Warm-up is the most boring part of Telegram outreach and the one most often skipped. The "we set up ten accounts and launched a campaign in the evening" approach always ends the same way: two or three days later half the pool is in a spam block, and the money for accounts and proxies is already spent.
Why warm up at all
Anti-spam has no access to your intentions, it looks at behaviour. A new account is a profile with no history: not in any chats, never talked to anyone, never read anything. For such a profile the very first complaint becomes decisive, because there is nothing to balance it out.
Warm-up solves exactly one problem: by the time of the first send, the account must have a normal biography. After that the same complaint weighs much less.
The 21-day plan
Below is the schedule warm-up follows in Meliora. The dates are indicative - go by the account's behaviour, not by the calendar.
| Stage | Days | What the account does | Sending limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. No sending | 1-3 | Subscribes to channels, reads, reacts occasionally. The profile is filled in: name, photo, bio | 0 touches per day |
| 2. Live conversations | 4-10 | Conversations inside the pool and the first manual touches, the limit grows in steps | 10 → 60 touches per day |
| 3. Working mode | 11-21 | The account reaches the full campaign limit and stays under Risk Score control | up to 300 touches per day |
The key thing in that table is not the top numbers but the shape of the growth. The limit should rise in steps rather than in one jump: an account that sent 10 messages yesterday and 200 today looks more suspicious than one that has not sent anything at all.
What counts as activity
Warm-up is not "open the app once a day". What works is what looks like normal usage:
- subscribing to 5-15 topical channels, including neutral ones like news;
- reading: the account opens chats, scrolls the feed, leaves rare reactions;
- a filled-in profile: first and last name, avatar, a short bio, ideally a username;
- mutual conversations inside the pool, so the account gains contacts and incoming messages;
- irregularity: activity at different times of day rather than strictly on schedule.
What not to do: join dozens of chats on day one, like things in bulk, or send "test" messages to strangers to "check whether it works".
Typical mistakes
- Warm-up on a schedule accurate to the minute. Even intervals are the most obvious machine signal. Spread is mandatory.
- One proxy for the whole pool. Accounts stop being independent and restrictions arrive as a group. The rule is simple: one account - one proxy, stable geolocation.
- A jump after warm-up. The account finishes three weeks and gets the maximum limit on its first working day. It needs a few more days of ramping up.
- Warming up once. After a pause between campaigns or after a lifted block the account needs ramping up again, though faster.
- Silence between campaigns. An account that did nothing for a month and then sent 200 messages behaves like a purchased one. Background activity between campaigns solves this.
How to tell the account is ready
Three checks, each takes a minute:
- @SpamBot replies that there are no restrictions;
- Risk Score stays in the lower band (in Meliora that is under 30 out of 100);
- the reply rate on the first touches does not collapse: if none of the first 20 messages are even read, it is either a block or the database.
What it costs in time
Three weeks per account sounds long until you count the alternative. A burned account means the cost of the account and the proxy, lost leads from the middle of a sequence and the manager's time on recovery. Warm-up runs in parallel: while the first batch works the second one warms up, and a month later the pool grows without gaps.
Frequently asked questions
How many days should an account be warmed up before outreach?
The benchmark is 21 days to the full working limit, while the first touches are possible from day 4. The minimum safe warm-up after which you can send anything at all is about a week.
Can an account be warmed up in 3 days?
You can speed it up, but it is a trade-off: the shorter the warm-up, the lower the ceiling on the limit and the higher the chance of a block within the first few hundred touches. If the deadline is tight, it is wiser to release the account at 10-20 touches a day and keep warming it up in parallel.
Does an aged account need warming up?
Yes, but a shorter one. An aged account already has history, so a week of activity and a gradual ramp are enough. Skipping the ramp is not an option: a sharp jump in volume looks equally suspicious for a new and an aged profile.
What should the account do between campaigns?
Keep background activity on: subscriptions, reading, occasional messages. An account that continuously looks alive handles the next campaign noticeably better.
Does warm-up fully protect against bans?
No. It lowers the probability and extends account life - by our data by 60-80% - but it does not cancel complaints. If the offer goes to an irrelevant database, the block will arrive even to a perfectly warmed-up account.