Telegram KOL promotion means paying the person who runs a channel to talk about your project – not buying an ad slot from Telegram itself. The two are constantly confused, and they behave nothing alike.
KOLs, Not Telegram Ads
| Telegram KOL | Telegram Ads (official) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who publishes | The channel owner, in their own voice | Telegram, as a labelled ad block |
| Reads as | A recommendation | An advertisement |
| Format | Post, pinned message, ongoing mentions | Short text under a channel post |
| Targeting | By channel and its audience | By topic and language |
| We offer this | Yes, as standard | On request, rarely worth it |
We sell the first as standard and the second only on request. The reason is simple: a labelled ad block reaches a crypto audience that has learned to scroll past labelled ad blocks, and the same budget spent on a channel whose readers trust the person writing produces a different result.
Why Telegram Changed in 2026
On 21 July 2026 Telegram announced a native, non-custodial wallet rolling out across the app to its full user base – over 1 billion monthly users, as announced by Pavel Durov in March 2025. That removes the longest step in the funnel: a reader who sees a project no longer has to leave the app, install something and fund it before they can act.
For a launch, that shortening matters more than raw reach does.
How KOLs Are Chosen
Subscriber counts are the easiest number on Telegram to buy and the least useful to read. Selection runs on views:
- View-to-subscriber ratio across recent posts. A channel with 200,000 subscribers averaging 3,000 views is a bought list, and the ratio exposes it immediately.
- Promotion density. A channel that ran fifteen paid posts last month has trained its readers to ignore paid posts.
- Comment behaviour. Real communities argue. Purchased ones post emojis.
- Audience overlap. Buying five channels that share most of their readers means paying five times for one audience.
What Is Measured
| Metric | Why |
|---|---|
| Views per post | Reported by Telegram itself, so hard to dispute |
| Joins to your channel | Attributable per placement with a unique invite link |
| Retention after 7 days | Separates a spike from an audience |
| Wallet connections | The only metric reflecting intent rather than attention |
Retention is the one to insist on. A placement can deliver a large join count and lose most of it inside a week, and only the second measurement tells you which happened.
Related
Channel placement is one route. Telegram channel placement covers the buying side in detail, Telegram and Discord activity covers keeping a channel alive once people arrive, and crypto influencer marketing compares Telegram against X, YouTube and TikTok on measured reach.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you run official Telegram Ads?
Not as a standard product. It can be arranged on request, but the approval process is slow and awkward enough that it is rarely worth it – and the labelled ad format underperforms a channel-owner post with the same budget. If you specifically want the official product, say so and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.
How many channels does a campaign need?
Fewer than most projects expect. Overlap between large crypto channels is heavy, so a handful of well-chosen placements reaches more distinct people than twenty cheap ones.
Are posts marked as advertising?
On reputable channels, yes, and that is the correct outcome. Unmarked promotion is what trains an audience to distrust a channel, which destroys the thing you are paying for.
Tell Us What You Are Launching
Send the project, the chain and the date. You get back a channel shortlist with view history and a realistic reach range, and nothing is committed until you approve it.