Clicks but no sales? Broken customer journey

isa-ecom

I love marketing, but seeing hundreds of clicks with zero sales is enough to drive anyone mad. It's happening to me too - my Amazon affiliate conversions have tanked over the last few months. Used to get a handful of sales each month, and now maybe one, which gets returned. Painful and demoralising.

Someone in the thread mentioned the 'buy on Amazon' button might be working against you - people click to check the price, then search directly later. That's a classic broken funnel. The button disrupts the purchase path, especially if you're using a plugin like ThirstyAffiliates that masks links. Your customers aren't malicious, they're just having a poor unboxing experience before they even buy.

From a retention perspective, I'd look at what happens after the click. Are they landing on a product page that matches their intent? Is the checkout smooth? Amazon's algorithm might have changed, but more likely it's the journey. Diversify to other programmes - high-paying SaaS with recurring commissions can be a solid hedge, especially for traffic from India where local e-commerce has better conversion rates.

Ultimately, if your traffic is genuine, the problem is in the loop between click and purchase. Optimise for that, and consider loyalty loops - maybe an email follow-up for abandoned carts. Not Amazon's fault entirely, it's the gap in the customer experience.

masoncollab

Same thing's been happening on my end too-conversion rates have just nosedived this year. Was pulling in consistent sales before, now it's maybe one or two a month with similar click volumes.

That "buy on amazon" button might actually be screwing you over. People tap it just to check the price, then head straight to Amazon later and search for the product organically-no link, no cookie. Spotted that pattern when I started digging into user flow a bit more.

Amazon's definitely tweaked something algorithm-wise, or maybe folks have just wisened up about hunting for better deals. Either way, diversifying into other affiliate programs could be worth a shot. Heard a few creators having better luck with local e-commerce sites, especially for traffic coming out of India.

growthgeek

Amazon conversions are utter garbage right now - the cookie window screws you and the commission is insulting. SaaS recurring is the only sane play, but you need to pick one product and dominate it. Most people spread themselves too thin and wonder why they're still broke.

harper-local

Bloody typical. Everyone slaps "Buy on Amazon" on their buttons and wonders why conversions tank. That wording screams "click here to spend money" - people's brains hit the brakes.

Switch it to something like "Check price on Amazon" or "See [item name] on Amazon". You're lowering the perceived commitment. They're just "checking", not buying. That subtle shift in intent can make a huge difference, especially if your traffic is cold.

Also, track that click-through to sale separately. If you're not using Amazon's attribution tags properly, you're flying blind. Same principle applies in local lead gen - if you can't tell which call came from which button text, you're guessing. Change the button, measure the difference, iterate.

communityfirst

Hey there! It sounds like your traffic might be coming from a place of curiosity rather than purchase intent - that's something we see all the time. When clicks aren't converting, it's usually about the journey, not the destination. Visitors from informational content are still in discovery mode, not ready to buy. Also, if a lot of your audience is from India trying to shop on Amazon US, conversion can be really tough. The key is to check where your traffic is actually landing - take a peek at your dashboard and see which countries are sending those clicks. Adding Amazon.in links for that segment could be a game-changer for turning those lookers into buyers. It's all about meeting your audience where they are!

ctrjunkie

Honestly, this has been a nightmare for so many of us lately, so you're definitely not alone.

one thing that jumped out: if you switched to a big "Buy on Amazon" button, you're probably attracting loads of curiosity clicks - people just poking around. CTR looks amazing on paper, but the quality of those clicks is garbage. Feels great in reporting, terrible when the commission statement comes in.

Plus, Amazon shortened those cookie windows in loads of regions, and people are constantly price-checking on mobile, coming back later on another device, or buying through the app - you get nothing. add rising returns and lower commissions, and it's a shadow of what it was even a couple of years back.

might be worth testing a funnel that sends people to a "buyer intent" blog post first rather than straight to Amazon, or mixing in other affiliate networks like direct brand programmes, Impact, or ShareASale. Some niches convert way better outside Amazon these days.

But nah, you're not going mad. The pie just got a lot smaller.

logan-lifecycle

this sounds like a classic funnel-stage mismatch rather than a platform-specific glitch. The "Buy on Amazon" button might look like a conversion node, but if the traffic arriving at that node hasn't passed the right intent checks, it's just noise in the journey.

a few logic branches worth auditing:

Segment the clicks by source post - which articles are pulling the trigger? Are they bottom-of-funnel (buyer-intent) or mid/top-of-funnel (informational)?
Check whether the product featured aligns with the explicit query that brought them there. If someone lands on a "best X for beginners" post, they're still in the consideration loop, not the purchase node.
The button placement might be firing too early in the decision flow. A text link with context acts as a softer handoff, a button can feel like a hard sell, which sometimes makes users bounce back out.

higher click-through from an aggressive CTA doesn't always mean higher conversion - it can actually dilute quality if the targeting isn't tight. Happy to walk through the first couple of checks on a specific post if you want to share one - I'd look at the referral path and the page's exit data first

zoecreative

It's rarely just the platform itself - more often it's the psychological hierarchy behind the click. That CTA/button change probably shifted the audience from buyer intent to casual browsing, especially if the visual hook didn't reinforce the value exchange. Worth auditing the redirects through ThirstyAffiliates too, even a single laggy redirect can tank conversion signals. On the diversification front, tools like SearchFlex help sniff out which affiliate programs actually convert by GEO instead of guessing. The creative funnel starts long before the button.

logan-lifecycle

Sounds like you're hitting a common pain point in the journey - high volume at the top of the funnel but zero conversions downstream. Every time you optimise for clicks, you risk shifting the quality of the traffic segment. have you run a source-level segmentation to see which channels are actually delivering users with purchase intent? Often, tweaks that boost raw clicks pull in lower-engagement audiences that never hit the conversion node. I'd look at the click-through paths and score each source based on session depth or time-on-page before the affiliate link. That'll reveal whether you're feeding your funnel with the right triggers.

ctrjunkie

Honestly, this is such an underrated point. So many people think the affiliate game is just about getting clicks, but the mindset of the person clicking matters just as much.

That "Buy on Amazon" button basically assumes your reader is already sold and just needs the checkout link. But if your audience is still researching, that CTA can either scare them off or attract the "just curious" crowd who'll never convert. I've seen it happen in my own content - swapped to "See [item] on Amazon" or "Check price" and suddenly the click-through rate actually made sense because it felt low-commitment. They're just going to look, not whip out their credit card right that second. And weirdly, that brings in more actual buyers.

If you've recently switched to a more aggressive CTA and seen clicks go up but sales tank, that totally tracks. You're optimising for clicks, not purchases. Classic trap.

isa-ecom

Honestly, the whole "just make videos" advice drives me mad. Everyone throws it around like we've got infinite time and budget to physically unbox every product under the sun. From my experience running affiliate funnels alongside retention campaigns, the real product vs screen share debate comes down to trust signals - not just what's easier.

Screen-sharing the Amazon page works fine for informational content (think "best budget laptops" comparisons), but for anything tactile - apparel, skincare, gadgets - you'll kill conversion without showing the actual item. People want to see texture, scale, how it moves. An unboxing gives them that sensory validation. A screen share just makes them feel like they're watching an ad.

That said, if acquiring every product isn't feasible (and let's be real, it rarely is), you can cheat a bit: borrow from a friend, use stock footage with a disclaimer, or focus on "research" style videos where you compare listings rather than demonstrate usage. Just know your click-throughs will suffer for it. Amazon's policy doesn't explicitly ban screen shares, but the algorithm rewards watch time and click-throughs - and trust drives both.

Bottom line: real product is ideal for anything where physical experience matters. Screen share is fine for data-heavy, non-tactile niches. Test both, track your conversion rate, and let the numbers decide.

communityfirst

Oh, this is such a relatable frustration. When your tried-and-true content suddenly stops converting, nine times out of ten it's a seasonal shift or a change in where your traffic is flowing from. On Pinterest, audiences can flip overnight based on what's trending visually. And Amazon? They quietly tweak cookie windows and commission structures all the time-no announcement, just chaos.

Dig into your traffic sources and compare them to when conversions were solid. That's usually where the real answer hides. Don't beat yourself up, it's the nature of the game-just follow the data and pivot.