How to Promote a Telegram Mini App or Bot: User Acquisition Basics

To promote a Telegram bot or Mini App, first make it easy to find and understand (a clear name, description, demo media and a working first screen), then bring people in through tracked deep links from your own channel, partner channels, Telegram Ads, a referral or affiliate programme, and your presence outside Telegram. Measure where each user came from and whether they come back, because retention decides whether any acquisition channel is worth paying for.

This guide covers preparation, every major acquisition channel with its strengths and pitfalls, how to track sources with deep links, how to keep new users, and the mistakes that get bots reported or growth faked.

How users find bots and Mini Apps

Before spending effort on promotion, understand the paths people take into a bot.

• A link. Someone taps a t.me link to your bot in a channel post, a chat, a website or an ad. This is by far the most common route.
• Telegram search. Someone types a word into global search and sees your bot by name or username.
• The Apps section of search. Telegram has a catalogue of Mini Apps in the search screen. Bots with a main Mini App configured can appear there, and Telegram highlights popular apps. Telegram decides what is featured.
• A share or forward. A user forwards a message from your bot, shares a result, or invites a friend with a referral link.
• Inline mode. If your bot supports inline queries, people use it inside other chats by typing its username, and everyone in that chat sees the bot's name. See inline bots explained.
• Being added to a group. A useful group bot spreads as admins add it to their groups.

Promotion is about making each of these paths work and then pushing more people down the best ones.

Before you start: get the basics right

Promotion multiplies whatever experience you already have. If the first thirty seconds in your bot are confusing, more traffic just means more people leaving. Check these first.

1. A clear name and username

• The display name should say what the bot does, not just your brand: "Recipe Finder by Kitchenly" beats "Kitchenly".
• The username should be short, easy to type and spell when heard aloud. Usernames for bots must end in "bot".
• Avoid names that copy a well-known brand. Impersonation gets bots reported and removed.

2. Description and about text

In @BotFather you set a short "about" text shown on the bot's profile and a longer description shown before a new user presses Start. Use them to answer three questions: what does it do, who is it for, and what happens when I press Start? Keep it plain. Overpromising here ("earn guaranteed rewards") attracts the wrong users and scam reports.

3. Demo media and a profile picture

A clear profile picture helps people recognise the bot in their chat list. Telegram also lets you add preview media to a bot's profile for Mini Apps, which shows people what the app looks like before they open it. Telegram's own guidance for being featured in the Apps section mentions enabling a main Mini App and uploading good demo media, so treat these as basics, not extras.

4. A first screen that delivers value fast

1. Greet the user in one short message.
2. Offer one obvious first action, ideally a single button.
3. Deliver a useful result within a tap or two.
4. Ask for anything else (language, preferences, notifications) only after they have seen value.

5. Commands and menu

Set a command list and, if relevant, a menu button that opens your Mini App. Users should never have to guess what to type. See how to create a bot with BotFather for where these settings live.

6. Reliability

A bot that fails to answer during a promotion burns the traffic you paid for. Load-test, check your hosting, and make sure error messages are helpful. If your bot uses a webhook, confirm it handles bursts. See setting a webhook.

7. Privacy and trust signals

Say what data the bot collects and why, in a privacy note reachable from the bot. Request only the permissions you need. Users increasingly check bots before trusting them; see what they look for in are Telegram bots safe?.

Track every source with deep links

If you cannot tell where users come from, you cannot tell which promotion works. Telegram has a simple built-in way to do this.

How start parameters work

A link to a bot can carry a start parameter: a short code added to the link. When someone opens the bot through that link and presses Start, your bot receives the code along with the first message. For Mini Apps, there is a similar parameter for direct links that open the Mini App, which the app can read when it launches.

In words, a tracked link looks like your bot's t.me address, followed by a question mark, the word "start", an equals sign, and your code. The Mini App version uses "startapp" in place of "start". Codes are limited to simple characters such as letters, numbers, underscores and hyphens, so keep them short and plain.

Setting up source tracking

1. Create a naming scheme for codes, for example the source and a campaign: "chan_partnerA_may" or "ads_cooking_1".
2. Make the bot store the code the first time a user starts it, together with the date. Store only the first source if you want to know what brought the user in.
3. Create one link per placement: each partner channel post, each ad, each social profile, each QR code.
4. Report regularly: new users per code, and how many of them are still active after a day, a week and a month.

What to measure per source

• New users: how many started the bot.
• Activation: how many completed the first meaningful action (generated a result, made a booking, played a round).
• Retention: how many came back after a day, a week and a month.
• Revenue or conversions, if the bot sells something.
• Blocks: how many users stopped the bot soon after starting. Your bot learns that a user blocked it when a message to them fails.

A source that brings many users who never activate is worse than one that brings fewer engaged users, even if the first looks better on a chart. For a deeper look at measurement, see how to track clicks and sales from Telegram.

Channel 1: your own channel and community

If you already run a channel or group, it is your cheapest and most trusted promotion channel.

• Announce the bot with a clear use case, not just "we have a bot now". Show what it does with a screenshot or short video.
• Add a button under the post that opens the bot or Mini App directly with a tracked link.
• Pin it while it is new.
• Mention it where it solves a problem in later posts: "You can check this yourself with our bot."
• Add it to your group if it is useful there, for example for FAQs or games, with clear rules.

If you do not have a channel yet, starting one around the bot's topic gives you a place for updates, tips and announcements that users can follow. See how to create a Telegram channel.

Channel 2: partner and paid channel posts

Telegram channels in your niche already have the audience you want. You can reach them through cross-promotion (swapping mentions) or paid posts.

Choosing channels

1. Match the audience, not just the size. A smaller channel about exactly your topic usually beats a huge general one.
2. Check real engagement. Look at views on recent posts compared with the subscriber count, and how consistent they are. Sudden, uniform spikes or very low views compared with subscribers suggest inflated numbers. See checking a channel for fake subscribers.
3. Read the channel. Would your bot fit naturally next to its content? Would its readers trust it?
4. Ask for past results with similar products, if the owner has them.

Directories that show measured figures help here. On TGDirectory, channel pages show subscribers, average and median views per post, engagement rate and posting frequency, all read from the channel's public posts, with nothing estimated. Browse by categories to find channels in your niche.

Writing the post

• Lead with the problem the bot solves for that channel's readers.
• Show one concrete result.
• One button, one tracked link per channel.
• Agree in advance on whether the post is labelled as an advertisement, which is good practice and in many places a legal requirement. See sponsored post disclosure.

Channel 3: Telegram Ads

Telegram's own ad platform shows short sponsored messages in public channels. Ads can link to a bot or Mini App, which makes them a natural fit for user acquisition.

What to know before you start

• Targeting is by channel topic and context, not by personal profiles. You choose channels, topics or other options the platform offers.
• Ads are short. Telegram's ad guidelines set a strict character limit for the text, so every word counts.
• Budgets and minimums vary and change, and access may run through the platform directly or through resellers. Check the current rules on the official ad platform.
• Ads are reviewed against Telegram's policies before they run.

Making ads work for a bot

1. Use a separate tracked start link for each ad, so you can compare them.
2. Make sure the first screen in the bot matches the ad's promise. If the ad says "find a recipe from what's in your fridge", the first button should do exactly that.
3. Start with a small test across several channel topics, keep the ones where users activate and return, and drop the rest.
4. Watch blocks and early drop-off as closely as clicks.

Channel 4: referral and affiliate programmes

People trust a recommendation from a friend more than an ad. Bots can build that into the product.

In-product referrals

1. Give each user a personal referral link (a start link with their own code).
2. Reward both sides with something useful inside the bot: extra features, credits or content.
3. Make sharing easy: a "Share with a friend" button that opens Telegram's share sheet with a ready message.
4. Count a referral only when the invited user activates, not just when they press Start. This stops people farming rewards with empty accounts.

Telegram's affiliate programmes

Telegram supports affiliate programmes for bots and Mini Apps, where a developer offers a commission in Telegram Stars to channels, bots and users who bring in paying users through their affiliate link. This lets other creators promote your app for a share of revenue rather than a fixed fee. Terms are set by Telegram and the developer and can change, so read the current details in the app.

Avoid reward schemes that backfire

Rewards for inviting large numbers of people encourage spam: users dump your link in unrelated groups, which gets your bot reported. Cap rewards, reward quality, and never reward adding people to groups without their consent.

Channel 5: the Apps section and Telegram search

The Apps section

Telegram's Apps section in search lists Mini Apps, including popular ones. To have a chance of appearing:

1. Configure a main Mini App for your bot in @BotFather.
2. Add good preview media to the bot's profile.
3. Build something people return to; Telegram's own guidance links being featured to factors such as usage, and accepting payments in Stars is among the steps it mentions.

Telegram decides what appears and how it is ranked, and the criteria can change. Treat it as a bonus, not a plan.

Search by name

Many people find bots by typing a word into search. Help them:

• Put the main keyword in the display name.
• Keep the username simple and related to what the bot does.
• Do not stuff keywords. Telegram does not publish how search ranks results, and a name crammed with keywords looks like spam to the people reading it.

Channel 6: outside Telegram

Many successful bots get their first users from outside the app.

• Your website. Add a clear button that opens the bot, and a QR code for desktop visitors.
• Search engines. A landing page that explains the bot and answers common questions can bring people searching for the problem you solve.
• Social media and video. Short screen recordings of the bot doing something useful spread well. Link with a tracked start code per platform.
• Communities and forums where your audience asks for help. Share the bot only where it genuinely answers a question, and follow each community's rules on self-promotion.
• Product directories and listings. Submitting a bot to directories gives it another discovery path. You can submit a bot to TGDirectory free; every submission is reviewed by a person before it appears.
• Your existing customers. If you have an app, email list or shop, tell them the bot exists and what it does better than the other options.

Promoting a bot made for groups

Bots that work inside groups, such as moderation, games, quizzes or welcome bots, spread differently. Their customer is the group admin, and every group they join shows the bot to all its members.

1. Make adding it effortless. Provide a link that opens the "add to group" flow directly, and explain in one message which admin rights the bot needs and why.
2. Ask for minimal rights. Admins are rightly suspicious of bots that request everything. A bot that only needs to delete messages should not ask for the right to add admins.
3. Be visible but not noisy. A short, useful message when the bot does something (for example "Quiz round finished, here are the winners") reminds members it exists. Constant self-promotion in the group gets the bot removed.
4. Offer a simple setup command for admins, so they can configure it without reading documentation.
5. Reach admins where they gather: channels and groups about running communities, and guides on moderation.
6. Track by group, not only by user. Store which groups the bot is in, how many messages it handles, and when it is removed. A removal soon after being added is a strong signal that setup is confusing or the bot is too noisy.

Simple acquisition maths

You do not need a complicated model to decide whether a paid source is worth it. You need three numbers per source: what you paid, how many users activated, and what an active user is worth to you.

Example, with invented figures for illustration only: you pay for a post in a partner channel and it brings 400 starts. Of those, 120 complete the first meaningful action, and after a month 30 are still active. If you know from your own data what a retained user typically brings in (through purchases, subscriptions or Stars), you can compare that with the cost of the post divided by 30. If you have no revenue yet, compare sources against each other by cost per retained user instead.

Two cautions:

• Small samples lie. One post with a few hundred starts can vary a lot by day and topic. Test a source more than once before deciding.
• Attribution is imperfect. Some users see your bot in one place and open it later from search. Treat tracked codes as a strong guide, not exact truth.

A launch plan for the first month

Example plan; adjust to your bot.

1. Week one: private test. Invite a small group of friends or existing customers. Watch where they get stuck, fix the first screen, and collect feedback through a button in the bot.
2. Week two: own channels. Announce in your channel and community with a tracked link and a short demo. Add the bot to your website. Submit it to directories.
3. Week three: partners. Book posts or swaps with two or three well-matched channels, each with its own link. Start a small ad test if your budget allows.
4. Week four: review. Compare sources by activation and retention. Double down on the best, stop the weakest, and decide whether a referral or affiliate programme makes sense now that you know what a retained user is worth.

Keep a short log of what you did each week and what changed in your numbers. It is the most useful document you will have when planning the next push.

Promoting in more than one language

Telegram's audience is international, and a bot that only speaks one language limits every channel above.

1. Localise the first screen first. Telegram usually tells a bot the language the user's app is set to, so the bot can greet people in that language and offer a switch. Never force a language without a way to change it.
2. Localise descriptions. The Bot API lets you set the bot's description and about text separately for each language, so people see your pitch in their own language before pressing Start.
3. Run promotion per language. Partner channels and ads must match the language of the audience, so give each language its own tracked links and judge them separately.
4. Use native speakers for promotional text. A machine-translated ad or welcome message reads as careless and lowers trust.

Keeping the users you win

Acquisition without retention is a leaking bucket. A few practices make the biggest difference.

Onboarding

• Get users to their first useful result in as few steps as possible.
• Explain one feature at a time, when it becomes relevant.
• Offer a short "What can this bot do?" command for people who want an overview.

Notifications

Bots can message users who have started them, which is powerful and easy to abuse.

1. Ask users what they want to hear about, and respect it.
2. Send messages that are useful to that user, not mass promotions.
3. Space them out. Frequent unwanted messages lead to blocks and reports, which can hurt your bot.
4. Respect Telegram's broadcast rate limits; sending too fast causes errors and delays.

A reason to come back

Daily or weekly value (a fresh result, a reminder the user asked for, new content) brings people back without nagging. Gamified "check in every day" mechanics can lift numbers briefly but often attract users who only care about rewards.

Listening

Add a simple way to send feedback inside the bot and read it. Early users tell you exactly what stops them returning. Reply to the people who write, fix the most common complaint first, and tell users when something they asked for ships. A short changelog message, sent only to users who opted in to updates, turns fixes into a reason to come back.

Worked example: launching a small utility bot

Example scenario: a developer builds a bot that converts recipes between metric and imperial units and scales servings.

1. Basics first. The name includes "Recipe Converter", the description explains it in one sentence, and the first screen asks the user to paste a recipe. A result comes back in one step.
2. Tracking. The developer creates start codes for her own channel, three partner cooking channels, a small Telegram Ads test and her website.
3. Launch. She posts in her own small cooking channel with a demo video and a button.
4. Partners. Three cooking channels with good, consistent views agree to a paid post. Each gets its own link.
5. Ads. A small ad test runs in cooking-related channels, with an ad that says exactly what the first screen does.
6. Review after two weeks. One partner channel brought fewer users than the others but the highest share who came back the following week. The ad test brought many starts but weak return. She books a second post with the best partner, rewrites the ad to target people who cook regularly, and adds a "Save my favourite recipes" feature to give people a reason to return.

The numbers in this example are left out on purpose: what matters is the method of comparing sources by who stays, not just who arrives.

Promotion rules and ethics

Some tactics bring users quickly and destroy the bot.

• No unsolicited messages. Bots cannot message people who have not started them, and using user accounts to mass-message strangers about your bot is spam. It leads to account restrictions and reports.
• No spam in groups. Posting your link in groups where it is off topic or against the rules gets you banned and reported.
• No fake users or bought starts. Inflated user counts mislead partners and Telegram, distort your data and are often removed.
• No misleading rewards. "Tap to earn" or airdrop promises that may never pay out damage trust and attract scam reports.
• No impersonation. Copying another brand's name or look to borrow its trust breaks Telegram's rules.
• Crypto and finance bots must be especially careful. Do not promise returns, and make clear that nothing in the bot is financial advice.

Common mistakes

• Promoting before the first screen works. Paid traffic into a confusing bot is wasted.
• One link for every placement. Without tracked start codes you cannot tell which promotion worked.
• Judging sources by starts alone. Activation and retention decide the real value of a source.
• Ads that promise something the bot does not show first. Users bounce when the promise and the first screen do not match.
• Too many notifications. Users block bots that message them too often.
• Reward schemes that encourage spam. Uncapped referral rewards lead to link dumping and reports.
• Ignoring reliability. A bot that goes down during a promotion loses users who will not come back.
• Waiting for the Apps section to deliver growth. Being featured is decided by Telegram and cannot be planned on.

FAQ

What is the cheapest way to get the first users for a bot?

Your own channel, community and existing customers, followed by cross-promotion with channels in the same niche. They cost time rather than money and bring people who already trust you.

Can I promote my bot with Telegram Ads?

Yes. Telegram's ad platform lets ads link to bots and Mini Apps. Check the current budget rules, ad guidelines and review process on the official platform before you start.

How do I know which promotion brought a user?

Use start parameters in your links: give each placement its own code, and have your bot store the code when a user first starts it.

How do I get my Mini App into the Apps section?

Configure a main Mini App in @BotFather and add preview media to the bot's profile. Telegram decides what appears and features apps based on its own criteria, such as usage, so focus on building something people use.

Can my bot message people to promote itself?

Only people who have already started a chat with it, and only with messages they would want. A bot cannot start conversations with strangers.

Should I pay channels per post or use an affiliate programme?

Per-post payment suits a test with a channel you trust. An affiliate programme suits ongoing promotion, because partners earn only when they bring paying users. Many developers use both.

Summary

Promote a bot or Mini App by first making it findable and instantly useful, then bringing people in through your own channel, matched partner channels, Telegram Ads, referrals and affiliate programmes, the Apps section and your presence outside Telegram. Give every placement its own tracked start link, judge each source by who activates and returns, and keep users with fast onboarding and respectful notifications. Avoid spam, fake users and promises the bot cannot keep, because they cost more than they ever bring in.