ROI 170% strategy: Popunder × Malaysian E-commerce Case Study

E-commerce, Southeast Asia, and Popunder have long formed a profitable combo in affiliate marketing. But is this approach effective today?

This advertiser proves that you can still triple your earnings from this classic with the right strategy. He earned 170% ROI from e-com traffic in a single month! Read the case study below to learn actionable tips to boost your future campaigns.

If you want to stay on top of profitable strategies, pay attention to communities where affiliates share what’s working right now. AffRoom is one of those places — track new traffic sources, test offers, and exchange real insights on Popunder, e-commerce, and emerging GEOs. Check out our other proven case studies to scale your campaigns further.

Note: the following text will be from the advertiser’s perspective. 

Popunder Ads Case Study: Campaign Details

• Dates: 01.11.2025–30.11.2025
• Traffic source: Galaksion
• Ad format: Popunder
• Pricing model: CPM
• Vertical: E-commerce
• Targeting: Mobile, iOS & Android
• GEO: Malaysia (MY)

Results:

• Spend: $312
• Revenue: $845
• Profit: $533
• ROI: 170%

Looks nice, right? My initial investments nearly tripled in just one month.  If you want to know how I did it, I’ll walk you through my strategy step by step.

How I Selected a Profitable Bundle

Let’s break down my approach to choosing offers and managing media buying. 

I focused on three main goals.

1. Reduce testing risks by working with popular offers that bring consistent revenue.
2. Expand my reach with Popunder, an ad format known for its high traffic volumes.
3. Keep traffic costs under control when operating on the CPM pricing model.

Success relies on data. To hit all three, I researched multiple affiliate and advertising networks.

Offers

For this campaign, I deliberately chose the E-commerce vertical. A market like this thrives on trends and scales well with Popunder traffic.

What I looked for: 

• a simple customer journey that powers impulse buying;
• products that are already top-sellers with broad appeal;
• lower payouts per order, which fit well with CPM traffic.

After analyzing past performance and conversion data, I selected E-com offers that had already shown strong results in my target GEO, Malaysia.

I can’t share the exact offers because they’re still active (you know how it goes), but here are some key insights.

My research pointed to three top-performing categories:

• Beauty & Skincare
• Sports & Fitness
• Home & Living

These products are frequently featured by TikTok influencers in unboxings and reviews, which keeps interest high and drives significant volumes of impressions, clicks, and conversions. 

Moreover, some of these goods require daily use (e.g. Skincare).
What does it mean for advertisers like you and I? Well, a customer can’t just buy it once: everyday products will do well in sales. 

This approach helped me minimize testing risks and ensure demand before launching the campaign.

Traffic Source

As I mentioned earlier in this ecommerce case study, I went with Popunder as my main ad format. It has strong visibility, effectively captures user attention, and consistently brings in high traffic volumes.

Since I planned to run my campaign on the CPM pricing model, it was important to choose a traffic source that focuses on performance and that impressions come from real users.

I’ve been working with Galaksion for a while, and with millions of daily impressions in Southeast Asia, I figured it was the right fit for this campaign.

What makes this platform stand out for me?

• Traffic comes directly from trusted website owners.
• Galaksion has powerful optimization tools, especially for Popunder (like Audience Targeting, Graphics Card Targeting, Custom Rates, Zones Tumblr Switch, and more).
• Their support is superb: I could always reach out to my manager for advice.

I was confident Galaksion could cover my key priorities: volume and control.

Campaign Settings

I prepared the campaign ahead of November 1st and planned it to run all the way to November 30th. Afterwards, this helped me analyze performance across the entire month (…and, well, write this case for you).

My research on consumer behavior showed that Mobile traffic (both iOS and Android) was the most relevant targeting choice. As I said, the focus was on impulse buyers and trend-driven users.

My Galaksion manager recommended that I keep my rates highly competitive in November. 

Of course, TikTok Shop would be a key player during the 11.11 sale and Black Friday. And for a booming market like Malaysia, I needed to be ahead of the game. 

To get accurate rate recommendations, I used the Traffic Volumes section on Galaksion’s Self-Service Platform.

My CPM rates were mainly set at $1 and above during 11.11, with a 5/24 frequency cap.

However, these settings needed constant monitoring. I ran my campaign all throughout the pre-11.11 buildup, the sale itself, and the post-sale period. Naturally, rates and zones needed constant monitoring to maintain good results. 

But hey, that’s simply how CPM traffic works. So how did I handle it?

I’ll explain my optimization tactic in the next section. 

My Approach to Profit: Conversion Flow & Optimization

If you want to encourage impulse purchases, a simple user journey will make all the difference. 

My future customers had to complete only a few easy steps. I had a flow like this, perfect for a short attention span.

1. User lands via a popunder.
2. Product page opens right away.
3. User checks the product details.
4. User places an order.
5. Conversion is recorded.

I didn’t rely on creatives and skipped pre-landers altogether. In a case like this, optimized ad placements is the best approach. 

And my theory was correct: this flow drove more orders. And even when users didn’t convert instantly, cookies still captured the click, recording a conversion. 

Payout per conversion: $0.15 per order

With CPM, smaller payouts are simply easier to work with. 

I worked on building volume, managing my budget carefully, and optimizing on the go. Stable traffic and well-performing placements made it all come together.

Optimization

More than anything, I checked performance daily and cut off zones that weren’t generating high profit.

• I blocked zone IDs that were bringing fewer conversions;
• I focused on mobile traffic, because it showed stronger buying behavior;
• I avoided aggressive scaling.

I’d recommend keeping an eye on things regularly and analyze which zones are actually working for you. It helps you control your spending and keep everything on track.

My Results & Takeaways

My campaign proves that E-commerce Popunder traffic in Malaysia can be super-profitable even with low payouts. 

Let’s look at my stats once again:

• Spend: $312
• Revenue: $845
• Profit: $533
• ROI: 170%

This result came down to these key decisions.

• I based offer selection on real performance data.
• I focused on traffic volume while keeping costs in check with daily monitoring.
• I put most of my optimization effort into placements rather than creatives.

Here’s how my campaign looks on Galaksion’s Self-Service Platform.

Once you do your research and follow the right approach, CPM can be a stable source of revenue.

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