Understanding Leads vs. Sales
Before testing your affiliate link, it helps to understand how Rootabl tracks activity.
What Is a Lead?
A Lead is recorded when someone:
Clicks your affiliate link and
Submits their email address (for example, by signing up for a free offer, waitlist, or account)
Seeing a Lead confirms your affiliate link is working and tracking correctly — even if no purchase has been made yet.
What Is a Sale?
A Sale is recorded when someone:
Clicks your affiliate link and
Completes a paid purchase associated with that campaign
Sales are what generate commissions, but they can only happen after tracking is working — which is why verifying Leads first is important.
Why This Matters
When testing your affiliate link:
You should expect to see a Lead, not a Sale
A successful test means your link is tracking properly and ready to be shared
A 'Lead' on the other-hand is 1 step away from a sale. This is when a potential buyer used your affiliate link and was engaged enough with the content and product enough to have entered their email address on the website after using your link but didn't proceed with a sale just yet.
These are useful to help you see a list of potential customers from your network that you can reach out to and market to specifically to help guide them to make a purchase.
How to Verify Your Affiliate Link Is Working
1. Open Your Promotion Link
Click your Promotion Link directly from your affiliate dashboard.
2. Use a Test Email
In the signup form on the landing page:
Enter a test email address (your own email)
Tip: Use a variation like
yourname+test@gmail.comso it still lands in your inbox but counts as a unique email.
You do not have to submit the form. The tracking link will automatically capture the email address after you have entered it in the field and clicked either into the next box or elsewhere on the page.
3. Look for the Test Lead in Rootabl
Now switch back to Rootabl:
Go to your 'Leads' page.
If you don’t see your test email right away then refresh the page.
Your test email should appear within moments if tracking is working.
There should be little to no delay to show a "lead" here:
If your test email does not show up, notify your campaign manager at once so they can investigate it further with their admin settings and if needed can escalate it to us at Rootabl as well to dig deeper to get this working right away for you to start spreading your links to your network.