Key points
- Google's Universal Commerce Protocol lets retailers complete sales inside AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, so the shopper may never land on a publisher's page.
- Columnist Roller Blader says affiliate links still matter and advises keeping them while adding other tracking layers and ways to earn.
- Suggested backups include server-to-server tracking, IP hashing, vanity codes, and journey tools such as ThoughtMetrics, which the author says he uses with no ties to the company.
- Programs that pay nothing on third-party marketplace sales are a choice, the author notes, and affiliates can pick programs that do pay.
Why it matters for marketers: Affiliates and content teams should not drop links as checkout moves into AI surfaces, but should diversify tracking, pick programs carefully, and lean on human-made demos that AI summaries cannot offer.
A reader asked Search Engine Journal's Ask an SEO column whether affiliate marketing can survive Google's Universal Commerce Protocol. The protocol allows retailers to complete purchases within AI Mode and the Gemini app, which means a buyer could go from research to order without ever touching an affiliate's link. The columnist, writing as @rollerblader, answers yes: keep using links.
His argument starts with history. Cookie tracking has been patchy since shoppers began researching on phones and buying elsewhere, which pushed the industry toward cross-device syncing, logins, and server-to-server methods. He points to IP matching on streaming TV ads, IP hashing, and vanity codes as other ways to tie a sale to a referral. He also warns that vanity codes can leak to coupon sites and browser extensions.
He adds that cutting out the link is not new. TikTok Shop and retailer apps inside ChatGPT already keep purchases on the platform, and some marketplaces do not pay commissions on third-party sellers. His advice is to pick programs that pay, and to use links on your own site while also publishing content on those platforms.
On trust, he says many consumers distrust AI and will scroll past an AI Overview to human-made content, especially for pricier items or products that need a demonstration. He suggests an advertising disclosure noting that clicking supports the publisher.
For next steps, he recommends tools that show every touchpoint in a customer journey and, where possible, a month-end reconciliation to add sales that failed to track. Without a click, he notes, an affiliate is not in the running for credit.
Sources
This brief is our own summary. Read the full reporting at the source.