From zero to 100,000+ users in 8 months

The task

My partner and I launched a utility service in Telegram for users in Europe and the US. We started from zero: no audience, no brand and no data on which ads would work.

The project is under an NDA. So I do not name the service and do not share details. I write about the decisions that you can repeat in another business.

What I did

I was responsible for marketing and the product: promotion, feature ideas, the mechanics inside the service and ideas for the business.

• I launched and ran the ads in Telegram Ads.
• I built our own analytics on the CSV reports of Telegram Ads. With it, we knew what worked and what gave the best result.
• I designed the activity and interaction mechanics inside the service. They kept people and gave growth beyond the ads.
• I led the team: trained people, set tasks and checked the results.

What did not work

First we tried Facebook and TikTok and lost a few hundred dollars there with no result. The decision to move to Telegram Ads was the best one in the project.

The result

• In 8 months, 100,000+ people completed the sign-up.
• At the peak, about 10,000 people used the service every day.
• The whole ad budget for this time was $9,000.

I do not divide $9,000 by 100,000 users. The ads brought some of the people, the product itself brought the rest. This combination gave the result.

What came next

On the basis of this analytics system, I built Adtally: free analytics for Telegram Ads. Now anyone can use it.

What your business gets from this

• I test channels with small amounts and quickly turn off the ones that do not work.
• When a platform shows few numbers, I build my own analytics, so that decisions rest on data.
• I work with both the ads and the product: the ads bring people, the product keeps them.