Advertise a dating bot on Telegram: how bot-to-bot traffic works
A dating bot does not need views. It needs people who pressed /start and filled in a profile, so the number of steps between the ad and the start matters. From a website or an app the person first has to get into Telegram. When the ad runs in another bot, they are already inside the messenger and know how bots work.
The path: a post in the chat with a bot, a tap on the button, your bot opens, the Start button. This describes the mechanics and promises no result: how many people complete the path depends on the post, the audience and the bot itself.
The network spreads one post across bots with a matching topic and language, and you see statistics for every bot. For other promotion methods, see How to promote a Telegram bot.
Traffic for a Telegram dating bot: targeting settings
Four settings in the campaign wizard matter most for dating.
- Bot topics. One of them is Dating: bots whose audience is already looking for someone to talk to. Games, Tests, Horoscopes or Music are options to test: the impression price is the same for all, and only the statistics show the result.
- Languages. Matched against the viewer’s Telegram language: people need to understand each other’s profiles.
- Telegram Premium only. Only Premium subscribers get the impressions, and the price is multiplied by 2. It makes sense if the bot earns from paid features.
- HiViews Verified. Only people with a real-looking profile get the impressions. The option is free, but delivery is slower.
HiViews Verified helps cut the share of empty profiles: a person with no name and no photo in Telegram will probably leave your profile form empty too. That is an assumption, not a guarantee, so run the campaign with and without the option and compare how many starts reached a completed profile.
Delivery can be narrowed to chosen bots, or specific bots can be excluded. A bot owner may refuse the dating ad category, and then that bot will not get your post. All settings are described in the guide for advertisers.
The 18+ topic and ordinary dating ads
An ordinary dating bot ad stays within Telegram’s rules and runs without explicit posts: no explicit photos and no suggestive hints in the text.
Adult projects have a separate topic, 18+. It works both ways: projects with this topic receive only the campaigns that chose it themselves, and explicit offers go only to such projects. An explicit post will not appear in a bot whose owner has not allowed it.
In practice. If your bot is about ordinary dating, do not select the 18+ topic and do not write a borderline post: it will not pass moderation. See the HiViews rules.
How to promote a dating bot: welcome or regular placement
A welcome impression arrives right after /start, before the bot’s own greeting. A regular impression is requested by the bot after it has delivered its result, so the ad is the last message in the chat.
- Welcome: $6 per 1,000 impressions or $0.05 per click. No more than two buttons in the post. Suits the main run. More in Welcome ads in Telegram bots.
- Regular: $3 per 1,000 impressions or $0.05 per click. A cheap way to compare several texts.
With pay-per-click the impressions are free and only the first click of each impression is charged. Only strong posts are accepted for this format, and a campaign that gets almost no clicks is stopped: you relaunch it with a new text or switch to pay-per-impression.
Frequency: unique, once a week or once a day
Frequency sets how many times the same person sees your post.
| Frequency | How it works | When to choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Unique (default) | Each person sees the post once for the whole campaign | Reaching new people, testing a post |
| Once a week | The same people get the post again at most once a week | A long campaign where a reminder is appropriate |
| Once a day | The same people get the post at most once a day | A short promotion with a clear deadline |
Unique is the default because the budget is not spent on repeat impressions for people who have already seen the post, and the number of impressions equals the number of people. On HiViews “unique” always means distinct people.
You pay again for every repeat impression. Whatever you set, the network protects users: at most one ad per hour and six per day per person, and a welcome ad at most once a day per bot.
Four sample posts for a dating bot
The bot in these examples is invented: replace “Name” and @your_bot with your own. The text fits into six lines and there is one button.
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Introducing the product — pay per impression
Text: “$name, Name is a dating bot right inside Telegram. A profile takes a minute: a photo, your city and a few words about yourself. Find it at @your_bot.”
Button: “Create a profile”
Why it works: the name and the point are read in full even without a tap. With pay-per-impression an address in the text is allowed.
-
Your city — pay per click
Text: “$name, see who in your city is looking to meet someone right now. A profile takes a minute to fill in.”
Button: “Browse profiles”
Why it works: the first line gives a reason to tap, and the link sits in a button: in this format @mentions and bare URLs are not allowed.
-
Shared interests — pay per impression
Text: “Dating by interests: mark what you like, whether films, hiking or board games, and Name shows people who like the same things.”
Button: “Pick interests”
Why it works: the post sets the bot apart from dozens of similar ones with one concrete feature.
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Calm conversations — pay per click
Text: “In Name only someone you have matched with can write to you. No messages from strangers.”
Button: “Open the bot”
Why it works: the text answers a common worry and promises nothing beyond what the bot itself does.
What a post should not contain
- Invented profiles such as “Anna, 24, 300 metres from you”. That is deception, and the person will see it right after the start.
- Promises of a guaranteed match, a date “tonight” or an exact number of likes.
- Explicit photos and suggestive hints: they are not allowed in ordinary dating ads.
How to measure: clicks and cost per start
With click tracking on, the statistics show impressions, clicks, CTR and spend, by day and by bot. HiViews does not see starts: your bot counts them. Give the ad link its own start parameter and record it on /start.
An illustration, not a forecast: the prices are real, while the numbers of clicks and starts are round figures chosen for the arithmetic.
| What we calculate | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Spend on impressions | 10,000 welcome impressions ÷ 1,000 × $6 | $60 |
| Cost per click | $60 ÷ 400 clicks | $0.15 |
| Cost per start | $60 ÷ 250 starts | $0.24 |
| The same clicks on pay-per-click | 400 × $0.05 | $20 |
| Cost per start on pay-per-click | $20 ÷ 250 starts | $0.08 |
Example. 400 clicks and 250 starts are an assumption, not an expected result.
How to compare bots
- Compare bots at a comparable number of impressions: a dozen impressions prove nothing.
- Exclude bots that spend budget and bring no clicks with the “all except chosen” mode.
- Look past the start: how many people filled in a profile and came back the next day.
With click tracking on, t.me links open through an instant redirect; without it they open straight in Telegram, but then there is no CTR and no pay-per-click. Impressions found fraudulent are reversed and refunded; more in the article on fake traffic in Telegram bots.
What you can change in a running campaign
Three things can be changed in place, with no new moderation.
- Topics. Remove the ones where bots bring no starts and add new ones to test.
- Boost. A factor from ×1.25 to ×2: the campaign is picked proportionally more often and the price is multiplied by the same factor. Use it when reach builds too slowly.
- Impression limit. Raise it if the campaign pays off, or lower it to cap the spend.
The post itself cannot be edited: duplicate the campaign, change the text in the copy, and it goes through moderation again, usually within a day. How to prepare a post for pay-per-click is covered in the article on pay-per-click ads in Telegram bots.
FAQ
How much does it cost to advertise a dating bot on Telegram?
On HiViews, $6 per 1,000 welcome impressions and $3 per 1,000 regular ones, the same for every topic. Both placements can be paid per click: $0.05 per click with free impressions. Telegram Premium-only audience multiplies the price by 2. The minimum top-up is $5.
Can I advertise 18+ dating?
Explicit offers go only to projects with the 18+ topic, and only if the campaign chose that topic itself. An ordinary dating bot ad runs without explicit posts and within Telegram’s rules.
How do I get fewer empty profiles from ads?
Turn on HiViews Verified: only people with a real-looking profile will get the impressions. The option is free, but delivery is slower. Then compare in your own statistics how many starts reached a completed profile.
Why is unique the default frequency?
With unique frequency each person sees the post once per campaign, so the budget is not spent on repeats and the number of impressions equals the number of people. Once a week or once a day is for cases where a reminder about the bot is needed.