How to Advertise on Telegram in 2026#

Telegram's sponsored message network reaches 900M+ monthly active users across 500M+ public channels and groups. This guide covers everything you need to run your first campaign.

Two Ways to Buy Telegram Ads#

Telegram operates two separate advertising systems with fundamentally different access, pricing, and targeting:

1. EUR Ads Cabinet (Telegram's Official Platform)#

Access: ads.telegram.org · Minimum spend: €2 per campaign · Payment: EUR/USD via card or bank transfer · Account access: ~€500 via an authorised reseller, or a €2M threshold for a fully direct account — see /hub/how-telegram-ads-work

The official cabinet offers channel-list targeting (specify channels by URL or username), topic targeting (select from 30+ content categories), and language targeting. It's the most accessible entry point for new advertisers.

2. TON Blockchain Ads (Decentralized)#

Access: tg.adsbot · Payment: TON tokens · Minimum budget: ~1 TON per CPM · Access: any TON wallet holder

TON Ads distribute to a different inventory pool. Creatives from TON Ads are visible via the can_report: true field in Telegram's API. This system is preferred by crypto-native advertisers who hold TON and want no fiat gateway.

Creative Format Specs#

Telegram sponsored messages support three creative formats:

A. Banner Ad#

• Media: Image or video (16:9 ratio)
• Title: Up to 160 characters
• Text: Up to 1024 characters
• CTA button: Yes

B. Channel Thumbnail Ad#

• Thumbnail: Auto-pulled from target channel's profile picture
• Title: Up to 160 characters
• Text: Up to 1024 characters
• Best for: advertising TO another channel's audience using its brand recognition

C. Text-Only Ad#

• Title: Up to 160 characters
• Text: Up to 1024 characters
• Accent color: Hex color for visual differentiation
• Best for: markets where image approval is slower

Targeting Options#

Targeting Type	EUR Cabinet	TON Ads
Channel list (specific URLs)	Yes	Yes
Topic category	Yes	Partial
Language	Yes	Yes
Country/region	Yes	Limited
Device type	No	No
Audience interest	No	No

Telegram does NOT offer user-level behavioral targeting (no retargeting, no lookalike audiences). All targeting is contextual — you reach users of specific channels or content categories.

What Top Advertisers Do Differently#

Patterns that recur across the creatives we index:

1. Hook in the first 5 words: Telegram shows only the first ~100 characters before a "read more" cut-off, so the opening words carry the offer — "Trade BTC perps with 50x leverage" rather than "Welcome to the future of decentralized finance".

2. One CTA per creative: The highest-volume advertisers (Hamster Kombat, Hyperliquid, Binance) use singular calls to action: "Join", "Trade now", "Earn HMSTR".

3. Social proof numbers: "300M players", "35M users", "Top 3 DEX by volume" — specific numbers are a recurring pattern in the creative copy we index.

4. Language-native creative: Advertisers with the widest geographic footprint run creatives in 5+ languages rather than English-only; Russian, Indonesian and Arabic variants are common in our archive.

5. Rotating creative pool: The top 20 advertisers in Telegram Ads Spy's database run 10+ creative variants simultaneously. Telegram's frequency capping means users see each creative at most a few times — variety extends campaign life.

Common Mistakes#

❌ Submitting creatives that mention competitors by name — Telegram's review team rejects comparative advertising

❌ "Guaranteed returns" language — banned across all financial verticals; expect automatic rejection

❌ Low-quality images — Telegram renders 16:9 banners prominently; blurry or text-heavy images perform poorly

❌ Targeting too broadly — "all crypto channels" on a small daily cap spreads impressions too thin to be measurable

❌ No UTM tracking — Telegram doesn't share conversion data; you must add UTM parameters to landing pages to measure campaign performance

Getting Access to the EUR Cabinet#

1. Create an account at ads.telegram.org
2. Link a Telegram phone number (must be ≥6 months old)
3. Fund the account — most first-time advertisers do this through an authorised reseller (~€500) rather than direct KYC onboarding, which carries a €2M institutional threshold
4. Submit creative for review (usually 24–72 hours)
5. Launch with channel targeting

For TON Ads: connect a TON wallet to tg.adsbot, fund with TON, submit creative.

Monitoring Competitors#

Telegram Ads Spy archives every sponsored message shown in Telegram across 9,000+ channels. Use the archive to:

• See what creatives your competitors are running
• Track creative rotation patterns and campaign intensity
• Identify which channel categories competitors target
• Research new verticals before entering them

Live data: /api/v1/ads

Methodology#

Guide based on Telegram Ads Spy's archive of Telegram sponsored messages from 557 verified advertisers. The archive records creatives — their text, media, CTA destination and the dates we saw them. It does not contain CPM, spend, click or conversion data; the budget figures above are the platform's own published minimums, not our measurements.

Related Reports#

• Top Crypto Advertisers on Telegram 2026
• DeFi Advertising on Telegram
• Telegram Mini-Apps Advertising
• How to Read Telegram Ads Spy Data

tgadsspy research (2026). How to Advertise on Telegram in 2026: Complete Guide to Telegram Ads. tgadsspy.com. Retrieved from https://tgadsspy.com/blog/how-to-advertise-on-telegram-2026