What is the Referral Confirmation Rate (RCR)?
The Referral Confirmation Rate (RCR) tells you how effective your partners are at referring subscribers who become quality, engaged readers of your publication.
For example, if a partner sent you 100 referrals last month, and 80 of them successfully passed your quality and engagement screening criteria, the RCR for that partner would be 80%.
If, on the other hand, a partner sent you 100 referrals but 60 of them were rejected (eg because they unsubscribed during the engagement screening period), the RCR for that partner would be only 40%.
The RCR is calculated based on referrals that completed your partner program's engagement screening period within the past 30 days.
Understanding Referral Confirmation Rate Scores
Referral Confirmation Rates vary widely between partner programs, depending on the strictness of your engagement screening criteria.
An RCR of 20% might be terrible for one publication, but amazing for another, for example.
For this reason, we calculate a unique RCR Score for each of your partners, to give you context on how they're performing.
This RCR Score has five levels:
RCR Score | Description |
Exceptional | This partner's RCR is very close to the upper limit of what's possible. A "perfect" partner. |
Very Good | This partner is significantly better at referring you engaged, quality subscribers than most partners |
Good | This partner is better than average at referring you engaged, quality subscribers |
Mixed | Compared to your best partners, fewer referrals from this partner will become engaged, quality subscribers |
Low | Compared to your best partners, very few referrals from this partner will become engaged, quality subscribers |
⚠️ You only keep (and pay for) subscribers who do meet your engagement and quality criteria. So, for most publishers, there is no advantage to removing partners with a low RCR Score from recommending your publication.
A low RCR Score does not mean that a partner is fraudulent or their newsletter is low quality in some way. It just means your content does not resonate strongly with their audience.
You can view each partner's RCR Score alongside their RCR (in brackets) from your partner program dashboard:
💡 To calculate the RCR for a partner, they need to have made at least 20 referrals that completed the engagement screening period within the past 30 days.
To calculate the RCR Score for your partner program, you need to have at least 15 partners with a valid RCR.
Using the RCR to Screen Partners
As part of your partner program setup, you can choose a "minimum-acceptable" RCR Score for your partners:
(accessible via your partner program → settings → partner screening)
This minimum-acceptable RCR Score can be used to screen partners in two ways:
Pilot phase: Only new partners with at least the minimum-acceptable RCR Score will be accepted to recommend your publication
Partner Auto-Removal: Existing partners whose RCR Score falls below the minimum acceptable threshold will be removed from your partner program and prevented from recommending you in the future
💡To learn more about the RCR Score and how to use it effectively for your partner program, please reach out to your SparkLoop account manager.
Understanding the Referral Confirmation Rate (RCR) as a Partner
As a partner, you can see your RCR (and RCR Score) for each publication you recommend inside your Partner Network Overview dashboard →
Your RCR tells you at what rate your referrals to a publication are converting to confirmed (paid) referrals.
For example, an RCR of 70% means that 70% of your recent referrals were successfully confirmed and eligible for payouts.
The RCR Score tells you how you compare to other partners who recommend this publication:
RCR Score | Description (Partner's POV) |
Exceptional | You're one of the top few partners for this publication when it comes to referral quality/engagement |
Very Good | Your referrals are much more likely to pass the engagement screening and be paid for than most partners |
Good | Your referrals are slightly more likely to pass the engagement screening and be paid for than most partners |
Mixed | Your referrals are less likely to pass the engagement screening and be paid for than most partners |
Low | Your referrals are much less likely to pass the engagement screening and be paid for than most partners. This publication likely isn't a good fit for you to recommend |