The bot step by step: from campaign to first click

First, the account

On Telegram, the account is created the first time you open the Mini App, with no email or password. On the web you sign up with your first name, last name, email and password, accept the terms and privacy notice, and activate the account from the message you receive. You must be at least 18, and each person gets one account.

Step 1: the ad

Six fields are required: the campaign name (it's for you, to tell campaigns apart), at least one category, at least one language, the message text, the button text and the destination link. An image or video is up to you. For help writing a text that suits Telegram's formats, there is a dedicated article.

When you go to the next step, KnockAds checks the link: it must start with https, have a valid certificate and point to a public address. The check ends there. What you publish, and what sits on your destination page, is your responsibility.

Step 2: the preview

The preview shows the ad as it will appear in the channel: text, image or video if you added one, and the button. If something looks off, go back and fix it. You haven't spent anything yet.

Step 3: price and budget

For each category and language pair you picked, the app shows the minimum price per click and the suggested CPC. You pay only for valid clicks. How the minimum is set is explained in this article.

Then you choose the budget, a whole amount in euros. If your wallet doesn't cover it, top it up by card or PayPal. Last, decide when the campaign starts: right away or at a scheduled time.

After launch

About every two minutes, the system assigns active campaigns to free slots. Yours runs when a channel has picked a category and a language that match yours and has an active, free slot at that moment. Until then the campaign waits, at no cost.

When the ad goes out, the click price is set for that publication. At the end of the hour the post is taken down from the channel, and for the next hour the system can assign your campaign again or pick another one.

Managing the campaign

• You can pause an active campaign and resume it whenever you like.
• You can add budget while the campaign is running.
• A scheduled or stopped campaign can be edited.
• A scheduled or stopped campaign can be archived, and the unspent budget goes back to your wallet.
• When the budget runs out, the campaign closes by itself, the posts come down from the channels and what is left goes back to your balance.

The campaign page shows clicks, spend, average cost per click and remaining budget, with charts by day and by hour. The article on valid clicks explains how to read them.