Coupon sites have built their entire revenue model on one thing for years now: the redirect. A user searches for a discount code, lands on your site, clicks the code, and that click fires an affiliate redirect. Purchase happens, commission gets tracked, you get paid. That click was everything because without it there was no tracking, no commission, no business.
But something has changed in how people are searching for discount codes now and it is breaking the model that voucher sites have relied on for over a decade.
What AI Search Actually Does to Your Codes
The shift started quietly but it has accelerated to the point where ignoring it is no longer an option for anyone operating in this space.
Google AI Overview now pulls discount codes directly into search results. When a user searches for something like “Ulla Popken discount code” they see the code UP20 displayed right there in the AI snippet. Source links do exist below the answer but most users grab what they need and move on without clicking through to any coupon site.
ChatGPT takes this a step further and is more aggressive in how it handles these queries. When someone asks for discount codes, it displays multiple options directly in the chat interface. If you see I searched for Soma Chems discount code, it showed like JUPITER, WIZARD, SHANEFIT appear with small source attribution tags next to them. The user copies the code straight from the conversation. There is no reason for them to click through to your site when they already have exactly what they came looking for.
Grok pushes this even further than ChatGPT does. It answers the discount code query, provides the information the user wanted, and shows almost zero visible source links in the response. If you see I searched Vape Club discount codes, almost 0 chance of the redirect that used to earn our commission, no concept of click exist in this type of interaction at all.
Why Click-Based Tracking Is Breaking
The entire affiliate model for coupon sites was built on a sequence that AI search has now disrupted at multiple points.
| What Used to Happen | What Happens Now |
|---|---|
| User visits your coupon site | User asks AI directly |
| User clicks code (redirect fires) | AI shows code in response |
| Affiliate cookie placed | No cookie, no visit |
| Purchase tracked to you | Purchase tracked to nobody |
| Commission paid | Commission lost |
The model depended entirely on that click and the redirect it triggered. AI search removes both of those from the equation entirely. Cookie tracking was already getting weaker because of privacy regulations and browser changes that have rolled out over the past few years. This shift to AI-powered search is finishing off what was left of click-based tracking for discount code queries.
Users are not going to change their behaviour here. If ChatGPT gives them a working code in three seconds, they are not going to then visit five coupon sites to compare options. The convenience of AI search is too strong and the habit is already forming for millions of users.
The Fix: Exclusive Code Attribution
This is where the industry needs to make a shift in how it thinks about tracking and attribution.
The old model used generic codes like SAVE20 that could be shared anywhere and tracked commission through the click that brought the user to the retailer. The new model needs to use exclusive codes like DISCOUNTAGENT20 that are tracked by code usage at checkout regardless of where the user found them.
| Old Model | New Model |
|---|---|
| Generic code (SAVE20) | Exclusive code (DISCOUNTAGENT20) |
| Track by click/redirect | Track by code at checkout |
| Anyone can share code | Code tied to specific affiliate |
| AI sharing = lost commission | AI sharing = still attributed |
| Dependent on traffic | Dependent on code usage |
The mechanics of how this works in practice are straightforward once you understand the logic behind it.
Your site negotiates an exclusive code with a brand, something like DAGENT15 that is unique to your partnership. The brand configures their checkout system to track which code was used on each transaction. ChatGPT then tells a user to use DAGENT15 for 15% off their purchase. That user never visits your site at all. They go directly to the retailer and apply DAGENT15 at checkout. The brand sees that DAGENT15 was used and pays you commission based on that code attribution.
The code itself becomes the tracking mechanism rather than the click. This works regardless of whether the user found the code on your website, in a ChatGPT response, through Grok, or anywhere else. As long as they use your exclusive code, the sale gets attributed to you.
Monitoring Where Your Codes Appear
This is where things get more complicated for coupon sites that are adapting to this shift in how search works.
Your codes are now appearing in places that you cannot see through traditional analytics tools. Google Search Console shows you traffic to your website. What it does not show you is when ChatGPT mentioned your code to 50,000 users who never visited your site at all. That exposure is invisible to you unless you are specifically tracking for it.
Using AI visibility software allows you to track when and where AI platforms are mentioning your brand or your codes. You can see if ChatGPT is surfacing your exclusive codes in responses, whether Perplexity references your site when users ask about discounts, and how often Google AI Overview pulls your content into those snippets.
What you need to be monitoring:
- Which AI platforms are mentioning your site or codes
- How frequently your codes appear in AI responses compared to competitor codes
- Which of your codes get surfaced versus which ones get ignored
- Your brand mention frequency across different AI search tools
Without this kind of visibility into AI platforms, you are operating blind in a market where an increasing percentage of transactions are starting outside of your website entirely.
How to Negotiate Exclusive Code Partnerships
For anyone operating a coupon site, this is the practical part of making this shift work.
The pitch you make to brands and retailers:
Generic codes are being distributed everywhere now with zero attribution back to any specific partner. If you give us an exclusive code, we promote it across our channels, and you know exactly which sales came from our partnership. AI platforms are already sharing discount codes whether anyone likes it or not — exclusive codes mean you can actually track ROI on your affiliate relationships.
What you should be requesting:
- A unique code string that identifies your site (something combining brand name with your identifier)
- Backend tracking at the checkout level so code usage is recorded
- Commission structure based on code usage rather than clicks
- Regular reporting on code performance and redemption data
Why brands should agree to this:
They are losing visibility on their affiliate programme too. When a generic code like SAVE20 gets used, they have no idea whether it came from your site, from a random Reddit post, from ChatGPT, or from somewhere else entirely. Exclusive codes give them data about their affiliate partnerships that they currently do not have access to.
What Needs to Change Across the Industry
For coupon sites:
- Shift focus from traffic volume to code attribution as the primary metric
- Build exclusive partnerships instead of aggregating generic codes from everywhere
- Monitor AI visibility alongside traditional SEO rankings
- Treat AI platforms as distribution channels rather than competitors stealing your traffic
For brands and retailers:
- Implement code-level tracking at checkout so you know which codes drive sales
- Assign exclusive codes to key affiliate partners
- Accept that AI is distributing your discount codes whether you manage it or not
For affiliate networks:
- Develop code-based attribution models that work alongside click tracking
- Integrate AI visibility tracking into reporting dashboards
- Update commission structures for the zero-click reality that is already here
Which Coupon Sites Will Survive This
Sites that will adapt successfully:
- Those that already have exclusive brand partnerships in place
- Those using unique trackable codes rather than generic ones everyone else has
- Those monitoring AI visibility and adjusting their strategy based on what they find
- Those building direct relationships with brands rather than just scraping codes from the internet
Sites that will struggle to survive:
- Those scraping and aggregating generic codes from everywhere with no exclusive value
- Those dependent purely on SEO traffic with no differentiated partnerships
- Those ignoring the AI search shift and hoping things return to how they were
- Those with no offering beyond listing the same codes available on twenty other sites
The shift is not something theoretical that might happen in the future. It is already happening right now and has been accelerating for the past twelve to eighteen months. The coupon sites that recognise what is changing and adapt their model to code-based attribution will continue to earn commission. Those waiting for the old click-based model to come back will find themselves earning less and less as AI search takes over more of how people find discount codes.
