For niche communities and direct response, Telegram Ads sit in a different lane than the broad platforms, so it's less about better or worse and more about fit.
Where it wins: the whole funnel stays inside Telegram. You promote straight into a channel or a bot, so there's no jump to a landing page bleeding out clicks, someone taps and they're already in the conversation. CPM tends to run cheaper than the saturated feeds, and you're reaching people who already sit in the exact niche channels you care about, so intent is warmer than plain interest targeting.
Where it falls short: total scale is smaller, so if you need raw volume it caps out fast. Creative rules are tight, no explicit claims, and inventory clusters in certain niches and geos, so some offers just have no room.
One thing that decides it: don't trust click through rate. Track cost per join or cost per bot start, attach a unique start parameter per ad, and check retention a week later. That's what tells you if it actually beat your other sources.
Best,
Floqal