Case study: smartlink broker rotation by geo lifted EPC 26%

Case study: smartlink broker rotation by geo lifted EPC 26%

What it is: An affiliate sending one broker for all geos switched to a smartlink that routed each click to the highest-converting broker for that country, based on rolling FTD data.

Best for: Affiliates with 3+ broker deals and meaningful multi-geo traffic.

What was done:
— Loaded 4 broker offers into a smartlink rotator with per-geo caps
— Fed 30-day rolling FTD-rate-by-geo back into routing weights
— Ran across 21 countries and ~26,000 clicks over 8 weeks

Outcome:
— Blended earnings per click rose from $0.61 to $0.77 (+26%)
— Tier-1 geos consolidated to two brokers; Tier-3 spread across the cheaper deals
— One broker's weak Tier-3 conversion was caught and capped down fast

Pros:
— Per-geo routing beat any single 'best' broker globally
— Rolling data caught broker quality drift before it cost much

Cons:
— Needs enough volume per geo for the data to be statistically real
— Broker caps and conflicting exclusivity terms complicate routing

Who should skip this: Single-geo or single-broker affiliates — nothing to rotate.

Verdict: Route by geo, not gut.