I need to test out landing pages and the conversion process, but how do I test an offer if I’m not located in the country that is geo-targeting?
If you work with affiliates in other countries you may have encountered this question already. It is important for affiliates to see the user experience to understand how they will most effectively convert their users, and the solution for testing geo offers varies depending on your offer.
Geo-Targeting Your Affiliate Links
If you are using your affiliate tracking software to geo-target the offer, and you are only geo-targeting for the purpose of working with affiliates, then there is usually something you can append to the URL to test the offer. For example, if you are using the geo-targeting feature in HasOffers to allow or disallow traffic from specific countries, then your affiliates can simply append “testoffer” to their affiliate link, using the source variable (&source=testoffer). Appending this identifier lets the HasOffers ad server know that this is only a test click and allows the redirect to occur, revealing the landing page to an affiliate.
The tracking link below is for Google UK and is targeted to the United Kingdom only. By appending source=testoffer to this link, you will be redirected to the actually offer landing page for Google UK.
Ex. http://demo.go2jump.org/aff_c?offer_id=688&aff_id=1184&source=testoffer
Without appending source=testoffer, you will be redirected to an offer that matches your location.
Ex. http://demo.go2jump.org/aff_c?offer_id=688&aff_id=1184
Its not recommended to use these testing parameters in offer URLs.
Geo-Targeted Landing Pages
If you are geo-targeting landing pages for all users, say for example you are a daily deal site that needs to make sure people in Seattle only see offers for Seattle, then it obviously won’t matter what you append to the affiliate link. Even if the affiliate link follows the proper redirect, the page will not display because of your own internal geo-targeting.
For affiliates to view these offers, they will need some sort of IP proxy tool, and there happen to be some great ones out there already.
GeoSurf
This probably one of the simpler solutions for viewing webpages as they appear in other countries. GeoSurf has a toolbar for Firefox and IE for your affiliates to install that lets them select the country they wish to view from and then navigate to any webpage they choose. They’ve got over 80 global gateways, and you can even view sites as they appear on various devices such as iPhones, iPad, and Android. They have several pricing models for your affiliates that are all very reasonable and vary based on how many private proxy locations you get and the amount of volume you do. They even have an API if you’d like to build GeoSurf into your affiliate program and provide it as a service. Read an Interview with GeoSurf
GeoEdge
Another toolbar solution is GeoEdge. There pricing is structured a little different from GeoSurf in that they only have two editions, but one edition is completely free. However, the free version is limited to 8 locations. They also have a toolbar for Firefox toolbar as well as a multi platform Chrome toolbar.
Obviously you don’t want testing and viewing offers to keep you from developing valued affiliate relationships around the globe. Hopefully this post helped you out, so the next time an affiliate bugs you about viewing your offer from a different geo-location you’ll say “No Problem!”
Author
A digital marketer by background, Peter is the former CEO of TUNE, the enterprise platform for partner marketing. In 2018, he sold TUNE’s mobile measurement product to Branch, unifying measurement and user experience. He led TUNE’s efforts to bring better management technology and automation to marketing partnerships, across affiliates, influencers, networks, and business development relationships. Follow @peterhamilton
Are GeoSurf and GeoEdge essentially shared proxies? Or do they constantly rotate IPs?
Hi,
Generally, GeoEdge is a shared proxy service – we have high grade servers and work very hard to keep our IPs open and ‘legit’ to 3rd party providers. We also have tailored packages with pools of IPs, if needed. Please feel free to contact us if you need further assistance or just sign up for a free trial.
Thanks,
Amnon
GeoEdge
[email protected]
you may also check the http://www.locaproxy.com, solution to test geo-targeted application
GeoEdge works awesome for me and i am happy sticking to the same product for years. Loving it 🙂
Sometimes an offer from U.S. advertisers is bigger and for publishers it’s what they are looking for. Usually, this choice is taken by affiliate from countries outside U.S. because they already know that U.S. customers are having high buying power. Using proxies will hide where they are from and able to penetrate the geo-targeting market.
Nice post, still I believe one of the most complicated things to accomplish, is testing app installs with enforced geo-targeting. What would be your suggestion on this?while some affiliates are ok with the internal postback testing tool, some want to have a real test as if we where located in the actual country and store.