New Tier 2 GEO: Which Countries Are Included, Why They Matter for Advertising, and What to Check Before Launch

When choosing a GEO, advertisers do not necessarily have to choose between the most competitive markets and the cheapest traffic. Between them is a large group of countries commonly referred to in digital marketing as Tier 2.

These GEOs can be attractive for several reasons. In some niches, audience acquisition may cost less than in Tier 1, competition may be lower, and the market may still be large enough to provide sufficient traffic for testing and further scaling.

However, Tier 2 should not be treated as a ready-made list of “profitable countries.” There is no single official classification, and the countries included can vary between sources.

It is better to use tiers as an initial guide when selecting a market and make launch decisions based on the economics of a specific advertising campaign.

Let us look at which countries are commonly considered Tier 2, why these GEOs may interest advertisers, and what to check before launching.

Which countries are considered Tier 2?

In the advertising industry, Tier 2 often refers to markets that are loosely positioned between Tier 1 and Tier 3 in terms of traffic costs, competition, and other characteristics.

Depending on the classification, examples may include:

• Brazil;
• Mexico;
• Turkey;
• Poland;
• Romania;
• Argentina;
• Colombia;
• Malaysia;
• Thailand;
• South Africa.

This list is not universal. The same country may appear in different tiers depending on the source.

Even within one tier, markets can differ substantially. Brazil and Mexico operate within a LATAM context; Poland and Romania are European markets; and Thailand and Malaysia require different localization and an understanding of local audiences and user behavior.

Official economic classifications work differently. For example, the World Bank does not divide countries into Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. It uses other criteria, including an economy’s income level.

Therefore, tiers are primarily working terminology used by the advertising industry. They are not precise measures of users’ purchasing power, advertising costs, or a campaign’s future performance.

If you are still comparing different groups of markets, read “How to Choose a GEO for Traffic Arbitrage: Where to Start and Which Countries to Avoid”.

Why are Tier 2 GEOs interesting to advertisers?

The main appeal of Tier 2 is not simply the possibility of cheaper traffic. It is the different balance between testing costs, competition, and audience size.

In some markets, a team may be able to collect the data it needs at a lower cost than it would for a comparable test in a highly competitive GEO.

At the same time, advertising costs are determined by more than the country alone.

Major advertising platforms allocate impressions through auctions. The final price may be affected by:

• competition;
• the selected audience;
• ad format;
• ad and landing page quality;
• optimization strategy;
• seasonality;
• placements;
• the specific vertical.

It would be incorrect to assume that every Tier 2 GEO is automatically cheaper than every Tier 1 GEO.

For advertisers, the more useful question is whether a specific market can provide an acceptable acquisition cost, enough data, and room to scale.

What does this mean in practice?

Tier 2 can be a useful starting point for testing, but only if the team decides in advance which metrics it will use to evaluate the results.

1. Look beyond traffic costs

A common mistake when choosing a GEO is to focus on a low CPC or CPM and assume that cheaper traffic will automatically improve campaign economics.

In practice, the entire funnel matters:

traffic cost → conversion → acquisition cost → payout or revenue → final result

Suppose a click costs less in one GEO. If users there are much less likely to complete the desired action, the final acquisition cost may be similar to that of a more expensive market or even higher.

The reverse is also possible: a better conversion rate may compensate for a higher traffic cost.

That is why comparing GEOs by click price alone is insufficient.

Before testing, it helps to decide which metrics the team will track:

• CPM or CPC;
• CTR;
• conversion rate;
• CPA;
• revenue or payout per desired action;
• ROI or ROAS, where applicable to the campaign model.

This allows the team to assess the result of the entire advertising funnel rather than just the cost of buying traffic.

2. Use more affordable traffic to collect data

One potential advantage of Tier 2 is the opportunity to gather more data within a comparable test budget, provided that traffic in the selected GEO is actually cheaper.

That additional traffic is more useful for building an adequate sample for predetermined hypotheses and markets than for increasing the number of tests without a plan.

For example, if a team is considering several Tier 2 GEOs, it should decide in advance which markets it will compare and under what conditions.

Before launch, define:

• Which GEOs are included in the test.
• How much budget is allocated to each market.
• Which creatives and landing pages will be used.
• Which metrics will be used to compare results.
• Under what conditions the test will stop.
• Which markets will move to the next stage.

In this way, more affordable traffic provides more than a lower click price. It can provide more data for making a decision.

3. Do not treat Tier 2 as one audience

Brazil, Poland, Mexico, and Thailand may all appear in the same broad category, but they are very different advertising markets.

They may differ in:

• language;
• currency;
• shopping habits;
• income levels;
• payment methods;
• local competitors;
• devices and platforms used;
• cultural context;
• responses to particular advertising messages.

A successful campaign setup cannot automatically be moved from one Tier 2 GEO to another simply by changing the country name or translating the text.

Localization is especially important.

Ad copy, visuals, prices, calls to action, landing pages, and other elements of communication should fit the specific audience.

For example, users in several countries may understand the same English-language creative, but that does not mean it will fit the local context equally well in every market.

It is better to test a specific GEO than an abstract Tier 2 category.

4. Compare GEOs using the same metrics

Tier 2 includes very different markets. Instead of trying to identify the “best country” in advance, it is more useful to compare several suitable GEOs using the same metrics.

Suppose a team tests three markets. Hypothetical results might look like this:

All figures in this example are hypothetical and are used only to demonstrate how to compare results.

The example shows why the cheapest click does not necessarily produce the best outcome.

GEO A has the lowest CPC at $0.25.

Clicks are more expensive in GEO B at $0.40, but a higher conversion rate produces a CPA comparable to GEO A. Revenue per conversion is also higher, so the difference between revenue and the advertising cost of acquiring that conversion is $7.11, compared with $5.67 in GEO A.

GEO C presents a different situation. It has the highest revenue per conversion at $18, but its lower conversion rate raises the acquisition cost to $15. That leaves only $3 before other expenses are considered.

Important: this is not a calculation of net profit. The table compares only revenue per conversion with the advertising cost of acquiring it. It does not include fees, tools, team costs, or other operating expenses.

The key point is that CPC, payout, or tier classification alone is not enough to evaluate a market.

The tests should also be reasonably comparable. If the GEO, creative, landing page, audience, and optimization strategy all change at once, it becomes harder to identify what caused the difference in results.

5. Consider market size and scalability

Some Tier 2 markets are relatively large. For advertisers, this may create opportunities to increase campaign volume after a successful test.

However, a large audience does not guarantee that a campaign setup can be scaled while maintaining its initial performance.

As budgets increase, the following may change:

• acquisition costs;
• ad frequency;
• audience composition;
• creative performance;
• how traffic is distributed across placements.

For example, a small test may initially reach the most relevant part of an audience. As the budget grows, the ad platform expands delivery, and the campaign’s average metrics may change.

Small-test results should therefore not be applied automatically to a much larger budget.

It is better to treat scaling as a separate stage: first confirm the campaign economics in a test, then gradually check whether they hold as volume increases.

6. Prepare the payment infrastructure

Payment operations become especially noticeable in Tier 2 campaigns when a team tests several countries at the same time.

One GEO may use USD, another EUR or a different currency, while the budget is distributed across several ad accounts, campaigns, and team members.

This setup may remain relatively simple during a small test. As the number of GEOs and advertising expenses grows, it becomes more important to understand:

• which cards are used for specific accounts and markets;
• how the budget is distributed between them;
• which currencies the team needs;
• who monitors spending;
• how payments for different activities are separated;
• what happens if a payment fails;
• how quickly the team can resume work after a payment issue.

Pay2.House lets teams issue virtual cards for advertising and online services, work with accounts, and manage transactions in one interface. It also supports team workflows and access management.

This becomes especially relevant when the number of campaigns, GEOs, and ad accounts grows along with the budget.

A payment service does not directly affect ad auction prices, conversion rates, or the profitability of a campaign setup. Its role is to simplify the management of advertising expenses and prevent payment operations from becoming a bottleneck during testing and scaling.

When might Tier 2 be worth testing?

Tier 2 may be worth considering if a team:

• wants to compare several markets without concentrating its entire test budget on Tier 1;
• is looking for a different balance of traffic costs, competition, and audience size;
• already understands the basic economics of its offer;
• is prepared to localize its advertising materials;
• wants to test the potential for further scaling.

At the same time, relatively affordable traffic cannot compensate for a poor fit between an offer and its audience or for weak localization.

If the priority is testing markets where traffic may be even cheaper, Tier 3 can be considered separately.

Tier 1 or Tier 2: which should you choose?

The choice depends on the goals of the specific campaign, rather than on which tier is “better.”

In Tier 1, advertisers more often face strong competition for audience attention, so acquiring a sufficient volume of qualified traffic may cost more.

These considerations are covered in more detail in “Tier 1 GEO: Which Countries Are Included, Why Traffic Costs More, and What to Check Before Launch”.

Tier 2, in turn, may offer a different balance of testing costs, competition, and potential audience size.

Neither option is automatically better. Compare the economics of the specific campaign setup:

offer → audience → traffic cost → conversion → CPA → potential revenue → ability to scale

Conclusion

For advertisers, the main appeal of Tier 2 is the opportunity to find a different balance between traffic costs, competition, and audience size.

In some markets, a team may collect more data within an affordable test budget and find room for further scaling. However, results still depend on the specific GEO, advertising platform, vertical, offer, creatives, and audience.

Use Tier 2 as an initial guide for building a list of markets, rather than as a ready-made launch strategy.

Before launching, define the offer economics, select specific GEOs, prepare localization, set criteria for evaluating the test, and organize the payment infrastructure.

That way, decisions about continuing or scaling a campaign will be based on actual test results, not just on a country’s tier classification.