You might not realize it, but businesses spend billions on Google’s Price Comparison tool
Every year, companies spend billions of euros advertising on Google’s comparison shopping platform. When searching for a specific brand or product, you’ve likely come across a Google CSS Partner without even noticing. Think of Dutch platforms like Productbuddy, Beslist, or Producthero—comparison websites that aggregate online prices from various retailers. In this article, I’ll highlight some key points about CSS partners.
What Are Comparison Shopping Services?
Many Dutch consumers are familiar with and trust Google Shopping—the image-based ads with prices that make it easy to compare and purchase products. You’ll see the relevant Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) partner listed at the bottom of these shopping ads.
The Origin of Google CSS
Google aggressively promoted Shopping as an advertising platform to the point of excluding other comparison websites. In 2017, the European Commission fined Google over €2.4 billion for abusing its market dominance—a staggering amount. The EU determined that Google violated antitrust rules, effectively preventing other parties, particularly comparison websites, from competing with Google Shopping.
To foster goodwill and avoid even larger fines, Google launched the CSS program several years ago. This program allows other parties to register as price comparison partners. Besides Google, businesses in the Netherlands can now choose alternative CSS partners like Bigshopper, Shoparize, or Productbuddy. I highly recommend Productbuddy for their low costs and personalized service.
The Benefits of Switching to a CSS Partner
To compete with Google Shopping, CSS partners offer a significant advantage: a 20% discount on click prices compared to Google CSS. This can make a big difference!
In Merchant Center, Google is set as the default CSS partner in the top-right corner. However, due to cost savings alone, I always advise webshop owners to switch to another Google CSS partner. In practice, a bid of €0.80 through a CSS partner has the same value as a €1.00 bid through Google’s default Shopping CSS.
This means your shopping campaigns immediately become more effective and cost-efficient. Competitors using Google Shopping need to bid 25% more to match the value of a CSS partner bid.
Which CSS Partner Should You Choose?
This choice depends on your personal preferences. Most CSS providers are quite similar. As mentioned earlier, I find Productbuddy to be the most effective. They are the cheapest, work directly with Google to set up CSS in your Merchant Center, and proactively suggest feed improvements to ensure success in Google Shopping. Highly recommended!
