As strategies evolve and tech stacks advance, one challenge keeps surfacing across the affiliate and performance marketing world: tracking, attribution, and conversion rates remain difficult. These aren’t new challenges, but they’re proving to be stubborn when trying to overcome them. One perspective shared by Rand Fishkin at Affiliate Summit West 2025 might help explain why - the rise of the Zero Click commerce. This blog explores what that means for affiliate marketers today, and why despite our best efforts, some of the web’s most persistent performance problems still refuse to go away. 

Let’s start with the numbers 

According to research conducted by SparkToro and Datos, 58% of all Google searches in 2024 ended without a single click. That means more than half of people searching never leave Google. They get their answers right there, from featured snippets, knowledge panels, AI overviews, or other embedded responses. And for the diminishing share who do click, only 360 out of every 1,000 searches in the U.S. The rest? You guessed it, Google sends them to Google: YouTube, Maps, Finance, you name it. 

This isn't just a Google story. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and TikTok are also tightening their grip on user attention. External links are demoted or downright discouraged. Algorithms reward native content that keeps users scrolling, not clicking out. For LinkedIn, Rand Fiskin referred to the fact that posts without links can get 10x the reach of posts that include them. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature: platforms want to keep users inside their walled gardens. 

Affiliate marketers are feeling the squeeze. Once reliant on trackable, attributable traffic from blog posts, review sites, and curated content, they're now navigating a digital landscape where visibility doesn't equal visits. Even when users do click, attribution is murky at best. With widespread cookie deprecation, rising adoption of privacy tools, and multi-device journeys becoming the norm, accurate user tracking is nearly impossible. Ad blockers, which are enabled by default for over 40% of U.S. users and 43% in Europe, break the attribution chain further. 

This perspective isn’t here to disrupt, it’s here to help us better understand what’s really shifting. The old model of publishing content, attracting visitors, tracking behavior, and optimizing conversions, relied on a flow of measurable clicks. Even though that flow is drying up - attention hasn't disappeared. It’s just moved, and so must we. 

The average person spends far more time on social platforms and messaging apps than on search or traditional websites.  

Yet, search still sends two-thirds of all measurable referral traffic, a paradox that reveals the growing gap between where people learn about brands and where those interactions are visible to marketers. The funnel hasn’t collapsed, it’s simply become un-trackable. 

So, what should marketers do? 

Let go of your obsession with traffic as the only KPI 

Influence is no longer confined to pageviews. Think visibility, resonance, and repetition. Zero-click doesn’t mean zero impact. In fact, it might mean greater exposure - if you show up where it counts, that is. 

Double down on native content that educates, entertains, and earns trust - not just posts that funnel people to a landing page. Use platforms’ own tools to build brand recall, get comfortable with qualitative signals. Consider dark social, branded search lift, direct traffic spikes, and community engagement as meaningful indicators of marketing success. 

Affiliate marketers in particular must evolve beyond the last-click model. Focus on building brand equity within niche communities, forums, and influencers where attribution is fuzzy but intent is high. Prioritize partnerships that drive awareness, not just coupons and conversions. 

 If you’re not already rethinking your strategy, now's the time to start. The zero-click future isn’t coming, it’s already here.