Affiliate GEO Tiers Guide: How Offers Convert Across Countries

You lose your income if you don’t know what a GEO Tiers is. This directly affects your clicks, impressions and ROI. In this guide for affiliate marketers, we explained the difference between the three GEO Tiers, as well as described the nuances of working with it, provided a list of countries and the most suitable verticals for each of them.

If you’re just starting out in affiliate marketing, you might feel overwhelmed by the flood of new terms, strategies, and rules. One key concept to master early on is the classification of countries into “TIERS” – namely, Tier-1, Tier-2, and Tier-3. 

You’re probably asking yourself: why are countries split into tiers, and how does this affect your choice of GEO for ad campaigns? Can you really run any offer in any country? Today, we’ll provide clear answers to these questions and more so you immediately understand what Tiers mean and how to use this classification in your work. Let’s dive in!

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Think of it like the World Cup draw, where national teams are grouped into different pots based on their strength, rankings, and stats. The goal is to keep the tournament balanced and exciting. In affiliate marketing, all countries are similarly divided into tiers based on economic and technological indicators: income levels, internet penetration, digital infrastructure, and so on. In short, the tiers break down like this:

This Tier classification helps advertisers and affiliates target campaigns more precisely, predict traffic value, and manage budgets. Knowing the market characteristics and spending power of audiences in each tier lets you:

• Optimize your spending: Better calculate ROI and pick the most effective GEOs for your budget.
• Adapt creatives and offers: Tailor products and ad formats to match each market’s habits and purchasing power.
• Plan your scaling: Validate your offers first in lower-cost Tier-3 (or Tier-2) markets, then move into higher-value Tier-1 GEOs once performance is optimized.

Next, let’s look in detail at each tier and offer practical tips on choosing GEOs for your campaigns.

Tier-1 countries include markets like Australia, the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, and other highly developed economies. What these countries have in common is very high purchasing power and active online lifestyles – users here spend money on the internet readily. For affiliates, this means maximum return on ad spend, so Tier-1 markets are always top priority.

In these affluent regions, premium offers and complex products/services tend to perform best:

The population in Tier-1 countries tends to have high financial literacy and income: many own iPhones or flagship Androids. However, remember that even wealthy countries have lower-income segments. So there’s also demand for games, education, and low-ticket items – you can’t ignore those niches entirely.

Tier-2 countries include markets such as Andorra, Cyprus, Malta, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Ukraine, South Korea, and others. In fact, Tier-2 is the largest group in affiliate marketing. These regions have lower overall income levels and online activity than Tier-1, but they come with their own advantages:

However, Tier-2 markets also require special attention:

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Tier-3 countries include markets like India, Nigeria, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Uganda, and others. These regions are known for cheap but high-volume traffic and audiences that are not yet accustomed to online shopping. While payouts per action are usually lower here, you can often make up for it with scale and strong conversion rates.

Tier-3 is often a “training ground” for newcomers: it allows you to refine strategies without risking huge budgets and to validate basic funnels before adding complex automation.

Use Tier-3 as a sandbox to test hypotheses and then scale successful models to pricier GEOs. Here, simplicity rules: keep offers straightforward, localize carefully, and always respect cultural specifics.

Getting started in Tier-1 GEOs requires careful setup. Follow these steps:

• Set up robust tracking: Assign a unique postback URL to each traffic source, and use separate subdomains for your landing pages. This way you can quickly identify underperforming channels and fix leaks in your funnel.
• Test your creatives: Never run the same ad assets worldwide. Conduct A/B tests with English and localized banners or creatives. Factor in regional slang and cultural nuances. This will show you exactly where CTRs and conversions are highest.
• Control your budgets: Set daily campaign budget limits right from the start to manage your spend. Don’t let costly traffic spiral out of control.
• Ensure compliance and build trust: Check all your text and offers against regulations (GDPR in Europe, ASA in the UK, FTC in the US, etc.) before you launch. Include trust signals on your landing pages – such as industry certifications, user reviews, and payment system logos – to bolster credibility.
• Use high-converting ad formats: Choose formats known to work well in Tier-1 (for example, popunder ads, push notifications, or high-quality native content). Match your format to the audience’s expectations.

Following these practices will give you a clear understanding of where your campaign performs best and help you optimize from day one.

While Tier-1 markets are very attractive, don’t limit yourself to them. To maximize your results, diversify your campaigns across Tier-2 and Tier-3 as well. Here’s why:

• Cheap, plentiful traffic: Tier-2 and Tier-3 offer huge volumes of traffic at a fraction of the cost. This lets you run more split-tests and gather valuable data on audience reactions to your creatives.
• Unique vertical opportunities: Many verticals that are regulated or closed in Tier-1 (like certain dating offers, sweepstakes, or local gambling) can often be promoted in Tier-2/3 with fewer restrictions – potentially boosting your profits.
• Lower competition: Less competition and smaller budgets in these markets can make it easier to maintain profitability, especially with smart optimizations.
• High-growth “hidden gems”: Undervalued markets such as Egypt, Thailand, Vietnam, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, India, and Indonesia have massive populations and rapidly growing internet adoption. These regions can become true “gold mines” for e-commerce and online services as they continue to develop.

In short, an all-Tier-1 strategy may yield returns, but a diversified approach that includes Tier-2 and Tier-3 will unlock many more opportunities.

The HilltopAds ad network combines flexibility with powerful functionality, making it easy to work across Tier-1, Tier-2, and Tier-3 markets:

Register with HilltopAds and launch your first campaign today! With the right tools and strategies, you’ll be conquering Tier-1, Tier-2, and Tier-3 markets in no time.