What is it?
Co-reg ads are where your newsletter opt-in is promoted when users are signing up for other offers - usually some kind of deal or giveaway.
The potential benefit is getting your opt-in seen by a high volume of fresh eyes and getting a relatively low acquisition cost per subscriber (because who doesn't love free stuff).
However, the trade-off is typically low initial engagement and high churn rates.
Since users are opting in to your newsletter while focused on something completely different, their interest and expectations often don't align well with your content. This means co-reg subscribers often quickly drop off.
For newsletters with an audience of deal-seekers or who skew older, this isn't a problem. Travel and "deal of the day" newsletters can do very well with co-reg, for example.
In specific cases where your newsletter is very good at screening and rejecting/removing unsuitable subscribers in the first few days, it may still make sense too.
But — for most successful newsletters — nowadays it is rare to rely on co-reg for growth.
Instead, co-reg spend has shifted primarily to SparkLoop's paid recommendations network: Where the quality of subscribers is much higher, and they are explicitly opting in to your newsletter.
If you decide to try co-reg ads, have a system for checking engagement levels to properly evaluate your cost per engaged reader, not just cost per email address.
The Good and the Bad
- very low CPAs
- zero effort
- high volume
- low engagement
- low subscriber quality
- can cause deliverability issues
Examples of how to crush it
The most popular platform for co-reg is DojoMojo.
They've worked with newsletters like the Daily Upside to drive 23,500 extra subs - but crucially...
- They almost immediately lost 5000 subscribers, who were just there for the giveaway.
- Of the remainder, they're getting a below average 25% open rate.
Overall Patrick was happy with the experiment, and said it was a great win to acquire subscribers for cents rather than dollars.
You can read more about it below:
Morning Brew
Jenny Rothenberg, former head of growth for Morning Brew, spoke to SparkLoop about how they used co-reg in the past.
Or rather, why they stopped using it. She said:
"Co-registration campaigns will help you grow numbers, but the subscribers you add through this channel won’t be your most enthusiastic readers and could hurt your open rates and other engagement metrics."
