End of Co-Registration Craze in CPA Marketing?

coreg.gifDo a search for “co registration.”

It can be a scary thing. Consumers have complained voraciously. As Wayne Porter and the brilliant Jan Hertsens point out, there are also serious security concerns over these types of offers.

Nevertheless, companies have made millions on co registrations in the CPA network space. Not only that, but new firms are popping up every day attempting to monetize the reg path and make use of the path that users take to confirm purchases or prize sign ups. Is it worth it? Has the coreg market met its plateau of revenue?

Registration path offers (co-regs) have had a storied history in our industry. The platform has suffered from a lack of real time reporting, a lack of real time validation and a lack of transparency. What was once primarily a broker driven market eventually received enough traction to hit the big networks, portals and merchant offers. In addition, the data points gathered are now greatly enhanced to full lead forms that mimic the advertisers’ web sites, which gives rise to even more concerns over brand recognition and recovery.

The simple “yes/no” opt-in platform has morphed into a very lucrative model. The leads produced in the co-reg model are now held to be of higher quality than other channels such as email, banner or pop (in many circles). Whereas many advertising networks kept registration path offers separate from their email counterparts, many advertisers and publishers are re-examining the co-reg and finding it a very successful model. But, the hotness of 2004 is beginning to wear thin with consumers and advertisers (lead quality lagging). Is the platform still valid for CPA networks and affiliate marketing?

The UK blog One Little Duck (Ze Frank homage?) makes a very good post about this issue. Jason there includes four examples of issues that he has with coregs within the scope of affiliate marketing

As an affiliate we promote Co-Reg competitions from a number of networks, but I have to admit to being increasingly concerned about the quality and standard of the merchants involved in this sector. Furthermore, comments from our userbase indicate quite strongly that they are far from impressed by the quality of the competitions and this has led to less promotion and diminishing revenue.

Check out his four examples. He’s on to something and this is an area of the online marketing galaxy which needs to find exposure and spotlight. Coregs are and can continue to be a profitable revenue stream for new and existing CPA companies which sale leads, but the consumers have to find trust within this platform to make it work in the long term.

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