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Overview
Referral Factory prevents the same Lead from being added more than once within the same campaign.
We use the Lead’s email address as the unique identifier within that campaign. If the same email address is submitted again, we keep the original Lead record and its original referral attribution rather than creating a duplicate.
Duplicate referral scenarios: same lead submits twice, same referrer refers twice, or multiple referrers refer the same person
Here is how the most common duplicate scenarios are handled:
For example, if Sarah first joins through Alex’s referral link and later submits the same email address through Jamie’s link, Sarah remains attributed to Alex.
The same person can still be a Lead in different campaigns. Duplicate detection applies within each campaign separately.
- The same Lead submits their details twice — the second submission does not create another Lead record in the same campaign.
- The same Referrer refers the same person more than once — the Lead still exists only once in that campaign, so the additional referral does not create another referral record.
- Different Referrers refer the same person — the referral stays attributed to the Referrer whose link the Lead used first. A later submission through another Referrer’s link does not change the original attribution.
How duplicates are detected/handled
Duplicate detection is based on email address.
Whenever a Lead is added to a campaign — whether through a referral link, manual entry, or an integration — we check whether that email address already exists in the same campaign.
If it does, we do not create a second Lead.
For example:
Duplicate handling inside an external CRM is separate and depends on the settings of that CRM integration.
- If a Referrer tries to manually add a Lead who already exists, the system shows a validation message and the duplicate is not created.
- If an integration sends a Lead who already exists, the existing Lead can be updated with new data from the integration, but their original referral attribution remains unchanged.
Attribution outcome
Referral attribution is based on the first successful referral within that campaign.
Once the Lead has joined, the Referred By relationship remains attached to the original Referrer. A later submission of the same email address does not transfer the Lead to another Referrer.
This prevents the same Lead from being counted multiple times or being reassigned simply because they later receive another referral link.
Impact on qualification and rewards
Because duplicate submissions do not create additional Lead records, the Lead is qualified only on the existing record.
If the Lead is still Pending, they can become Qualified when they meet your qualification criteria. If they are already Qualified, submitting their details again does not create another qualification event.
Rewards follow the original Lead and Referrer attribution. When the existing Lead becomes Qualified, we evaluate the active reward rules for that campaign. Depending on your reward setup, the reward can become Due or be issued automatically if Auto Issue is enabled.
A duplicate submission does not create an additional Lead, so it does not create an additional qualification or an extra reward simply because the same person submitted their details again.