In Russia social media, in particular instant messengers, have advanced rapidly in recent years. The most popular ones are WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, Telegram. The purpose of this article is to systematize factors of market positioning of social media channels as a digital analytical and planning technology of advertising campaigns. A systematic approach and comparative analysis were used to study this problem. The authors attempted to develop a methodological approach towards analyzing and planning of advertising campaigns in social media based on the analysis of the factors characterizing quantitative parameters of the Internet platform development and its target audience distribution. The proposed approach was tested by the authors for determining the development features of Telegram messenger, analyzing its target audience (users with higher education engaged in science, technique, information technology, etc.) and its promotional product (posts in the form of a native format, etc.). The analysis concluded that Telegram platform is suitable for analyzing and planning of promotion campaigns in any business field.

Currently, social media are attracting more and more active users, therefore it is not surprising that almost every company has corporate accounts on VK, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter. But due to the huge number of paid ads, posts, advertising campaigns and questionnaires aimed at increasing brand awareness and driving traffic, competition in social media are quite fierce. This forces market newcomers to look for alternative channels to reach their target audience. Many of them find such opportunities in instant messengers that are developing even faster than social media in the past. One of these messengers is Telegram, which has already managed to break out in the lead among other messaging applications. The audience of this digital platform is growing every year, so Telegram is a promising advertising platform for any business. The purpose of this article is to develop a methodological approach to planning advertising campaigns in the Telegram messenger. In the study of this problem, a systematic approach and comparative analysis were used. In the article, the authors attempted to develop a methodological approach to planning, implementing and evaluating advertising campaigns in a digital environment (using the Telegram messenger as an example). The authors revealed the features of advertising in the digital environment, systematized advertising platforms of this platform depending on payment, reflected the cost of advertising services on a digital platform, specified the types of implementation of an advertising campaign, and presented methods for evaluating its effectiveness on the Telegram platform.