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SOI affiliate marketing is one of the fastest conversion types and a direct path to high traffic volumes. But it rewards affiliates who know what they’re dealing with.
Affiliates get paid per lead or subscription, not per sale. A user fills a short form, hits “Submit” or “Subscribe”, advertisers assign you a conversion, and you earn. No complex purchases or long forms required. The real challenge is to drive quality opt-ins through offer nad traffic source selection while keeping lead generation profitable.
This article covers how SOI works, how it differs from DOI, which verticals pay in 2026, and strategies that build stable results.
SOI stands for Single Opt-In. In affiliate marketing, SOI means a user completes registration by submitting one form with no email confirmation required. That’s the key: no further email confirmation or other things.
The single opt-in process is simple: a user visits a landing page you led them, enters their details (usually, name and email) and hits the Submit or Register button.
Businesses use SOI offers to grow their subscriber base fast or test. For affiliates, single opt-in is attractive because the conversion rate runs higher than most other lead generation models.
It makes sense when volume matters more than deep engagement. Dating, sweepstakes, and finance verticals all use single opt-in flows heavily.
The process is short:
A user clicks the ad you created.
The user then lands on a landing page or a website.
The user fills in a short registration form — name, email, less often, age or gender.
Form data is submitted in one step.
Affiliate program counts conversions.
The advertiser approves a conversion (an ideal scenario).
You get paid as promised in the offer’s terms.
Deals don’t include confirmation links as a second step. The moment the user submits, the advertiser records the lead, and affiliates get credit.
This contrasts with the double opt-in flow, where user gets a confirmation email and must verify their address with a click. This last step cuts conversion volume significantly.
For media buyers, single opt-in is the best option for pop traffic (Popunders) or push ads. More conversions means your target audience becomes profitable faster and ad spend is more predictable.
SOI offers are favored by brands and consumers for an easy subscription process which does not require email confirmation. This simplicity makes them more appealing to traffic buyers, as well, and results in higher conversion rates compared to DOI offers or FTD (first-time deposits).
| Option | SOI (Single Opt-In) | DOI (Double Opt-In) |
|---|---|---|
| Steps to convert | One | Two (form + email confirm) |
| Conversion rate | High | Medium |
| Lead quality | Mixed | Higher |
| Payout | Lower payout | Higher payout |
| Spam complaints risk | Higher | Lower |
| Risks | Beginner-friendly; lower risks for ad budgets | Moderate risks; requires proper ad spend tracking |
| Best for | Volume-focused campaigns, tests | Quality email lists and subscription bases |
SOI and DOI serve different goals. With SOI offers, affiliates trade some lead quality for volume. The lower payout per lead is offset by a higher conversion rate.
DOI offers filter out low-intent users: ubscribers must confirm they agree to receive emails. That means fewer leads, higher traffic quality, and fewer spam complaints.
For affiliates, the choice between SOI and DOI usually comes down to vertical and source. Pop traffic suits SOI well. Email marketing often demand DOI to protect deliverability.
Pros:
High conversion rate because users submit one form without additional steps.
Fast results let you adjust campaign settings before burning budget.
Good for landing page A/B testing; results show within days.
Works with pop ads, push ads, and Facebook browser targeting
With over 79% of affiliates using AI tools in their funnels, the single opt niche becomes the most predictable in terms of user intent and lead quality.
Cons:
SOI’s lower barrier to entry often results in higher conversion rates but can also lead to lower lead quality.
Lead quality varies; with no email verification, some leads may be invalid
Advertisers track quality carefully; poor quality leads to caps or paused offers
Lower payout per lead than DOI offers, so you will need volume to profit
Clear consent mechanisms should be included to ensure users understand they agree to receive future marketing emails when submitting their information.
For media buyers, SOI promotions demand clean data and close attention from day one.
To effectively promote SOI offers, experts recommend to focus on traffic quality, as the low barrier to entry can lead to a higher number of fake leads; maintaining strong lead quality is essential for long-term success. The same high priority is for working with traffic sources. Ad networks like Adsterra push lead quality first with their smart optimization algorithms.
Single Opt-In (SOI) setups make it easy for people to sign up. However, without a verification step, there is a higher risk of fake email addresses being added. People might also subscribe by accident, which can lead to lower engagement or more spam complaints.
Ultimately, although SOI is a powerful tactic for rapid, high-volume lead generation, it requires diligent oversight to safeguard lead goodness and mitigate fraudulent activity.
Anna Mardas, iGaming, Sweepstakes, and Financial markets observer at Affroom.
Sweeps are a natural match for single opt-in conversion flow. A user fills out a form for a chance to win a prize: phone, gift card, cash, coupon (e.g., Wallmart).
Another top vertical for single opt-in. Users want fast access to profiles, not a confirmation email, and SOI or 1-click flow is standard.
Loan, credit, and insurance offers commonly use single opt-in. Advertisers want volume to start nurturing these leads and turn them into customers. But in most cases, companies apply for this flow when testing new geos or aiming for outreach.
VPN, antivirus, and phone cleaner offers convert well with SOI on mobile devices. Affiliates documented 130% ROI on utility single opt-in and DOI offers with Social Bar ads.
Deals require entering phone number or SMS without further confirmation. The main complexity in mVAS campaigns comes with finding enough traffic from a mobile carrier in a specific geo.
Supplements and wellness programs use single opt-in for initial registration and nurture subscribers through follow-up sequences. This flow is widely used for app promotion, though. Selling
Like Finance, Health, and E-commerce verticals, iGaming relies mainly on hard-flow conversions (deposits). Exceptions: igaming mobile apps that enter new markets and need mass subscriptions.
Popunder ads match naturally with single opt-in. A user sees a landing page beneath the content they were viewing, fills in the form, and affiliates collect conversions at lower costs per view or clicks. Adsterra carries strong inventory for sweepstakes and social dating offers.
Unlike in-app notifications, push ads reach users in their browsers. Clicks tend to be intentional, which produces solid output for affiliates Sweeps, VPN, or Utility campaigns.
Adsterra documented strong dating SOI performance with ROI of %474 by targeting the Facebook in-app browser on Android. Geos: starting in Italy, then expanding to Spain, UK, US, and Australia.
Start from expansion, then narrow. Choose one GEO, one traffic type, one device type per campaign. Once you see profit, narrow down targeting to the best-converting slices.
Test many ad creatives from the start. SOI conversions arrive quickly, so A/B tests for creatives’ heading and images produce clear data in days.
Monitor lead quality from day one. If many leads show zero further engagement, advertisers will cap campaigns. Any tracker can catch quality problems before they escalate.
Use proper tracking. Track cost per lead against payout. Voluum, RedTrack, and BeMob are standard tracking tools for affiliates. Postback URL integration with affiliate networks ensures accurate attribution.
Set budget caps. When testing a new traffic source, include daily spending limits to avoid Showing the same user the same landing page repeatedly kills conversion and wastes budget. Cap exposure at 1 to 2 views per user per day.
Sasha Kasatkina, head of CPA at Adsterra (Campaign Setup Guide for Affiliates)
Scaling is where affiliates earn money from bigger traffic volumes, more creatives, and higher bids. It’s recommended to set up a new campaign fir this purpose and add a test budget of $100 to $200.
The Adsterra Sweepstakes case study confirmed creative quality matters. Affiliates who replaced weak creatives with strong ones pushed a run from -23% ROI to 135% ROI. Same offer, same source, same landing page — the creative drove the result.
You don’t need to invent a totally new campaign strategy: duplicate a high-performing Popunder campaign but change the ad format / traffic type / or device.
Avoid adding more GEOs, devices, traffic types simultaneously. You’ll easily confuse data and overlook really promising tkeaks. Instead, go step by step, testing one new paremeter at a time.
SOI affiliate marketing rewards speed, volume, and precision. If affiliates can drive clean volume to a well-matched offer and check performace with real-time stats, the model works. Creatives, traffic quality, offer selection, and data all require real attention.
For media buyers working with large user acquisition platforms like Adsterra, single opt-in is a strong entry point into performance marketing and a reliable vertical for affiliates who know how to scale profitably.
If you’re ready to run volumes and do the math, SOI affiliate marketing is where many affiliates build their core income.
SOI (single opt-in) needs one step: the user fills out a form and submits it. DOI (double opt-in) adds a confirmation email the user must click. SOI delivers more leads and a higher conversion rate at a lower cost. DOI delivers fewer leads but better quality and fewer spam complaints. For high-volume Popunder campaigns, SOI offers are typically the best option. For email marketing strategies, DOI is the safer choice.
In DOI affiliate marketing, the user must complete a registration form on a landing page. They will then receive a confirmation email and must click a link before the conversion counts. This second step produces subscribers with genuine interest, filtering out random or fake emails. DOI offers pay more per lead, and many brands prefer DOI when lead quality matters more than raw numbers.
MaxBounty, ClickDealer, and CPAlead all carry solid SOI offers across Sweepstakes, Dating, and Finance industries. Talking to an account manager usually surfaces better-paying offers per affiliate program than browsing the marketplace alone. Adsterra as a performance marketing platform provides the Offers Wishlist selection, a way to check which deals convert right here right now with no guessing.
Pop traffic is the most used source for single opt-in runs among affiliates. In-page push works well in GEOs with lower in-app push penetration. Facebook browser targeting has shown strong results for dating SOI offers, confirmed by an Adsterra case study where affiliates reached 474% ROI targeting Android users across multiple GEOs.
Voluum, RedTrack, and BeMob are the standard trackers for affiliates running single opt-in offers. Each integrates with major affiliate networks and ad platforms. Affiliates need click-level data to monitor quality, landing page performance, and lead-to-payout ratio.
Beyond trackers, affiliates use spy tools like AdPlexity and Anstrex to research creatives and landing page formats. Adsterra’s platform includes built-in statistics for live monitoring. Postback URLs keep conversion data clean and support fast decisions from affiliates scaling up.
SOI involves collecting personal data and requires compliance with data privacy regulations like the GDPR. In countries like Austria, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland, data collection requires a double opt-in process to be legally compliant, meaning users must confirm their registration after submitting their data.
SOI affiliate marketing gives you volume, speed, and transparent profits. Run it with the right data behind every decision with detailed marketing statistics reports.