Basic Troubleshooting

Owned by Sherif Rizk (Unlicensed), created
Last updated: Oct 27, 2020
2 min read

ShareASale’s tracking involves two 'tags' or 'pixels' (listed below) which are snippets of code used to track transactions within your ShareASale account.

  1. ShareASale Tracking Pixel

  2. ShareASale Master Tag

The first tag is for tracking conversions (i.e. sales or leads) and the second tag assists with Affiliate click attribution accuracy in certain browsers.

If you have successfully installed both tags on your website, but are not tracking sales within your ShareASale account, or cannot proceed to step 6 in the setup wizard, please navigate to the appropriate section below to further troubleshoot.

Conduct a Test Transaction

The first step in troubleshooting a tracking error/outage is to conduct a successful test transaction. To conduct a successful test transaction, we will need to click on a ShareASale test link, and then complete the conversion transaction (i.e. sale transaction) on your website. Prior to initiating the testing process (i.e. clicking on a ShareASale test link), we will need to make sure of the following:

  1. Cookies are enabled in your browser

  2. All Ad Blockers are disabled in your browser

  3. Clear your browser cache and cookies prior to clicking the ShareASale test link

  4. The conversion transaction (i.e. sale transaction) is completed in the same browser used to open the ShareASale test link

  5. Please do not use incognito mode

After confirming the above, please proceed with completing the test transaction by clicking on your ShareASale test link, and then completing the conversion transaction on your website.

If the test transaction is successful, it will display in the Transaction Detail Report in your ShareASale Admin. To access this report, please login to your ShareASale account and navigate to REPORTS → Transaction Detail Report (you may also click the link below). All transactions in your account will display here.

Transaction Detail Report: https://account.shareasale.com/m-accountactivity.cfm

If the test transaction is unsuccessful, we will need to view the page source of your website’s thank you page to further troubleshoot. When you reach your thank you page, save the page source of your thank you page into a text file (right click on you browser window >> view page source >> save the page as a text file). Please open a help ticket in your ShareASale account and attach this text file to the ticket for review.

Master Tag Troubleshooting

To confirm that the ShareASale Master Tag is installed correctly on your website, and the ShareASale first party cookie is being set in the browser, please follow the directions outlined below.

  1. Please access your browser’s developer console. If you are not sure how to access your browser’s developer console, please follow the article provided here: https://balsamiq.com/support/faqs/browserconsole/

  2. After opening the developer console, please navigate to the ‘Application' Tab

  3. On the left navigation menu, please select ‘Cookies’ → then select your website’s main domain from the dropdown menu

  4. In the ‘Filter’ field, please search for a cookie named sas_m_awin

If the sas_m_awin cookie is present, the ShareASale master tag is installed correctly on your website.

If the sas_m_awin cookie is not present, we will need to install the ShareASale master tag on your website. For directions to install the ShareASale master tag, please navigate to the section labeled “Tracking Code Instructions” in the ShareASale wiki and locate the tracking instructions for your website’s shopping cart.

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