Promote a Telegram Bot or a Channel? Cost per Start vs Subscriber

Every Telegram ad ends in one link, and that link decides more than the text or the CPM does. Send the tap to a channel and you buy a reader who may stay for years. Send it to a bot and you buy one press of Start, three to six times cheaper, which your bot then has to turn into something. Advertisers argue about this constantly, usually with no numbers behind the argument.

We have the numbers. Adsly Pro Panel holds 551,607 Telegram Ads campaigns from 442 accounts with 1,285,233,150 impressions. Below, measured on 19 October 2026: what a subscriber and a bot start cost by niche, which link format wastes money, when your own website is the right destination, and how to tie every join and start to the ad that produced it.

Promote a Telegram channel or a bot: the short answer

Promote a bot when the first tap is what you pay for; promote a channel when you are building an audience you will sell to for months.

• A bot start is cheaper. Euro accounts: €0.52 per start against €3.29 per subscriber. TON-currency accounts: 0.143 TON against 0.450 TON.
• Bot clicks convert more often. 39.7% of Euro bot-ad clicks became starts; 11.4% of channel-ad clicks became joins.
• Link format matters as much as destination. A Euro channel campaign linked to the channel username paid €1.54 per subscriber; one linked to a single post paid €4.46.
• The niche can flip it. In crypto signals a TON subscriber cost 0.445 TON against 1.141 TON per start; in airdrops 0.055 against 0.072.
• Your own website needs a Euro account. Self-serve Telegram Ads does not allow external links. On Euro accounts 42.1% of campaigns link out.

What a Telegram ad can link to

A Telegram ad is up to 160 characters of text, spaces included, plus one button that carries the link from the URL field. The self-serve platform is explicit: “All links included in the Text and URL field must link to a channel or bot on Telegram, using the format t.me/link or @link. Links to external sites are not allowed.” That leaves a public channel, a bot, or a Mini App opened through its bot’s t.me link (81,771 Mini App campaigns ran on TON accounts in our base).

A Euro account adds the fourth destination: your own website, landing page or app store page. Whatever you choose, Telegram’s Ad Policies apply to it: one link per ad, no URL shorteners (rule 3), a profile image and a description on the promoted channel or bot (4.1), bots that “respond to commands properly” on mobile and desktop (4.2), and a channel with at least one post in the two weeks before review (4.5).

How we measured destination: Telegram records the goal of each campaign. “Join” means a channel, “Start bot” a bot, “Launch bot app” a Mini App, and an external URL in the ad marks a website. We did not use the targeting mode (channels, users, bots, search): that field says where the ad was shown, not where it sent people.

Cost per subscriber vs cost per bot start: the totals

All campaigns with spend, by account currency. Euro: 120,378 campaigns, 112 accounts, ads dated 2 October 2023 – 19 October 2026. TON: 254,510 campaigns, 266 accounts, 18 April 2024 – 19 October 2026. Stars: 7,036 campaigns, 15 accounts, 26 February 2025 – 17 October 2026. CTR and cost per click use campaigns with clicks ≤ views and CTR ≤ 25%. Measured in Adsly Pro Panel.

Account	Destination	Campaigns (accounts)	CTR	Cost per click	Clicks → action	Cost per action
Euro	Channel (join)	37,885 (50)	0.89%	€0.376	11.4%	€3.29 per subscriber
Euro	Bot (start)	25,105 (48)	1.12%	€0.206	39.7%	€0.52 per start
Euro	Own website	51,902 (41)	0.69%	€0.266	—	—
TON	Channel (join)	95,902 (162)	2.68%	0.050 TON	11.1%	0.450 TON
TON	Bot (start)	106,566 (137)	1.89%	0.026 TON	17.9%	0.143 TON
TON	Mini App (launch)	51,730 (50)	1.64%	0.104 TON	23.9%	0.434 TON
Stars	Bot (start)	7,012 (13)	2.70%	14.4 Stars	46.9%	30.7 Stars

The gap holds however you cut it. Ads dated 2026 only: Euro €1.46 per subscriber against €0.49 per start (28,396 and 24,375 campaigns). The median single campaign with 5,000+ impressions: €4.67 per subscriber against €0.51 per start on Euro, 0.401 against 0.172 TON.

Why starts are cheaper: a tap on a bot ad opens a chat whose only next move is Start. A tap on a channel ad opens a feed the reader can scroll without joining. One is a reflex; the other is a decision about what will sit in someone’s chat list.

Most of the Pro Panel base is TON-currency accounts, published here as market data. Adsly opens Euro accounts.

Link the channel, not a post

The Euro subscriber price above is pulled up by one habit: 79.1% of Euro channel campaigns (33,658 of 42,578) link to a specific post rather than to the channel. Those campaigns come from 22 accounts, and one of them holds 69.4% of their impressions. Strip post links out and a Euro subscriber costs €1.48 (6,575 campaigns, 40 accounts, 16.0% of clicks joined).

Campaigns with spend, by link format:

Destination	Link format	Euro campaigns (accounts)	Euro clicks → action	Euro cost per action	TON campaigns (accounts)	TON clicks → action	TON cost per action
Channel	Channel username	4,958 (36)	14.8%	€1.54	76,969 (142)	11.4%	0.414 TON
Channel	Invite link	1,500 (8)	15.7%	€1.81	12,354 (29)	9.2%	0.829 TON
Channel	Link to one post	31,310 (22)	9.7%	€4.46	1,519 (15)	5.0%	1.129 TON
Bot	With start parameter	24,576 (37)	40.4%	€0.48	84,145 (79)	22.2%	0.128 TON
Bot	No parameter	529 (20)	28.4%	€1.29	22,417 (88)	13.4%	0.170 TON

A post link sends the reader into the middle of a feed; the channel username opens its first screen with the Join button in view. If you pay for joins, link the channel. Tagged bot links converted better too, though that partly reflects who tags: advertisers who track every campaign also tend to build better bots.

Channel vs bot by niche: Euro accounts

Same base and rules as the totals table, niche sets as used across our guides (words in the ad title, text or link). Cost per action is per subscriber for channels and per start for bots. ”—” means the campaigns recorded no clicks or no actions.

Niche	Destination	Campaigns (accounts)	CTR	Cost per click	Clicks → action	Cost per action
Crypto (all)	Channel	1,065 (11)	1.93%	€0.335	32.1%	€1.05
Crypto (all)	Bot	1,302 (13)	1.23%	€0.306	34.6%	€0.88
Crypto (all)	Website	2,059 (11)	0.44%	€0.511	—	—
Crypto signals	Channel	67 (1)	2.64%	€0.358	37.1%	€0.97
Crypto signals	Bot	8 (1)	0.93%	€1.101	53.8%	€2.05
Forex	Channel	111 (12)	1.75%	€0.054	10.0%	€0.54
Forex	Bot	157 (5)	0.75%	€0.649	42.1%	€1.54
Forex	Website	123 (8)	0.80%	€0.028	—	—
Trading and signals	Channel	104 (13)	0.87%	€0.371	12.4%	€2.99
Trading and signals	Bot	1,170 (12)	1.10%	€0.644	54.4%	€1.18
Gambling	Channel	59 (9)	0.49%	€0.326	15.4%	€2.11
Gambling	Bot	259 (12)	1.52%	€0.271	40.4%	€0.67
Sports betting	Channel	52 (8)	0.48%	€0.292	14.3%	€2.05
Sports betting	Bot	203 (10)	1.31%	€0.147	29.8%	€0.49
VPN	Channel	74 (5)	10.02%	€0.100	9.2%	€1.09
VPN	Bot	5,613 (20)	1.89%	€0.117	59.3%	€0.20
Media and news	Channel	1,422 (20)	0.91%	€0.322	9.7%	€3.33
Media and news	Bot	859 (26)	0.98%	€0.149	53.0%	€0.28
Media and news	Website	434 (19)	0.95%	€0.134	—	—
Crypto exchange	Channel	7 (2)	0.28%	€1.033	12.3%	€8.38
Crypto exchange	Bot	72 (11)	1.76%	€0.257	40.1%	€0.64
Trading bots	Channel	4 (2)	0.10%	€1.768	0.0%	—
Trading bots	Bot	7 (4)	0.34%	€0.729	30.8%	€2.37
Airdrops	Channel	1 (1)	—	—	—	—
Airdrops	Bot	6 (2)	—	—	—	—

Small rows are printed with their campaign counts so you can weigh them; the Euro forex and crypto-signal rows, for instance, come from a handful of accounts.

Channel vs bot by niche: TON accounts

The deepest niche data sits on TON-currency accounts, published as market data. Cost per click and cost per action are in TON.

Niche	Destination	Campaigns (accounts)	CTR	Cost per click	Clicks → action	Cost per action
Crypto (all)	Channel	27,523 (48)	2.23%	0.035	11.7%	0.300
Crypto (all)	Bot	11,506 (63)	1.77%	0.020	19.9%	0.103
Crypto signals	Channel	13,368 (26)	3.17%	0.060	13.5%	0.445
Crypto signals	Bot	527 (19)	2.14%	0.309	27.1%	1.141
Airdrops	Channel	1,973 (11)	1.36%	0.010	18.6%	0.055
Airdrops	Bot	585 (27)	1.62%	0.009	12.7%	0.072
Crypto exchange	Channel	1,712 (7)	1.71%	0.089	12.0%	0.745
Crypto exchange	Bot	1,053 (18)	1.45%	0.032	13.5%	0.234
Trading bots	Channel	45 (6)	4.48%	0.044	6.0%	0.733
Trading bots	Bot	283 (11)	2.70%	0.998	60.0%	1.662
Forex	Channel	12,291 (43)	4.52%	0.051	11.2%	0.458
Forex	Bot	2,341 (37)	1.67%	0.105	24.5%	0.428
Gambling	Channel	480 (16)	4.98%	0.019	5.3%	0.356
Gambling	Bot	4,979 (54)	2.52%	0.017	19.9%	0.086
Sports betting	Channel	370 (11)	5.09%	0.018	5.2%	0.341
Sports betting	Bot	3,965 (49)	2.33%	0.015	21.0%	0.071
VPN	Bot	522 (13)	1.25%	0.047	23.8%	0.196
Media and news	Channel	5,636 (35)	1.35%	0.138	17.3%	0.798
Media and news	Bot	2,260 (47)	0.72%	0.063	22.0%	0.285

Read the pattern, not just the totals: channel ads often win the click (forex 4.52% against 1.67%, gambling 4.98% against 2.52%) and lose the join. A gambling channel turned 5.3% of its clicks into subscribers, a gambling bot 19.9% into starts.

Which destination gets declined

Share of campaigns Telegram declined, all account types, campaign counts in brackets:

Niche	Channel	Bot	Own website
All campaigns	6.0% (185,576)	5.5% (217,190)	2.6% (59,459)
Crypto (all)	0.9% (44,935)	1.4% (21,173)	0.5% (2,220)
Forex	2.5% (15,303)	4.5% (5,531)	0.6% (166)
Gambling	1.1% (856)	6.4% (8,669)	65.0% (283)
Sports betting	1.3% (545)	4.3% (6,640)	58.6% (237)
VPN	0.0% (144)	1.1% (15,772)	0.0% (6)
Media and news	0.3% (8,576)	1.3% (7,166)	3.0% (496)

Gambling ads that linked straight to a website were declined about two times in three. That is why betting and casino advertisers in our base send 8,669 campaigns to bots and 283 to sites, and why licensed brands go through the official gambling account.

When promoting the channel wins

Pick a channel when the product is the content and the money comes later. A subscriber sees every post you publish, for free, for as long as they stay; a bot user sees what you send, within Telegram’s bot rules. For signals, analysis, news and community, the subscriber is the asset.

The data marks out where channels win on cost as well. Crypto signals: 0.445 TON per subscriber against 1.141 TON per start, on 13,368 channel campaigns. Airdrops: 0.055 against 0.072 TON. Trading-bot ads: 0.733 against 1.662 TON. Forex on Euro accounts: €0.54 against €1.54. These are niches where people actively look for a feed to follow.

Make the channel ad-ready before you pay: a profile image and a description (rule 4.1), a post inside the last two weeks (4.5), the channel’s language matching the ad (4.7), and a pinned post that tells a newcomer what they get. Link the channel username, not a post.

When Telegram bot advertising wins

Pick a bot when you need the user to do something now: answer three questions, get a trial key, open an account, pay. The start is cheap (€0.52, 0.143 TON) and the bot can qualify the user in the first message, which a channel cannot.

Bots also carry what channels lack. A start parameter tells you which ad brought the user. Payments run inside the chat: “Telegram Stars power all digital transactions between bots and users”, while physical goods may use other currencies and providers. A bot opens your Mini App with one more tap.

The strongest bot niches in our base: VPN (59.3% of Euro clicks became starts, €0.20 each, 5,613 campaigns), media bots (€0.28), sports betting (€0.49 Euro, 0.071 TON) and gambling (€0.67 Euro, 0.086 TON).

Two rules decide whether a bot ad survives review. Bots “must respond to commands properly” on mobile and desktop (4.2), and “mostly noninteractive bots designed to redirect elsewhere” are not allowed (4.3). A bot that only throws a link is a decline; a bot that gives value first and links second passes.

When your own website is the right destination

Send traffic to your own site when the conversion lives there: a broker sign-up, a SaaS trial, a store checkout, an app store page. Self-serve Telegram Ads cannot do it (“Links to external sites are not allowed”); a Euro account can.

How Euro advertisers in our base use it: 59,454 of 141,279 Euro campaigns (42.1%) link to an external site, from 42 of 114 Euro accounts, taking 18.3% of Euro spend and 29.5% of Euro impressions. Website ads click less, 0.69% CTR against 0.89% for channels and 1.12% for bots, at €0.266 per click. In 2026 a website click cost €0.163 on 33,805 campaigns, level with channel (€0.175) and bot (€0.189) clicks. 81.0% of these campaigns carry UTM tags, so the site’s analytics sees every click.

The site must pass the same review: no automatic redirects to another page or domain (4.3), no shorteners (3), and no “websites unavailable from targeted locations” (4.2). If your site is blocked in the country you target, put a bot in front of it.

How to attribute joins and starts to each ad

Telegram Ads counts joins and starts per campaign. To know which ad brought a user who later paid, tag each ad.

Bots: start parameter. t.me/your_bot?start=ad17 delivers /start ad17 to your bot when the user opens it. Allowed characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _ and -; up to 64 characters; Telegram recommends base64url for anything else. 97.5% of Euro bot campaigns in our base use one; 75.5% on TON accounts.

Mini Apps: startapp. t.me/your_bot/app?startapp=ad17 passes the value “in the start_param field and in the GET parameter tgWebAppStartParam”. 89.1% of 85,814 Mini App campaigns in our base carry a parameter. Mini App launch counts on Euro accounts are thin (342 on 3,516 campaigns), so record opens yourself; our Mini App guide covers the setup.

Channels: one invite link per campaign. Since February 2021 admins can create extra invite links with a limited duration or number of uses and “see which users joined using each invite link”. A link can also require approval, turning each join into a request you review. In our base, invite links cost more per subscriber than the username (€1.81 against €1.54 Euro), so use them for measurement, not by default.

Websites: UTM and click IDs. Put the campaign ID in the URL and send conversions back. Pro Panel takes postbacks from your tracker and shows leads and revenue next to Telegram’s impressions and clicks.

Funnel patterns by niche

These are the structures we see in the base, described as patterns, without advertiser names.

• Crypto signals: a channel first (14,309 channel campaigns against 1,650 to bots). Free calls and analysis in the channel; paid access sold through a bot.
• Forex brokers: the channel builds trust (15,303 channel campaigns), a bot qualifies experience and deposit size, and on a Euro account the ad or the bot sends the qualified lead to the broker’s site.
• Trading bots and copy trading: the bot is the product, so link the bot. Trading-and-signals ads go 12,134 to bots against 2,235 to channels.
• Gambling and sports betting: a bot that answers, registers and hands over, with the official gambling account for brands that need the full route.
• VPN: a bot that issues the trial key in the first message (15,772 bot campaigns, 144 to channels). See our VPN guide.
• Media and news: the channel is the product. Media also runs more Mini App campaigns than any other niche here (10,315).
• Exchanges and airdrops: exchanges lean to bots (3,956 against 1,744), airdrops to channels (3,930 against 861), where a join is cheapest.

Run all three destinations from one Euro account

The best funnels use more than one destination: a channel for reach, a bot for qualification, a site for the sale. Self-serve accounts close the third door. A Euro account opened through Adsly, the official Telegram Ads partner, keeps all of them open:

• channel, bot, Mini App and your own website or app store link, all from one account;
• opened in 48 hours, no KYC, from €650, of which €500 goes to your ad balance;
• every Euro account is World: all available countries, chosen per campaign, including Russia and Ukraine;
• Pro Panel, the strongest panel for Telegram Ads: bulk edits across hundreds of campaigns, automation rules, hourly analytics and postbacks to tie revenue to each ad.

Want the funnel built and run for you? Managed service does that. The panel itself is described on /platform/.

FAQ

Is it cheaper to promote a Telegram bot or a channel?

A bot start is cheaper on average: €0.52 against €3.29 per channel subscriber on Euro accounts in our Pro Panel (25,105 and 37,885 campaigns), 0.143 against 0.450 TON on TON accounts. In crypto signals, airdrops and trading-bot ads a subscriber came cheaper.

Is a bot start worth as much as a channel subscriber?

No. A start is one tap; a subscriber keeps receiving your posts. Compare cost per paying user: put a start parameter or invite link on every ad and count who pays.

Can I advertise a Telegram bot on Telegram Ads?

Yes. Bots are a standard destination: 217,190 campaigns in our base send users to a bot. The bot must respond to commands on mobile and desktop and must not be a mostly noninteractive redirect.

Can a Telegram ad link to my website?

Not on self-serve accounts: ads.telegram.org states “Links to external sites are not allowed.” A Euro account can link to your site, landing or app store; 42.1% of Euro campaigns in our base do.

How do I track which ad brought a bot user?

Give every ad its own start parameter, such as t.me/your_bot?start=ad17. The bot receives /start ad17. Up to 64 characters from A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _ and -.

Should I link a channel post or the channel itself?

The channel itself, if you pay for joins. Euro campaigns linked to the channel username paid €1.54 per subscriber, campaigns linked to a single post €4.46.

Which account do I need to promote a bot, a channel and a site together?

A Euro account. Adsly opens one in 48 hours, from €650 with €500 on your ad balance, and every destination works from it.

To launch, write to @adsly_pro or order on /cabinet/.

Sources

• Telegram Ads: overview — “type up to 160 characters, add a Telegram link to promote”.
• Telegram Ads: getting started — links must go to “a channel or bot on Telegram”; “Links to external sites are not allowed.”
• Telegram Ad Policies — rules 1, 3, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5 and 4.7.
• Telegram Bot Features: deep linking — start parameter format and length.
• Telegram Mini Apps: direct links — startapp, start_param, tgWebAppStartParam.
• Telegram Stars payments for bots — digital goods in Stars, physical goods with other providers.
• Telegram API: invite links — expiry, usage limits, join requests, importers.
• Telegram blog, 23 February 2021: expiring invite links — extra links and who joined through each.
• Adsly Pro Panel measurements, 19 October 2026: 551,607 campaigns, 442 accounts, 1,285,233,150 impressions.