Glossary
Telegram advertising glossary
122 terms about Telegram advertising — sponsored messages, Gram cabinets, CPM, reach, affiliate flows, geo-targeting. Released CC-BY-4.0 — freely citable.
Platform
Telegram Ads Platform
The official advertising system by Telegram, launched in 2021. Advertisers buy sponsored messages that are served across eligible public channels with 1,000+ subscribers. There are three ways to pay: in EUR through the euro cabinet, sold via authorised resellers; in Gram (GRAM, formerly Toncoin) in the self-serve Gram cabinet, formerly the TON cabinet; and in Telegram Stars, which only promote the channel or bot that holds them. Pricing is CPM-based. All creatives are reviewed by Telegram moderation before going live.
Telegram Ad Cabinet
The interface on the Telegram Ads Platform where advertisers create campaigns, upload creatives, set targeting and top up the balance. There are three: the euro cabinet, opened through authorised resellers, with country, language, interest, channel, bot and search targeting; the self-serve Gram cabinet (formerly the TON cabinet), funded in Gram via Fragment and targeted by explicit lists of channels, bots and search keywords; and the Stars cabinet for promoting your own channel or bot. Access requires a funded advertiser account. Each creative goes through moderation; approved ads begin serving in matching public channels.
Channel Category
Two different things share this name. In the Telegram Ads cabinet an advertiser can target by topic category — that is a targeting option inside the ad platform, and the only channel category Telegram itself exposes. On Telegram Ads Spy a channel category is our own topic label: Telegram publishes no per-channel category and our data source returns none, so we derive it with a rules-based classifier over the channel title and description, limited to a fixed channel-topic vocabulary. Values recorded before August 2026 have no source attached — they name the discovery batch a channel arrived in, not a reading of the channel.
Broadcast Channel
A Telegram channel where only admins can post, while subscribers can only read (and react). Contrast with groups, where everyone can post. Sponsored messages on the Telegram Ads Platform are served only in public broadcast channels — not in groups, not in supergroups. All channels in Telegram Ads Spy’s pool are broadcast.
Supergroup
A Telegram group with more than 200 members, upgraded to higher limits and richer admin controls. Supergroups are NOT eligible for sponsored messages from the Telegram Ads Platform — only broadcast channels are. Supergroup admins can, however, publish promo posts they sell directly.
Minimum Budget (Telegram Ads)
Telegram does not publish a minimum campaign budget: its getting-started page names only a minimum CPM (0.1 in the self-serve cabinet, now paid in Gram, formerly Toncoin). Real entry depends on the cabinet. The euro cabinet is sold through authorised resellers: Click.ru has accepted a first top-up from €250 (before commission and VAT) since 9 February 2026, other resellers ask for €500, and eLama lets you start from €0 on postpayment. Resellers say a direct contract with Telegram is about €2M, of which €1M is a deposit; Telegram does not publish these numbers. The self-serve Gram cabinet (formerly the TON cabinet) is funded via Fragment, with a deposit of about 20 Gram according to practitioners. The Stars cabinet spends the Stars already held by your own channel or bot. Small affiliates often buy direct placements from channel owners instead.
Telegram Premium User
A user with the paid Telegram Premium subscription. Premium users see fewer sponsored messages (ad frequency is reduced, not eliminated). For advertisers this means premium-heavy channels deliver lower impression count per subscriber than free-tier channels — worth accounting for when modelling reach.
Telegram Stars (XTR)
Telegram’s native in-app currency, ISO-4217 code XTR. Stars are purchased by users in the official Telegram client and used to pay for digital goods inside bots, mini-apps and channels — including paid messages, paid reactions, paid media access, gifts and Stars-priced sponsored ad invoices. From an ad-archive perspective, a creative with invoiceCurrency=XTR signals a cashier offer (purchase flow inside Telegram) rather than an off-platform redirect.
EUR Ads Cabinet
The euro-billed Telegram Ads cabinet. The classic and original of the three official cabinets, it is sold through authorised resellers; a direct contract with Telegram is only for very large advertisers (about €2M, of which €1M is a deposit, according to resellers — Telegram does not publish these numbers). Through resellers, entry starts at €250–500, and eLama lets you start from €0 on postpayment; reseller commission is typically 15–20%. Advertisers create campaigns, upload sponsored-message creatives and target by country, language, interests, channels, bots and search, with retargeting. For accounts from Russia the minimum CPM has been €0.60 for country or language targeting, €0.30 for Politics & Incidents and €0.75 for channels, bots and search since 28 August 2026. Ads serve in public channels with 1,000+ subscribers after Telegram moderation review. The EUR cabinet accounts for about one in five creatives in the Telegram Ads Spy archive (19.6% on 23 Sep 2026) — the Gram cabinet (formerly the TON cabinet) carries the rest; see live distribution at tgads.net or compare cabinets at /info/telegram-ads-platform. Sister cabinets: the Gram cabinet (self-serve, paid in Gram) and Stars Promotions (your own channel or bot).
Telegram App Center
The discovery surface for Telegram mini-apps and bots inside the official Telegram client. Categories: Gaming, Social, Finance, Tools, Productivity, Entertainment. Apps surface here by organic install velocity. Used as the primary user-acquisition channel for major mini-app launches (Hamster Kombat reached 240M installs largely via App Center surfacing). Live daily ranking of indexed mini-apps available at topapps.tg; API at tgadsspy.com/api/v1/miniapps.
Telegram Bot Directory
The aggregate index of all Telegram bots tracked across our pipeline — currently 20,500+ entries. Includes both classical bots (chat-based) and mini-app bots. Each entry stores: username, title, avatar, niche classification, MAU estimate (monthly active users reported by Telegram), Stars rating, sponsored-enabled flag. Bots become eligible for the topapps.tg ranking once enriched. Public browse at tgadsspy.com/bots; JSON API at tgadsspy.com/api/v1/bots; CSV mirror at tgadsspy.com/api/v1/bots.csv. CC-BY-4.0 license.
Amharic Telegram market (Ethiopia)
Telegram's presence in Ethiopia — a fast-growing user base where the dominant ad-target language is Amharic (Ge'ez script, Unicode U+1200–U+137F). Active verticals in 2026: job-listing bots (Mella Work and similar), money-transfer services, and small-business commerce. Cabinet preference skews EUR over Gram (formerly TON) and Stars because most Ethiopian advertisers are small-to-medium businesses without crypto-payment infrastructure. tgadsspy coverage of this market depends on script-based language detection — without explicit Ethiopic script handling, creatives fall back to "English" mislabel because Latin chars in brand names dominate detection. See [/wiki/telegram-ads-emerging-markets](/wiki/telegram-ads-emerging-markets) for the broader regional context.
Telegram Stars Gift
A digital gift bought with Telegram Stars and sent to a user or channel, where it can be displayed on the profile. Gifts come in two kinds: regular sticker-based gifts and limited-edition unique (NFT) gifts. The number a profile has received is exposed publicly as stargifts_count, which tgadsspy reads as a wealth-and-engagement signal — profiles with many gifts tend to be premium audiences with high Stars spend. The owner can pin favourites, hide a sender's name, and sort gifts into collections. For the gifts vertical this is the umbrella concept; see saved gift, unique gift and gift collection for the specific mechanics.
Unique Gift (NFT)
A limited-edition Telegram Stars gift that carries individual attributes (model, backdrop, symbol) and a serial number, making each copy distinct — Telegram's native NFT format. Unlike a regular sticker gift, a unique gift is transferable and can be moved or traded on the TON blockchain, so it holds and accrues real-world value. In the gift data this is the unique variant of a saved gift (versus regular); listings can be sorted by value or filtered to exclude unique items. A profile holding rare unique gifts is a strong premium-audience and high-Stars-spend signal for advertiser targeting.
Gift Collection
An owner-curated grouping of the Stars gifts saved on a profile. Telegram lets a recipient sort received gifts into named collections (exposed as collection_ids on each saved gift), the way one might arrange a display cabinet — for example separating rare unique (NFT) gifts from regular ones. Collections are a presentation and curation layer, not a separate gift type: the same gift can sit in a collection while still counting toward the profile's public stargifts_count. For the gifts vertical they reveal how a profile organises and showcases its most valued gifts.
Telegram Ads Spy
Telegram Ads Spy (tgadsspy.com) is an ad-intelligence archive for Telegram advertising. It indexes sponsored messages and channel placements so marketers can search competitor creatives by brand, niche, country and date, study creative formats and regional strategy, and track how campaigns change over time. The service is also referred to as "Telegram Ad Spy" or "TG Ad Spy".
Gram (GRAM)
The coin of the TON network, called Toncoin until 15 June 2026, when a community vote renamed it Gram and its ticker from TON to GRAM; no swap or migration was needed. The blockchain itself is still called TON, as are TON wallets. Gram pays for the self-serve Telegram Ads cabinet (topped up via Fragment) and for Suggested Posts, and channel owners receive Telegram Ads rewards in Gram as well as in Stars.
Fragment
Telegram's platform on the TON blockchain for collectible usernames and numbers, gifts, Stars and Premium, and for payments around advertising: topping up the self-serve Telegram Ads cabinet in Gram, withdrawing ad rewards for channel owners and funding Suggested Posts. Fragment may require identity verification (KYC) for some operations. It has no public developer API; third-party "Fragment API" services work through the user's web session or seed phrase.
Channel Direct Messages
A private inbox of a Telegram channel (since June 2025), switched on in Channel Settings → Direct Messages. Subscribers write to the channel without seeing the admins' personal accounts, and the channel can charge Stars per message, keeping 85%. Direct messages are also where Suggested Posts are offered, so a channel without them cannot receive paid post offers this way.
Fragment Sponsors
The "For Sponsors" section of Fragment's ads page: "Use Grams to sponsor posts on Telegram by making offers to public channel admins". It is not a marketplace — the offers (Suggested Posts) are made in the Telegram app. Fragment provides the top-up: Gram is added from a TON wallet to a Telegram account, your own or a colleague's. The Telegram client links to the same top-up page when the Gram balance is too low.
Ad types
Sponsored Message
A Telegram ad format served at the bottom of qualifying public channels. A sponsored message is a short text (up to 160 characters) with an optional banner image and a CTA button that points to a channel, bot, mini-app, or external URL. Unlike direct placements bought from a channel owner, sponsored messages are bought through the official Telegram Ads Platform — in EUR, Gram or Stars — and pass Telegram moderation.
Gram cabinet (formerly TON Ads)
The self-serve Telegram Ads account at ads.telegram.org, paid in Gram (GRAM, formerly Toncoin — the coin was renamed on 15 June 2026; the blockchain is still called TON). It is not a direct deal with a channel owner: the ads are ordinary sponsored messages and pass the same moderation as in the euro cabinet. The balance is topped up in Gram via Fragment from a TON wallet, and Fragment may ask for KYC; practitioners cite a deposit of about 20 Gram. The official minimum CPM is 0.1 Gram. Targeting is limited to explicit lists of channels, bots and search keywords — no geo or interests. In the Telegram Ads Spy archive the Gram cabinet accounts for about four in five creatives (80.4% on 23 Sep 2026).
Cashier creative
A sponsored message that triggers a payment flow directly inside Telegram instead of redirecting to an external landing page. Three cashier formats are tracked separately: Stars-priced invoices (invoiceCurrency=XTR), paid-media offers in any currency (USD, EUR, etc.) and Premium giveaways. Cashier creatives concentrate in mini-app advertisers, gaming bots and creator-economy products. Filterable on /cashier; CSV export at /api/v1/cashier-creatives.csv.
Sponsored invoice
A sponsored message whose CTA opens a Telegram payment invoice (purchase flow) instead of a URL. Identified by media.type=invoice in the ad payload, with structured fields: currency (XTR for Stars or ISO-4217 for fiat), total_amount (minor units), title, start_param. Common in Stars-priced bot subscriptions, paid-media offers and digital-goods sales. Tracked as a distinct cashier sub-vertical alongside Premium giveaway and standard ads.
Premium giveaway
A sponsored format where the advertiser raffles Telegram Premium subscriptions (typically 3, 6 or 12 months) to channel subscribers or mini-app users. Identified by media.type=giveaway with structured payload: prize_description, months, winners_count, until_date, countries_iso2[]. Used by channel growth tools, crypto exchanges and gaming bots to acquire active users at low CPA. Counted in the cashier vertical alongside Stars invoices.
Stars Promotions
The third way to pay for Telegram Ads, in Telegram Stars (XTR — Telegram's native digital currency). A channel or bot spends the Stars on its balance on ads for that same channel or bot — and only for it; a third-party product needs the euro or Gram cabinet. Telegram gives a 30% discount here: as ad credit one Star is worth $0.02, while withdrawing it pays $0.013. There is no fixed Stars-to-Gram rate. It suits Stars-monetised creators and bots, including mini apps, which live inside a bot. See Stars-economy creatives at tgadsspy.com/cashier or the mini-app leaderboard at topapps.tg.
Forex coach channel
A Telegram channel whose advertised offer is one-on-one or group trading education — typically marketed as "free training", "earn from your phone", or "I show you my trades". Dominant vertical in Russian-language (\@binvlad), Indonesian-Malay (\@samsudinsangflipper, \@izzatsuperflip7), Persian (\@tahlilclubalerts) and Burmese sponsored ads. CTA usually points to either the coach's personal Telegram channel or a signals bot. From a regulatory perspective sits in a grey zone in most jurisdictions — not gambling but adjacent to it (binary options promotion, leverage encouragement). Detection in tgadsspy classifier requires keyword expansion in non-English locales because phrasing varies sharply by language.
Suggested Post
A native paid post offered to a Telegram channel through its direct messages (since July 2025). The sponsor sets a price of 5–100,000 Stars or 0.01–10,000 Gram and optionally a publication time; the admin can accept, decline or counter-propose. Telegram holds the money and pays the channel 85% once the post has been live for 24 hours; if it is removed earlier, the sponsor is refunded. A paid post cannot be edited. Only channels with direct messages switched on can receive Suggested Posts.
Telegram Search Ads (Sponsored Peers)
Ads above Telegram's global search results, sold since April 2025 through Telegram Ads. The advertiser picks up to 10 keywords of 4–32 characters and promotes a channel or bot — websites cannot be promoted in search. In the API the placements are called sponsored peers. Search ads bought with TON/Gram are not shown to users in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Palestine; those bought with Stars are shown everywhere. Keywords must not exploit harmful or sensitive topics (ad policy §4.8).
Banner in Bot
An ad format inside Telegram bots shown to a selected audience rather than to everyone who opens a given bot, announced by MTS AdTech in September 2026. Targeting, per MTS: socio-demographics, channel subscriptions, MTS Big Data segments or the advertiser's own phone base; the creative is text, a logo and a custom emoji, without photos or video. Telegram has not published its own announcement, so the terms are preliminary.
Metrics
CPM (Cost per Mille)
Cost per one thousand impressions. A standard advertising pricing model used by the Telegram Ads Platform and, implicitly, by most direct channel placements. On Telegram Ads, CPM is set by the advertiser and competes for eligible impressions, above a minimum that depends on the cabinet (0.1 Gram in the Gram cabinet; in the euro cabinet €0.30–0.75 for accounts from Russia since 28 August 2026, depending on targeting). On direct placements bought from a channel owner, CPM is implied by negotiating a post price against the channel’s average views.
Reach (estimate)
The estimated number of unique viewers a creative is likely to have. In a public channel, reach is commonly approximated by the channel’s average post views within 24-48 hours. For multi-channel campaigns, reach is summed across placements, with rough deduplication for audience overlap.
Impression
A single display of a creative to a viewer. On the Telegram Ads Platform, each time a user opens a qualifying channel and the sponsored message is rendered counts as one impression. On direct placements bought from a channel owner, views of the promotional post are counted as impressions.
Ad Spend (estimate)
The total amount an advertiser has spent on a campaign. In Telegram Ads Spy, ad spend is estimated from impression count times an inferred CPM. Estimates are signals for comparison across advertisers and campaigns, not exact billed amounts.
Engagement Rate (ER)
The share of a channel’s audience that interacts with a post — typically views divided by subscriber count. Channels with high ER are prized for ad placements because a larger portion of subscribers is likely to see and react to sponsored content.
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The ratio of ad clicks to impressions, expressed as a percentage. On the Telegram Ads Platform, CTR is reported to the advertiser in the ad cabinet. High-performing sponsored messages in competitive niches (crypto, trading) typically show 0.5–1.5% CTR; broader consumer offers can reach 3–5%.
CPC (Cost per Click)
Pricing model where the advertiser pays only when a user clicks the ad. The Telegram Ads Platform uses CPM by default, but effective CPC can be derived as CPM/CTR/10 — useful for comparing across platforms where CPC is native (Google Ads, Meta Ads).
CPA (Cost per Action)
The total ad spend divided by the number of target actions (signups, purchases, deposits). For affiliate teams running on Telegram, CPA is the key profitability metric — a campaign is sustainable only while CPA stays below the lifetime value of a converted user.
Attribution Window
The time period during which a conversion is credited back to an ad click. Typical windows: 24-hour click, 7-day click, 28-day click (industry standard), 1-day view-through. Telegram Ads Platform does not natively set attribution windows — advertisers pick their own in the tracking tool (GA4, affiliate network) that reads the UTM-tagged CTA.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
A profitability metric calculated as revenue generated divided by ad spend, often expressed as a ratio (3:1 means $3 revenue per $1 spent) or percentage (300%). Telegram-ads buyers track ROAS per creative, niche and geo to identify which campaigns warrant scale and which to pause. Unlike CPM or CTR, ROAS captures the full funnel — Telegram impressions through to actual purchase or sign-up downstream of the ad click.
LTV (Lifetime Value)
The total revenue a single user generates over their full active relationship with the advertiser — used to determine the ceiling on customer-acquisition spend. Telegram advertisers in subscription-driven niches (VPN, education, trading platforms) target high-LTV cohorts even at higher initial CAC. Common formulas: average revenue per user × average retention months, or sum of historical purchases per cohort.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The total marketing + sales spend required to acquire one paying customer. For Telegram-ads buyers, CAC equals total campaign spend divided by paying conversions attributed to the ad. The CAC : LTV ratio is the canonical health check — most performance marketers target LTV ≥ 3× CAC for sustainable growth. Telegram CAC varies wildly by niche: low for crypto airdrops, high for SaaS subscriptions.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of users who complete a desired action after clicking an ad — sign-up, purchase, deposit, app install. Calculated as conversions ÷ ad clicks × 100. In Telegram ads, conversion rate is heavily creative-dependent: a clear value proposition + low-friction CTA (single tap to bot) typically yields 2–8%, while open-loop creatives (links to landing pages with forms) drop to 0.3–1.5%. Used alongside CTR to optimise full funnel.
Stars rating level
A public Telegram metric awarded to bots based on accumulated Telegram Stars revenue. Levels run from 0 (no Stars earned) upward; each level has a stars threshold visible in the bot’s profile. Stars rating signals monetisation maturity — used as a proxy for "this mini-app actually makes money" when ranking the /miniapps leaderboard. Higher levels typically correlate with main-app activation and sustained MAU.
Telegram Ads Pricing
Cross-cabinet pricing models on Telegram Ads. The EUR cabinet uses a CPM auction; for accounts from Russia the minimum CPM has been €0.60 for country or language targeting, €0.30 for Politics & Incidents and €0.75 for channels, bots and search since 28 August 2026 (on 17 February 2026 it had been cut from €1.00 to €0.70), and SA Media put the average CPM at €0.97 in August 2026; niche × geo spreads the price (web3/crypto = top, MENA news = floor). Entry is through resellers, from €250–500. The Gram cabinet (formerly the TON cabinet) is paid in Gram with an official minimum CPM of 0.1 Gram; competitive crypto channels are estimated from about $0.5–1.5 CPM (ADSLY, April 2026). Stars Promotions spend a channel's or bot's own Stars on ads for itself: one Star is worth $0.02 of ad credit (30% discount) versus $0.013 on withdrawal, with no fixed rate to Gram. Detailed percentile distributions and live benchmarks are published at tgmetrics.net; per-creative spend estimates at tgadsspy.com/advertisers.
Share of Voice (SoV)
Share of advertising airtime captured by a single advertiser within a niche or geo over a time window. Computed as: (advertiser's creatives in scope) ÷ (all creatives in same scope) × 100%. A 25% SoV in the crypto niche means 1 in 4 sponsored impressions came from that advertiser. SoV is the canonical signal for competitive positioning — used by buyers to size opponents, by sellers to price retainers, by analysts to track market consolidation. Computed live via /api/v1/analytics/share-of-voice on tgadsspy.com; default windows 7d / 30d / 90d.
Creative Fatigue
The performance decay of a Telegram Ads creative as audience exposure accumulates. Symptoms: CTR drops by 30%+ over the first 2 weeks of high-frequency rotation; users start dismissing the format pattern. Mitigation: weekly creative refresh (rotation of 3–5 variants per cabinet), CTA copy A/B testing, banner re-design. Telegram Ads platform itself does not surface fatigue scores — we infer fatigue from impression-density vs CTR-decay curves visible in the public archive at tgadsspy.com. Live fatigue analytics via /api/v1/analytics/creative-fatigue.
View Rate (views-to-subscribers)
The ratio of a channel's average post views to its subscriber count, expressed as a percentage. A 50,000-subscriber channel averaging 10,000 views per post has a 20% view rate. Healthy public channels typically sit between 10% and 40%; the figure naturally drops for very large channels (a 10M-subscriber channel at 3–8% is normal). An unusually low view rate on a sizable channel is a classic signal of an inactive or inflated audience, which is why it is one of the inputs to an audience-quality estimate. Note that views can exceed subscribers when posts are widely forwarded, so a high view rate is not by itself a quality concern.
Fake Followers (subscriber inflation)
Subscribers that are bots, dormant accounts, or bought in bulk to inflate a channel's headline size without contributing real reach. They make a channel look more valuable to advertisers than it is. Telegram exposes no native bot-follower metric to non-admins, so detection relies on open signals: a low view rate relative to subscribers, erratic or near-zero engagement, sudden subscriber jumps between snapshots (a classic bulk-purchase pattern), and a young channel that is already very large. No single signal is conclusive — these are probabilistic indicators, not proof — which is why tgadsspy reports an audience-quality estimate rather than a precise "bot percentage".
Audience Quality
A composite judgement of how real and engaged a channel's audience is — the question an advertiser asks before buying a placement. Because Telegram's native audience analytics are visible only to channel admins, a third-party estimate is built from public signals: view rate (views relative to subscribers, size-adjusted), the consistency of engagement over time, subscriber-growth spikes that suggest bulk acquisition, Telegram's own scam/fake/restricted flags, and the channel's age versus its size. tgadsspy surfaces this as a traffic-light estimate (reliable / mixed / questionable) with the reasons shown, rather than a fabricated percentage — an honest signal, not a verdict.
Average Views (avg views per post)
The typical number of views a channel's recent posts receive, reported as the median of the last ~20 posts rather than the mean — a single viral post would skew the mean and overstate normal reach. Average views is the most honest single measure of a channel's working reach: subscriber count tells you how many people could see a post, average views tells you how many typically do. It is the basis for the view-rate and engagement-rate estimates and the axis behind ranking channels by reach. Tracked daily and charted over time per channel.
Subscriber Count (members)
The number of users subscribed to a Telegram channel — its headline audience size and the most-cited channel metric. Telegram publishes a rounded figure for channels above ~10,000 members, so third-party trackers record observation-as-of snapshots, not a live counter. Subscriber count alone says little about real reach: a large list with low average views points to an inactive or inflated audience, which is why it is read alongside view rate and engagement rate. It is the default axis for channel rankings and the base for measuring subscriber growth.
Subscriber Growth Rate
The change in a channel's subscriber count over a period, expressed as a percentage of the starting figure — the headline measure of whether a channel is gaining or losing audience. It is computed from dated snapshots: comparing the earliest and latest reading in a window (e.g. 30 days) gives the relative growth. Steady organic growth is a health signal; a sharp spike between snapshots is a classic bulk-acquisition pattern, so it feeds the audience-quality estimate rather than counting purely as a positive. Because it needs at least two snapshots, growth is available for channels tracked over time, and the fastest growers are ranked publicly.
Actors
Advertiser
The entity paying for ads — a brand, agency, affiliate or solo buyer. In Telegram Ads Spy each advertiser has a dedicated profile page aggregating their creatives, channels they show in, niches and geo targeting. Advertisers are extracted from CTA URLs: a domain becomes a website advertiser, a t.me handle becomes a Telegram advertiser.
Channel Owner
The person or team that runs a Telegram channel. Channel owners can sell promotional posts directly. Separately, owners of qualifying public channels (1,000+ subscribers) receive 50% of the Telegram Ads revenue from sponsored messages served in their channels, paid in Gram or Stars through Fragment: Gram can be withdrawn 2 days after it is accrued, Stars after 21 days.
Media Buyer
A professional who purchases ad inventory on behalf of an advertiser, typically within an agency or an in-house performance team. Media buyers use tools like Telegram Ads Spy for competitive research, channel selection, CPM benchmarking and spend estimation before launching campaigns.
Affiliate / Arbitrageur
A partner who promotes third-party offers on a CPA/CPL basis, earning a share of the conversion revenue. Telegram is a major traffic source for affiliates because of its high engagement and access to targeted communities. Affiliates use archives like Telegram Ads Spy to scout working offers and copy landing pages.
Offer
The product or campaign being promoted — in affiliate jargon, a specific partner program with a defined payout per conversion. Telegram is a major delivery surface for offers in gambling, crypto, dating, adult and forex verticals. Archives like Telegram Ads Spy let affiliates spot new offers as they go live by watching advertiser-slug pages.
G.Media Agency
A full-service Telegram Ads agency operating across all official cabinets (EUR, Gram — formerly TON — and Stars). Built on top of the Telegram Ads Spy archive for fatigue analysis and competitor benchmarking. Notable launches include Catizen (+340% MAU in 60 days), Blum (+128K wallet connects), MemeFi (+520K Telegram joins in 14 days). Standard engagement: 30-day fixed-scope pilot at ≈€5K media spend → long-term retainer at €20–100K/month. Headquartered in Dubai, UAE. Brand domain: g.media. Part of the G.Media stack alongside Telegram Ads Spy archive, tgads.net hub, bestapps.tg editorial picks, topapps.tg ranking.
Strategies
Competitor Ad Analysis
The practice of systematically studying the advertising activity of competitors — which creatives they run, in which channels, with what frequency and approximate budget. Ad archives like Telegram Ads Spy make this possible for Telegram by exposing every indexed creative as a permanent, searchable URL.
Niche Classification
Automatic or manual categorization of ads by vertical — crypto, trading, gambling, VPN, tech, news, retail, finance, gaming, education, adult, bots, and others. Niches let marketers compare market size and growth across verticals, pick landing categories for their campaigns, and build niche-specific watchlists.
Geo Targeting
Setting ads to be shown only to users in specific countries or regions. On the Telegram Ads Platform, advertisers target by channel language, which correlates with geography. In Telegram Ads Spy, geo of a creative is inferred from the CTA URL TLD and from the language signals of the channels it appears in.
Ad Archive
A permanent, searchable collection of ads that have been served over time. Unlike the live ad stream (which disappears as campaigns end), an archive preserves creatives with stable URLs, datestamps and context. Archives are used by marketers for competitive research, by researchers for historical analysis, and by regulators for accountability.
Wayback View
A date-based view of historical content — "what was running on this day". Popularized by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. In Telegram Ads Spy, telegramadsarchive.com provides a wayback view over Telegram advertising: every indexed creative has a datestamp, and dedicated per-day pages list all ads served on a given UTC day.
Watchlist
A user-defined alert rule: "notify me when a new creative matches this keyword / channel / advertiser / niche". In Telegram Ads Spy, watchlists live inside @tgadsspybot. The Free tier includes one watchlist; Pro unlocks unlimited watchlists, email delivery and webhook integration.
Frequency Cap
The maximum number of times the same ad is served to the same user within a time window. On the Telegram Ads Platform, frequency is automatically managed to prevent ad fatigue — the same sponsored message is typically shown to a user at most once per session and capped daily.
Language Targeting
Targeting method on the Telegram Ads Platform where advertisers pick one or more languages. A creative in English targeting English-language channels will be served across those channels regardless of the viewer’s geo — language, not geo, is the native axis in the Telegram Ads cabinet.
Conversion Tracking
The process of attributing a user’s action (signup, purchase, deposit) back to the ad that drove the traffic. On Telegram, the most common approach is UTM-tagging the CTA URL + reading UTMs in the destination analytics. Telegram Ads Platform does not natively report conversions — advertisers plug external tools like GA4, Mixpanel, or affiliate tracker pixels.
Retargeting
Serving follow-up ads to users who previously engaged — visited a page, started a bot flow, abandoned a cart. Telegram Ads Platform does not expose native pixel-based retargeting; advertisers build retargeting inside their own funnel (bot users, newsletter subscribers) and deliver follow-up via direct messaging, not via sponsored messages.
Lookalike Audience
An audience segment built to resemble a seed list of known-good users (typically high-LTV customers). Standard on Meta and Google; not available as a native primitive on the Telegram Ads Platform. On Telegram, advertisers approximate lookalikes by targeting channel categories and languages that correlate with their seed audience.
A/B Test (Creative Split)
Running two or more creative variants against the same audience to measure which performs better. On Telegram Ads, advertisers typically split creatives across different campaigns with similar targeting and compare CTR/spend. Archives like Telegram Ads Spy help retroactively: seeing which version of a competitor’s creative they ran most often reveals their A/B winner.
Funnel
The sequence of steps a user takes from seeing an ad to a target action (purchase, signup, deposit). A typical Telegram ad funnel: impression → click CTA → land in bot/channel/mini-app → provide info → complete conversion. Each step has drop-off; optimizing a funnel means reducing the drop-off at the weakest step.
Affiliate Arbitrage
A model where a media buyer purchases ad inventory at a lower CPM/CPC and routes the resulting traffic to higher-payout offers from advertiser networks (CPA, RevShare, PPL). On Telegram, arbitrage is a major ad category — operators run dozens of placements simultaneously — sponsored messages and direct channel posts — push iGaming/finance/crypto offers, and optimise per-source ROI daily. Heavy in TR/RU/PT-BR/KZ Telegram channels.
Niche (Telegram Ads Spy taxonomy)
The granular taxonomy layer in tgadsspy. Each indexed creative is classified into one of ~30 niche slugs by a keyword + regex classifier (e.g. crypto, casino, prop-firm, dating, vpn, bots, podcasts, mini-apps-productivity). Niche is the primary filter for /api/v1/ads?niche=<slug> and per-niche pages at /niches/<slug>. For coarser browsing — see Category. The classifier rules live in lib/niche.ts; new rules propagate to historical creatives via the reclassify-creatives cron every 30 minutes.
Category (Telegram Ads Spy taxonomy)
The coarse-grained taxonomy layer in Telegram Ads Spy — six super-groups: Finance, Gambling, Tech, Content, Commerce, Lifestyle. Each category aggregates 3–8 niches (e.g. Finance = crypto + trading + finance + prop-firm). Useful when a researcher wants the whole vertical without enumerating niches. Available as a filter on /api/v1/ads?category=<group>, time-series via /api/v1/trends?dim=category, or as standalone pages at /categories and /categories/<group>. The mapping niche → category is canonical (NICHE_THEME in lib/niche-meta.ts) and stable across releases.
Telegram Ads Targeting
The targeting options across Telegram's three ad cabinets. EUR cabinet (via resellers) — country, language, interests, specific channels, bots and search keywords, plus retargeting of your own subscribers. Gram cabinet (formerly the TON cabinet, self-serve, paid in Gram) — only explicit lists of channels, bots and search keywords, with no geo or interests: you reach a crypto audience by listing crypto / DeFi / NFT channels (the platform does not read on-chain wallets or token holdings). Stars Promotions — minimal targeting, and only for your own channel or bot. On privacy, since 28 August 2026 ads.telegram.org makes one promise: it does not use the contents of private chats or contact lists for ad targeting. Country, language and interests are the main levers in the EUR cabinet for most B2C launches; channel lists are preferred for niche B2B and crypto.
Telegram Mini-App Launch
The end-to-end sequence of activating a new Telegram mini-app for mass adoption. Standard stages: (1) bot + mini-app set-up via @BotFather, (2) App Center submission with category fit, (3) seed-user acquisition via in-network referrals or paid Telegram Ads, (4) Stars Promotions to amplify organic install velocity, (5) cabinet retargeting based on early-cohort behaviour. Top historical launches: Hamster Kombat (240M installs in 8 weeks), Notcoin, Catizen, Blum, MemeFi. Live leaderboard at topapps.tg; editorial picks at bestapps.tg; agency execution via g.media.
Intent-based advertising
A targeting model that activates ads in response to a user's explicit signal of interest — typically a search query, a recently viewed product, or a cart-abandonment event. Canonical example: Google Search Ads triggered by keywords. Strength: extremely high conversion intent (the user is already looking for your category). Weakness: limited to existing demand — cannot create awareness for categories users do not yet know they need. Contrast with context-based advertising. Telegram Ads is fundamentally context-based, not intent-based.
Context-based advertising
A targeting model that places ads adjacent to relevant content rather than at specific users. The signal is the context (channel topic, page subject, language, geo) — not the demographic or behavioural profile of an individual. Canonical example: Telegram Ads serving sponsored messages inside niche channels. Strength: privacy-preserving, cheap CPMs, creates demand. Weakness: lower individual targeting precision than intent-based or behavioural models. Telegram Ads was built on this principle, but the euro cabinet now also targets by interests and retargets your own subscribers; since 28 August 2026 ads.telegram.org promises only that it does not use private chats or contact lists for ad targeting.
Cabinet routing
The practice of using one Telegram Ads cabinet (registered in country A) to serve sponsored creatives that target audiences in country B. Common pattern: Filipino-language gambling brands (PINOY365, Corgibet) running through Turkish or UAE-registered EUR cabinets to reach Philippine audiences while keeping the cabinet anchored in a market with simpler advertiser onboarding. When researching a brand in tgadsspy, filtering by geo alone misses these targeting decisions — combine geo + language filter to surface the full picture.
Technical
Permalink
A permanent URL that always resolves to the same piece of content, even years after publication. In ad archives, permalinks let researchers cite specific creatives in reports, regulators reference evidence and marketers bookmark competitor ads. Telegram Ads Spy permalinks are structured as /ads/<id>, /channels/<username>, /advertisers/<slug>, /niches/<slug>.
CTA Button
A call-to-action button inside an ad creative that points to a destination — a t.me channel, a t.me bot, a mini-app, or an external web URL. The CTA label and target URL are key signals for classifying an advertiser and inferring the campaign objective (signup, chat join, offer landing).
Media Type (photo / video / gif)
The attachment format in an ad creative. On the Telegram Ads Platform, sponsored messages can carry a photo (banner), short video, or GIF alongside the text. The media type affects CTR and visual impact; banner ads typically outperform text-only in creative-heavy niches like fashion and gaming.
Channel Avatar
The profile image of a Telegram channel. Advertisers can opt to show the channel avatar next to a sponsored message — the so-called "Show channel picture" format — which visually positions the ad as coming from the target channel itself, increasing trust and click-through.
Telegram Bot
An automated account on Telegram that can receive messages and commands and respond programmatically. Bots are a common CTA target — advertisers run bot-based funnels for lead capture, mini-app launches, affiliate offer delivery, and customer support.
Telegram Mini App
A web application that runs inside Telegram via the bot API. Mini apps give advertisers a native-feel experience without leaving the Telegram client — popular for games, token launches, mini-shops and onboarding flows. A sponsored message’s CTA can point directly to a mini app.
RSS Feed
An XML-based content syndication format that lets readers subscribe to updates. Telegram Ads Spy exposes per-niche, per-channel, per-advertiser and global RSS feeds at /rss.xml and /<entity>/rss.xml URLs. RSS is the simplest way to plug the archive into Feedly, Inoreader, or a custom monitoring stack.
Webhook
A push-based integration: when a trigger event happens (e.g. a new matching creative appears), the system sends an HTTP POST to a URL you configure. Webhooks are ideal for pipelines that must react in seconds — ad-archive webhook on Business plan fires for every matching new creative, with the full JSON payload of the ad.
API Key
An authentication token that identifies a caller when accessing the Telegram Ads Spy public API on paid tiers. The Free tier allows low-volume reads without a key; Pro and Business require keys for higher rate limits, bulk export and webhook receipt. Keys are scoped per-team; revocation is instant.
UTM Parameters
URL query parameters (`utm_source`, `utm_medium`, `utm_campaign`, etc.) that identify the source of the traffic in analytics. In Telegram Ads tracking, UTMs are added to the CTA URL — advertisers see "which channel/creative brought this click" in their GA or Mixpanel. Telegram Ads Spy preserves full CTA URLs including UTMs for competitive analysis.
Deep Link
A URL that opens a specific screen or action inside an app rather than its landing page. Telegram deep links use the `tg://` scheme (e.g. `tg://resolve?domain=durov`) and open Telegram at a specific channel, bot, or mini-app. Sponsored messages often use t.me URLs that browsers translate to deep links when Telegram is installed.
Landing Page
The web page (or Telegram bot/mini-app) a user arrives at after clicking the CTA. Landing-page quality determines conversion rate: a well-scoped page that matches the creative copy converts 2–5× better than a generic home page. In Telegram ad archives, tracking landing-page domains reveals the full ad-to-conversion funnel shape of each advertiser.
Sticker Pack
A collection of Telegram stickers. While sticker packs aren’t a direct ad format, brands use branded sticker packs as top-of-funnel exposure: free to send, viral-adjacent, and linkable via `t.me/addstickers/<pack>` — a valid CTA destination from sponsored messages.
"Show Channel Picture" Format
An optional format in the Telegram Ads cabinet where the advertiser opts to display the target channel’s avatar alongside the sponsored message. Visually this positions the ad as coming from the target channel, not from an anonymous sponsor — significantly boosting CTR for channel-growth campaigns (often +40–60% vs. plain text).
MTProto Proxy
A Telegram-native proxy protocol used to bypass network-level filters. Dominant in Iran (where Telegram is officially blocked) and parts of Russia and China. MTProto-proxy providers are a major ad category in Iranian Telegram — ~16% of sponsored creatives in our FA index.
Postback (S2S tracking)
A server-to-server (S2S) HTTP request sent from the advertiser's system to the ad-tracking platform when a tracked conversion occurs (sign-up, deposit, sale). Unlike pixel-based browser tracking, postback works without cookies or browser sessions — it carries a click ID parameter that ties the conversion back to the originating ad click. Telegram-ad buyers using affiliate networks rely on postback to attribute revenue to specific creatives and channels.
Tracker Link
A URL that routes a click through a tracking platform (Keitaro, Voluum, Binom, RedTrack) before redirecting to the final landing page. The tracker captures attribution data (UTM, click-time, geo, device) and assigns a unique click ID for postback matching. In Telegram ads, tracker links are the standard CTA destination for affiliate/arbitrage campaigns — the visible URL in the ad button shows the tracker domain, not the final advertiser.
Tracking Pixel
A 1×1 transparent image (or JavaScript snippet) embedded on a landing page or thank-you page that fires an HTTP request when loaded — used to record ad-attributed conversions in the advertiser's analytics. Less reliable than S2S postback in cookie-restricted environments (Safari ITP, Brave, etc.) but simpler to implement. Telegram-ad buyers running smaller-scale campaigns often deploy a pixel as the first attribution layer before graduating to postback.
Telegram Main Mini App
A bot configuration where the launch-button opens a full-screen mini-app by default instead of a chat. Set via @BotFather, exposed as bot_has_main_app=true in the public profile. Main-app bots feel app-native — a tap from search, sponsored ad or share-card lands directly in the mini-app, no chat-thread context. Tracked on /miniapps leaderboard with niche filters, Stars rating and MAU sparkline.
Fullscreen Mini App
A Telegram mini-app mode where the web view occupies the entire screen (incl. header bar), giving native-app feel without browser chrome. Enabled via Web App API requestFullscreen() — most cashier and game mini-apps use it for immersive UX. Visual signal of a polished cashier-vertical product: fullscreen + payment UI typically indicates active Stars or paid-media monetization.
Telegram Start Parameter
A query parameter passed to a bot or mini-app via deep-link: t.me/<bot>?start=<value> opens the chat and triggers /start with the value, or t.me/<bot>/<short_name>?startapp=<value> launches the mini-app with start_param available in Web App initData. Used for routing inside mini-apps (e.g. share-link to specific screen, deep-link from web to TG context, attribution). Telegram Ads Spy uses startapp for share-creative flow: pasting a /ads/<id> link inside Telegram opens our mini-app on that exact creative.
Web App Main Button
A native-rendered button at the bottom of a Telegram mini-app, controlled via Web App API: tg.MainButton.setText("Subscribe") / .show() / .onClick(). Looks like a system button (not a CSS element), so it always feels app-native and stays visible on scroll. Used for primary CTA per screen (Subscribe, Pay with Stars, Share). The Telegram Ads Spy mini-app uses MainButton for the primary action on each creative detail screen — visually replaces the in-page submit button.
Mini App Theme Sync
A pattern where a Telegram mini-app reads tg.themeParams (bg_color, text_color, button_color, etc) and applies them as CSS variables, so the app matches the user's current Telegram theme (light/dark/custom). Without theme-sync, a mini-app feels foreign — light app in dark Telegram is jarring. The themeChanged event lets the app live-update if the user toggles theme inside Telegram.
Inline Keyboard
A grid of buttons attached directly to a bot's message (not the chat's reply area). Each button either fires a callback_query handler or opens a URL / mini-app / inline-query. Inline keyboards drive most modern bot UX — from /menu navigation to alert lifecycle controls (mute / edit / delete). Telegram Ads Platform CTA buttons are a constrained subset: one button, URL-only.
Callback Query
A Telegram Bot API event fired when a user taps an inline-keyboard button with callback_data. The bot receives the user, original message reference and the callback_data string (≤64 bytes), then typically updates the message in-place via answerCallbackQuery + editMessageText. Callback-driven UX makes bots feel snappy — no command-typing, no chat-bloat from each interaction.
Bot Payments API
Telegram's payment integration that lets bots accept Telegram Stars (XTR currency) or fiat via 8+ integrated providers (Stripe, YooKassa, Tranzzo, ePay, etc). The bot sends sendInvoice with a payload, user pays inside Telegram, bot receives successfulPayment update. Bot Payments API is what makes the cashier vertical possible — every sponsored invoice on Telegram Ads Spy is a creative ad pointing to a bot that uses sendInvoice on click.
Saved Star Gift
A Telegram Stars-purchased gift permanently displayed on a user or channel profile (stargifts_count field). Recipients can pin selected gifts to highlight them. For Telegram Ads Spy, saved gifts are a wealth and engagement signal — channels with high stargifts_count are likely premium audiences with high Stars-spend, valuable for advertiser targeting. Surfaced on cashier signals row for tracked channels.
Telegram Business Account
A Telegram Premium tier (~$5/mo) that adds business-grade features: opening hours, away-message auto-reply, quick replies, business chatbots via bot_business=true API, and a /tg/{username} address-style link. Bots flagged bot_business=true are designed to integrate with such accounts (e.g. CRM connectors, auto-replies). On Telegram Ads Spy, business-bot flag indicates a B2B-targeted tool, often Pro-tier advertiser hunting ground.
Niche classifier
The keyword + regex pipeline that assigns a niche to each newly-ingested creative. Implemented in lib/niche.ts as priority-weighted RULES — patterns sum by weight, the highest-scoring niche wins, no match → null. ASCII patterns use \b word-boundary; Cyrillic / Arabic / CJK patterns use whole-word lookarounds. The classifier handles 25+ niches across 11 languages. Coverage telemetry exposed at /api/healthz (niche_coverage_pct_7d). New rules propagate to the 90-day backlog via the reclassify-creatives in-process cron.
Script-based language detection
A method of classifying an ad creative's language by examining which Unicode script blocks dominate its text — without using a probabilistic language model. Example mappings used by tgadsspy: U+1200–U+137F (Ethiopic) → Amharic, U+1000–U+109F (Burmese) → Myanmar, U+0600–U+06FF (Arabic-derived) → Arabic/Persian/Urdu (disambiguated by language-specific characters). Faster and more reliable than statistical detection for short ad copy in low-resource languages where ML models lack training data. Latin-script languages (English, German, Indonesian, Malay) still require keyword/morphology heuristics because they share the same script block.
Low-resource language
A language with limited training corpora available for machine-learning detection or translation — typically languages spoken by smaller populations or in markets with thin digital footprints. In Telegram-ads research context: Amharic (Ethiopia), Burmese (Myanmar), Khmer (Cambodia), Sinhala (Sri Lanka), Tigrinya (Eritrea), and many sub-Saharan African languages. tgadsspy uses Unicode script-block detection rather than ML models for these — accuracy is higher for ad-copy length text but coverage of keyword/niche patterns lags behind English/Russian/Indonesian. When researching emerging markets, expect smaller samples in low-resource-language verticals and check the classifier-coverage audit for per-language gap data.
Telegram Gateway
Telegram's paid API for sending login and verification codes through Telegram instead of SMS, at $0.01 per delivered code with automatic refunds for undelivered ones. The API token is copied in the Gateway account and the balance is funded via Fragment. It is the only fully documented paid API connected to Fragment, and it has nothing to do with advertising data — a common source of confusion around "Fragment API keys".
Compliance
Public Telegram Channel
A channel whose content is visible to any Telegram user without an invitation. Public channels have a @username handle (e.g. t.me/telegram) and are indexable by search. Telegram Ads Spy only indexes ads served in public channels — private channels are explicitly out of scope.
Private Telegram Channel
A channel accessible only via an invite link; its content is not visible to non-members. Telegram Ads Spy does not attempt to join private channels, does not use leaked invite links and does not index content from them. If a channel switches from public to private, its historical entries in our archive are preserved but new ads stop being indexed.
DMCA Takedown
The formal process by which a rights holder can request removal of infringing content. Telegram Ads Spy accepts DMCA takedowns at /dmca. Valid requests mark the creative as hidden within 24 hours; the canonical URL then serves HTTP 410 Gone, and the item stops appearing in search, feeds and API responses.
OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence)
The practice of gathering actionable intelligence from publicly available sources. Telegram Ads Spy is an OSINT-class resource: everything in the archive comes from public Telegram surfaces (official Ads cabinet + public channel posts), and the source-to-record methodology is documented at /about. Academic and journalism researchers commonly use OSINT archives as citable evidence.
Creative Moderation
The review process Telegram applies to sponsored messages before they go live. Moderation checks text length, banned categories (crypto investment schemes in some jurisdictions, adult content, etc.), the CTA URL against a blocklist, and trademark concerns. Approval typically happens within 24 hours; declined creatives include a reason code.
Brand Safety
The practice of keeping advertiser creatives away from content that would damage brand reputation — hate speech, violence, illegal categories. On Telegram, brand safety is partially enforced by moderation (sponsored messages go through review) and partially by the advertiser’s own channel targeting choices. Premium brands often exclude certain niches from their targeting manually.
Sponsored-Eligibility
Telegram’s rule that a public broadcast channel must have ≥ 1 000 subscribers before sponsored messages start serving in it. Smaller channels are indexed by Telegram Ads Spy (useful for upcoming growth signals), but they don’t yet carry sponsored messages from any cabinet — only placements their owners sell directly.
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
EU regulation in force since 2018 governing the collection and processing of personal data of EU/EEA residents. For Telegram advertisers targeting EU audiences, GDPR mandates lawful basis for tracking, opt-in consent for analytics, data-subject rights (access, deletion, portability) and breach notification timelines. Public archives like Telegram Ads Spy operate under the legitimate-interest basis with documented DSR procedures and DMCA-style takedown for affected parties.
KYC (Know Your Customer)
A regulatory process requiring financial-services advertisers to verify customer identity before allowing transactions — passport scan, proof of address, sometimes liveness check. Crypto exchanges, brokers, betting platforms and gambling operators advertising on Telegram are typically required to implement KYC at deposit. Telegram ads in these niches commonly mention "KYC-light", "instant KYC" or "no-KYC up to $X" as differentiators.
erid and ORD (Russian ad marking)
In Russia every online ad must carry the label "Реклама", information about the advertiser and an erid token issued by an advertising data operator (ORD); statistics go to the ORD by the 30th of the following month and on to Russia's unified register of online advertising (ERIR). In Telegram Ads the euro cabinet sold through resellers is the only route with marking: the erid goes into the ad's "Other information" field and into the landing-page URL. The Gram and Stars cabinets provide no marking.