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Introducing: New Bidding Features

by Kreete Pruul
Sep 13, 2019
Advertising
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Advertisers often struggle to choose in which countries they should run their campaigns and how much they should bid on different GEOs. Our new pre-set tier structure makes it easier to target specific GEOs and tailor bids per tiers/countries all in one campaign. It gives media buyers more flexibility to easily optimize their campaigns and achieve performance targets.

What are country tiers?

Country tiers are grouped GEOs and each tier consists of different countries. Tiers are widely used in the affiliate marketing industry but the way the countries have been grouped varies a lot. The difference between Adcash’s tiers and other ad networks/DSP platforms is the fact that our complex algorithms group countries in tiers based on the country’s competitiveness and performance results. Most networks manually choose their tiers by just “developed and developing” countries or use non-transparent logic to group them. Therefore, our tiers are dynamic and countries might occasionally move from one tier to another. This gives performance marketers a better overview of traffic quality and the average price on the platform.

Tiers are based on:

Competitiveness
Price offers (current bids on the platform)
Traffic quality
Traffic Price

Let’s look at the countries in different tiers. Remember though that the list of countries in the tiers might change often as it is based on real performance results.

Tier 1

Tier 1 is considered the most desirable tier for many affiliates and that’s why it’s the most competitive one with the highest minimum bids. The countries in this list are wealthy with high internet speed but there might be very strict rules for advertisers in some countries and verticals. For example in the UK, financial services and gambling are highly regulated verticals.

Example of tier 1 countries

The competition in tier 1 is fierce and costly but it’s worth it as you then reach high-quality traffic which will translate into higher ROI. Also, tier 1 mostly consists of English speaking countries, so it’s easier to run most campaigns in English.

Tier 2

Tier 2 is the middle ground between tier 1 and tier 3. This tier is a bit less competitive with lower bids compared to the top tier but it’s working very well for many of our advertisers.

Example of tier 2 countries

However, this tier might require a localized approach. We highly recommend creating your ad creatives and landing pages in the local languages to tailor your ads to the right audience. That way you won’t waste your budget on people who have no intent to purchase/sign up.

Tier 3

Tier 3 has very low competition and the cost of traffic is relatively cheap. The audience in this tier tends to have a lower income, little access to mobile phones and sometimes online payment systems aren’t available. For that reason, this tier isn’t for everyone and it will depend on the product and service you’re offering. But it isn’t always the case, as sometimes very developed countries might end up in tier 3 as the tiers are based on dynamic performance.

Example of tier 3 countries

Again, localization is key here and advertisers need to also think about the different religions and cultures. However, it’s the perfect tier to split test different things as the traffic is cheap and you could reach a lot of people with your offer at a very low cost.

Which tier to use?

It depends on the offer you’re running and whether your campaigns are suitable for multiple tiers, single tier or even only for a specific GEO(s). Tier 1 is the most expensive tier to use but also the most rewarding one. Everyone wants a slice of this tier but at the same time don’t forget that it’s only a small slice of the world’s population. Tier 2 and tier 3 can also be very rewarding as the traffic is cheaper and there are fewer restrictions to run finance, betting and dating offers for example. So, don’t limit yourself with just one tier or location and test your campaign in different GEOs. Run A/B tests, use the data available and optimize accordingly.

Tiers and GEOs bidding strategy

The Adcash platform displays the minimum bid per tier/country, and we’d always recommend bidding higher than the minimum bid. We also show the average bid per tier/country, and it’s good to start with this suggested bid to receive a high volume of traffic. If you bid lower, then your bid will be less competitive and you’ll not get the amount of traffic you might have wished for. Thus, it might damage your overall campaign performance. If you want to see the full list of current tiers and their minimum bids, then please click here.

Tier/Country Bidding

Advertisers can choose an overall tier bid for all the different GEOs in one tier but sometimes it isn’t often enough for media buyers to optimize their campaigns and find the sweet spot for their offering. Hence why advertisers can now also set specific bids within the tiers. For example, if you’re targeting all tier 1 countries, then you might want to set a higher bid for the US or any other well-performing GEOs Therefore, you could set a specific bid for any country you wish and again bid higher than the minimum bid or even higher than the average bid on that specific country. That way your bid will be competitive and you’ll receive better results.

Custom Payout Per Zone/Source

And this isn’t it – you can also go one level deeper and apply custom payout (bid) per zones/sources. If you see that a specific zone is particularly profitable, then you should bid higher on this zone. Contrarily, if there are zones that aren’t performing at all then you have an option to blacklist these zones. The choice is yours!

Let’s not forget about the CPA Target!

Also, all affiliate marketers know that the more granular you go with your bid strategies, the harder it is to manage your campaigns. It’s very time-consuming to constantly monitor campaigns’ performance and optimize them. Consequently, you could also use our CPA target bidding method that will do all the manual work for you. It automatically optimizes traffic by whitelisting/blacklisting unprofitable zones/sources and making sure that you’re achieving your set acquisition goals.

Read more on how you can apply a specific country bid or custom payout per zone/source.

Please note: specific country bids and custom payouts per zone/source are only available when you create campaigns using our advanced campaign creation wizard.

We hope this new country tier bidding feature will bring some great results for our advertisers. You will now have the full power to set specific bids for different GEOs and fully optimize their performance. But if you haven’t tried our online advertising platform yet, then it’s time to do so.

Introducing: New Bidding Features