Telegram is a secure instant messaging tool focused on security, allowing users to exchange encrypted and self-destructing messages. It is faster, more secure, more open, and completely free.
The average age of Telegram users is 23-35 years old, and their income is higher than the national average; the male to female ratio is 67:33, with a majority being male users.
Telegram has over 2500 active channels covering popular topics, with channels available in about 30 languages, which are the main battlegrounds for advertising placements.
From a national perspective, the top five countries in terms of traffic are India, Indonesia, Brazil, the USA, and Russia; with user counts of 230 million, 30 million, 25 million, 12.8 million, and 2.79 million respectively.
As one of the media with the most "lenient" advertising policies, Telegram allows the placement of various "grey" products in overseas regions, such as cryptocurrencies (internet advertising trading platforms, cryptocurrency wallets, currency schemes, etc.), as well as gambling games and products involving real gold, which are not easily placed in traditional media.
As an emerging social media platform with a strong new traffic bonus, Telegram's overall acquisition cost is cheaper than traditional top social media advertising. Most of its users are adults with strong paying capacity; the new advertising platform "channels" facilitates broad user reach; it provides a bidding backend with timely data feedback.
Telegram Advertising Placements
The current advertising slots on Telegram mainly include Channels and Bots, both utilizing text messages + embedded links + images/videos for display.
Channel Placements
Channels are interest-based groups established by users on Telegram. From an advertising positioning perspective, channels can be targeted using topics, languages, tags, formats, and ranges.
From a topic perspective, Telegram offers dozens of rich topic options. For instance, if placing ads for games, one can choose the Video Games tag, or for real money gambling products, the Bets&Gambling tag can be selected.
From a language perspective, Telegram offers more than a dozen mainstream languages for advertisers to target.
Regarding the format of ads, Telegram offers various advertising display specifications:
1/24: Ad is published for 24 hours, remains at the top for 1 hour;
2/48: Ad is published for 48 hours, remains at the top for 2 hours;
3/72: Ad is published for 72 hours, remains at the top for 3 hours;
Eternal: Ad is permanently published, no need to be at the top;
Forwards: Ad is forwarded from the published channel to other channels.
Regarding the range of selectable parameters, Telegram offers options like ER (Engagement Rate), Followers, CPM, Gender, Views, Per post, Cost per post for advertisers to choose from.
After setting the topic, language, format, and various parameter ranges, Telegram provides a price estimate, and upon payment, the advertiser can proceed with the placement.
Bot Placements
Bots are special accounts in Telegram that automatically send messages, officially opened for commercial monetization. In placements, parameters such as fan volume, subscription volume, and price can be set, then Telegram conducts a price assessment, and upon payment, the advertiser can start the ad placement.
It is worth mentioning that currently, Telegram does not support country-specific targeting, only topic and language can be used for channel selection; it also does not support conversion-targeted settings like major media such as Facebook, but conversion tracking can be done through Google Analytics or UTM-Tags.
Overall, Telegram is a low-lying area for traffic dividends with lenient policies; it is also a media in the early stages of commercialization, significantly behind top media, but it can also serve as an attempt for advertisers looking to supplement their reach.
