Anna VoroninaIntuitive solutions don't always work in Telegram Ads. This case study walks through the thinking behind the hypotheses tested, and how that process led to a 1.3% CTR, well above the 0.8% benchmark.
E-Promo International agency approached us for access to Telegram Ads to launch an advertising campaign for a client in the investment and cryptocurrency sector in the UAE. The main objective of the campaign was to understand which strategy would deliver results given the limited targeting settings within the platform.
Agency: E-Promo International
Specialist: Kirill Zvezdin, Performance Marketing Expert, E-Promo International
Period: December 4, 2025 — January 31, 2026
Region: UAE
Campaign target audience: UAE residents interested in banking products, investments, cryptocurrency. A separate focus — entrepreneurs and business owners.
Key metrics: CTR and mobile app installs
Why Telegram and not classic platforms?
The E-Promo International team chose Telegram Ads for three reasons:
- The platform is more lenient toward banking and cryptocurrency products than Meta, Google, and TikTok.
- Telegram historically attracts a tech-savvy audience and early adopters of digital tools, which strengthens its position in the fintech segment.
- A significant portion of the audience interested in cryptocurrency already uses the messenger.
After setting up the account, the team moved on to testing key hypotheses to determine the most effective launch model.
Strategy evolution: sequential testing and optimization
Hypothesis 1: Video drives higher engagement
The team launched two creative formats — video and static images. The logic was simple: video can show the product in action and explain its value in detail. If people understand it better, they’re more likely to convert.
In practice, the average video CTR was 0.5%. In the context of a fintech product and an audience making decisions in the financial sphere, Telegram is more often used as an environment for quick scanning of business information — news, analytics, industry channels. In that context, an image proved more relevant because video requires more time and concentration.
The E-Promo International team focused on static creatives, which provided a higher engagement level and an average CTR of 1.3%.
Hypothesis 2: Combining interests will attract a more qualified audience
On the surface, targeting users interested in banking, investing, and crypto at the same time felt like the best way to reach the most relevant audience. In practice, they encountered two problems.
First — volume. The algorithm couldn't find enough users for impressions. The daily budget wasn't being spent.
Second — effectiveness. The CTR of such "super-targeted" settings was 0.56% — lower than when targeting single interests without overlaps, so within the fintech niche launch, the broad segment model with differentiation through creatives proved more stable.
The practical takeaway is simple: "one segment → one creative": instead of complicating audience settings, split the communication. This allows you to maintain scale while working with different offers within the target audience.
Hypothesis 3: Adapting the creative to different segments will improve CTR
In the final launch, the E-Promo International team tested six ads with different offers for separate segments. With identical campaign settings, CTR varied from 1.01% to 1.57%. The 0.56% difference was achieved exclusively through communication. Higher CTR reduces CPC and allows you to get more installs with the same budget.
Systematic creative testing becomes a key scaling tool in Telegram Ads. Strong messages can be expanded to a larger traffic volume without changing campaign settings.
Telegram Ads for fintech: the logic that delivered results
In Telegram Ads, deep segmentation tools are limited. So the E-Promo International team focused on what they could control: a clear, concise offer in static creatives and a well-planned ad schedule. That approach delivered results above benchmarks: 📈 Average CTR: 1.3% (against a 0.8% benchmark). That's 50% above expectations. 📱 The end client is satisfied with the volume of installs (numbers under NDA).
Partner feedback
"I love the guys at Adhand for their responsiveness and client orientation. You can always boldly reach out to them for problem-solving, advice, benchmarks — they'll answer and help quickly. As for accounts for TG ADS — we haven't encountered ANYWHERE the ability to open narrowly targeted ones with UAE target geo and many other regions."
— Kirill Zvezdin, Performance Marketing Expert, E-Promo International
If you work with fintech, investment, or crypto products, regularly run into Meta and Google limitations, and are looking for a channel that can be scaled and forecasted even in challenging regions — we're ready to discuss possible collaboration formats.
We connect both in terms of infrastructure and access to Telegram Ads, and from the performance expertise side together with the E-Promo International team.
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