Don’t miss Affiliate Summit West this January 12 - 14 in Las Vegas! Connect directly with top industry voices tackling the AI revolution head-on, Get actionable insights from SEO leaders, affiliate pros, and digital disruptors and future-proof your marketing game in an era of AI-powered search.
Your website traffic is up. Time on site looks good. Engagement metrics are solid.
But your conversion rates? Flat. Or worse, declining.
Advertisers are beginning to ask questions. "Why aren't we seeing the ROI we used to?" "Are readers actually engaging with your content?" You know they are, but your attribution dashboard tells a different story.
So you optimize, test new formats, and chase better placement. You’re working harder to drive the same (or fewer) conversions than you got last year.
The good news: You're not underperforming.
The bad news: Your measurement system is broken.
Let's start with the number that should worry you: Publishers are driving over 2x more conversions than last-click attribution shows.
Not 10% more, double.The data in our backs this up.
And if you're a publisher banking on last-click to prove your value to brands, you need to understand what's happening—because AI just broke the traditional attribution model you’ve been using to receive compensation.
Buying Behaviors Have Changed
Consumers aren't shopping the way your tracking links expect them to anymore.
They're reading your product reviews, then asking Google or ChatGPT to compare specs. They're using your content as the input for AI summaries that send them straight to checkout, without a click, cookie, or commission for you.
Your content is doing exactly what it's supposed to do: influencing purchase decisions. But last-click attribution only counts the final click before purchase. So when AI intercepts that journey and removes the click, you get zero commission credit for the sale.
We're calling this phenomenon the “Machine-Mediated Market,” and it’s full of these types of zero-click interactions.
The Machine-Mediated Buying Journey
AI’s influence on the buying journey is undeniable today. Here are a few reasons why that’s great for LLMs and AI tools, but challenging for publishers.
AI shopping is mainstream now. Google's AI search summaries and ChatGPT’s shopping features, among other AI tools, aren't beta products anymore. They're how millions of people shop.
Brands are noticing the gap. Merchants look at their own attribution and see conversions that don't show up in affiliate reporting. They're starting to ask questions about publisher performance, even when publisher influence is actually stronger than ever.
You're missing invisible influence. You can't optimize campaigns when half of your conversions are invisible. You can't prove ROI. You can't negotiate fair rates when your attribution makes you look less effective than you actually are.
What You're Missing Out On
Lost revenue is a major pain point for any publisher, and if you're driving 2x the conversions that your last-click model shows, you're only getting paid for about half the value you create.
But it's bigger than that. You're losing the ability to prove your influence. To hold negotiating power to justify your rates. To show brands why they should increase your commission or give you better terms.
Last-click attribution made sense when the primary buying journey was clicking a link from a publisher to purchase. It doesn't make sense when AI tools sit between your content and the conversion, stripping out the trackable click while keeping all your influence intact.
The solution isn't leveraging better cookies or more invasive scripts. It's building attribution that actually measures the invisible influence in AI-driven commerce.
Your conversion dashboard shows a fraction of your actual value. The publishers who figure out how to measure the zero-clicks conversions will be the ones who survive this shift.
Stop By to Learn More
If you're at Affiliate Summit West, you've probably noticed this issue shows up differently depending on your content type, your vertical, your traffic sources. Stop by Meet Market Table 1016 (we're set up as Konnecto) and let's talk about what this looks like for your specific situation. Bring your current conversion data, your questions, and we’ll help you figure out where your influence is invisible.
But don’t be mistaken. Your content is working, and your strategy is sound. AI just moved the conversion path out of your attribution model's line of sight.
