Smart Shield GEO = filtering
Country decides whether traffic is accepted, blocked, passed, or redirected.
“Allow US and GB, block everything else.”
Smart Shield vs SmartLink
TDS rules come in two families. They are not competing tools — they answer different questions. This short guide helps you pick the right one.
Short Version
Smart Shield decides whether traffic is acceptable — should this visitor be allowed, blocked, passed through, or redirected, based on request signals?
SmartLink decides where acceptable traffic should go — based on source, URL, campaign, or offer distribution.
If you are filtering traffic, start with Smart Shield. If you are routing traffic to offers, start with SmartLink. If you need both, Shield runs first to clean traffic, SmartLink after to route it.
Use Smart Shield When…
Smart Shield looks at the request itself, before traffic reaches your offer or landing page. Reach for it when you want to:
- block or separate bot-like traffic;
- allow only selected countries, or block selected countries;
- send mobile and desktop visitors to different destinations;
- send suspicious traffic to a safe page;
- pass clean traffic through to the origin.
Smart Shield rules show per-rule clicks in the Streams table, so you can see whether a filtering rule is actually receiving traffic.
Use SmartLink When…
SmartLink looks at source and URL signals, then decides where traffic should go. Reach for it when you want to:
- send Facebook and Google traffic to different destinations;
- route by
utm_sourceorutm_campaign; - route by path or referrer;
- split traffic across several offer URLs (A/B or MAB);
- use different offer pools for different country groups.
SmartLink fits when the question is not “should this visitor be allowed?” but “which destination should this visitor get?”
GEO: Filtering vs Distribution
This is the most common point of confusion — both families can use countries, but the goal is different.
SmartLink Geo-aware = distribution
Country decides which offer pool the visitor lands in.
“US and GB use Offer A/B, while BR and MX use Offer C/D.”
Use Shield GEO to keep unwanted countries out. Use SmartLink Geo-aware to send each country group to the right offers.
Can They Work Together?
Yes — in many setups they should. A common pattern:
- Smart Shield first — filter out bots and unwanted countries.
- SmartLink after — route the accepted traffic to the right offer.
Example: a Shield rule blocks bot-like traffic and countries you don’t buy; a SmartLink rule then sends accepted Facebook traffic to one offer and Google traffic to another.
Rules are checked by priority, first match wins — put broad cleanup and protection rules before offer-routing rules, and keep catch-all rules last.
Quick Decision Table
| Goal | Use |
|---|---|
| Block bots or suspicious traffic | Smart Shield |
| Allow only selected countries | Smart Shield |
| Block selected countries | Smart Shield |
| Mobile vs desktop redirect | Smart Shield |
| Facebook vs Google routing | SmartLink |
| UTM campaign routing | SmartLink |
| A/B or MAB between offer URLs | SmartLink |
| Different offers by country group | SmartLinkGEO |
| Clean traffic first, then route offers | Smart Shield+SmartLink |