How to Choose Countries for Your Campaign

Key takeaways

  • Only target countries where a user can read your task, use your product, and pay you if that is the goal.
  • Start with a few countries you can value, give each its own bid, and compare cost and quality per country after the first results.
  • Country changes and bid changes apply right away on a live campaign, so expand step by step instead of adding everything at once.

How should you choose countries for a campaign?

Start with the countries where your product really works for a newcomer: the language is right, the product is available, and people can pay or sign up there. From that list, pick a few countries where you can estimate what one user is worth, launch with a bid for each, read the results country by country, and only then add more. Tier lists are a useful shortcut, but your own product and your own results decide.

On Sharklio, all countries start out excluded, and every country you add gets its own bid. The campaign is shown only to users whose country is on your list, so the list is the first and most important filter you set.

Step 1: list the countries where your product works

A user who cannot finish your task, or cannot use what you are promoting, costs you a rejection at best and a dispute at worst. Before you look at prices, cross out every country that fails one of these checks:

  • Language. Can a user there read your instructions and your product? If you write in English, target countries where English is widely read, and write the steps in clear, simple English.
  • Availability. Is your app in the app store there, does your site load, and does sign-up accept local phone numbers and addresses? Region-locked stores and blocked payment forms are the most common reason a country underperforms.
  • Payments. If the goal involves a purchase or a trial with a card, can people there pay with the methods you accept, and is your price sensible in their currency?
  • Rules. Is your product legal to promote there, and does it need a license or an age limit? Our campaign rules and terms apply in every country you target, and What campaigns are not allowed covers the conditions for categories such as gambling.

If your offer only works in certain countries, say so in Notes for our review team and link screenshots of the landing page, so reviewers can check it without access from those countries.

Step 2: estimate what a user is worth in each country

A user in one country can be worth several times a user in another, because of spending power, prices and how often people pay. You do not need a precise number, just a ceiling: the most you can pay for one result in that country and still be happy. Two existing guides do the math, so it is not repeated here:

If you have no revenue data yet, rank the countries you kept in step 1 into rough groups, such as high, medium and low value, and give each group a different starting bid.

Step 3: start with a few countries

A first campaign learns faster with a short list. Pick three to six countries you can value, ideally from more than one group, so you see how price and quality differ. Add them with the country search, or use a quick add button such as Tier 1, which adds the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia in one click, and then remove the ones you do not want.

Give each country its own bid below your ceiling. Set bids by country explains how to pick the starting price and use the bid tools. A total budget and a daily spend cap keep the test small while you learn.

Illustrative test: a budgeting app in four countries

A budgeting app available in English in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India starts a sign-up task in those four countries only. It bids $0.60 in the first three and $0.15 in India, with a $40 total budget. After the first approved completions, it compares the cost of each approved sign-up with how many of those users came back to the app a week later, country by country. All numbers are made up to show the method.

Step 4: read the results country by country

A campaign total hides the differences you need. Look at each country on its own:

  • Statistics. The Statistics page shows your top countries, with what you spent and how many results each one brought, for the period you choose. Filter it to one campaign to see that campaign alone. How to read your campaign statistics explains every figure.
  • Completions. Each completion shows the user’s country, and its details also show the city or region, device, platform and browser. Export the list as CSV if you want to sort it yourself.
  • Your own data. Compare what those users did next in your product: did they come back, buy, or stay subscribed? A country with a higher bid can still win on cost per user who sticks.

Watch rejections too. If one country brings many completions you have to reject, check whether your instructions are clear for those users or whether something in your product blocks them there, before you blame the traffic.

Step 5: adjust, then expand

Changes to countries and bids on a live campaign apply right away, without a new review. That makes it easy to act on what you learned:

  1. Raise the bid where results are good but slow, and lower it where they arrive faster than you need.
  2. Remove a country that stays above your ceiling. Users there no longer see the campaign, and users there who had already started it can no longer send it, so expect a few unfinished starts.
  3. Add similar countries next to the ones that worked: same language, similar prices, same app store availability. Add them in small batches so you can still tell which ones perform.
  4. Review every month. Prices and audiences change, so a country that was too expensive last month may fit your ceiling now.

Sharklio checks the user’s country from their connection when they start your campaign, and the bid for that country is the one you pay.

Test your first countries on Sharklio

Pick the three to six countries where your product works best, give each a bid below your ceiling, and set a small total budget. You pay only for approved results, and you can change countries and bids at any time. Create a free account to set up your first campaign today.

Frequently asked questions

Should I target every country at once?

Usually not. The Add all button exists, but a first campaign across every country spreads a small budget too thin to tell which countries work. Start with a few and expand.

Can I pay a different price in each country?

Yes. Every country has its own bid in a task campaign, from $0.01 to $100 per approved completion. In an offer campaign, each step can have its own price per country.

Do country changes need a new review?

No. Adding or removing countries and changing bids on a live campaign apply right away. Only changes to the Basics section, such as the instructions, send the campaign back to review.

How does Sharklio know which country a user is in?

We detect it from the user’s connection when they start the campaign. Only users in the countries you included can start it.

Are Tier 1 countries always the best choice?

No. They usually cost more per result and are often worth more per user, but a lower-priced country can win when your product fits it well. Compare cost per useful user, not cost per result alone.