20% savings on Google Shopping Ads campaigns – internetwarriors and Comparison Shopping Service make it possible!

Save up to 20% on Google Shopping campaigns by using CSS partners—a decision by the European Commission made this possible.

We have summarized what exactly CSS partners have to do with this and how you can take advantage of this or even reduce your Google Shopping costs in this article for you.

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The abbreviation CSS stands for Comparison Shopping Services and describes a price comparison service. Some of the most well-known price comparison sites in Germany include comparison portals like "preis.de", "billiger.de", or "idealo.de". They offer consumers the opportunity to compare the prices of a sought-after product from multiple online shops at a glance and conveniently find the best price and conditions.

What's the reason for this innovation?

Until now, Google used its search results page exclusively for its own offering: Google Shopping. The European Commission deemed this an unfair advantage over external price comparison services and fined Google a record sum of €2.4 billion for unfair competition in 2017.

As a result, Google was required to open its Google Shopping service in the EU to third-party providers to enable fair competition.

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Fig. 1: European Commission ruling on Google Shopping competitive advantages[/caption]

What effect has the ruling had?

External price search engines can now list and advertise advertisers' offers on Google Shopping. Since being opened to third-party providers, Google Shopping itself functions as a comparison shopping service, meaning that Google Shopping also participates in bidding auctions like other price comparison sites and thus competes with other price comparison sites.

The difference from other comparison shopping services is that Google must retain 20% of its Google Shopping spend as a margin. External price comparison sites do not have to retain this margin and can decide for themselves whether to charge fees, and if so, how high these are.

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Fig. 2: Competitive behavior between other comparison shopping services[/caption]

In more detail, this means that with a bid of €1.00, the effective CPC or click price for Google Shopping ads placed directly via Google Shopping is €0.80. Since Google is required to retain a 20% margin, €0.20 of the bid is not used effectively for bidding.

However, if you offer your products through a CSS partner, the bid of €1.00 corresponds to the effective CPC. This allows the retailer to purchase the current traffic volume about 20% cheaper or even purchase up to 20% more traffic with a constant CPC.

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Fig. 3: CPC differences to Google CSS and partner CSS[/caption]

Since most comparison shopping services often charge no or only very low margins, retailers who offer their products through a CSS partner have a significant price advantage.

We, the internetwarriors, offer you the opportunity as a CSS partner to list your products via the certified price comparison site "Feuerkauf" on Google Shopping. Since we, as a CSS partner, do not retain a margin, this results in a 20% saving for you as a retailer.

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What changes for the user?

The difference for Google users is hardly noticeable. The only visible change is the added information about which price comparison site the offer comes from. This is done in text form within the ad. For the retailer, this has no impact, as the change is minimal compared to previously displayed ads.

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Display of price comparison sites within the ad[/caption]

What can we do for you?

Do you want to promote your products on Google Shopping? We are happy to advise you on the topic of CSS campaigns and their optimization.

We look forward to your inquiry.