Chatbots for promotions inside messengers

Promotions inside Telegram, VK and WhatsApp: receipt and code entry, prize draws, games and a personal account right in the chat.

What a promo bot can do

Sign-up and login inside the chat — by phone number, email or the credentials from the campaign site.
Receipt intake: the participant sends a photo, the bot reads the data and checks it against the tax service.
Pack code entry with an instant answer on whether the code counted or was already used.
Contest entry intake — a photo, a video or text.
Scheduled prize draws and instant prizes right in the chat.
A lightweight personal account: my receipts and codes, points, prizes, support requests.
Answers to common questions and support intake without an operator.
Age gate and campaign rules delivered in the first message.
Broadcasts: remind people to upload a receipt, call them to a draw, announce a win.
An AI assistant that answers participants in its own words.

Which messenger to build the bot in

The share of people who prefer uploading receipts in a bot rather than on a site barely changes between messengers — what the channel costs you matters more. Telegram and VK are the most convenient: buttons, fast flows, an easy launch, which is why they are the usual pick for campaigns in central Russia. WhatsApp requires Business API registration, approval of outgoing messages and payment for replies sent after 24 hours, and it has no buttons — take it when the campaign targets regions where it dominates. Viber stays exotic but occasionally covers an audience nothing else reaches.

A bot instead of a site, or alongside it

If the bot is the campaign’s only channel, it has to cover the whole mechanic: sign-up, receipt intake and validation, prizes, support. If a site already exists, decide how deep the bot should go: the basic version is login plus receipt intake, the full one is close to a copy of the personal account. Part of the audience takes part only in a messenger and will never open the site, so in our experience "site plus bot" beats either channel on its own. The engine underneath is shared: the same participant, receipts and points, whichever channel they arrive from.

Receipt and code entry inside the bot

The participant photographs the receipt or scans its QR code inside the chat. The engine reads the data, validates it with the tax service, finds the eligible products and identifies the retail outlet — the answer lands in the chat within seconds. Receipts rejected by automation go to manual review, handled by your team or ours. Code campaigns follow the same logic: the code is matched against the generated code base and the person sees the result at once. The rules can be strict — for example accepting receipts only from selected cities or only for a given period; anything else is declined automatically.

Running a prize draw in a Telegram bot

The prize pool is set up once — e-certificates, cash, physical gifts, accumulated points, cashback — and draws run on a schedule: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or a single grand draw at the end. The engine picks the winners and you confirm the list before handover; draws can also be run manually. The bot can message first, so participants get a reminder to upload a receipt before a draw and a result message afterwards. The outcome is mirrored in the winners section of the campaign site, if there is one, and exported as a table.

What remains once the campaign ends

People who took part through the bot stay reachable — rebuilding that base from scratch costs noticeably more. Broadcasting in a messenger is simpler and cheaper than email, especially now that several familiar email services have left the market. Once the campaign is over you can keep the conversation going: announce the next launch, invite people into the community, send something useful. One caveat: deleting the chat is not unsubscribing, messages keep arriving — so write only when you have something to say and always leave a way to opt out.

How we build and launch the bot

  1. Brief: the campaign mechanic, the platforms, the prizes and what the bot must be able to do.
  2. We write the conversation script — every participant step, every bot reply, every error message.
  3. We build the bot and wire it to the PromoKit engine: receipts, codes, prizes, draws, support.
  4. We test on real receipts and polish the wording before launch.
  5. We go live, read the conversations and refine the script while the campaign runs.

What the basic bot includes and what is added on top

In the basic set: login with the campaign site credentials, email sign-up, receipt and code intake, campaign rules.
Added separately: contest entry intake, a personal account with receipts, gifts and support requests, an FAQ section, feedback, an age gate.
Platforms to choose from: Telegram and VK, plus WhatsApp where needed.
Game mechanics — trivia, quizzes, a simple casual game — run in the bot exactly as they do on a site.
A conversational page in the browser: the same chat-style flow with buttons, but no messenger required.
API links to your systems: CRM, loyalty cards, payment services.

Why a chatbot rather than another landing page

Cheaper than a landing page: no separate site design and front-end build.
A change to the script or the copy takes one developer, usually the same day.
A lower barrier: the participant is already in the messenger, with nothing to install or register.
Less load on support — the bot handles the common questions itself.
A live contact base you can keep working with after the campaign.
A convenient place to test a hypothesis or a new mechanic before a big launch.

FAQ

What can the bot do besides collecting entries?

It accepts and validates receipts with the tax service, counts pack codes, collects contest entries, shows points and prizes in a lightweight personal account, runs draws, answers common questions, takes support requests and sends reminders. Trivia, quizzes and simple games run inside the bot too.

Which messenger should the campaign bot live in?

For campaigns in central Russia the usual choice is Telegram or VK: they have buttons and are simpler to launch. WhatsApp needs Business API access, approval of outgoing messages and payment for replies after 24 hours, and has no buttons — it is picked for regional targeting. The share of participants who use a bot barely depends on the messenger.

Can a bot fully replace the campaign site?

It can, if it is the only channel and covers the whole mechanic — sign-up, receipts, prizes, support. But in our experience the pairing works better: some people go only to the site, others only into the messenger. Both channels share one mechanic, so data is never duplicated.

How long does a chatbot take to launch?

On average about 30% faster than a landing page. The exact timing depends on how many steps the script has, whether a personal account is needed and whether we are inventing a new mechanic. Small copy and logic changes after launch take one developer, usually within a day.

How does the bot validate receipts?

The participant sends a photo of the receipt or scans its QR code. The data is recognised and checked with the tax service, eligible products are found and the store is identified. The answer arrives in the chat immediately. Receipts rejected by automation go to manual review, run by your team or ours.

Can a prize draw run inside a Telegram bot?

Yes. You set up the prize pool, choose the frequency — from hourly to a single grand draw — and the mode: automatic or manual. The engine selects the winners and you confirm the list before handover. Ahead of a draw the bot reminds participants to upload a receipt.

What happens to the participant base after the campaign?

The base stays with you: contacts, participation history, uploaded receipts. You can keep talking to these people — messenger broadcasts cost less than email. Note that deleting a chat is not unsubscribing: messages still arrive, so always give a clear way to opt out.

How is the bot protected against prize hunters?

The same way the site is: device fingerprint and behaviour add suspicion points, multiple accounts belonging to one person are merged into a single profile, and before a valuable prize is awarded the winner can be checked against the professional prize hunter database.

How much does a promo chatbot cost?

The price combines the basic set with the extras you switch on: contest entries, a personal account, an FAQ, feedback, an age gate, broadcasts. You can assemble the estimate in the site calculator and receive it in Excel at a fixed price together with the work plan.

Ready to launch a promo inside messengers?

We will design the bot scenario and wire it up to the Promokit engine.

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