What’s new in Telegram Ads and messenger: the main features that businesses should know about. Netpeak expert’s opinion
Telegram has long since ceased to be just a messenger – it has become a full-fledged communication, content, and advertising platform. That is why it is increasingly used by brands from the e-commerce, EdTech, financial, media, and local services sectors. Over the past six months, Telegram Ads has received a number of updates, and the messenger itself has undergone important functional changes. Together, they create new points of contact with the audience: accurate, native, and highly trusted.
In this column, I’ll discuss the key changes that business owners, CEOs, and marketing directors should consider.
Telegram Ads: from a laconic format to an effective engagement channel
Telegram Ads does not promise revolutionary formats or deep targeting. Its power lies in its brevity and context. One ad unit, a short text (up to 160 characters), and a minimum of visual noise. And even with banners, this format does not overload the user. Unlike social networks, where ads are literally everywhere, Telegram maintains a balance: ads are noticeable but unobtrusive, and integrate into the feed.
What businesses should know:
- Ads are shown only in channels, not in personal chats, which builds audience trust (according to a study, the level of trust in content on Telegram channels is even higher than on television).
- Manual moderation of creatives guarantees the absence of fraudulent ads, which increases trust in the platform.
- Low competition in Telegram Ads allows brands to get views at a low CPM (Cost Per Mille) – the cost of a thousand ad impressions (from €0.5).
The one who knows how to get the point across in a few seconds is the leader on Telegram. We recommend building creatives based on the following principles:
A clear USP and specific numbers that immediately focus attention (for example, “30% off until May 20”).
No water – the message should be concise, relevant and understandable at a glance.
Emojis are not for decoration, but as visual markers that highlight key information in the feed.
Insight: even in display campaigns, the effectiveness of advertising depends not only on CPM, but also on the channels and context in which your creative appears.
Telegram Ads for small and medium-sized businesses: affordability without compromise
Brands can choose one of two approaches:
№1. Self-service (from €500) – independent launch through the advertising account. Support, automatic reports, video tutorials on how to use the platform, and a function to speed up ad delivery are available.
№2. Turnkey (from €1500 to €500 advertising budget) – strategy development, creative creation, channel selection, campaign launch, and support from specialists.
This allows even small businesses to test the channel without large-scale expenses and evaluate its effectiveness in action.
Telegram vs Meta: not competitors, but different roles in strategy
Telegram does not replace Meta – it performs a different function in the marketing ecosystem. While Meta is about scale, format flexibility, and deep targeting, Telegram is about attention, trust, and focus. These platforms do not compete but complement each other, especially in strategic campaigns.
Telegram Ads will be effective when you
- want to reach a loyal and engaged audience of niche channels or media;
- looking for a moderated platform that is able to explain its decisions, provide recommendations for launching, and has transparent placement rules;
- are ready to test the hypothesis quickly and without creative overload – in a format that immediately catches the eye.
Changes to the messenger interface are not just about convenience. It is a change in content consumption patterns. And thus, it affects how and where people pay attention to your ads.
6 new Telegram features that affect user behavior (and your ads) that you might not know about
- Advanced search – now you can see results in channels, private chats, and groups separately. This makes navigation much faster.
- More convenient message forwarding – when sending a chat, you can see exactly where the message is being sent, which reduces errors.
- Deleting channels (only in the desktop version) – now, when you exit a channel, you can immediately delete it from the folder. Previously, this required several steps.
- Improved folder management: in premium accounts, you can now add emojis from the Premium set directly to the folder name for easier navigation and personalization.
- The Stars feature is an option to limit notifications to paid requests only. This is a new way of monetization for public figures and brands.
- Premium benefits include more channels to subscribe to, additional reactions, higher limits, and ad disabling. We even have a joke: users buy Premium to remove ads, and we buy it to show them.
Insight: users buy Premium to turn off ads, and in Netpeak (1 of the jokes), they buy it to see them on the contrary.
Telegram is a channel based on audience trust. Relevant content, a clear message, and respect for the user’s time are important here. It’s definitely not a replacement for other advertising platforms, but an additional tool in your marketing strategy.
I recommend testing Telegram not because of its popularity, but based on results: while competition in Meta is growing and third-party cookies are becoming less effective, messengers are gaining importance as a new media format and Telegram is one of the channels with high potential for communicating with the audience.
