Global Savings Group vs Ibotta

Atolls Wins Best Publisher at the European Affiliate Awards

Atolls has been awarded Best Publisher at the European Affiliate Awards in Berlin, as announced on September 22, 2026.

Coupon Whitelabels: 4 Experts on Google Site Reputation Policy

Google has adjusted its Site Reputation Policy in the European Economic Area (EEA), effective August 30, 2026. Manual actions are no longer applied to search results in the EEA, and Google can now evaluate affected sections of a website independently of the main domain's reputation. This change is highly relevant for affiliate publishers, especially coupon providers. Four industry experts – Bernd Vermaaten (Checkout Charlie), Torsten Latussek (Coupons.de), Yekta Kücük (Bravogutschein), and Thomas Punzel (Atolls) – provide their assessments. Opinions vary: some see a chance for a whitelabel comeback (Checkout Charlie, Coupons.de, Atolls), while Bravogutschein prefers focusing on its own portal. The key issue is how much the publisher domain's authority will still benefit the coupon section, as Google may decouple these areas. Experts agree that pure domain authority will lose importance, making content quality, exclusivity, and user experience crucial. Strategies for reactivation differ, with some being cautious and testing first.

• Google's Site Reputation Policy change applies to the EEA since August 30, 2026.
• Manual site reputation actions are no longer applied in EEA search results.
• Google can now evaluate affected website sections independently of the main domain's reputation.

Travel Affiliate Marketing 2026: Why Last Click No Longer Suffices

MAI xpose360 has released a whitepaper arguing that affiliate marketing in the travel sector must move beyond last-click attribution. As travel customer journeys become more complex, bookings often result from multiple touchpoints including search engines, social media, creators, comparison portals, blogs, and AI-based search systems. According to the MAI xpose360 Affiliate-Marketing-Trendreport 2026, 71% of surveyed advertisers rank affiliate among their strongest sales channels. However, a survey of nine travel advertisers shows incrementality is often only estimated rather than precisely measured. An analysis of about 5,000 'Best Product' prompts reveals that affiliate and product review pages are highly visible in AI-generated answers. The report recommends measuring assisted conversions and incrementality, managing publishers by function, monitoring AI visibility, providing publishers with better data, and integrating creators into affiliate programs.

• MAI xpose360 published the whitepaper 'Travel – Affiliate-Marketing: Mehr als der letzte Klick'.
• 71% of surveyed advertisers in the MAI xpose360 Affiliate-Marketing-Trendreport 2026 count affiliate marketing among their strongest revenue channels.
• A survey of nine travel advertisers found that incrementality is considered but often based on estimates.

Ibotta Appoints Tony Weisman to Board of Directors

Ibotta appoints Tony Weisman to its Board of Directors, as announced in a press release dated September 24, 2026.

10-Q Financial Filing Analysis for Ibotta (2026-08-04)

Ibotta, Inc. reported its Q2 2026 financial results, generating $88.9 million in total revenue, a modest 3% year-over-year increase from $86.0 million. Top-line expansion was powered by a 27% surge in third-party publisher revenue to $61.5 million, which was substantially tempered by a 27% contraction in direct-to-consumer (D2C) revenue to $27.4 million driven by imbalances between offer supply and redeemer growth. Profitability compressed year-over-year, swinging from an operating income of $1.2 million in Q2 2025 to an operating loss of $1.9 million and a net loss of $1.2 million. Concurrently, the company maintained active capital return via $23.2 million in Class A common stock repurchases and secured a procedural legal victory with the dismissal without prejudice of a consolidated putative securities class action.

• Q2 2026 total revenue reached $88.9 million (+3% YoY), driven by a 27% increase in third-party publisher revenue ($61.5 million) offset by a 27% decline in D2C revenue ($27.4 million).
• Operating results deteriorated from an operating income of $1.2 million in Q2 2025 to an operating loss of $1.9 million and a net loss of $1.2 million.
• The company repurchased 711,198 shares of Class A common stock for $23.2 million, leaving $67.3 million in remaining authorization, while the U.S. District Court dismissed an amended securities class action complaint without prejudice on August 3, 2026.

Liquid Death Prioritizes Incrementality to Measure Sales

This AdExchanger Talks podcast features Benoit Vatere, Chief Media & Digital Commerce Officer at Liquid Death, discussing the brand’s approach to measurement. Vatere argues CPG sales largely occur at retail checkout and that channel-specific metrics like ROAS are insufficient on their own; he links ROAS to new-to-brand metrics as a proxy for incrementality. Liquid Death focuses marketing toward light and lapsed buyers rather than only superfans. The piece also notes the brand’s partnership with performance-marketing platform Ibotta for always-on incrementality testing and raises the prospect that agentic AI could change grocery shopping dynamics between consumers, brands and bots.

• The piece is a podcast interview with Benoit Vatere, Chief Media & Digital Commerce Officer at Liquid Death.
• Vatere says most CPG sales still happen at the register rather than online and measurement must connect media to physical sales.
• Vatere tracks ROAS attached to a new-to-brand metric as a proxy for incrementality and ignores ROAS in isolation.