Telegram is not just a messenger; it is a powerful tool for business, promotion, and monetization. The more people in a channel, the higher the trust from advertisers and the value of the content. But what if half of the subscribers are "dead souls," and the views are inflated?
Some community owners resort to trickery, artificially inflating statistics. However, this approach not only fails to generate profit but can also damage reputation.
In this article, we will explore how to identify inflated statistics in Telegram? How to distinguish real users from fakes? Why does inflation harm even large projects? And most importantly — how to get rid of bots?
What is inflation?
Inflating subscribers in a Telegram channel is the process of artificially increasing statistics such as audience and activity using specialized programs and bots. This method is often used to create the illusion of popularity, but in reality, it does not provide any real benefit and can even be harmful.
What indicators are inflated?
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Number of views
Inflating post views creates the impression that the content is actively read and generates interest among a large group of people. However, in most cases, bots simply open the posts for a few seconds without interacting with them or clicking on links. -
Number of subscribers
Increasing the number of users with bots creates the illusion of a large and active audience. This can attract the attention of advertisers, but in reality, such subscribers do not interact with the content and do not provide any real benefit. -
Reactions
With the emergence of the ability to leave reactions on posts, inflating this indicator has become popular. Bots can mass like or react in other ways, creating the appearance of interactions, although this is not the case in reality. -
Comments
While inflating comments is a more complex task, it also occurs. Fake comments are usually one-word responses and carry no value, and the accounts leaving them often appear suspicious.
Why is this done?
The main goal of inflation is to increase advertising costs. Community owners strive to show advertisers that their platform is popular and actively used, allowing them to inflate the prices for advertising placements. However, such practices can mislead advertisers.
Consequences of inflation
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Zero results for advertisers
Advertising campaigns conducted on platforms with inflated statistics often do not yield the expected results. Bots do not interact with advertising content, leading to wasted expenses and a lack of real targeted traffic. -
Risks for advertised channels
Advertisers risk attracting bots to their own platforms. This can negatively impact their reputation and the effectiveness of their own channels. -
Lack of real popularity
Despite the apparent activity, inflation does not contribute to real growth in popularity. Real users may notice the discrepancy between the number of subscribers and the level of engagement, undermining their trust in the source.
How to recognize a dishonest Telegram channel
Before collaborating with a Telegram channel, it is worth assessing its reliability. Some signs may indicate low-quality audience or artificial inflation of statistics.
Warning signals to watch for
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Specific topic
Groups dedicated to dubious themes (for example, "easy money," gambling, erotic content, or provocative materials) often resort to inflation. Their audience may consist of bots or random users. -
Zero activity from subscribers
A lack of comments, reactions, and reposts is a clear sign of a "dead" audience. Even with a large number of subscribers, a low level of engagement indicates inorganic growth. -
Suspicious advertising
If the channel regularly features messages with suspicious links, it may indicate fraudulent schemes. -
Aggressive promotion of ads
Constant offers for placements, especially at reduced prices, often indicate attempts to monetize an artificially inflated audience.
Quick check with DataFan bot
For preliminary analysis, you can use specialized services.
Simply send the link to the channel and analyze the data:
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Ratio of posts to subscribers – if there are few posts but many subscribers, the channel may have recently changed its topic or inflated its audience.
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ER (Engagement Rate) – an engagement rate below 1-2% is a warning sign.
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Mentions in other sources – if the community is not cited anywhere, its popularity may be a myth.
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Advertising reach – inflated numbers with minimal activity often indicate manipulation.
Deep analysis through TGStat
More detailed information can be obtained by studying the statistics in TGStat. What should you pay attention to?
Subscriber dynamics
Natural growth has a smooth curve with periodic dips (unsubscriptions). Sharp spikes, a perfectly flat line, or a complete absence of churn are signs of inflation.
It is important to remember that a sharp increase in subscriptions does not always indicate inflation. For example, people may mass subscribe after an advertising integration. In this case, activity increases immediately after the ad is released and gradually decreases over the day. If there is an instant growth without purchasing ads, this may be a warning sign.
Additionally, a sharp influx of subscribers may be related to the audience transitioning from another social network, as was the case in March 2022 after the blocking of well-known services.
Post views
Posts garner the most views in the first hour after publication. Additionally, live channels have a clear dependency on the time of day: morning and evening hours are peak activity times, while nighttime sees a decline.
Signs of inflation
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Peaks of inappropriate duration.
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Long intervals with identical indicators.
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High views during nighttime hours.
Reactions and comments
Natural discussions vary in wording and tone. Fake comments are often written as if from a template, containing enthusiastic exclamations or advertising phrases.
How to get rid of bots and inactive audience
If you have recently purchased advertising and noticed a suspicious increase in your audience, you may be facing the problem of attracting bots.
Dishonest administrators may artificially inflate metrics to demonstrate the effectiveness of advertising. In such situations, it is crucial to promptly clean the channel of inactive subscribers.
One of the tools that can help with this is @crosser_bot. This bot is designed to remove inactive audiences and restore real statistics.
Step-by-step instructions
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Add the bot as an administrator.
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Send it the link to your public channel.
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Select the period for which you need to check subscribers (for example, after the last advertising integration).
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Start the cleanup.
It is worth noting that @crosser_bot is not the only tool for removing inflated subscribers. However, when choosing a bot for working with your channel, be cautious. Some bots may request additional permissions, such as the ability to add other administrators. This can pose a security threat to your community. Therefore, always choose only trusted and reliable programs.
If you do not want to use third-party services, you can manually check subscribers through the messenger analytics or track anomalies in activity. However, this will take more time.
Cleaning the channel of bots will not only improve statistical indicators but also enhance trust from the real audience. As a result, you will be able to more accurately assess the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and interact with real subscribers.
Conclusion
Before launching an advertising campaign on Telegram, it is crucial to carefully select channels for placements. This will not only help achieve the desired results but also avoid unnecessary expenses.
To evaluate a channel, it is not necessary to interact with its owner. There are specialized services, such as DataFan and TGStat, that provide the opportunity to study channel statistics for free. These tools allow you to obtain data on reach, audience activity, and other key metrics. However, it is important to consider that if the channel has just been created, its statistics may not yet be available in the system. In this case, you can ask the administrator to add the community to the service's database.
If the channel owner refuses to provide access to the statistics or the presented data raises doubts, it is better not to take risks. There are many channels in Telegram with active and real audiences, and a competent analysis will help choose the most suitable option for advertising placements, ensuring maximum return on investment.
Thus, careful checking and analysis of channels before launching advertising is the key to a successful campaign and effective use of the advertising budget.
