Advanced Telegram Ads Targeting: How to Find High-Relevance Channels and Audiences
Advanced targeting in Telegram Ads starts with one choice: aim at places or at people. Places are specific channels, bots or search queries; people are users filtered by country (229 options), language (71), topic (41), device and the channels they follow. Since 22 August 2026 the form is the same on Euro, TON and Stars accounts. To find high-relevance channels, list the ones your customers already read, check that each is public, has 1,000 or more subscribers, posts regularly and is written in the language of your ad, then group them by theme. To reach the readers of a competitor without buying its channel, target users who follow it. Telegram enforces two rules: with specific channels the language field must be empty, and topic targeting needs exactly one language. Split campaigns by country, topic or device so each result can be read.
Aim at a place or at a person
Every Telegram ad targets one of four things — users, channels, bots or search — and for strategy that comes down to one choice: you describe a place, or you describe a person.
The advice that “your targeting is your channel list” dates from when TON accounts could only name channels and bots. Since 22 August 2026 TON and Stars accounts use the same form as Euro: countries (229 options), languages (71), topics (41), devices, or specific channels, bots and search.
| Target a place | Target a person | |
|---|---|---|
| What you choose | Specific channels or bots, channels by language and topic, or search queries | Country, language, topic, device and the channels a person follows |
| What you get | Context: the ad sits in a channel you picked | Audience: the ad reaches the person, whatever they are reading |
| When it fits | You know which channels your customers read, and the list is short enough to check | The audience is defined by where people live, what they speak or what they follow |
| Automation that fits | Auto CPM and Check Visibility, which need a placement to check | Rules, and splits by country, topic or device |
The “when it fits” row is our working judgement, not a measurement. Two rules are Telegram’s own and are enforced in the form: when specific channels are targeted the language field must be empty, and targeting by topic requires exactly one language. Every field is described in the targeting guide.
How to build a channel list
A useful list is short and explainable: for every channel on it you can say why your customer reads it. Candidates come from three places, and all three are rules of thumb rather than data.
- Channels your customers already read. Ask them. Add the channels that write about the problem your product solves.
- Channels where competitors keep advertising. An advertiser whose sponsored messages stay in a channel for weeks is probably getting something from it. That is a hint, not proof.
- Channels by language and topic. When you cannot name channels, describe them: one language plus the topics closest to your offer.
Then check each channel before it goes on the list.
- It is public and has 1,000 or more subscribers. Telegram’s getting-started page says ads “are displayed in public channels with 1000+ subscribers”.
- It is written in the language of your ad and of your destination. Telegram’s guidelines require the three to match.
- It posts regularly and recently.
- Its subject is the intent you need, not just the broad category. A “technology” channel about smartphones and one about programming hold different readers.
We publish no ideal channel size. We have not measured CPM or CTR by subscriber count, so the popular claim that channels of 10,000–50,000 subscribers perform best is not something our data supports or refutes.
Group the finished list by theme and run each theme as its own campaign. Bulk creation in Adsly Pro Panel builds every combination of texts, links and channels in one pass.
Reach a channel’s readers without buying the channel
User targeting has a filter most advertisers skip: followed channels. Name the channels, and the ad is shown to the people who follow them, wherever those people are reading at that moment.
That gives three uses. A competitor’s channel becomes an audience you can reach without advertising inside it. A niche publication becomes a stand-in for an interest that no topic describes. And the exclude side of the same filter lets you leave out the followers of your own channel, so you do not pay to reach people who already subscribed. Since 22 August 2026 this works on Euro, TON and Stars accounts alike.
Decide what to leave out
Exclusions are part of targeting, not an afterthought. The form has three: exclude specific channels, exclude topics, and, when targeting users, exclude followers of channels you name. A separate switch includes or excludes political content.
Use them before you widen. Leaving a category out costs nothing; paying for its impressions and filtering them in your own analytics costs money.
As for which channels to drop after launch, judge them by what happens after the click, not by CTR. Telegram reports joins and bot starts per ad; a separate invite link per ad or postbacks from your tracker show what those joins turn into. A channel with a healthy CTR whose readers never convert belongs on the exclusion list.
Split instead of stacking
Telegram’s getting-started page notes that once an ad is created “its targeting parameters can’t be changed”. Every targeting idea is therefore a new ad, and the useful discipline is one idea per ad: five countries, three topics and two devices stacked into one campaign give one blended CTR and no way to tell which part worked.
In Pro Panel the split is a checkbox: one campaign per country, city, topic or device, with the macros {country}, {city}, {topic}, {device} and {targeting} writing the value into the title, text or link so each campaign stays traceable in your tracker. On a Euro account one ad takes at most eight countries; with the split on, every campaign carries exactly one, so the limit no longer applies.
Country is still the biggest lever
No channel list changes the price as much as the country does. On our Euro accounts, single-country campaigns measured on 3 October 2026 paid €0.20 per thousand impressions in Uzbekistan, €0.25 in India, €1.42 in the UAE, €2.22 in Brazil, €2.68 in Russia and €2.92 in Turkey; a click cost €0.022 in India and €0.415 in Russia.
On TON accounts, priced in TON and not convertible into those figures, Britain and Germany ran at 0.27 TON per thousand impressions, the USA at 0.39 and the UAE at 3.79. TON-funded ads are not served in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Palestine. We have no Euro-account measurement for Western Europe or North America. Both tables are in the CPM by country guide.
Read the results honestly
Compare like with like. Our average CTR is 0.85% on Euro accounts, 2.18% on TON and 3.08% on Stars, and it differs a lot by country, so judge a campaign against your own account in the same country.
For channel campaigns, check delivery before you judge the audience. Check Visibility in Pro Panel shows where the ad currently appears among its target channels, and Auto CPM moves the bid by 10% depending on that visibility. A campaign that is not being shown has told you nothing about the channel.
Two things we cannot tell you. We have no hour-of-day performance data, so there are no best hours here; use hourly analytics on your own campaigns. And we have no measurement showing that a short list beats a long one. A list of 20 channels you can explain is easier to read than 200 you cannot — easier, not provably better.
Testing more audiences than you can track? Adsly Pro Panel builds the combinations, splits them by country, topic and device, and shows results per campaign and per group. Start free — 3-day Pro trial → · See the platform →
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find the best channels for Telegram Ads?
Start from the channels your customers already read, add the ones where competitors keep advertising, and check each: public, 1,000 or more subscribers, regular posts, the same language as your ad. Group them by theme and run each theme as its own campaign.
What subscriber count is ideal for channel targeting?
Telegram shows ads in public channels with 1,000 or more subscribers. Beyond that we have no measured ideal: we have not compared CPM or CTR by subscriber count, so we cannot confirm the common claim that 10,000–50,000 is best.
Can I target a competitor’s audience on Telegram?
Yes. When targeting users, add the competitor’s channel as a followed channel: the ad is shown to people who follow it, wherever they are reading. You can also exclude the followers of your own channel.
Can I target specific countries on TON and Stars accounts?
Yes, since 22 August 2026, with the same form as Euro. TON-funded ads are not served in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Palestine; a Euro account covers those.
Can I combine specific channels with a language?
No. When specific channels are targeted, Telegram requires the language field to be empty. Targeting channels by topic needs exactly one language; to cover two languages, run two campaigns.
How many channels should one campaign target?
We have no measured optimum. Put together channels you would judge the same way, so one result means one thing, and split different themes into separate campaigns.
