The term "Tier-1" comes from advertising and traffic arbitrage. Ad networks group countries into tiers based on how much an advertiser is willing to pay for a person's attention. The first tier includes countries with high incomes, expensive advertising, and established online shopping habits: the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia. For a short-form video creator, this means one simple thing: the same view is worth different amounts of money in different countries.
How Much a View Is Worth in Different Countries
Platforms don't publish exact figures, but advertising benchmarks for 2026 give a clear idea of the scale. Here's the cost per mille (CPM) for ads on TikTok:
| Country | Ad CPM, $ | What this means for a creator |
|---|---|---|
| USA | 2–5 | The most valuable market, with the most brands |
| UK | 1.5–3.5 | Close to the US, English-speaking |
| Germany | 1.2–3 | Valuable, but requires German |
| CIS countries | Several times lower | Lots of views, little money for each one |
In niches like finance, tech, health, and online services, rates are higher than average in any country. These figures are from ad dashboards, not direct creator payouts, but the logic is the same: the more a viewer's attention is worth to an advertiser, the more the creator who captured that attention gets paid.
Where the Money Comes From
Brand briefs. A brand paying for videos or views bases its budget on the target audience. A million views from the US achieves their goal; a million from the CIS region does not if the product is sold in America. An English-speaking audience opens the door to clients a Russian-speaking creator could not otherwise reach.
CPV platforms. On platforms that pay per view, the value of a view is directly tied to your audience's geography.
Platform-specific programs. As of September 2026, the TikTok Creator Rewards program operates in the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and Mexico. The requirements are: be 18 or older, have a personal account in good standing, at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the last 30 days, and create videos longer than one minute. The main condition is that the creator must be physically located in one of these countries. Faking your location to get paid is against the rules: your earnings will be voided, and your account could be banned. Therefore, for a creator from the CIS region, the real path to Tier-1 money is through their audience and brand deals, not a platform's creator fund.
Why This Market Isn't Saturated
It might seem like the English-language feed is already oversaturated. But it has three features that work in a newcomer's favor.
The audience is huge. An English-language video isn't just watched in the US. There's also Canada, the UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, plus hundreds of millions of people who watch content in English as a second language.
Formats trend at different times. What's old news in one market might be fresh in another, and vice versa. A creator who follows both markets can spot ideas earlier.
Platforms want new content. The algorithm first shows a video to a small test group and then makes decisions based on retention, not account size. A new account with a great video has just as good a chance as an established one.
What You'll Need
- A dedicated phone configured for your target country. For a detailed breakdown, see our article, "How to Set Up Your Phone for an English-Speaking Audience."
- A new account, not a repurposed one. A Russian-language account's history will bias its reach toward the original audience.
- Content in English. You don't need to be fluent: scripts can be translated, voiceovers can be generated by an AI voice, and a finished video can be translated in its entirety. The tools for this are right in this section: translator, voiceover, and video translation.
- Two to three weeks of patience. A new account targeting a new region needs time to gain traction, and the first few videos will almost always get fewer views than you'd like.
Who This Isn't For
- Creators whose content relies on Russian-specific humor, wordplay, and local memes. This doesn't translate well; you'd have to create new concepts from scratch.
- Anyone planning to re-upload existing videos. Platforms detect duplicate content and slash its reach—this is the most common reason for getting zero views.
- Anyone who needs results within a week.
How to Start Today
Open TikTok or Reels, switch the app language to English, and spend half an hour scrolling the feed in your niche. Find five videos you watched all the way through and break them down: What was the hook in the first two seconds? How long was the video? Did it have subtitles? Who was talking on screen? This will be your initial game plan. Next up in this section: setting up your phone, launching your account, producing videos, and analyzing mistakes.