I was also promoting an app install in Russia... I did a small test run and I got about 300 clicks and not one install... which I thought was a bit strange... as it is a popular game and a direct link so should be no concerns about security per se. You would have thought at least one person would have tripped and accidentally hit the install button. The mobile traffic source was Go2Mobi which from most accounts is a legit source. I checked my links and they all worked... then I was thinking... maybe it's because they aren't seeing a Russian version. I used a VPN to check and when I type in google.com my computer switched it to google.ru so I know the VPN was working right... and then I put in my offer and it took them to the US version of iTunes. So, the question - are the Russians getting the Russian iTunes version served up to them and for whatever reason it's not doing it for me when I test or do most of these offers always show US English versions on iTunes and Google Play offers? The offer was from Adsimilis. Thanks
PS - I asked my Affiliate Manager and no response yet.
Don't worry so much about the localisation.
The play stores will automatically localise I believe unless you force a language through the URL - e.g. in the Google Play store you need to add ...&hl=en to the URL. If the network/advertiser has done this then they may force the language but I imagine it's not normal practice (surely most app developers know this!). You can check the HTTP headers in your URL to investigate this.
For your tests, it will go to English because of your browser language setting and if you are logged in/cookied. For a better test, use a portable browser, connect via a VPN and change the language setting of your entire browser to whatever, then try.
Re: the conversions... conversion rates on games via display are generally 0.1-2%. Don't expect much here - display traffic is very different to e.g. Facebook and the traffic is also much cheaper. It still takes a lot of optimisation and testing to find people that actually convert. There's large percentages of accidental clicks, people will close tabs when they load slow, a lot of them will just look at the game and think meh, etc. People on mobiles clicking on games are generally bored and hard to impress.
There is also the issue with size... large apps = people less likely to bother installing especially if on their carrier. Imagine if your internet connection gave you about 200 KB/s to your phone in your house... and you then wanted to install a 100 MB game. That's almost 10 minutes of your other activities on your phone being crippled.
I wonder if I should add &hl=ru to my aff links or if that would even work.
In terms of my browser going to English... it didn't when I went to the russian google site.
I tried using my Android phone through a VPN using HideMyAss and picked Russia and it still took me to the US iTunes... I don't know if it's because I am on an android and therefore signed into Google and it knows.
Good point on the file size... didn't even think of that.
If you go to Google.ru for example it definitely forces the language.
You won't be able to add parameters into the offer lander through your affiliate URL, that would be a huge security liability if you could.
As for the iTunes... being logged in may have caused issues but it's more likely that your VPN didn't fool Apple's servers and/or they redirect Android to the English page for that app, or again your phone/browser language caused it. Lots of things have to line up for the app stores to localise properly - people would of course get annoyed if they visited Australia and lots of their Google/Apple sites suddenly went English instead of Russian like their phone's OS.