Introduction
Switching your Merchant Center from Google CSS to a CSS partner like Shoparize with our Premium CSS offer provides many advantages, notably a 20% discount on your CPC (cost-per-click). But what exactly does this discount entail for your shopping campaigns, and how can you leverage it to enhance your results?
Understanding the Discount Mechanism
As a company using a CSS partner, you receive a 20% discount on the CPC charge, providing you with a competitive advantage and more bidding power over the ones using Google CSS. How? CSS partners don’t take a 20% commission like Google CSS (which has to do with why CSS partners even exist, you can read more about it here). In practical terms, a bid of 1€ via Google CSS results in a 0,80€ bid (but you still pay 1€), while with a CSS partner you actually bid (and pay) 1€. This essentially means that to win a bid against someone using a CSS partner, an advertiser must bid over 25% more via Google CSS. Where do those 25% come from? Well, math. From 1 to 0,8 you have -20% (instead of paying 1 to Google CSS you pay 0,8 using a CSS partner and get the same bidding power, that’s the 20% discount), from 0,8 to 1 it’s +25% (your competitive advantage with a CSS partner against someone using Google CSS). If it’s still a little blurry, no worries: we have an example coming up. But first we’ll see how this discount manifest in your campaign account and how you can leverage it best.
Notable Effects of the Discount
One of the most common queries is how the discount is perceived in your account. Unlike a refunded amount or a visible credit, the 20% discount on the CPC operates as a bidding advantage compared to Google CSS. This translates into improved product display positions and increased participation in auctions due to higher bids. Consequently, you’ll witness a substantial surge in the total number of clicks post-switch to a CSS partner.
Leveraging the Discount
With the CSS discount in hand, there are two primary strategies you can employ to optimize your campaigns:
- Increase Your Turnover: If your shopping campaigns achieve a commendable ROI and you seek enhanced performance, maintaining your campaign bids unchanged is advisable. By doing so, you’ll experience a significant spike in product displays, clicks, and therefore sales. This surplus volume often translates into displays on less specific search terms higher up in the funnel. However, it’s essential to note that this extra volume may come with a lower click-through ratio and conversion ratio.
- Improve Your Profitability: For advertisers looking to boost profitability without compromising on volume, slightly lowering the bids of your campaigns (around 10% – 20%) is recommended. This strategy often allows for cost savings while maintaining campaign performance.
Understanding Automated Bidding
It’s important to note that campaigns managed via automatic bidding, such as target ROAS (Return On Ad Spend), target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), or Smart Shopping, also benefit from the bidding advantage post-switch to a CSS partner. While these automatic optimizations offer less control in the actual bidding limit (because it’s automated), using a CSS partner will also yield more clicks and therefore conversions as well as turnover against the same CPA or ROAS target.
Example
To make this more tangible, we have an example for you. Let’s say your competitor currently pays up to 2€ per click. His campaign gets about 100 clicks a day. That means they pay 200 € per day for that campaign. Only 160€ go into that bidding power and 40€ go straight to Google. Using Shoparize, you will only pay 160€ to achieve the same performance, making use of the 20% discount. That’s 1240€ less than your competition in a month ! And if you invest the same budget as your competition, so 200€, you’ll achieve a higher position placement, making use of your additional 25% bidding power to get more clicks and therefore more sales. Even better: to beat you in the bidding, your competition using Google CSS will need to pay more than 250€ for their campaign. That’s 50€ more than you per day and 1550€ per month !
In conclusion, transitioning to a CSS partner like Shoparize unlocks a realm of benefits for your shopping campaigns, from enhanced bidding advantages to increased performance and improved profitability. Embracing these advantages can significantly elevate your campaign performance and drive exceptional results in your Google Merchant Center. Using Shoparize’s Premium CSS offer also gives you more advantages like being listed on shoparize.com. Want to learn more about it? Go to partner.shoparize.com/en/comparison