ERA Telegram conference

December 16 in Kyiv hosted the first ERA Telegram conference dedicated to Telegram marketing and key platform trends in 2024 for brands and businesses. The conference covered topics like monetization for businesses, collaborations and partnerships, market insights, and research.

Pavlo Shapka — CEO of t:me — the first Telegram agency in Ukraine and co-organizer of the conference, was the first speaker with a presentation on how to monetize a business on Telegram, sharing life hacks and case studies. Pavlo has been working with Telegram for 6 years, including collaborations with brands such as ALLO, EVA, Silpo, Sushiya, Realme, PM, Bybit, UKLON, and Kyivstar. Most importantly, t:me — is the first Telegram agency specializing in brand promotion through in-depth analysis of market segments, target audiences, and the development of creative marketing strategies.

We’re sharing the most valuable insights from the presentation below.

What Do Companies Pay for on Telegram?

Companies pay channel owners for ad placements — there are several formats for such ads:

• Placing promotional offers on nationwide channels with the goal of communication — sales
• Placement in niche channels with the goal of communication — sales

Placement in niche channels helps attract a more segmented audience by interests, find new partners, and recruit employees.

The most interesting type of communication is so-called socially responsible PR. This type of advertising is native — the audience might not even realize it’s a marketing message, which means there can be many such posts, as they don’t engage in hard selling.

Examples of such campaigns include posts by ATB with donation statistics, Brocard on the benefits of quality perfumes and the dangers of counterfeits, and Kyivstar on providing connectivity under any difficult circumstances.

Another form of external advertising is promotional contests — like giveaways for subscriptions.

How to Earn on Telegram Without a Channel

There are several ways to earn on Telegram without owning a channel:

• promoting channels via TikTok
• reselling channels
• mastering one of the 3 Telegram professions:
  • ad sales manager
  • content manager
  • traffic manager

Over 6 years of work in Telegram, our own media network has grown to around 4 million subscribers and more than 25 Telegram channels in various niches: crypto, women’s topics, news, etc.

As the agency scales, the demand for the above-mentioned specialists arises.

Top Scaling Tips from Personal Experience

Delegate

A fully sustainable Telegram business model can be viewed through the lens of three core areas: operations, tactics, and strategy. Operations include everyday tasks like responding to messages and posting content. Tactics involve actions such as raising prices, motivating teams, and HR decisions. Strategy focuses on company development through launching new business units or software products.

However, the key aspect for successful use of Telegram as a business tool is the ability to delegate tasks. Delegation opens up opportunities for companies, allowing them to rise to the levels of tactics and strategy. It’s about passing operational tasks — that might seem to require personal execution — to other team members or controlled partners.

It’s important to understand that delegation becomes especially crucial during business scaling. As a company grows, one person simply can’t manage everything alone, leading to burnout. Business owners often believe they are the only ones capable of completing certain tasks, but proper delegation preserves efficiency and supports deeper business development.

Thus, it’s vital to view the platform as part of your strategic approach and an opportunity for delegation — creating a positive environment for growth and success.

Partnership

And of course, over the years we’ve learned that true strength lies in partnership — a form of scaling between channel administrators.

Regardless of a channel’s subscriber count, partnerships grow. t:me is an agency with its own mission — to introduce Telegram to businesses as a powerful marketing tool and a core resource for any segment.

The key services offered by the agency include launching media projects for brands (media buying), creating turnkey channels, Telegram promotion, and content marketing. The 2023 phenomenon confirms that Telegram is becoming the most popular source for news consumption, attracting interest from advertising agencies that previously focused on platforms like TV, outdoor ads, and online media.

However, they face a major challenge — lack of expertise. Telegram channel owners know who to collaborate with to get the best results. This is where the agency comes in as a business unit — offering the expertise required for successful advertising partnerships.

Telegram Ads — Insights and Prospects

Telegram’s popularity grew with boom-worthy info events — martial law in 2018, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the full-scale invasion (15,000+ channels were created in 2022 alone).

The next anticipated boom is the full launch and upgrade of Telegram Ads — the platform’s targeted advertising system. Since there’s currently low competition, the high conversion rates of Telegram Ads’ sponsored messages have great potential to become the most popular advertising tool.

Here’s what we can already set up in the ad dashboard:

Soon, Telegram will announce an upgraded ad dashboard with “Ukraine” as a geolocation option, along with an expected influx of major investors and the creation of channels for medium and large businesses — meaning new traffic for Telegram channels.

At the moment, the entry threshold for creating a Telegram Ads account is still high, but we are already communicating with support and seeing progress.

So, reach out to t:me for partnership and service inquiries — we’re happy to help and build an awesome Telegram world for your company!