Tribute case study: Google and Meta Ads for a global Web3 monetisation platform

• Built separate keyword structures for Russian- and English-speaking audiences worldwide.
• Collected more than 1,000 keywords and divided them into three core groups: category searches (“monetise a Telegram channel”, “telegram bot subscriptions”), competitor searches (“Patreon alternative”, “Boosty alternative”) and brand searches (“Tribute monetisation”, “Tribute”).
• Wrote high-quality search ads, added all relevant assets and launched the first campaigns.
• Used the first weeks to optimise placements, clean up search terms and improve traffic quality. This produced the first conversions and gradually reduced their cost.

Once results stabilised, we tested additional landing pages and launched new campaigns in other markets and languages, including Brazil, Spain, Turkey and the US.

• When scaling in the US, we found that the broad brand query “tribute” was ineffective in English. Because it is a common word, the campaign attracted searches for tribute bands, music and memorial events. We rebuilt the keyword structure, removed the standalone “tribute” keyword in Western markets, added an extensive negative-keyword list and focused on intent-rich combinations such as “tribute telegram bot” and “tribute monetization”.
• We tested Performance Max and the Google Display Network, but after several weeks search continued to bring higher-quality traffic at a significantly lower conversion cost.

Before launching the campaigns, we reviewed data from another traffic source. Visitors saw a “Start earning” button above the fold and clicked it before understanding the product. This brought irrelevant traffic: users did not reach the explanatory sections lower on the page, time on site was low and so was conversion. Based on this data, we analysed competitors, prepared a new landing-page structure and passed it to the client for production.

We launched traffic in parallel. The initial markets were the CIS — Kazakhstan, Belarus, Georgia and Armenia — Asia — Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia — and the UAE. The first creatives used broad messages that clearly explained how the platform worked and the value it delivered.

We paused the UAE campaign because bot visits were too expensive. The Asia campaign performed initially, but then declined as frequency rose sharply. We tried to optimise it and disabled the creative that was taking most of the reach.

Ultimately, we paused Asia as well because visits became too costly. The CIS audience was more stable: it did not fatigue as quickly and campaigns produced cheaper bot visits.

We developed and launched new creatives for people already monetising content through third-party platforms outside Telegram. The message highlighted the contrast: other services require the user to leave the messenger, register on an external website and only then pay for a subscription, while Tribute keeps the entire journey inside Telegram. We launched these creatives in the CIS and ran an additional worldwide test.

The data showed that users clicked the ads and moved through the funnel: they began entering information and some completed the verification steps. However, only one new creator was acquired during the entire period. We therefore paused performance traffic until the new funnel was ready and shifted Meta Ads towards reach.

• After six months of solid results, we are actively scaling by budget, geography and conversion volume.
• We completely rebuilt the campaign structure and introduced more granular grouping: instead of six campaigns, 71 are now active, with each group separated into its own campaign. This enables more precise budget control, performance management and scaling.
• Landing pages were rebuilt for the new campaign structure. They are now simpler and communicate the product more clearly, which should reduce the cost per conversion.
• A separate campaign and landing page for Brazil is being prepared.
• The main technical challenge is sending every conversion from the Telegram Mini App to Google Ads and GA4. We are implementing server-side postbacks from the mini app to the ad account so campaigns can optimise for deeper in-app events, not only bot visits.