Algeria AgencyDirect marketing
Viber & Telegram ads
Two messengers heavily used here, cheaper than SMS and richer — provided the people on your list actually use them.
Viber and Telegram hold a place in Algeria that few markets give them. Both are everyday messengers, used for business exchanges as well as personal ones, and both offer what SMS cannot: an image, a presentable link, a long message, and a markedly lower cost per send.
They are not, however, alike. Viber offers commercial messages addressed to a number — that is, to a list you already hold, the same logic as SMS with more room. Telegram works chiefly through channels: you publish to subscribers, or you buy distribution inside somebody else’s channel.
That difference decides the use. Viber is for announcing something to your customers; Telegram is for sustaining an audience that follows you, or reaching a new one. Confusing the two produces the familiar disappointment: a budget spent on a channel asked to do the other one’s job.
The shared constraint is simple and rarely stated: these channels reach only people who have the application. Before recommending either, we look at what your list genuinely uses, and often the answer is neither.
What we usually find
- Your texts are expensive and you cannot put an image or any formatting in them.
- You have a Telegram channel nobody has posted to in months.
- Customers message you on these apps and nobody answers.
- You do not know which of these messengers your customers use.
What changes
A lower cost per message than SMS
For a list that uses the app, the same announcement comes in appreciably cheaper.
A message that can show something
A product photo, the offer as a visual, a readable link — none of which fits in 160 characters.
A channel you keep
A subscribed Telegram channel stays reachable without paying on every post.
What you get
Coverage check
What share of your list is genuinely reachable on each app, established before any budget.
Viber business messages
Addressed to your contacts, with a visual, an action button and an SMS fallback when delivery fails.
Running a Telegram channel
A posting schedule, a format for announcements, and answers to the messages that come back.
Placement in third-party channels
Algerian channels selected on real audience rather than on the subscriber count on display.
Visuals at the right size
An image legible on a phone screen, not a poster shrunk until its text disappears.
Traffic and sales measurement
Tracked links per channel, so Viber, Telegram and SMS can be compared honestly on the same offer.
How we work
Measure the usage
What proportion of your list uses each app. Without that figure everything else is guesswork.
Decide each channel’s job
Announcing to customers, or building an audience. The two are not done with the same tool.
Produce the message
Text, visual and a single action, prepared for the screen they will actually be seen on.
Compare and decide
Same offer, two channels, tracked links. We keep the one that produces and cut the other.
Is this the right fit for you?
This is for you if
- A substantial share of your customers use Viber or Telegram daily.
- Your offer gains from being shown as an image rather than described in a sentence.
- You want to announce often without paying for an SMS every time.
This is not for you if
- Your customers are older or lightly connected. SMS will reach them; these apps will not.
- You want maximum coverage of a list. No messenger gives you that.
- You want a channel to post to once and forget. A dead channel works against your name.
What we commit to
Coverage is measured first
We give you the reachable share of your list before proposing a budget, not after the first send.
Subscribers are not bought
We do not buy subscribers for a channel. An inflated counter sells nothing and is obvious to anyone.
The channel is yours
Created on your accounts with your administrator access, and it stays with you if we part.
Why these two apps matter in Algeria
Viber has settled durably into Algerian habits, particularly for calls and for keeping in touch abroad, and it stayed when other markets moved on. That gives it local coverage far above what any global average would suggest.
Telegram grew on a different use: channels for news, announcements and selling, many of them run by traders and resellers themselves. It is a space where audiences gather by subject, which produces relevant placements when a channel is chosen for its real readership rather than its subscriber count.
Neither replaces SMS, and that is the point we repeat most often. Part of your customer base — frequently the part that buys most regularly — has neither app. Treating messaging as a replacement for SMS, rather than as a cheaper complement to it, means simply ceasing to speak to those customers.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to choose between Viber and Telegram?
Usually yes, because they do different jobs. Viber sends to a list of numbers you hold; Telegram publishes to subscribers or buys distribution elsewhere. We look at your list and your objective and recommend one — rarely both at the start.
Is it really cheaper than SMS?
Per delivered message, yes, clearly. But a message delivered to fewer people is not a saving: if only part of your list has the app, the cost per customer reached can be higher. That is why the coverage measurement comes before the price comparison.
What happens if a Viber message is not delivered?
An SMS fallback can be arranged: a contact without the app receives the short version, and you pay the messaging rate only for those it genuinely reached. That is the arrangement we recommend whenever coverage is uncertain.
Can you get subscribers for our channel?
We can help you earn them by making it known where your customers already are — in store, on your other channels, in your sends. We do not buy them. A channel with ten thousand inactive subscribers sells nothing and discourages the people who genuinely arrive.
How often should we post to a channel?
More often than you would send an SMS, because the reader chose to subscribe and can leave whenever they like. One or two posts a week, with something to say, lasts. A channel silent for two months is harder to revive than it was to create.
Do these sends fall under the same rules as SMS?
Yes for anything addressed to a contact list: consent, a record of it, and removal that works, as Law 18-07 requires. A public channel somebody subscribes to freely is a different case, since the reader chooses to be there and can unsubscribe unaided.
How to start
We start by measuring, on a sample of your list, what share is genuinely reachable on each application.
That figure decides everything else — and sometimes it makes us recommend staying with SMS.
What we have written on this subject
Let us talk about your project
A free audit, no commitment: we look at your online presence and tell you what is holding it back.
- Coverage is measured first
- Subscribers are not bought
- The channel is yours