The approval rate is the share of your tracked conversions that the advertiser actually confirms and pays. Eighty percent means that for every ten conversions on your dashboard, eight turn into money. It is the single number that turns a listed payout into a real one.
Approval rate is approved conversions divided by tracked conversions over a period, usually shown as a percentage once the hold period for that period has ended. It is the complement of the scrub rate: 85% approval means 15% of conversions were declined. Networks report it per offer and per affiliate, and advertisers monitor it per traffic source, because it is their measure of how much of what you send meets the offer terms.
The rate is the multiplier on every payout you read. A 20 USD CPA with 70% approval is a 14 USD CPA; a 1.50 USD SOI lead with 95% approval is worth more than a 2 USD lead with 60%. EPC, ROI and bids should all be calculated on payout × approval rate, and the mistake of calculating them on the listed payout is the most common reason a campaign that looked profitable in week one is underwater in week six.
Approval rates differ by flow, vertical and source for structural reasons. Verified flows (DOI, deposit, approved sale) are validated by the step itself and approve high; unverified flows (SOI, CC-submit trials) are validated afterwards and approve lower. Sources with intent (search, content, email) approve better than sources without it (pop, redirect, incentive). Networks also configure what happens to conversions the advertiser does not review in time: Awin, for instance, auto-validates them according to the program’s settings at the end of the validation period.
Two uses follow. Before launch, the historical approval rate for traffic like yours, from the account manager, is the number to put in the forecast. After launch, the approval rate per source, placement and creative is a quality map: a placement approving far below the account average is sending users the advertiser does not want, and it is the first thing to cut when scaling.
An offer pays 20 USD per lead. You buy clicks at 0.35 USD and convert at 2.2%, so each click produces 0.44 USD of tracked revenue.
| Approval rate | Real payout | EPC (approved) | Profit per click | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 95% | 19.00 USD | 0.418 USD | +0.068 USD | +19% |
| 80% | 16.00 USD | 0.352 USD | +0.002 USD | +1% |
| 65% | 13.00 USD | 0.286 USD | −0.064 USD | −18% |
The dashboard shows a 0.44 USD EPC against a 0.35 USD click in all three cases: a comfortable 26% ROI on paper. Only the first row survives contact with the hold period; the second breaks even and the third loses money. The approval rate is not a detail to check later; it is the difference between a campaign and a donation. Numbers are illustrative.
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Above 90% on verified flows and search or content traffic is common; 60% to 80% on SOI leads from push or pop is not unusual. Judge it against the offer’s historical rate for similar traffic rather than a universal number.
After the hold period for the conversions in question, plus any clawback window the program allows. Rates shown during the hold are provisional.
Usually because of the source mix: a share of incentive, out-of-GEO, duplicate or low-intent traffic. Split approvals by source and placement, and compare against the creative promises you made.
It means conversions the advertiser did not review by the deadline are approved by default under the program’s settings. The advertiser can still decline before the deadline and, in some programs, claw back later for fraud.
References are listed as plain text on purpose; look them up by title and publisher. Updated: 2026-10-05.
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