Our weekly round-up of the most popular articles from this very site aims to bring you a top-level overview of recent happenings in the rapidly changing world of performance marketing. Here are your top five for the week commencing August 3.

Groupon Agrees to Pay Affiliates Following Threat of Network Suspension

The week had its dose of controversy after PerformanceIN learned of missed payments by voucher site Groupon among its publisher network.

Groupon eventually delivered the backlogged commission, but not before threat of suspension by the entire zanox group.

Content Marketing: The Metrics that Matter

If brands are serious about becoming publishers and using their content to ‘move the needle’, they need to adopt a ‘publisher’s commercialism’.

That was the advice of Idio CMO Andrew Davies, who shed light on potential methods to measure your content’s success – including CPL, conversion rate, leads deal velocity and even your team’s performance.

Instagram’s Advertising API Proves Positive in Early Tests

Instagram ‘switched on’ its advertising API this week, allowing marketers to start integrating the photo-sharing app into their display ad strategy via third-party platforms, such as Kenshoo.

Having conducted early trials among some its retail clients, Kenshoo reported a positive first impression, with high clickthrough rates attributed to the app’s naturally high user engagement.

Groupon’s New Food Delivery Service Uses Direct Cashback as a USP

The voucher site had a more positive start to the week, with Groupon adding a new cashback option to the mix.

‘Groupon to Go’ is a takeaway delivery service which gives users 10% cashback on each purchase from its own commission – an extra offered by no other firm, says the firm.

Criteo Continues Winning Streak with 64% Increase in Revenue YoY

It wasn’t a bad week for shareholders in French performance marketing company Criteo, which released an impressive financial report valuing the group at €271 million.

Criteo boosted its revenue by 64% on last year, but operating costs took a big hit, as expected.