s most recent videos that contain ads to understand how much of your audience is seeing the integration. Estimate how many views your channel’s most recent 5-10 videos are getting on average to get an idea of viewer activity.
• Research how well your competitors are using YouTube ads to promote their Telegram channels. See how many subscribers they’ve been able to attract with this approach, and what channels or topics they’ve chosen to advertise on.
• Choose videos that are similar in theme to your content to ensure your ads look organic and attract the most interested audience. If your Telegram channel is, for example, dedicated to cooking, then integrating it into a video about recipes or kitchen life hacks would be most appropriate.
• Make sure the integration looks natural. It is important that the blogger sincerely recommends your channel, and not just mentions it. Before posting, arrange for the blogger to actually read your content and present it in a positive light, which will increase the audience's trust.
• Request a preview of the ad fragment before publishing. This will allow you to make adjustments to the integration if it does not match your vision or brand, and avoid misunderstandings after the video is released.
Publishing paid articles on information sites
Postting paid articles on various information and news sites can be a powerful tool for promoting your Telegram channel. This approach allows you to tell a wide audience about your channel that is interested in the topic of your publications. If the article is well-written, provides detailed information about the channel's content, and attracts readers' attention, it can lead to a significant increase in the number of subscribers.
• The importance of openly mentioning your channel in the article. Since this format is not native, you need to actively advertise the channel in the text. For example, posting in collections such as "The Best Telegram Channels of Russia" works especially effectively, as it attracts the attention of people who are looking for new channels to subscribe to.
• Co-promotion. To reduce the cost of publishing paid articles, you can find partners for co-posting. This will not only reduce costs, but also expand your audience reach, since the material will touch on several channels or topics at the same time.
• Use the analysis method. Monitor the results of the article - how many views it received and what kind of response it generated among readers. This will help determine how successful the campaign was and whether it is worth using this approach in the future.
• Consider the specifics of each platform. Choose sites that have a similar topic to your channel and a high traffic. This will increase the likelihood of attracting a target audience that is already interested in your topic and is more likely to follow the link to your channel.
Promotion in Telegram. How not to do it
1. Bot promotion
If you enter the query “buy Telegram subscribers” in the search bar, you can find many sites promising a large number of subscribers for a small fee. However, such subscribers are not real users. They do not read your content, do not increase activity on the channel and, in most cases, can be blocked or automatically unsubscribe after a while. Thus, you simply increase the statistics, but do not receive real benefits for the channel.
Using promotion carries a significant risk of being blocked, as Telegram strictly controls compliance with the rules and fights against such violations.
- Spam
This is one of the most ineffective and risky promotion methods. Some services send advertising messages to open chats or even private messages. This approach violates the platform rules and network etiquette, which makes it highly undesirable.
Spam should be avoided, as it can not only worsen the reputation of your channel, but also lead to its blocking.
What to pay attention to:
• Make sure that your competitors do not resort to such methods for unfair competition.
How to attract subscribers to your channel
To make a subscriber decide to stay on your channel, it is important to make its content interesting and attractive. All promotion methods ultimately come down to getting the user interested. If they like the content, they will definitely subscribe.
Correct channel design
Telegram has a limited number of fields for setting up a channel, and it is important to use each of them.
• Title: This is the first thing the user will see. The limit is 140 characters, and using emoji can make the name more noticeable. Including keywords in the name will help improve the visibility of the channel in search, although this tool is not so often used.
• Link: For public channels, you must use the https://t.me/* format, which allows you to open the link in a browser. Instead of an asterisk, you can substitute a unique combination of characters from 5 to 32 characters long.
• Avatar: This is an image or video up to 10 seconds long. A good avatar will make your channel stand out from the crowd and help create a first impression.
• Description: It is important to briefly and clearly explain the content of the channel. You can provide contact information, links to external resources and social networks. The general limit is up to 250 characters with spaces.
Channel content
While channel design matters, the main thing is the content. When a user goes to your channel, they will immediately evaluate the latest posts and decide whether to subscribe.
The content should be:
• Useful: The main criterion. Answer the question of what the reader will get by subscribing to your channel.
• Sufficient quantity: To help new subscribers understand the channel format, you need at least 10 posts before you start actively promoting it.
• Unique: Copying content from other sources can damage the channel’s reputation. Create original material to attract attention.
• In the right format: The maximum length of a post in Telegram is 4096 characters. Use images and other formats to make the content more attractive and readable.
• Regular: Consider whether you can maintain a constant flow of content. Determine a comfortable number of posts per week for yourself.
Competitor Analysis
Studying your competitors is a key step to successful promotion. Analyze their channels to get answers to many questions.
• Finding competitors: Use keywords, topics, and region. Pay attention to the number of subscribers and views.
• Competitor content: Look at the frequency of posts, the volume of publications, and the level of engagement.
• Subscribers: Find out how many subscribers the competitor had in the past and how many are leaving after posts.
• Channel history: Study how the name and description changed, what contact information was used.
This approach will help not only develop your strategy, but also avoid the mistakes that others make.
Promotion of a Telegram channel
Today, Telegram has an audience of over 900 million people, which makes this platform especially attractive for promotion. The reach of one post can reach up to 70% of subscribers, but it should be remembered that this is not a full-fledged social network with natural growth mechanisms. Successful promotion of your channel requires active work with the audience and various promotion methods.
There are many free ways to attract the first subscribers, such as announcements of new posts on other social networks or using content marketing. However, for sustainable growth and expansion of reach, it is important to use paid promotion methods:
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Advertising in the messenger itself is one of the most effective ways to increase subscribers. This involves placing ads in other channels, chats and bots, which allows you to accurately target your target audience.
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Choosing relevant platforms for advertising. To filter suitable channels and evaluate their effectiveness, use specialized exchanges and analytics services. Consider parameters such as the number of unique views, engagement rate, channel topic, and number of reposts. These metrics will help predict how well your ad will be received.
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Predicting the cost of a subscriber. Calculating the estimated cost of attracting one subscriber also plays an important role. Determine the cost of placing ads on selected channels and estimate how many new subscribers it can bring. Don’t forget to check channels for cheating to avoid unreliable partners.
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Cooperation with influencers and platforms. In addition to internal advertising, you can consider working with influencers or placing ads on third-party platforms such as Google Ads. TikTok videos and YouTube videos can also be useful for increasing the visibility of your channel.
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Competitor analysis. It remains an important element of the promotion strategy. Studying competitors will help you determine which methods are most effective in your niche, how often posts are published, and what the subscriber-to-view ratio is. This will give you useful ideas for developing your own promotion strategy.
At the same time, the quality of the content on the channel should remain high. Subscribers will stay with you only if the content is interesting and useful. Pay attention to the design of the channel: the name, description and avatar should attract attention. It is recommended to create at least ten posts before starting active promotion so that subscribers have a complete picture of your channel.
Thus, successful promotion of a Telegram channel requires an integrated approach, including both free and paid methods, regular analysis and adaptation of content to the interests of your audience.