Advertising in Telegram through Yandex Direct: how it works and how to launch it

How advertising in Telegram through Direct works

People sometimes call this «Direct in Telegram» and look for such a section inside the app itself. But the settings are in Direct’s interface, and in the channel the follower just sees a ready-made ad post. Direct’s help documentation calls this direction «Messenger advertising»: ads are shown in Telegram and MAX channels that are partners of the Advertising Network.

There are two sides to the scheme:

• The channel owner connects it to the Advertising Network and grants admin rights to the network’s bot. The bot publishes ad posts according to the settings given.
• The advertiser creates a campaign in Direct, prepares the ad, and chooses how channels are picked.

The ad looks like an ordinary channel post — with an image, cards or video. It has a clickable title, text, a link to the site, an «Advertising» label, and a link to information about the advertiser. With automatic selection, such posts run in both public and private channels.

Where ads are shown

Direct has two placement types for Telegram. Yandex’s materials describe the choice like this: specify particular channels, or let the algorithms pick them — by geography, topic, content description, or user interests.

• Native post with automatic channel selection. The algorithm picks channels itself, based on the campaign’s settings. You set the channels’ geography, topics or content description, plus adjustments for the audience’s gender and age. Unwanted topics can be excluded. But with content-description selection, you can’t choose or exclude specific channels from a list.
• Native post with channel selection. You choose the channels yourself: by name or link, or through catalog filters — for example, by channel category, region, audience gender, or similar channels.

A Direct article for advertisers describes these same options the same way: selecting relevant channels with targeting by topic and region, or placement in specific channels.

How channels get into the Advertising Network

For the channel owner, this is a way to monetize: they get paid for views of ad posts. A channel is connected to the Yandex Advertising Network and the network’s bot is granted admin rights; ads go through moderation before publication, and the network has its own requirements for the channels themselves. More on which sites and apps make up the Yandex Advertising Network in a separate article.

How Direct in Telegram differs from Telegram Ads and seeding

Direct is one of several ways to advertise on Telegram. A short comparison is in the table, and a detailed comparison of the official platform, seeding, and exchanges is in a separate overview.

	Direct in Telegram	Telegram Ads	Seeding
Where the placement is bought	In Direct; channels are partners of the Yandex Advertising Network	On Telegram’s own advertising platform	Directly from the channel owner, or through an intermediary
How channels are chosen	Algorithm based on campaign settings, or you choose channels from a catalog	Ads run in public channels; specific channels can be specified	You choose the channel and negotiate terms
How it’s paid for	Per click with automatic channel selection, per impression with channel selection	Under the platform’s rules	By agreement with the channel owner
Who prepares the text	The advertiser, per Direct’s requirements	The advertiser, per the platform’s rules	Usually discussed with the channel’s author
Labeling	Yandex adds the label and token	The process is described in the labeling article	The process is described in the labeling article

Which campaigns and formats fit

Telegram placement options are configured in different campaign types — the names below are given as they appear in the help documentation as of the check date:

• Automatic channel selection — in a Unified Performance Campaign. This is a Direct campaign type for promotion in Search, on Maps, and in the Yandex Advertising Network. In placements, you choose «Messengers,» then the placement type — Telegram, MAX, or both at once. Strategies include «Maximum clicks» and «Maximum conversions» with pay-per-click. A strategy here is the rule by which Direct automatically manages bids toward the chosen goal.
• Channel selection — the «Native post with channel selection» option within messenger advertising, or «Post in messengers» in reach campaigns. Payment is charged only for actual views, and spend doesn’t exceed the forecast.

Can you show ads only in Telegram? Yes: in a messenger campaign you can restrict the placement type to Telegram, and with channel selection the ad will only run in the channels you specified. This has to be decided in advance: once the campaign settings are saved, you can’t change the placement type.

The ad format is a post with images or video, a title, text and an action button. Limits on title and text length, the number of images, and video size are listed in the help documentation — check them before preparing materials. Yandex recommends making creatives distinct from one another, uploading several images and videos, and keeping an eye on text quality.

If you’re wondering how to write an ad post for this kind of placement, keep in mind: you prepare the text and creative in Direct, not the channel’s author. The ad goes through moderation — a check against Direct’s requirements for ad materials.

How to launch advertising in Telegram through Yandex Direct

The process in general terms — interface section names change, so check against Direct’s help documentation:

1. Decide where the ad leads. It can be a site page or your own Telegram channel; for a channel, an invite link is added to the ad.
2. Set up goals in Yandex Metrica, if you’re leading to a site. A goal is a visitor action the site owner is interested in: for example, clicking a button or paying for an order. The campaign lists the priority actions that matter for your business and their value.
3. Choose the placement type: automatic channel selection or channel selection.
4. Configure the selection: geography and topics, or content description — or a list of channels from the catalog.
5. Prepare the ads: text, images or video, a link.
6. Choose a strategy and set a budget. How much to allocate depends on your task and economics.
7. Submit the ads for moderation — every ad in Direct goes through it.
8. After launch, check the statistics by placement — covered in the section below.

The general logic of creating a campaign isn’t repeated here — see the breakdown of creating a Direct campaign from scratch.

If your goal is channel followers

Direct’s help documentation describes how to lead an ad into a channel through an invite link. For this goal, Direct also has a separate Campaign Builder scenario — «Followers for a Telegram channel.» It promotes posts from the channel, but the creatives are shown not in Telegram but in search and the networks. You can pay for ad clicks or for engaged visits — transitions from the promo page into the channel. Follows are tracked by Direct’s bot: it’s added to the channel with admin rights, and the channel itself must be public. Either way, transitions and follows in the channel are measured differently from actions on a site, where Metrica goals apply.

A practical approach: keep campaigns that lead to the channel separate from campaigns for the site. That way their metrics don’t mix, and each can be evaluated against its own task.

Ad labeling

Advertising in messengers is labeled automatically, as in all Direct campaigns: an «Advertising» label and a link to the «About the advertiser» page are added to the ad, and the token is included in the click link. The token is issued by Yandex as the ad data operator — for each creative, before placement.

It’s on the advertiser to fill in the «Advertiser details» section in Direct. An agency running a client’s campaign also provides information about itself. More on what the law on ad labeling in Telegram requires in a separate article.

How to evaluate the result

Individual channel data is available in the statistics. In the campaign statistics, you can select the «By placement» breakdown. For a campaign with channel selection, the report’s «Placement name» column shows all the channels. For detailed analysis, there’s Report Wizard — Direct’s tool for viewing statistics, where you can group data by placement.

If the ad leads to a site, conversions are counted through Metrica goals. Conversion is the ratio of target visits to total visits. From there it’s convenient to compare inquiries by cost — there’s a separate article on how to calculate what a single inquiry costs.

Compare Telegram placements with the campaign’s other placements by the same goals, not by reach. Impressions and clicks in a channel on their own don’t say how many of them became inquiries.

When this method fits, and when it doesn’t

It’s more likely to fit if:

• you’re already working in Direct and Metrica goals are set up;
• you need to show ads to a Telegram audience without negotiating with every channel separately;
• it’s convenient to manage this advertising in the same account as your other campaigns.

Worth keeping the limits in mind:

• with automatic selection, you control the settings, not the channel list: topics can be excluded, but you can’t choose a specific channel in this mode;
• the ad is a system format with text per Direct’s rules, not an author’s own voice in the channel’s style;
• if a specific channel matters, and how its author talks about you, seeding may fit better — the methods are compared in the overview linked above.

If Telegram is one of several placements in an overall advertising strategy, it’s useful to first get your goals and campaign structure in order. More on how we build campaign structure and measurement in Direct on the service page.

FAQ

Can you choose specific Telegram channels for your ads?

Yes, with the «Native post with channel selection» option: channels are searched by name, link, or catalog filters. With automatic selection, the algorithm determines the channels based on the campaign’s settings.

Do you need your own Telegram channel to advertise through Direct?

No. The ad can lead to a site page. If you’re promoting your own channel, an invite link to it is added to the ad.

How is advertising in Telegram through Direct paid for?

With automatic channel selection — per click; with channel selection — per impression. With pay-per-click, a second-price auction applies: the final cost of the click equals the minimum bid that beat the competitor.

Does this kind of advertising go through moderation?

Yes. All ads in Direct go through moderation for compliance with the requirements for ad materials. The Advertising Network’s help documentation separately states that ads go through moderation before publication in channels.

Do you need to label Direct’s ads in Telegram yourself?

Direct automatically adds the «Advertising» label, the «About the advertiser» link, and the token. What’s needed from you is filling in the advertiser’s details in the account.