Choose CSS for the right reasons (and it's not for lower CPCs)
CSS stands for Comparison Shopping Services. In 2017, Google was deemed to have breached the anti trust rules by favouring it’s won CSS in the Google Shopping Results. Which means that all the ads show in the shopping were by Google and therefore anti competitive
Google was fined and the fine was permitted to be paid through reduced CPC in the ads (talk about marking your own work)
The CPCs in CSS providers were reduced by 20%. The total fine was 2.42bn. That sounds a lot but it was 9 years ago and Google have made at least 300bn in advertising revenue since that date.
and there’s another twist in the tale..
Yes I need CSS
What’s the twist?
The 20% reduction in the CPCs only ever applied to the shopping tab.
Where is the shopping tab you ask? Why it’s up in the small menu next to the images button. You know… the place only 16% of shoppers ever go. So the chances of you having a significant reduction in CPCs is marginal.
Additionally, the shopping tab is a filtering tab for users to shop by attributes, so those advertisers with suboptimal feeds or lacking product attributes may have not shown in the tab at all. It’s not everything it was sold to be was it?
Some of our recent testimonials
Be Found Be Chosen have worked closely with our teams at Superdry delivering a strategically strong and profitable performance across Meta and Google Ads.
Ross Burchell
Head of Brand Marketing, SuperdryWorking with Be Found Be Chosen is hands-down the best investment you could make in paid search marketing.
Barney Brown
Motel RocksWe are absolutely delighted with the results achieved so far from working with the guys at Be Found Be Chosen. The working relationship we have with them makes achieving the results we want through our strategy easy and attainable. Would recommend Be Found Be Chosen to any business looking to increase revenue via paid search.
Ramsdens Jewellery
Jack Jahan, Ecommerce ManagerHighly capable of delivering complex campaigns accurately and on time. Be Found Be Chosen never fail to impress. A reliable and trustworthy partner for Google Ads and they’ve helped take elements of our business to the next level as well as delivering incredible results.
Mike Wardley
Marketing Communications at Northumbrian WaterAgencies peddling the CSS myth are misinformed
But we do have a CSS through our partner Shoptimised but for different reasons
We highly recommend having a CSS for visibility. We recommend having several CSS feeds. Google are listing more ads on the SERPs and the more visibility in more listings you have, the better. While the supposed glory days of the reduced CPCs are over and probably never started in the first place, we do know the current legislation means that organic results are set to decrease.
We can guarantee that CPCs will increase every year, so smart advertisers will expand their paid presence and diversity their visibility through feed optimisation to help reduce the CPCs and reach new customers online.
The future is more paid ads – our future role is reducing the financial burden for online retailers.
Book a CSS call
Your call will be with the agency founder Jennifer Freeman.
You can reach out to her directly at Jennifer@befoundbechosen.co.uk or fill in the contact form below
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