What is DOI (Double Opt-In)?

What is double opt-in

If you have started your journey to affiliate marketing recently, you probably don’t know many important things about DOI offers. 

Beginners usually ask questions like: “What is double opt-in?”, “How does double opt-in work?” etc.    

Let’s dig deeper into DOI offers. We will give you double opt in examples, tell you about double opt in best practices and provide tips to help you attract double opt-in leads and get the most out of your affiliate marketing efforts.  


What Does a DOI Conversion Mean and How Does It Work?

Double opt-in is the type of conversion that requires users to submit the data about themselves and confirm the registration. 

The DOI registration process consists of two stages:

  1. Providing the data. Users must fill in a form, provide all the necessary data during the registration process (such as full name, email address, interests, etc.), and sign up. 
  1. Confirmation. The registration process requires confirmation. Users can confirm the subscription either by email (more often) or by phone. So, a user receives an email with a confirmation link and has to follow the link to confirm an email. If the registration requires confirmation by phone, a user has to accept a call and follow the instructions provided during a phone call.  

Affiliates get a reward each time when a user signs up, provides contact information, and, after that, does the confirmation. 


Double opt-in examples

For example, we have an offer from a Social website, where an affiliate gets paid when a user registers at site with this form:

Sign up form for user registration
  • Initially, a user fills in the form and submits the data. 
  • After that, they go to an email inbox and sees the email from this website. 
  • Finally, a user confirms the email they indicated in this form. 
  • An email contains a request to confirm. 
  • A user has to follow a confirmation link provided in an email.

How DOI is Different from SOI?

There are also SOI offers. Advertisers widely use single opt-in conversions in Social, iGaming, Finance, and Giveaways industries. 

SOI offers fall into the category of easy affiliate conversions. With SOI, users just fill in a form and submit the data, but they don’t confirm the registration. 

However, DOI offers fall into the category of medium affiliate conversions. With DOI, users have to do everything they do with SOI (filling out a form and submitting the data). Plus, they have to confirm their subscription. 

Here is the table that shows how SOI campaigns differ from DOI campaigns.

ActionSOI CampaignsDOI Campaigns
Conversion rate1.28%0.33%
Open rate27.36%35.72%
Click-through rate2.36%4.19%

The data in the table show that DOI campaigns attract higher-quality traffic. These are subscribers who have confirmed a subscription and agreed to receive emails, so they open and read emails more frequently.


SOI or DOI offers have their own pros and cons:

Advantages of SOI Over DOI Advantages of DOI Over SOI
SOI is easier to convert. Affiliates only have to collect the necessary data about a user to get a conversion. The registration doesn’t require any confirmation. That’s why affiliates find it easier to get a SOI conversion.   DOI provides higher-quality leads. You will attract a more accurate and engaged audience when running DOI campaigns. A user takes an additional step and confirms a conversion only if he/she is interested in signing up. Compared to SOI leads, DOI leads have higher open rates and click-through rates. Most importantly, DOI leads convert much better. It’s also important to note that if a user confirms registration, then his/her email is valid.   
SOI subscription process is quicker and simpler. The single opt-in registration process is simple. Affiliates don’t have to wait until a user confirms an email. A user doesn’t receive any emails and doesn’t follow any confirmation links after registering.DOI offers higher payouts.  Compared to SOI, it’s more difficult to work with DOI offers. Affiliates need to put more effort into getting a DOI conversion. However, DOI leads have a higher conversion rate. That’s why advertisers agree to pay more for DOI offers. 
The list is growing faster. Users don’t face any obstacles when signing up. The easy conversion speeds up the process of growing a list.DOI is less competitive. People tend to search for easy ways of making money. The same goes with affiliate marketing. The easier conversion is – the more affiliates choose to work with this type of offer. On the other hand, more difficult offers are less competitive. DOI offers are more difficult compared to SOI offers. That’s why fewer people decide to work with double opt-in conversions.   
SOI is the right choice for affiliate beginners. It can be hard to convince users to confirm the registration and get a conversion if you have just started mastering the art of affiliate marketing. However, things go easy with SOI offers. No confirmation means no additional challenges. You don’t need to make any additional efforts after a user signs up. DOI reduces the risk of getting a spam report. DOI offers are a better option if you are going to use contacts for email marketing purposes. When you work with single opt-in contacts, the risk of getting a spam report is high. Users often mark emails as spam or unsubscribe. Double opt-in process helps affiliates avoid such a problem. If users confirm a DOI registration, they agree to receive emails and don’t create spam complaints.        

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Double Opt-In

Like any type of conversion, double opt-in conversions have their pros and cons for affiliates. Let’s talk about how affiliates can benefit from DOI conversions and what challenges they may face on their way.


Advantages of Double Opt-In conversions:

More qualified leads. When promoting DOI offers, you attract leads who are more interested in a business, its products, or services. Such leads have a higher conversion rate. So it will be easier to turn them into customers and salespeople.   


No issues with the GDPR. Working with DOI offers helps affiliates avoid GDPR complaints. If the registration lacks double opt-in, the risk of GDPR complaints increases. According to GDPR, collecting user’s data requires a double opt-in process. When users verify their emails, they confirm that they know about the submission of their data and agree with it. That means that affiliates who work with DOI offers protect themselves from GDPR complaints.


Stronger relationships. Double opt-in process makes it possible for you to create better and long-lasting relationships with contacts from the very beginning. 

Let’s assume that you’ve attracted new leads. At the next step, you need to send an email with a confirmation link to them. Now, you have an opportunity to tell contacts more about a business that you are promoting. 

At this stage, you can use the so-called confirmation email as a welcome email. Take the email creation process seriously. When creating an email, you should use any splendid opportunity to introduce a business to prospects. 

Confirmation welcome email

Extra note: The design of your email has an impact on the recipient. Creating an email design that corresponds to your business and brand is a good idea. Using good email design will help you increase your brand’s awareness. 

The message of an email also matters. It’s a good idea to create a personalized message for a user. Additionally, your message has to contain information about a business. Following such a strategy will help you interact with new contracts and, most importantly, establish good relationships with them.


No fake email addresses. Sometimes, people use fake emails to sign up for various services, which means that your contact list may contain a lot of fake emails. 

Let’s assume that you are planning to use your list of contacts for email marketing. In this case, you may waste a lot of time on sending emails to fake addresses. 

The double opt-in process serves as a filter of emails in the list. If a person provides a fake email address during the signup process, he/she will not be able to confirm a registration. With the double opt-in process, you’ll add only the contacts with real email addresses to your list. 


Disadvantages of Double Opt-In Conversions:

Longer signup process. Obviously, the more steps the signup process takes – the longer it is. When you promote double opt-in offers, it takes users more time to sign up because they need to take an additional step and confirm the registration.  


Many people don’t click on confirmation emails. The truth is that a lot of people don’t open emails and, therefore, they don’t click on confirmation links. This happens for various reasons. Again, they may use fake emails during the sign-up process, mark emails as spam, be afraid to open emails, or simply don’t know that they need to confirm the registration.    


Slow list growth. With DOI offers, it takes longer to grow a list. Some users submit data, but they don’t confirm the registration for some reason. However, it’s not enough to get a conversion. So, it’s necessary to spend more time finding users who will submit data and agree to confirm an email. This results in a slower growth rate. 


How to Work with DOI Offers?

Start with the best verticals. Running DOI campaigns requires some preparation and meticulous planning. Affiliates who are planning to work with DOI offers should select the right niches from the start. 

Before starting a DOI campaign, you have to perform research, study current market trends, and make smart choices. Finding popular verticals and niche targets helps affiliates run their campaigns and promote DOI offers profitably. 

Verticals such as social (dating), iGaming, finance, insurance, and giveaways are worth considering if you are going to start working with DOI offers. 

  • If, for example, you choose to work in the iGaming industry, then you should try card games, casinos, slots and sport entertainment events.
  • If, for example, you are interested in Giveaways, then it makes a lot of sense to focus on gift cards. 
  • Crypto, Forex, Binary Options are the perfect choice for affiliates who would like to work in the finance industry. 

Use effective promotional methods. It’s possible to promote DOI offers in a number of different ways. However, you need to concentrate on the most cost-effective solutions that work best for you. 

Among the best online promotional methods to use for double opt-in are: popunder and push (classic & in-page) campaigns, direct click, display and native ads. You should analyze the efficiency of each method and focus on the best techniques.

According to the opinions of many advertisers who work with DOI offers, push campaigns provide the best return on investment. However, affiliates need to measure their success, optimize their campaigns, and get the most out of push traffic. Following such a strategy will allow you to achieve the best results.  


Optimize a landing page. Attracting the right traffic to DOI offers is only half the battle. Another important thing that you need to do is to monetize the traffic. That’s why paying special attention to landing page optimization is so important.

Once users have come to your landing page, you should do everything possible to capture their attention and raise their interest in your DOI offer. What should you do to make this happen? 

Keep in mind that selecting effective visuals, impressive messages, and the right CTAs for landing pages helps convert visitors. Let’s take a closer look at each of these aspects.

  • You have to be very selective when it comes to picking visuals for landing pages. Make sure that the images of your choice correspond to DOI offers. Effective visuals get a lot of attention from users on landing pages. It’s a good idea to use large-format images with high resolution. Prefer high-quality pictures with bright colors. You can also add moving effects to buttons and images. It also makes sense to use pop-ups on landing pages.
  • Remember to add call-to-action buttons to a landing page. Visible CTAs encourage users to take an extra step and confirm the registration. Your traffic will convert well if you use the right CTAs. Use bold fonts and various effects to make CTA texts more visible and, therefore, more effective.  
  • Use the power of emotional words when creating messages for landing pages. It’s worth noting that so-called power words work effectively to promote giveaways. 

Generally speaking, you should aim to create effective landing pages with catchy CTA buttons, bright texts, and emotional words. This type of landing page will have a high conversion rate and allow you to promote DOI offers in the best possible way. Test various visual elements and analyze their efficiency regularly. This will help you pick the creatives that work best for your landing pages and DOI offers.


Conclusion

More and more affiliates prefer to work with double opt-in offers these days. DOI offers attract affiliates with their high payouts. On the other hand, promoting DOI offers can be challenging and maybe not the easiest choice for beginners. 

Are you a newbie? If so, you should think about getting started with SOI offers at the beginning of their journey to affiliate marketing. It’s much easier to work with SOI offers. Later, when you get some affiliate marketing experience – you should go further, switch to DOI offer, and try to earn higher payouts. 

Double opt-in offers are more worth considering if you are an experienced affiliate. Just give it a try and see how things will go! 

Good luck! 

Related posts