Do you use a CSS, Comparison Shopping Service? Are you even aware of all the different ways you can use it to place your ads on Google Shopping? If the answer is no, then you’re not alone. It is a very technical and niche aspect of paid advertising, but the bottom line is it is a great way of being more competitive and driving more revenue for less spend. The dream for any brand!
A comparison shopping service is essentially a website that allows users to compare products from multiple retailers. Think of it as the world’s biggest shopping centre in the palm of your hand.
Let’s rewind and go back to 2017 when The European Commission fined Google €2.42 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules. The Commission concluded that Google has abused its market dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to another Google product, its comparison shopping service.
In other words, Google had a monopoly over the search results with all shopping ads served by Google Comparison Shopping Service.
Following the EU ruling, Google opened its CSS programme giving the opportunity to other Comparison Shopping Services, or CSSs, to enter this ecosystem and place shopping ads on Google, on behalf of merchants.
And that is the important message. Although ads from all retailers will be displayed on Google Shopping Ads, products will be listed with a different Comparison Shopping Service.
Now, you might be asking “what would be the main advantage for an ecom brand to use a CSS, other than Google”?
The answer is quite simple. It is widely known that before an ad enters the auction, and is being displayed on Google Shopping, Google takes a 20% margin. Let me say it again. Before your ad enters the auction, Google takes a 20% cut, which means that out of a full pound, roughly £80p goes into the auction itself.
So the main benefit for ecom brands is to get more out of their already squeezed marketing budget. By placing their products on Google Shopping Ad, via a CSS other than Google, they know that their full pound goes into the auction. This will automatically give you a competitive advantage over your competitors still placing their ads on the Google CSS.
As per the end user, very little has changed. They are still redirected to your website and Shopping Ads look the same with the only difference in the annotation at the bottom of the ad where ‘By Google’ would be replaced by the name of a CSS.
From a PPC perspective, this is almost a no-brainer. After all, who doesn’t want to reduce their CPCs by 20%? All the brands that we work with are running under our Genie CSS. And as part of our onboarding process we would look to switch over from Google CSS to our Genie CSS.
This type of activity is what we call self-managed CSS. This is effectively your main PPC activity running on a CPC model, whether the account is managed in-house, with a freelancer, or via an agency like us. And of course the main benefit is to drive better performance through a reduction in CPCs.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg as brands are also able to drive further growth by launching affiliate activity alongside their existing PPC activity.
CSS partners in the affiliate space can confuse - aren’t I working with CSS already through my PPC team? Is what many clients can ask us.
It is important to remember that this is a different activity to your PPC CSS, it is run separately and tracked via an affiliate network like Awin or a tracking partner like Impact.com.
This activity is typically run on a CPA commission-based model, meaning you will only be paying the CSS affiliate for the sales they drive - they pay the CPC costs to Google themselves out of the commission they make.
CSS partners in the affiliate channel should be seen as complementary to PPC CSS activity - having CSS partners in the affiliate space is about extending the reach of your shopping results and plugging the gaps.
A key concern of many brands is ensuring their CSS affiliate activity does not compete with their activity. Following best practice guidelines is important, the key points to be aware of are:
You want to work with your PPC team on these points so they are aware of the activity going live. A great PPC team will be open to new partners in the space and be able to support you in having confidence in the commission rates you agree to.
Affiliate CSS partners like Genie Shopping Network are very good at looking for opportunities that are not being covered by a brands own shopping campaigns, it benefits them to find niches that are not being covered by the PPC CSS as that is their chance to capture a sale and ultimately earn more commission.
There are a lot of different CSS partners you can work with. It's important to take your time to select a CSS partner right for you, especially if selecting a partner to run your shopping activity through.
When selecting affiliate partners, reach and expertise really is key - some affiliate CSS partners have strength in certain sectors and verticals. Working with partners strong in your area, means they have a lot of expertise and data to make your activity a success.
Genie Shopping Network, Redbrain, Kelkoo, Fashion specific - Lyst
At Genie Goals all our clients are running their shopping CPC activity on the Genie Shopping CSS, to place their ads on Google and all benefit from the 20% CPC discount in the EU. So, don’t wait any longer and switch.
For our affiliate clients we recommend they work with a few select CSS partners in the channel. CSS affiliates provide a great way of reaching new customers efficiently so don’t wait any longer and reach out to a CSS partner today to unlock the growth potential they offer.
We hope this explains the world of CSS a little more from a paid marketing channel perspective. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to us!
