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 42 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 (42 categories)	Yes	No
Language (34+)	Yes	No
Country / city	Yes	No
Audience interest / retargeting	No	No

As of 2026-08-22. Country, language and topic targeting are EUR-cabinet features; the TON cabinet places by channel. One distinction worth keeping straight: running a creative in any language is not the same as targeting the user's app language — the TON cabinet allows the first, not the second. Cabinet capabilities move, so treat this table as dated rather than permanent.

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