Welcome to Tier 3

As we have previously established, each tier group has its own unique attributes. Tier 3 countries are usually synonymous with third world countries and include the following:

• Algeria
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Botswana
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Chad
• Congo
• Ethiopia
• Georgia
• Guatemala
• Guinea
• Haiti
• India
• Iraq
• Jamaica
• Jordan
• Kenya
• Kuwait
• Laos
• Lebanon
• Lesotho
• Mongolia
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Nicaragua
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Swaziland
• Tanzania
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tunisia
• Uzbekistan
• Vietnam
• Zambia

They are often characterized by fewer people who have advanced degrees in their possession, a weaker grasp of the English language (I.e., language barriers), smaller salaries, and little to no disposable income.

For example, in the UK, a software developer makes an average of £62,905 ($87,189.25) annually, whereas an India based developer of similar experience will make ₹15,26,085 each year (approximately $20,513.45).

Given the usually low socio-economic background this tier’s affiliate leads are associated with, there’s less competition over them in the affiliate marketing industry. You can invest a small amount of your budget for high volumes of traffic. In addition, the costs of running your campaigns will be much lower in these GEOs in comparison.

Regulatory Guidelines

Unlike the strict regulations that are identified with tier 1 and tier 2 countries, tier 3 countries have few to no regulatory restrictions when it comes to online advertising. You can basically get away with anything, including ridiculous claims that you can turn your target audience into billionaires overnight.

However, we at ROI Collective highly recommend you refrain from these kinds of digital marketing tactics at all costs. Not only will they cheapen your brand, but you are ultimately exposing yourself to unnecessary risk in the form of lawsuits.

While getting tier 3 affiliate leads through the door is more straightforward, the lower payouts are not worth the risk. This course of action is more likely to attract low-value players such as broke students, immigrants with no bank accounts, or simply people who do not have the funds you are after.

Localizing Campaigns

In tiers 1 and 2, many people speak English as a first or second language at the very least. Culturally, they are also much more homogenous. In tier 3, that’s where things get interesting. Not only are they far more closed off culturally, but most of them do not speak English well. As a publisher, this can make your job more difficult.

When targeting these affiliate marketing leads, you cannot afford not to localize your campaigns.

Modesty is also a big part of this culture, so it is best to avoid images flaunting the female or male bodies, as they may come across as indecent. Moreover, we would go as far as to suggest you purposefully chose images depicting characters following each region’s principles of modesty. It also goes without saying that it is best to avoid images depicting smoking, drinking alcohol, or gambling as many of these countries have large percentages of Muslims.

GEO Specific Trends

Similar to tiers 1 and 2, tier 3 countries have their GEO-specific trends. You can check them out by using Google Trends to see what the affiliate leads are looking for in these regions. Across 20 different countries, we have found the most searched for phrases in tier 3:

• Make money online – 40,500 searches/a month
• Online trading – 18,100 searches/a month
• Stock trading – 12,100 searches/a month

The search results above include the hottest financial vertical trends, namely online and stock trading. This data can help you cultivate the right keywords and improve your SEO ranking in these countries. It can further assist you to increase your lead generation, and consequently, raise your campaigns’ conversion rates if you do it correctly.