That Empty Promo Code Box Is Giving Your Revenue Away to Affiliates

What does the average shopper do when they see an empty "promo code" field at checkout? They leave the site and search for "promo code" or "discount" alongside the brand name. And that's exactly the moment — when the customer has already chosen the product, accepted the price, and is ready to pay — that the sale risks being handed over to an affiliate (a partner site earning a commission for the referred traffic), says Search Engine Journal founder Loren Baker.

In search results, some affiliate aggregator often ranks above the brand's own official page, hijacking that final pre-purchase moment — even though it was the brand's own marketing that brought the customer to the site in the first place. Baker calls this "affiliates riding on the brand's back": the problem isn't affiliate marketing itself, but whether the affiliate actually generated demand or just "attached itself" in the final seconds before purchase.

The economics can get serious: on a $900 order with a 10-20% commission rate, an affiliate can pocket $90 to $180 — and if the customer also stacks a discount on top, that's a double loss for the brand. Using a mid-size brand as an example, Baker notes that discount-related searches get around 760 monthly queries — a small slice of overall traffic, but with "maximum" purchase intent.

As a fix, Baker recommends creating the brand's own permanent "promo codes" page — this doesn't mean advertising a discount at all times; the page can list a current promotion, a seasonal offer, or even honestly state "no active codes right now." What matters is that the information is accurate, current, and directly tied to the purchase flow.

That kind of page isn't the end goal itself, but a "supporting" step, Baker says — the metric that matters isn't SEO ranking, but whether the customer returns to checkout and completes the purchase after grabbing the code. She recommends tracking it with the same rigor as sales, since last-click attribution systems often give affiliates credit for value they never actually created.