fbpx

CSS is Your Key to Success

How CSS partners can help companies attract new customers.

What is CSS?

CSS is short for Comparison Shopping Services.

CSS partners are companies that put together a collection of product listings for the advertisers they promote on Google Shopping Ads to direct traffic from Google to an advertiser’s website. It is a relatively new concept, but one that has gained a lot of traction since its inception.

In 2017 Google received a massive €2.4bn antitrust fine from the European Commission. Before the fine, when an advertiser placed an ad on Google Shopping, they would have to go through Google directly.

Because of the fine, Google had to make changes and separate Google Shopping into its own entity. This new branch has opened new possibilities for companies to advertise and increase their audience with CSS.

Why use CSS partners?

CSS partners provide you with an array of different resources, especially for a company that wants to attract new customers or increase their traffic on Google Shopping Ads.

Using CSS as a part of your marketing mix will allow you to take advantage of different bidding strategies to generate clicks, often at a much lower cost than you would be able to achieve in-house, potentially giving you an edge over your competitors by ensuring increased visibility of your products.

Working with a CSS partner is also the best way to access CLAs (Comparison Listing Ads) because they are available only to Google certified companies.

CLAs are ads that feature product placements in a secondary tab displayed within Google Shopping Ads boxes, on their search listing pages. These tabs help increase visibility when a user is looking through various products. These ads will include a collection of products that are actively being promoted by CSS specialists and are accompanied by a description and a product image.

How does it work?

CSSs can bid to place Shopping ads on Google general search results pages on behalf of merchants they represent.

Depending on which country your ads are being shown, you will notice that those ads placed directly via Google Shopping Ads will either say “By Google” or “By CSS” tag when other agencies’ ads are shown.

CSS partners maximize the potential to display your products among the 30 slots available on Google Shoppings Ads. In the case where you already run Google Shopping Ads directly, the bidding system is conceived to avoid direct competition with your CSS partners.

How can my business work with a CSS partner?

You want to make sure that you have a solid foundation before you decide to start working with a CSS partner.

First, make sure that you have an excellent product feed that includes up-to-date stock information, clear and accurate pricing, and of course, high-quality images of your product. Next, you should prepare a realistic sales forecast and decide on the commission rate you want to offer your CSS partner. Once all that is done you can begin to work with a CSS.

Federico Bonavita
Digital Marketing Manager

Suggested articles


Stay in touch with your users through remarketing affiliates

Remarketing affiliates play an instrumental role in nurturing users at different stages of the buying cycle.

Read more

Work with PPC affiliates to scale your growth

Discover everything you need to know about PPC affiliates to scale your business.

Read more

The Voucher Effect

We shortly introduce you to the topic of voucher codes and the impact they can have.

Read more

The Cashback incentive

Cashback is changing the way customers engage with businesses, driving incremental sales via their vast user bases to your store, creating customers that will come back, time and time again.

Read more
Get in touch
We would like to stay in touch with you.
Contact us