Save money on Google Shopping ads with Comparison Shopping Services (CSS)

If you already have experience with Google Shopping, this may not be groundbreaking news (but it is a helpful reminder). However, do you have no experience with Google Shopping yet? Then this probably sounds like music to your ears.

After all, who wouldn't want a 20% discount in the Google Ads auction?

About Google Comparison Shopping Services

As an advertising platform, Google largely excluded other comparison sites. Consequently, in 2017 it was fined 2.4 billion euros for abuse of power. To show a little goodwill and avoid future fines, Google therefore launched the CSS program. Here, other parties can sign up as Comparison Shopping Service partners. With that partnership, healthy competition in the field of have consumers have a wider choice again.

What does a CSS ad look like?

For almost everyone, the normal Google Shopping ads are recognizable. These are the ads where you have an image of a particular product at a glance. Namely, here you see an image and the corresponding price. So you can quickly compare between different providers.

But Google is thus no longer the only provider of those ads. There is also room in the Google Shopping overview for CSS partners. For example, above you can also see ads from Producthero and beslist.nl.

How exactly does the 20% discount work?

Technically, you don't get a 20% discount, but you can save 20%. In fact, Shopping ads through Google work like this: when you run a Shopping ad through Google Ads and your Cost Per Click (CPC) is €1, 80 cents of this amount goes to the auction. You pay the remaining 20 cents to Google as a form of margin. This means that your entire budget will never be spent in the auction itself.

Now 20 cents may not sound like an astronomical amount. But imagine you have a Shopping feed of 10,000 products. So with a budget of €10,000, you pay €2,000 to Google to participate in the auction at all.

CSS partners do not charge those kinds of margins. They don't work on a per-auction margin basis, but on a fixed monthly fee. So that probably leaves you with more budget for additional campaigns or better bidding.

But then how do you choose the right CSS partner to partner with?

If you search for a CSS partner, you will come across numerous providers. These providers generally have the same thing to offer; a 20% discount on Google Shopping Ads. Generally, the providers charge pretty much the same price, so you may not have to look at that as much. Again, saves.

But what do you look for? In any case, we recommend looking at what kind of CSS partner suits your company and products. For example, do you supply internationally? Or do you prefer to work with a local CSS partner in the Netherlands? And also important: a good customer service that offers you support when you need it!