"They say" with I have no idea how much accuracy that the zooms-sales ratio is 5:1. Where 'they' means 'on the forum'. I don't know if there is any official figure.
I've had sales that have never been zoomed, and apparently haven't even been viewed, which must mean they were bought by people other than Alamy's best customers. The advantage of that is that they haven't got a deep discount, so these sales can be good $$ wise.
OTOH, I've had sales which zoomed, then searched on the specific number, even more than once over months before selling for a lowish amount. I got one yesterday which was first zoomed many months ago, then searched on its filename at least twice.
BTW, off-thread, but some Alamy buyers are really thorough. Here's one of my vewers from yesterday: Views: 2933 (sic) zooms: 2 (not mine, though I had 14 viewed)
It's a long game.
You don't need to look at views and zooms unless you want to.
