Telegram Ads Agency vs DIY: When to Outsource Your Campaign Management
Choosing between agency management and DIY for Telegram Ads depends on scale and niche complexity. DIY works below $3,000/month with fewer than 30 campaigns in regular niches. Above $5,000/month, with 30+ campaigns or in niches where ads are often declined (crypto, betting), an agency or managed service usually earns its fee through the time it gives back and the moderation work it takes over. In between it comes down to what your hours are worth: our arithmetic puts the break-even at roughly $3,500–$4,500 of monthly spend. We do not publish a measured approval or CPM gap between managed and self-managed campaigns.
Table of Contents
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1. Should You Hire a Telegram Ads Agency or Manage Campaigns Yourself?
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2. What Does Managing Telegram Ads Yourself Actually Involve?
TL;DR — Key Takeaway: Most advertisers spending under $3,000/month in easy-to-moderate niches (SaaS, eCommerce, news) should manage Telegram Ads themselves using a platform with automation tools. Advertisers in restricted niches (crypto, betting) or spending $5,000+/month are the ones professional management is for: what you pay for is the time it gives back and the moderation work it takes over. On our arithmetic — your time at $40/hour and an assumed 10% efficiency gain — a managed service at $1,000/month + 10% of ad spend breaks even at roughly $3,500–$4,500 of monthly spend in regular niches. We publish no measured performance gap between managed and self-managed campaigns.
1. Should You Hire a Telegram Ads Agency or Manage Campaigns Yourself?
Whether you should hire a Telegram Ads agency or manage campaigns yourself depends on your monthly ad spend, your niche’s moderation difficulty, and how many campaigns you run. Under $3,000/month in straightforward niches like SaaS or eCommerce, managing campaigns yourself with automation tools is cheaper: a fixed management fee is too large a share of the budget. Advertisers in restricted niches like crypto or betting, or those running 30+ campaigns across multiple cabinet types, usually benefit from professional management, where moderation expertise and daily optimization take the routine work off their hands.
Telegram Ads is not like Google Ads or Meta. You set the CPM bid yourself — no bidding algorithm learns it over weeks — and there is no massive ecosystem of agencies competing for your business. The platform is young, the tooling is sparse, and the rules are different.
This creates a genuine dilemma for advertisers. You have three realistic options for Telegram Ads management:
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DIY — manage everything yourself through Telegram’s native Ads Manager or a third-party platform
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Hire a Telegram Ads agency — outsource fully to specialists who handle strategy, creative, and optimization
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Use a managed service — a hybrid where a manager runs your campaigns with the platform’s automation tools
Each approach has real trade-offs. This guide uses performance data from 500,000+ campaigns across 200+ advertisers on the ADSLY platform to help you make an informed decision. We are not going to pretend outsourcing is always the answer — for many advertisers, DIY is the right call. For others, it is an expensive mistake.
2. What Does Managing Telegram Ads Yourself Actually Involve?
Let us start with what actually happens when you manage Telegram Ads yourself. Understanding the daily workload is essential before you can compare it to the cost of professional help.
Time Investment
Here is our working estimate of the daily time investment at different scales — an estimate for the arithmetic below, not a measured figure:
Working estimate, not a measurement
| Scale | Daily Time (Manual) | Daily Time (With Automation) | Key Tasks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–10 campaigns | 30–60 min | 15–30 min | CPM adjustments, moderation re-submissions, basic monitoring |
| 10–30 campaigns | 1–2 hours | 30–45 min | Above + channel research, A/B testing, budget reallocation |
| 30–100 campaigns | 2–4 hours | 45–90 min | Above + multi-cabinet management, creative rotation, reporting |
| 100+ campaigns | 4–7 hours | 1.5–3 hours | Full-time role without bulk tools |
The critical insight: Telegram Ads requires daily attention. Unlike Google Ads where you can set a campaign and check back weekly, Telegram’s auction dynamics, moderation queue, and lack of automated bidding mean that campaigns left unattended for even 24 hours can waste significant budget on underperforming placements.
Pros and Cons of DIY
Pros
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Full control over creative and strategy
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No management fees
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Deep understanding of your product translates to better ad copy
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Faster iteration — no agency back-and-forth
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Learn the platform, build internal expertise
Cons
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Steep learning curve (Telegram Ads is not intuitive)
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Daily time commitment scales with campaigns
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Moderation rejections in restricted niches waste time and budget
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No benchmark data to compare your performance
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Mistakes are expensive when you do not know the platform
The arithmetic: We do not publish a measured figure for the “learning tax” of the first month, but its size is easy to work out. Every 10% you overpay per join on a $5,000/month budget costs $500 in the first month alone — a real cost of DIY management that does not appear on any invoice.
3. What Types of Telegram Ads Agencies Exist?
The Telegram Ads agency market is still young compared to Google or Meta: pricing is not standardized, there is no public price list we could cite, and quality varies widely. So this section gives no market price ranges — ask each provider for the total at your budget. Here is what the landscape looks like in 2026.
Types of Agencies
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Full-service Telegram agencies: Dedicated to Telegram Ads exclusively. They typically manage strategy, creative, channel research, moderation, and optimization, usually for a monthly retainer plus a percentage of ad spend.
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Digital marketing agencies with a Telegram desk: Larger agencies that added Telegram Ads as a service line. Usually less specialized but can bundle with other channels, with Telegram folded into a broader retainer.
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Freelance Telegram Ads managers: Individual specialists, often found in Telegram groups or on freelance platforms. The cheapest option on paper; quality varies dramatically.
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Managed service platforms: Technology companies that combine software (dashboards, rules engine, AI text tools) with human account management. Ours is priced openly: $1,000/month + 10% of ad spend, 20% in high-risk niches. The team reuses a single toolset across clients instead of running everything manually.
What Good Agencies Actually Do
A competent Telegram Ads agency provides value in five specific areas:
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Moderation expertise. They know how to write ad copy that passes moderation in difficult niches. This alone can be worth the management fee for crypto, betting, or adult-adjacent businesses.
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Channel research and targeting. Since August 2026 all three cabinet types share one targeting form: countries, languages, topics, devices, or specific channels, bots and search. Choosing between audience targeting and a hand-picked channel list — and then finding the channels — is where experience shows.
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Multi-cabinet strategy. Running campaigns across TON, Euro, and Stars simultaneously requires understanding what each cabinet type can do. Euro allows website links, in-stream video and a custom button; TON links to Telegram destinations only, and TON-funded ads are not served in Russia, Ukraine, Israel or Palestine. Experienced agencies use these differences systematically.
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Creative optimization at scale. A/B testing ad copy across dozens of channels and cabinet types produces more data than most individual advertisers can process.
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Time savings. At 30+ campaigns, the 2–4 hours per day of manual management has a real opportunity cost.
4. How Much Does a Telegram Ads Agency Cost vs DIY?
The true cost of each approach is more nuanced than the sticker price. Since no reliable public figure exists for agency fees, the table compares what can be computed: DIY with your own time priced in, and our managed service, whose fee is published. Put any agency quote through the same arithmetic — its base fee plus its percentage of your spend.
Monthly cost on top of ad spend. “Your time” is valued at an assumed $40/hour; the hours are our working estimate, not a measurement.
| Monthly Ad Spend | DIY (Platform Only) | Managed Service (10%) | Managed Service, High-Risk Niche (20%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000/mo | $0 fee + ~15 hrs ($600 time) = $600 total cost | $1,000 fee + 10% ($100) = $1,100 total cost | $1,000 fee + 20% ($200) = $1,200 total cost |
| $5,000/mo | $0 fee + ~30 hrs ($1,200 time) = $1,200 total cost | $1,000 fee + 10% ($500) = $1,500 total cost | $1,000 fee + 20% ($1,000) = $2,000 total cost |
| $20,000/mo | $0 fee + ~60 hrs ($2,400 time) = $2,400 total cost | $1,000 fee + 10% ($2,000) = $3,000 total cost | $1,000 fee + 20% ($4,000) = $5,000 total cost |
| $50,000/mo | $0 fee + ~90 hrs ($3,600 time) = $3,600 total cost | $1,000 fee + 10% ($5,000) = $6,000 total cost | $1,000 fee + 20% ($10,000) = $11,000 total cost |
A few things stand out from this comparison:
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At low budgets ($1,000–$3,000/mo), DIY makes the most sense. A fixed $1,000 management fee alone equals 33–100% of your ad spend, which is difficult to justify.
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At mid budgets ($5,000–$20,000/mo), the calculus shifts. Your time cost for DIY management is substantial: by our estimate it covers $1,200 of a $1,500 fee at $5,000 and $2,400 of a $3,000 fee at $20,000 in a regular niche.
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At high budgets ($20,000+/mo), the percentage is what you are paying for. Time covers $2,400 of the $3,000 fee at $20,000 and $3,600 of $6,000 at $50,000, so the service has to make your spend 3–5% more efficient to close the gap — and 13–15% at the 20% rate.
How to read this: We do not publish a measured CPM gap between managed and self-managed accounts, so check the arithmetic against your own numbers. At $20,000/month ad spend in a regular niche the managed-service fee is $3,000 and DIY costs about $2,400 of your time, so the service pays for itself once it makes your spend 3% more efficient.
5. Why Is Moderation the Biggest Challenge in Telegram Ads?
If there is one area where outsourcing Telegram Ads delivers disproportionate value, it is moderation. On accounts we operate, 99.9% of reviewed ads end up approved on Stars, 95.6% on Euro and 86.8% on TON (all niches, 3 October 2026) — so on TON roughly one campaign in eight is declined. The picture also varies by niche.
Approval Rates by Cabinet Type
Source: accounts we operate, all niches. Approval measured 3 October 2026; review time measured on 13,199 campaigns in September 2026
| Cabinet Type | Declined Ad Escalated Through Adsly | Approval Rate | Decision Within 3 Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| TON | No | 86.8% | Over 98% |
| Euro | Yes, to a person | 95.6% | Over 98% |
| Stars | No; Stars is only for channel and bot owners spending Stars their channel earned | 99.9% | Over 98% |
For advertisers in straightforward niches (SaaS, eCommerce, education), moderation is a minor annoyance. You might get rejected once or twice, adjust your copy, and move on.
For advertisers in restricted niches — crypto, betting, forex, adult-adjacent, or financial services — moderation is the single biggest operational challenge. We do not publish rejection rates by niche, but copy in these verticals has more ways to be declined, and for an inexperienced advertiser campaign management can turn into an endless loop of write-submit-reject-rewrite.
How Expert Management Handles Declines
Experienced Telegram Ads managers know the specific phrases, claims, and formatting patterns that trigger rejections. They maintain libraries of pre-approved copy templates for each niche and cabinet type. The result:
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Fewer rewrites. Copy written by someone who knows the triggers needs fewer resubmissions. We do not publish a managed-versus-DIY approval gap: the measured figures above cover all accounts and all niches together
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Auto-recreate re-submits a declined ad every hour until it is approved, with AI Recreate writing a new text for each attempt
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Separate creative guidelines per cabinet type — approval differs (86.8% on TON, 95.6% on Euro, 99.9% on Stars) and only a declined Euro ad can be escalated to a person — so each text is written for the account it will run on
If you are spending $10,000+/month in a restricted niche, every declined campaign is budget that sits unspent until the ad is rewritten and resubmitted. This is where a competent Telegram Ads agency or managed service is most useful.
6. Which Niches Need Professional Telegram Ads Management?
Not every advertiser needs the same level of support. Here is a niche-by-niche assessment:
Our judgement of moderation difficulty, not measured approval rates — we publish none by niche
| Niche | Moderation Difficulty | Recommended Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Crypto / DeFi / Web3 | High | Managed service or agency — moderation expertise critical |
| Finance / Forex / Betting | Very High | Agency or managed service — copy here has the most ways to be declined |
| Adult-Adjacent | Extreme | Specialist agency only — requires deep moderation knowledge |
| Traffic Arbitrage | Medium | DIY with automation tools for experienced arbitrageurs; managed service for newcomers |
| eCommerce / Retail | Low | DIY works well with a good platform |
| SaaS / Apps | Low | DIY works well; consider outsourcing at 50+ campaigns |
| Education / Infobiz | Low–Medium | DIY with AI copy generation for efficiency |
| News / Media | Low | DIY — simple moderation, limited agency ROI |
The pattern is clear: the harder your niche is to moderate, the more valuable professional management becomes. If you sell SaaS products and your ads get approved on the first try, paying a percentage of your spend for management is hard to justify. If you run crypto campaigns and your ads keep getting rejected, that same percentage buys back the hours you lose to rewrites.
7. What Is a Managed Service and How Does It Compare?
A third option has emerged that sits between full DIY and traditional agency outsourcing: the managed service model. This is where a platform provides both the software tools (dashboard, automation, analytics) and human expertise (campaign creation, moderation handling, strategy).
How the Hybrid Model Works
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Tooling removes the repetitive work: AI-generated ad copy drafts, AI recreate for declined ads, bulk edits across cabinets, CPM bid automation, and IF/THEN rules. The media buyer reviews and decides; the tools save the clicks. This covers the busy-work that otherwise has to be done by hand.
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Human experts handle strategy: Account managers focus on high-level decisions — budget allocation, niche-specific moderation strategies, channel research, and scaling plans.
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You retain visibility: Unlike a black-box agency, you have full access to the dashboard with hourly performance data and complete campaign history.
What we can and cannot show: We do not publish a measured performance gap between automated and manually managed campaigns. What our data does show is a correlation: TON accounts that have run 1,000 or more campaigns pay 0.69 TON per thousand impressions against 2.71 TON for accounts with fewer than ten, and 54–58% of the larger accounts run automation rules against 4% of the smallest (3 October 2026). Large accounts are different advertisers in different countries, so this is not proof that automation causes the lower price.
Managed Service vs. Traditional Agency
| Factor | Traditional Agency | Managed Service |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | No public price list; usually a retainer plus a percentage of spend | $1,000/mo + 10% of ad spend (20% in high-risk niches) |
| Optimization | Depends on the agency’s tools and working hours | Automation rules and Auto CPM run around the clock; a manager reviews the account daily |
| Moderation handling | Human rewrite and resubmit | Auto-recreate re-submits every hour, AI Recreate writes a new text, a human rewrites the hard cases |
| Reporting | Weekly/monthly reports | Dashboard with hourly data, plus reports on the schedule you agree |
| Scale limit | Limited by team size | Bulk creation and bulk edits across cabinets |
| Niche moderation | Depends on agency experience | Data-driven: moderation patterns from 500,000+ campaigns |
| Transparency | Depends on whether they give you account access | Full dashboard access, complete visibility |
The managed service model is not the right fit for everyone. If you need custom creative work (video production, brand strategy), a full-service agency delivers more. But for the core task of Telegram Ads campaign management — creating campaigns, passing moderation, optimizing bids, and scaling spend — a manager working with automation tools covers the routine without a second team. Whether it performs better for you is something to measure, not assume: agree one conversion event and compare.
Not sure which approach is right for you?
Talk to our team about managed Telegram Ads. We handle campaign creation, moderation, and optimization — including in crypto, betting, and other restricted verticals.
Chat on Telegram Learn About Managed Service
$1,000/month + 10% of ad spend (20% in high-risk niches).
8. When Should You Outsource Your Telegram Ads?
Here is a simple framework to help you decide. Answer these five questions honestly:
Choose DIY if:
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Your monthly ad spend is under $3,000
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You are in a low-moderation niche (eCommerce, SaaS, News)
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You have time to manage campaigns daily (30–60 min)
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You want to learn the platform and build internal expertise
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You run fewer than 20 active campaigns
Choose a managed service if:
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Your monthly ad spend is above the $3,500–$4,500 break-even, up to about $50,000
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You are in a restricted niche (crypto, betting, finance)
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You want automation rules running around the clock with a manager reviewing daily
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You manage 20–200+ campaigns across multiple cabinet types
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You want full transparency and your own dashboard access
Choose a traditional agency if:
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Your monthly ad spend exceeds $50,000
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You need custom creative production (video, branded content)
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Telegram Ads is part of a broader multi-channel strategy requiring unified management
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You require white-label reporting for your own clients
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You prefer a dedicated human account manager with no AI involvement
The Budget Threshold Rule
A useful rule of thumb: outsource when the management fee is less than what you get back. At $1,000/month plus 10% of spend, an assumed 10% efficiency gain pays for the percentage part, and the fixed $1,000 has to be covered by the management time you get back. With your time at $40/hour (see the cost table above) that happens at roughly $3,500–$4,500 of monthly ad spend in regular niches — the same figure as in our cost comparison. In high-risk niches the percentage is 20%, so the same arithmetic needs more hours saved: count how many your declined ads take.
Red Flags When Evaluating Agencies
The Telegram Ads agency market is unregulated, and quality varies enormously. Watch for these warning signs:
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No niche experience. Ask for case studies in your specific vertical. A crypto agency may be useless for eCommerce and vice versa.
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No transparency. If they will not give you dashboard access or share hourly analytics, they may be hiding poor performance behind cherry-picked metrics.
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Locked-in contracts. The Telegram Ads market moves fast. Month-to-month agreements protect you if performance does not meet expectations.
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Claims of “guaranteed” results. No one can guarantee specific CPMs or CTRs on Telegram Ads. The auction is dynamic and niche-dependent.
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No automation. In 2026, agencies managing 50+ campaigns without automation tools are working harder, not smarter.
Stop managing Telegram Ads manually. ADSLY runs Telegram Ads for 200+ advertisers — and every new Euro cabinet is a World account for every available country. All 3 cabinet types (TON, Euro, Stars). IF/THEN automation. Ad text optimization. Bulk edit 100+ campaigns in one click. Start free — 3-day Pro trial →
9. Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Telegram Ads agency charge?
There is no reliable public price list for Telegram Ads agencies, so we do not quote a market range. Agencies usually charge a monthly retainer, a percentage of ad spend, or both; the total depends on the number of campaigns, cabinet types managed, and whether the agency handles creative production and moderation. Ask for the total at your budget. For reference, our managed service is priced openly: $1,000/month plus 10% of ad spend, 20% in high-risk niches — $1,500 at $5,000 of monthly spend, $3,000 at $20,000.
Can I run Telegram Ads myself without an agency?
Yes. Telegram Ads can be managed directly through the Telegram Ads Manager or through third-party platforms like ADSLY. DIY management works well if you have the time to learn the platform, monitor campaigns daily, and handle moderation rejections. You can start DIY and move to a managed service once you scale beyond 20–30 active campaigns.
What niches are hardest to get approved on Telegram Ads?
In our experience crypto, betting, and adult-adjacent copy has the most ways to be declined on Telegram Ads. We do not publish approval rates by niche; across all niches on accounts we operate, 99.9% of reviewed ads end up approved on Stars, 95.6% on Euro and 86.8% on TON (3 October 2026). Experienced agencies or managed services with moderation expertise cut the number of rewrites in difficult niches.
When should I outsource my Telegram Ads management?
Consider outsourcing when: (1) you spend more than $5,000/month on Telegram Ads, (2) you operate in a high-rejection niche like crypto or betting, (3) you manage more than 30 campaigns across multiple cabinets, (4) your team lacks Telegram Ads expertise, or (5) the time spent managing campaigns exceeds the cost of professional management.
What is the difference between a Telegram Ads agency and a managed service?
A traditional agency sells its account managers’ hours. A managed service pairs a manager with the platform’s own tooling: bulk campaign creation, AI text drafts, automation rules and Auto CPM that run around the clock, and re-submission of declined ads. You also keep access to the dashboard. Compare the two on the total fee at your budget and on what you are allowed to see, not on the label.
How do I choose the right Telegram Ads agency?
Look for: (1) proven experience with your specific niche, (2) ability to manage all cabinet types (TON, Euro, Stars), (3) transparent reporting with hourly analytics, (4) a clear moderation strategy for your vertical, (5) references from advertisers at your budget level, and (6) whether they use automation and AI tools to optimize campaigns at scale.
Ready to try Telegram Ads?
Whether you manage campaigns yourself or use our managed service, ADSLY gives you the tools and data to succeed. AI campaign creation, hourly analytics, automation rules, and moderation expertise in every niche.
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