MOBIPIUM • BLOG

Nigeria MVAS Case Study: $0.24 CPA on Airtel

How the Mobipium media buying team ran a Nigeria carrier billing offer to a $0.24 CPA against a $0.38 payout, with 1,800+ conversions on Adsterra popunder, isolated to Airtel.

Ask ten media buyers which GEO they would put a fresh $1,000 test budget on and almost none of them will say Nigeria. They will list MENA, parts of SEA, and a handful of LATAM markets. Nigeria gets skipped. That habit is exactly why disciplined operators keep finding margin there.

This case study breaks down a recent live campaign run by the internal Mobipium media buying team on a single Nigeria MVAS offer, isolated to a single carrier, on a single traffic source. Real numbers, replicable setup. If you work MVAS offers and you want to see what a clean carrier billing flow looks like inside a top affiliate network, this is it.

The Campaign at a Glance

The offer is NG Brain Tease, a 2-click Nigeria carrier billing flow inside the Mobipium Market. The test was run on Adsterra popunder traffic, mainstream, mobile, 3G, carrier-isolated to Airtel.

That spread on a fully optimized run, on a GEO most affiliates treat as exotic, is the headline. The bigger point: it came from a structured, repeatable setup, not from luck.

Why Nigeria Is the GEO Most Affiliates Underestimate

Nigeria sits on a population north of 220 million, with mobile penetration above 100% according to the Nigerian Communications Commission. The market is dominated by four major operators: MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile. Smartphone adoption keeps climbing every quarter, and carrier billing remains one of the cleanest ways to monetize entertainment content because it removes the credit card barrier completely.

That zero-friction payment layer is exactly why MVAS offers continue to perform in West Africa long after they have cooled off in other regions. Subscription entertainment, brain teasers, sports content and quiz formats convert because the user only needs an active mobile line and a willingness to tap. No payment form, no email confirmation, no double opt-in friction.

The catch is that Nigeria punishes lazy media buying. Generic targeting and recycled English-language creatives from MENA or SEA campaigns burn budget fast. The campaigns that win are the ones where the buying team understands carrier behavior, network conditions, and which sources actually convert mobile carrier-billed users instead of bots and accidental clicks.

The Offer: NG Brain Tease

Full offer spec inside the Mobipium affiliate network:

• Offer: NG Brain Tease
• Country: Nigeria
• Category: Carrier Billing / MVAS
• Flow: 2 clicks
• Payout: $0.38

The flow is intentionally short. Two clicks from landing page to conversion. No long subscription wall, no second screen with multiple fields. In MVAS, every extra step you add to a funnel costs you conversions and inflates your CPA. If a funnel loses 15% of users per step and you have one extra click that did not need to be there, you have already eaten half of your margin before optimization starts.

A 2-click structure pairs naturally with pop traffic because pop users decide in seconds. They either engage with what is in front of them or they close the tab. A short, direct path matches that behavior and gives the optimizer clean signal to work with from day one.

The Landing Page: Curiosity Sells in Nigeria

The hook

The LP angle is built on curiosity, not pressure. The headline: “We are looking for the smartest players.” Underneath it: Brain Teasers, Skill Challenges, Quick Fire, Quizzes, and a 1 Day Free trial. The CTA is a single bold CONTINUE button. Below the fold the page clearly states the operator (DND Communication / Broadcasting / Entertainment / IT), the cost (N40 per day), and a Terms link.

Why this LP converts

• Mobile-first layout. The button sits in the natural thumb zone on any standard Android device.
• Local-feeling imagery. A relatable photo of a Nigerian user makes the offer feel native instead of imported.
• Compliance baked in. Cost, operator name and T&Cs are visible without aggressive scrolling. This matters because Nigerian regulators are tightening MVAS rules through the NCC’s Do Not Disturb framework and short-code transparency requirements.
• No fake prize bait. Curiosity angles outperform “you won” creatives in this GEO and keep the offer alive longer with the operator.

Aggressive push tactics burn out in Nigeria. Entertainment angles with a real value proposition keep converting.

The Pre-Landing Filter: Small Friction, Better Quality

Before the user reaches the main landing page, traffic is sent through a pre-LP with one question: “Are you Nigerian?” with a green YES and a black NO. That micro-step does three jobs at the same time:

• Confirms GEO relevance. Pop networks occasionally leak traffic from neighboring countries or VPN users. A YES tap is a self-declared filter that pre-qualifies the audience.
• Creates the first commitment. The user has already tapped once. The next tap on the main LP feels lighter.
• Filters accidental clicks. Users who landed on a pop with zero intent close before answering. That is exactly what you want.

This is the counter-intuitive lesson most beginner media buyers miss: adding controlled friction at the right point in the funnel can improve, not hurt, your CPA. The 1,800 conversions came from a flow that filtered users before the offer page, not after.

Traffic Setup on Adsterra: Isolate, Then Expand

Campaign structure on Adsterra for this run:

Why isolate Airtel first

Running a Nigerian carrier billing offer across MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9mobile at the same time is a fast way to burn budget without learning anything. Each operator has its own billing flow, pixel firing logic and payout. Starting with a single carrier gives you a clean P&L and clean optimization data. Once Airtel is profitable, you replicate the setup for the next carrier.

Why 3G and popunder

Pop traffic on 3G in Nigeria is cheaper than 4G inventory and converts cleanly when the LP is lightweight. The Brain Tease LP loads fast and works without WiFi detection issues, which is exactly the kind of LP that benefits from cheaper inventory. Pop traffic and 2-click MVAS flows are made for each other: short decision window, linear path, optimization at the zone level inside 24 to 48 hours.

How the CPA Dropped to $0.24

The starting CPA on day one was nowhere near $0.24. Nobody hits an optimized CPA out of the gate. The shift came from four moves done in sequence.

The four optimization moves

1. Carrier isolation. Cutting everything that was not Airtel cleaned the data immediately.
2. Zone cleaning. Adsterra reports zone-level performance. The team blacklisted zones that delivered impressions but zero or negative-margin conversions inside the first 48 hours.
3. Hard cuts on underperformers. Any zone burning more than 1.5x the target CPA without a conversion was cut without sentiment. This is where most affiliates hesitate and where margin dies.
4. Scale only the winners. Bid up and increase daily caps only on zones with proven conversion behavior. Do not give zones a second chance because they look promising. Let the data confirm first.

Result: a stabilized CPA of $0.24 against a $0.38 payout. The structure stayed simple. Traffic, pre-LP, LP, conversion. No layered offers, no aggressive creatives, no walls. Simple funnels scale better because they break in fewer places.

Why Mobipium for MVAS Offers

This is the part where most networks oversell themselves. We will keep it factual.

Mobipium has been running performance campaigns for over 13 years. The network currently connects 20,000+ affiliates with 200+ advertisers across 180+ countries, processing more than 2 billion monthly clicks. The core verticals are MVAS, Dating and Mobile Content.

What that means for an MVAS affiliate

• Direct relationships with operators and aggregators. Better payouts, faster cap increases, exclusive offers in markets like Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Indonesia, Brazil and across MENA.
• Real Affiliate Managers, not ticket queues. AMs who can tell you which carrier in which GEO is paying out cleanly this week and which one to avoid.
• Internal media buying team. Case studies like this one come from real campaigns, not theoretical decks. If our team is running it profitably, the offer is buyable.
• Compliance and capping discipline. A clean network is a network that does not get cut off mid-month by an operator audit.

If the goal is to build a portfolio of MVAS offers that survives carrier audits and scales beyond a single test, the choice of affiliate network is the foundation of the entire P&L. Mobipium is built to be the Best CPA Affiliate Network for performance-led media buyers who work mobile carrier billing seriously.

How to Test NG Brain Tease Yourself

If you are already a Mobipium affiliate, the offer is live in the Mobipium Market. If you are not, sign up here:

Steps to replicate the test

1. Generate your tracking link for any NG Airtel offer.
2. Set up an Adsterra popunder campaign with the parameters listed above (Mobile / Tablet, Mainstream, 3G, Airtel).
3. Run for 48 hours, then pull the zone report and cut hard.
4. Scale only the zones that produced conversions inside payout.
5. Once Airtel is stable, ask your Affiliate Manager about replicating the setup on MTN.

If you want help structuring the campaign, your dedicated Affiliate Manager inside the platform can walk you through carrier targeting, payout adjustments and scaling. That is exactly what they are there for.

Nigeria rewards operators who treat it as a real market, not a side test. The data on this run says the rest.

Written by the Mobipium media buying team. 13+ years in performance marketing. 20,000+ affiliates, 200+ advertisers, 180+ countries, 2B+ monthly clicks. The case studies come from real campaigns, run by the team that built the network.