Where you should actually be leading people from Threads
Three rules for the Threads-to-Telegram flow and an honest way to measure it. On our two accounts: 13M views brought 1,300 people, 5.2M brought over 2,000.
- Threads
- Funnel
- ≈ 9 minutes
The feed in Threads has one job — to lead a person to a place where you can actually talk to them. Below are three rules we worked out on our two accounts, and a number that made us recalculate everything.
Three rules for the flow and a way to measure it so you're not fooling yourself. Nine-minute read.
Why selling in the feed itself is pointless
The platform's main value — and its own limitation.
Threads shows your post to people who don't follow you. That's its main value, and also its limitation.
Someone scrolled to you by accident. They weren't looking for you, and in ten seconds they'll scroll past.
Selling in the feed is a big mistake. The feed has one job: move the person into Telegram, where they're already your reader, not a passerby.
The feed builds reach. The money starts where you funnel that reach into.
The number that sobered us up
Thirteen million views and thirteen hundred people.
Over two months on our account we racked up 13,000,000 views. Pure organic, not a single dollar spent on ads.
Of those, 1,300 people came to Telegram.
Do the math yourself. It looks humiliating right up until you realize you're counting the wrong thing.
Out of thirteen million views, we didn't need all of them. We needed those 1,300.
At first we were proud of the reach and didn't count how many people it actually brought in. A view isn't a person. Threads itself defines this metric as the total number of times your content was viewed, counting both followers and non-followers. It's an impression count, and the number of actual people behind it can be several times smaller.
Then we started a second account and got numbers that flipped the conclusion.
Count the people who actually reach Telegram.
Reach is four times smaller. The flow is nearly four times bigger.
You can track this right in Threads' own analytics, and each number has its own place there.
threads.com on desktop, "Insights" in the left menu. Defaults to the last 90 days; the range can be changed via "More options." The platform marks some metrics as approximate.
There's a fourth number missing from this list, and it's the most important one. Threads won't show you how many people made it to Telegram — you have to count that on your own side.
The difference came down to one thing: on the second account we focused on expert-style posts. A trigger post builds reach but doesn't build trust; an expert post builds trust and barely builds reach — more on this in the breakdown of our Threads blog.
Only the second one actually converts.
Rule one: the channel is locked in advance
Before any traffic starts flowing to it.
A closed channel with join requests is set up in advance, before traffic starts flowing to it.
Telegram's mechanics here are simple. Join-request approval isn't turned on for the whole channel — it's set on a specific invite link: when you create it, you enable the "Request to Join" option.
After that, anyone who opens that link sees a button to send a join request. You see the requests listed at the top of the channel, along with each applicant's public profile photo and bio. You decide whether to approve or decline.
That's the whole point: before someone gets in, you already know who they are, and letting them in becomes a deliberate decision.
Open your own link from a different account. If it lets you straight in without a request button, the setting isn't on that particular link. A channel can have several links, and the rule only applies to the one where it's enabled.
Rule two: the call-to-action text changes every time
The same call-to-action under every post reads as spam to the platform.
Never paste the exact same call-to-action word for word. If every post ends with identical text and a link, Threads flags it as spam and hits you with a shadow ban — it's happened to us more than once.
This isn't just our own experience. Meta's Community Standards, in effect as a single set across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads since November 2024, spell this out directly in the spam section: restrictions are imposed for actions at very high frequency, and at lower frequency when other spam signals are present nearby — and repetitive posts are listed as exactly one of those signals.
Change the wording, the placement in the post, and the reason to click through. One time it's a breakdown, another a list, a third an answer to a question from the comments.
At the same time you'll find out which reason works. Identical text will never show you that.
Where to find the posts this call-to-action should go under — in the breakdown about finding other people's viral threads.
Rule three: you don't sell in the feed
No prices, no offers, no "DM me."
In the feed you only show how you think. The sale starts in Telegram, and it doesn't start with pricing.
First a person reads you in a calm place, where there are no other people's posts between yours.
That's exactly why the channel is worth closing: there, your text doesn't compete with anything.
The sale starts at step four, not step one.
How to measure without fooling yourself
Two numbers instead of views.
Counting views is useless. Count how many people clicked the link and how many of those who clicked stayed.
The first shows whether the call-to-action works. The second — whether the channel works.
If there are many clicks but few stay, you need to fix the channel. If there are few clicks with good reach — you're selling in the feed, go back to rule three.
Measure the flow-through as a multiple of reach. Absolute numbers say nothing here: a thousand subscribers from a million and from ten thousand are different results. Two thousand people from five million is stronger than one thousand three hundred from thirteen.
If reach is growing but there are no leads — almost always there's nowhere for the flow to go. We'll break down your funnel and tell you where it's leaking.
What to do next
Three actions for this week.
Close the channel to join requests today, before the next post goes out. Then change the call-to-action in every post and spend a week watching which reason gets more clicks.
In a week you'll have two numbers instead of feelings — clicks and retention. You can actually decide something with those.
Threads still gives cheaper reach than any other platform. We'll look at your profile, tell you which formats will bring reach specifically in your niche, and calculate how long it'll take to pay off.
If you want to shift your lead flow from cold outreach to content — leave a request. We'll get in touch if there are open slots right now. Usually there's a waitlist, so you may have to wait.
And to see how this works live, subscribe to our Telegram.
