Running traffic to gray niches via Telegram Ads: from moderation to profit in 2026

From TON to Agency Accounts: A Complete Guide to Running Traffic via Telegram Ads

Telegram Ads has ceased to be a platform exclusively for major brands and white-hat info-businesses. In 2026, it is a completely viable traffic source for nutra and gambling affiliate marketing, even if you operate through standard agency accounts. The main challenge here is not the bidding competition, but the specific manual moderation process: the platform rejects aggressive angles, requiring media buyers to mimic legitimate retail operations.

The barrier to entry for TG nowadays is not just a deposit of 250–500 euros, but also a solid grasp of the technical aspects: from choosing the right account type to factoring in new surcharges for media files. In this article, we will break down how to build a funnel that won't get banned during the review phase, which resellers offer the best trust score, and how to use Search Ads to secure cheap leads.

The Telegram Ads Auction: How Impression Pricing is Determined

Telegram Ads utilizes the CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) model and a first-price auction system — the highest bidder wins the impression. The ad always appears as the final post in channels with over 1,000 subscribers. In 2026, the final cost per impression directly depends on the content type, as the platform has introduced scaling multipliers for using media files.

In practice, this acts as an additional premium on top of the base rate:

• a logo adds 30% to the CPM;

• a static image adds 50%;

• a video up to 60 seconds adds 80%.

Despite the increase in the base rate, running purely text-based ads in affiliate marketing niches is unprofitable. Videos or images yield a much higher CTR, which ultimately drives down the cost per action (CPA). Comparing the numbers, the CPA on video campaigns often ends up lower than text campaigns, even with the 80% surcharge factored in. Audiences respond significantly better to visuals, which compensates for the auction costs.

When setting up a campaign, it is crucial to set the "Daily views per user" parameter to “1.” This eliminates duplicate impressions to the same user and ensures you reach a unique audience within your budget.

If impressions fail to deliver after launch, there are usually two reasons: either the CPM is set too low for the chosen target GEO and channels, or the ad was rejected during review due to issues with the creative asset.

Account Selection: TON, Stars, or Euro

An account's technical features determine where you can direct your traffic — to an external landing page or exclusively to internal destinations like channels and bots. In 2026, account selection depends less on budget and more on how your specific funnel is designed.

TON accounts (Fragment) offer the lowest barrier to entry, requiring just \$50–100 to start. Operations run through the Fragment platform, where identity verification (KYC) is mandatory; you will need to upload passport details, otherwise the account cannot be funded. 

The main challenge for affiliate marketing is the complete absence of external links. You can only direct traffic to a channel or a bot. From a targeting perspective, options are limited: the interface does not offer country or city selection. 

Impressions are served to everyone who has a specific app language configured, which quickly drains the budget on non-targeted clicks in gray niches. Moderation is fully manual and frequently takes up to two weeks, especially if the channel is not updated with regular content.

Stars accounts operate on Telegram's internal currency and are perfect for running traffic through chat-bots. Their primary benefit is automated moderation. The algorithm reviews ads faster and is more lenient than a human moderator, so provocative headlines or aggressive creatives get approved more frequently here. 

However, Stars accounts also do not allow directing users to external domains. This solution is ideal for funnels where the entire warm-up and offer sale take place completely within Telegram.

Euro accounts (Agency) are the core tool for working with nutra and other niches where traffic must be directed to external platforms. Only agency accounts allow you to embed an external link and set up precise targeting: selecting specific cities, interests, and critically, device types. 

If your landing page is tailored for mobile users, you can easily disable desktop impressions in a Euro account. The entry fee here is steeper — starting from 500 euros, and commissions for gray verticals can reach 20–25%, but this is offset by the purity of the traffic and the ability to scale your setup via resellers.

Where to Open Accounts: Reseller Overview

Working with Telegram Ads in 2026 is built around agency resellers, as direct entry to the platform requires prohibitive budgets. When selecting a partner, it is important to evaluate not just the commission percentage, but also the willingness of account managers to assist with passing moderation.

Magnetto.pro remains the go-to option for high-volume teams. As an official platform partner with an excellent trust score, it facilitates faster approval for complex creatives. 

The minimum funding threshold here starts at 500 euros. The platform's standout benefit is its personal account managers who conduct pre-launch audits of landing pages and help fix errors during the setup phase.

OneSpot is ideal for those who value a low entry barrier and payment flexibility. You can open an account here with a budget starting at 250 euros, and funding is supported via bank cards, wire transfers, and the Capitalist payment system. 

This solution is optimal for solo buyers and small teams: the interface lets you manage multiple accounts simultaneously, and the commission fee for gray verticals remains within market norms.

eLama is a tool built for those focused on automation and white-hat niches. In 2026, the service offers built-in solutions for bulk ad creation and competitor activity analysis. 

The minimum deposit is also 250 euros, but keep in mind their stringent content review policy: any manipulative copywriting techniques can lead to an instant rejection. This platform is best if your funnel strictly adheres to the platform's guidelines.

Search Ads as a “Cheat Code” for Cheap Subscribers

Search Ads is the internal equivalent of contextual search advertising within the messenger. Your ad pins to the top of Telegram's search results when a user inputs a specific query. Currently, this is the most cost-effective method to acquire an audience: in finance or health verticals, a subscriber can cost as little as 0.2–0.3 euros, whereas running ads within channels often starts at 2 euros.

Technically, the format has a strict limitation: you can only add up to 10 keywords per ad. Because of this, it is pointless to try squeezing in high-frequency terms like “casino.” The auction there is heavily saturated, and you simply won't get any reasonable volume of impressions.

A winning strategy in 2026 is utilizing lateral search intents. If you are running nutra, instead of a direct phrase like “buy supplements,” you are better off targetting keywords like “diet,” “back health,” or “home workouts.” For financial offers, keys like “remote work,” “how to make money,” or “extra income” perform incredibly well. The user searching for these already has a pre-formed interest, meaning the conversion rate to registration or purchase is higher here than with standard public channel placements.

Targeting Setup: Target Users vs. Target Channels

Targeting in Telegram Ads relies entirely on internal messenger data. There are no external tracking pixels or cookie-gathering mechanisms, so the system evaluates user subscriptions, app language, and active geographic regions. There are two primary methods to configure delivery.

The Target Users configuration lets you reach audiences based on their interests. The messenger's algorithm automatically categorizes users into buckets like “Fitness,” “Medicine,” or “Healthy Lifestyle.” In this mode, you can set granular GEO targeting down to specific cities and choose the interface language.

The Target Channels method involves compiling a manual list of platforms with an audience of over 1,000 users. This enables you to deploy ads within highly relevant public channels. For instance, an offer for joint health products fits naturally in channels dedicated to health or longevity. With this setup, the cost per registration is often lower since the ad is seen by users who are already invested in the topic.

To filter out unwanted traffic, use the Exclude function. In your dashboard settings, you can filter out specific languages, interests, or individual channels. This prevents ads from showing up in direct competitors' channels and excludes regions where the offer is not accepted under the advertiser's terms.

Moderation Timelines and Campaign Pacing Mechanics

The initial ad review in a new account takes anywhere from 3 to 5 days. If you are launching creatives in an already established account, the timeline drops down to 2–3 days. It is important to note that Telegram Ads does not deliver the full volume of impressions immediately upon approval. The campaign “warms up” gradually: the algorithm initially delivers a small number of impressions to harvest baseline data on clicks and engagement.

During the initial hours post-launch, avoid making sudden bid adjustments. The best practice is to wait for the first 2,000–3,000 impressions, evaluate the CTR, and only adjust the CPM afterward. If an ad remains stagnant despite a competitive bid, it means the campaign has been sent for a secondary manual review due to ambiguous phrasing or creative choices. In this case, it is faster to stop the campaign and rewrite the ad rather than wait for the review to finish.

GEO Insight: A Case Study on the Uzbekistan Market

Uzbekistan currently remains one of the most promising GEOs for capturing massive traffic volume with minimal spend. The region's primary advantage is low auction competition, allowing you to work with CPM bids starting from 0.1 euros.

The effectiveness of this approach is backed by hard numbers: with a budget of 2,000 euros, it was possible to attract 40,000 subscribers to a channel. In this scenario, the cost per target user was roughly 0.05 euros. For comparison, in highly saturated niches within the Russian market or Tier-1 countries, the cost per subscriber can be dozens of times higher.

As Philipp Levin from EProfit notes, such results are achievable precisely due to the unexploited auction environment. While most advertisers focus on conventional markets, in Uzbekistan you can secure an audience at practically the platform's absolute minimum rate.

This makes the GEO an ideal proving ground for testing and traffic diversification when administrative placements in other regions cease to yield a positive ROI. A detailed breakdown of this case study and a discussion on working with cheap CPMs can be viewed in this video.

Launch Economics and Testing Budgets

The cost of launching a Telegram Ads campaign consists of the minimum deposit and the agency commission. When operating via Euro accounts, the entry threshold ranges from 500 to 1,500 euros. For gray verticals, resellers typically set a higher commission: on average, it ranges from 20% to 25% of the funding amount. It is also important to account for VAT when funding via corporate accounts in certain regions, which can add another 20% to total expenditures.

To test a single creative setup, it is recommended to budget an amount equal to 3–5 offer payouts. If the target action pays out 50 euros, testing one creative will require roughly 150–250 euros, excluding agency fees. This volume is sufficient for the algorithm to complete its learning phase and provide reliable data on CTR and registration conversion. If no target actions occur after spending this amount, the setup should be paused and the creative approach or landing page revised.

Scaling is achieved through a gradual increase of the CPM. It is not recommended to increase the bid by more than 10–15% in a single step, as abrupt auction changes can cause abnormal spikes in cost-per-click.

If a setup shows a stable profit, traffic volume can be scaled by adding new thematic channels to your targeting parameters or expanding the list of search keywords.

Conclusion

Running traffic to gray niches via Telegram Ads in 2026 requires a complete departure from aggressive marketing angles in favor of bot-driven funnels and mimicking legitimate retail brands.

The success of a campaign hinges on your ability to pass manual moderation and leverage budget-friendly tools like Search Ads in low-competition environments. The key is to enter with an adequate testing budget surplus and scale incrementally to avoid overpaying for reach in a first-price auction.