The CSS Programme lets merchants advertise products through a chosen comparison shopping partner. After a 2017 EU ruling, Google opened up Shopping Ads to other CSS partners, not just its own. You’ll see the name of the CSS partner (‘by Productcaster’) at the bottom of the ad.
A CSS partner is a price comparison site that lists products from multiple retailers, allowing you to search and compare different prices of a product. When you use one, your ads appear in Google’s Shopping carousel and your products are also featured on the partner’s own comparison site. By default, merchants use Google’s CSS, but switching is simple – get in touch to find out more.
A Premium CSS Partner is in the top 5% of Comparison Shopping Services in Europe and represents more than 500 merchants with shopping campaigns. Productcaster is a premium partner which means we receive enhanced support from Google, enabling us to provide a higher level of service to our clients. We continue to leverage our expertise to deliver better optimisation, higher conversion rates and a stronger return on ad spend.
Not quite. All merchants need a CSS to serve Shopping Ads, but only non-Google partners offer the benefit of reduced CPCs – up to 20% cheaper. Every CSS offers something different, from pricing to support. At Productcaster, we pride ourselves in providing expert advice and support on all shopping related queries. Whether it’s short-term tactical options or longer-term strategic improvements, we offer a flexible service and fixed monthly fee, keeping costs predictable.
The CSS Programme is available in 21 countries across Europe. Productcaster operates in all of them, though not every CSS partner does. These countries are: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
It’s a quick process. Just send us your Merchant Center ID. If you’re switching from Google’s CSS, approval is often instant. If you’re switching from another partner, there may be a short delay set by your current provider.
Nothing changes in your Google Ads or Merchant Center accounts – same campaigns, same results. The only difference is the CSS label (‘by Productcaster’) and the CPC discount if you’re switching from Google Shopping.
Google’s fee is baked into the CPC, so it’s not shown separately. When you switch to Productcaster, that fee is removed. So a £1 bid in Google becomes £0.80 after the margin, but with Productcaster, the full £1 is entered into the auction, boosting efficiencies for your campaigns.
Yes. Your current Google Ads support remains the same. And because Productcaster is a Premium CSS Partner, we also have direct access to Google’s CSS support teams and technical resources, which we can use on your behalf.
Seasonal or peak campaigns operate in the same way as your other day-to-day campaign types. You will continue to access the CPC savings, ensuring that your campaigns are as efficient as possible throughout those peak trading periods.
We recognise that seasonal or peak periods may happen at different intervals throughout the year, so we constantly share tips around Merchant Centre best practice, optimising your product feed and industry insight that help you to make informed decisions in your biggest sales periods.
Moving from Google’s own CSS, Google Shopping, to Productcaster CSS will unlock savings of up to 20% on your CPCs and give you the advantage over your competitors who are still serving as ‘By Google’. Some retailers choose to reinvest the savings to access more auctions and gain additional traffic through better ad position on the Shopping carousel. These higher positions means that your ads are showing to the right customer at the right time, increasing CTR.
Alongside Productcaster CSS, we also have our own feed management tool, FeedManager, that optimises your product feed, and publishes out to key marketing channels, including Google. These optimisations help with improving CTR as the data in your feed becomes more enriched and more relevant to your customers.
It is possible to work with multiple CSS partners, but it is not the recommended approach. Having multiple CSS partners advertising the same products can lead to cannibalism, lowering the efficiency of your campaigns and driving up CPCs.
In some cases, retailers may partner with one CSS to target their top performing products and then use an affiliate CSS to run campaigns that target under performing or zombie products.
Alongside the CSS saving benefit, you also have access to Google Shopping experts at Productcaster, who can support with these types of issues. We work with your team to identify the root cause and solutions, and our Premium partner status means that we can access additional support and engineering teams at Google.
At Productcaster, there are no hidden costs or commissions, allowing you to take full advantage of the CPC savings.
There are no commission costs or fees per transaction associated with Productcaster CSS, helping you to grow and scale your business without worrying about high additional costs in your busiest Peak periods.
