FAQ - Shoparize CSS

Domande frequenti

As a merchant, you can use Shopping campaigns to boost traffic with more qualified leads for your webshop or local store. To get started, create your product data within Google’s Merchant Center and create a Google Ads campaign. Your campaign will be used to create ads within Google and on other places around the web where potential customers can see what products you are selling. These ad placements will appear on Google’s Shopping Ads in a more visual format compared to a text advertisement, which displays only text. Google’s Shopping Ads show potential customers a photo of your product, plus a title, price, store name, and much more. These enhanced ads give customers a strong sense of the product you are selling before they even click the ad. Which means, more qualified leads that would make a purchase.

You can participate in Google Shopping Ads in Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chili, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, France (only available in metropolitan France), Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

* Countries in Bold are beta countries of sale.

If you want to participate in Shopping Ads through a Comparison Shopping Partner (CSS), you can do so in all countries that are part of the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom and Switzerland. You can participate through one or multiple CSSs of your choice.

The Google Merchant Center is a digital dashboard where merchants, otherwise known as retailers, can manage their inventory. A Merchant Center is always linked to Google Shopping itself or another CSS partner like Shoparize. In the Google Merchant center they can upload product data, and by linking their Merchant Center with their Google Ads account they can run Google Shopping campaigns. The Merchant Center also gives access to basic performance and CSS activity dashboards.

You manage your Google Shopping Ads in Google Ads using Google Shopping Campaigns. Google Shopping Campaigns is a simple and flexible way to organize and promote your Google Merchant Center’s product inventory within Google Ads. You can advertise your store and your products using 2 types of Google Shopping Ads:

Product Shopping Ads. These advertisements are created based on the product data that you submit in the Google Merchant Center. Learn more about what makes up a Product Shopping Ad here.
Local Inventory Ads. These shopping ads use feed data provided from Local Inventory Ads to engage potential customers throughout the Google Display Network to drive traffic to your local stores.

Follow these instructions to create a Google Shopping Campaign:

Sign in to your Google Ads Account.
You will find the page menu along the left; click Campaigns.
Click the ‘plus’ button, then click New Campaign.
Select Shopping for the Campaign Type, then click Next.
Pick your advertising preferences.
Click Save and continue.
Choose the kind of ad group you want to create and create your first ad group.
Click Save. After saving you will be taken to the product group page where you can create multiple product groups using subdivisions.

If you want to place bids inside a Shopping campaign’s ad group, you do this using product groups inside your inventory. You will notice that when you first create a Shopping campaign, you only have one ad containing one product group called “All products”. Your entire inventory resides in “All products”. If you want to make bidding more specific to your advertising goals, you can divide your inventory into smaller groups with subdivisions.

For each product group, you can subdivide up to 7 levels. It is possible to bid the same amount for all products if you have a product group containing all your products. If you want to bid on products organized by brand or product category, you can create smaller product groups. Note that you can only set bids on product groups you did not subdivide.

You can subdivide a product group by signing in to your Google Ads account and navigating to the campaign that contains the product group(s) you want to edit. Then, select the ad group that includes the product group you wish to edit. Navigate to Product groups in the page menu. You are now on the product groups page.

There are several Google Ads bid strategies. First, you can choose between manual or automated bid strategies. Depending on your goals, you can choose the bidding strategy that works best for you. These are some of the bidding strategies you can choose from:

Manual CPC Bidding (set a maximum price on the cost per click)
Enhanced Cost Per Click (ECPC) (automatically adapts your manual bids for clicks that seem more or less prone to lead to a conversion or sale)
Target CPA (Cost per Acquisition) (Smart bidding strategy that helps get as many conversions as possible at or below the CPA you set)
Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) (helps you get more revenue or conversion value at the target ROAS you set. Target ROAS is only available on adgroup level)
Maximize conversion (automatically sets bids to get you the most conversions for your campaign while spending your budget)

From December 2020, Surfaces Across Google changed into “free product listings” or “product listings”. Where you could previously find Surfaces Across Google in your account or in the Help Center, you now find “free product listings” or “product listings” instead. Via the Merchant Center you can list your products for free on Google surfaces, like the Shopping tab, Google Search and Google Images. Learn how to set up free listings here.

When you advertise your products through any Shopping campaign, your default CSS partner will be Google Shopping. You can see which CSSs are advertising on your behalf by signing into your Merchant Account, clicking on the Tools icon, then choosing Shopping ads setup. The dashboard will show all the CSSs that have uploaded products from your website, displaying their website, phone number and email address. From the dashboard you can choose to opt in and out of a particular CSS channel.

You can read more about how to control traffic from multiple CSSs here.

Your shopping ad is determined in the ad auction. In the ad auction, Google Ads calculates the Ad Rank for every ad and decides which ads to show and how they are positioned. The top position is taken by the ad with the highest Ad Rank, the second position is taken by the ad with the second-highest Ad Rank, etc.

The Ad Rank is calculated using the following factors:

The bid you set tells Google how much you want to pay for a click on your ad. You never pay more than the bid you set. Oftentimes, you pay less because you pay the amount your direct competitor below you set as a bid. You can change your bid at any time.

Your ad quality and landing page experience are checked for relevance and usefulness to the shopper. In the Quality Score in your Google Ads account, you can evaluate and monitor Google’s assessment of the quality of your ad.

The Ad Rank thresholds are minimum thresholds Google sets to ensure high-quality ads. An ad must achieve the minimum thresholds for it to show.

If the competitiveness in an auction is high, two or more ads are competing for the same position and have similar ad ranks. Each ad will have an equal possibility of winning the position. If one of those ads becomes a higher-ranking ad and is more likely to win, the advertiser might pay a higher CPC for the advantage of the higher assurance of winning.

In the ad auction, the context of a shopper’s search matters. The following factors are used to calculate the Ad Rank:

the shopper’s location at the time they searched
the time of the search
the search terms the shopper used
the type of device the shopper used to search
the nature of the search terms
other search results and ads that are presented on the page
remaining shopper signals and attributes

Google Ads calculates how your ad extensions and other ad formats will impact your ad performance. You can add supplementary data to your ad, like links to specific pages on your site or a phone number. This additional data is called ad extensions.

Besides the Shopping ads that are presented on Google’s general search result pages, Comparison Listing ads may show. Shopping ads are shown in the “Products” view, and Comparison Listing ads are shown in the “Comparison sites” view. A shopper can switch between these two views. With Product Listing ads (PLAs), otherwise known as Shopping ads, the shopper lands on the merchant’s site when they click on an ad. With Comparison Listing Ads (CLAs), shoppers land on the CSS’s website after clicking on an ad. CLA’s show product groups matching with the shopper’s search. After the shopper chooses a product, they can compare prices on the CSS website. This means that merchants can benefit from traffic that originates from the CSS website.

Smart Shopping campaigns unite Standard Shopping and display remarketing campaigns, and uses automated bidding and ad placement intending to promote your business and products across networks. The Smart Shopping campaigns use Google’s machine learning to utilize your product feed in order to produce and display multiple ads across different networks, like Google Display Network, Gmail, Youtube and Google Search Network.

Automated bidding is a bid strategy that automatically sets bids for you. Machine learning is used in all Automated bidding strategies to set the bid in every auction based upon different signals such as device, location, time of the day, and search query. For more information about bidding signals, please visit this Google page About Smart Bidding – Google Ads Help. You can select your performance goals in the campaign settings and access the historical performance of your Shopping campaigns. The automated bidding strategies will use this historical data to set the CPC bids in the auctions. Note that you can only effectively use Automated bidding if you have sufficient conversion data. To use Target ROAS bidding with your Shopping campaign, your account needs a minimum of 15 conversions in the past 30 days. There are multiple automated bidding strategies, each designed to focus on a specific business goal.

Comparison Shopping Services, or CSSs, can place Shopping ads on behalf of merchants they represent on the Google general search result page. As a merchant, you can leverage this by participating in Shopping ads by using one or multiple CSSs to place Shopping ads on your behalf. If the CSS program is available on the general search result page, the Shopping Ads will also show through which CSS the offer is uploaded.

A Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) is a website that gathers product offers from online merchants. Shoppers can compare product attributes like price, size, color, and other characteristics. When they choose the product they want to buy, the CSS sends shoppers to the merchant’s website to complete the purchase. Working together with at least one CSS is needed in order to participate in Google Shopping Ads.

There is a whole list of requirements you need to adhere to in order to become a CSS. Below you will find a selection of these requirements. Please visit this Google support page to view all requirements.

To become a CSS, you need to operate a CSS website meeting all Google’s requirements. Some of these requirements are:

The CSS website must show offers from at least 50 distinct merchant domains for every country they target with Shopping Ads. These merchants must ship products to the respective country.
The CSS website shows all the offers submitted to Google by the merchant and allows shoppers to search for and compare different products and offers for an identical product from various merchants.
The CSS website shows product offers that navigate shoppers to the merchant’s website to buy the product.

On top of the CSS website requirements, a CSS must also have a registration in at least one country where the CSS program is available, offer links promoted in Shopping Ads that lead shoppers directly to the page where they can buy the product, and ensure all Shopping Ads and free listings comply with the Google Shopping Ads policies and product data specifications.

Google Shopping CSS is Google’s own CSS. Like any other CSS, Google Shopping CSS can place Shopping ads and free listings on Google on behalf of merchants. Google Shopping CSS is an independent company, which needs to be profitable on their own because of the new EU legislation. Because Google Shopping CSS needs to be a profitable business, they charge a fixed percentage markup on the CPC of 20% in the Google Shopping auction.

After the EU gave Google a 2.42 billion euro fine, Google had to apply the same methods and processes to position and display rival CSSs as they had given to their own CSS, so Google Shopping CSS pays Google for clicks on ads they place, just like partner CSSs. Google Shopping CSS charges its merchants based on a cost-per-click (CPC) model and charges a fixed percentage markup on the CPC paid in the Google auction. This is their fee for placing Shopping ads. This margin is not added, but deducted from your bids before they enter the auction.

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to Google Shopping. The costs depend on your needs. The price you pay for a click to your website is in your hands, by setting a max. CPC. or a minimal ROAS target. The margin that Google Shopping applies for running your Shopping ads is added to your CPC bid in every auction. This is shown in your overall campaign cost, which makes it very non-transparent. There are no additional fees. You can start using Google Shopping for free by using free listings. See “What is the revenue model of Google Shopping CSS?” for more information.

Google CSS Partners are Comparison Shopping Services that can place Shopping ads and free product listings on Google on behalf of merchants, just like Google Shopping CSS. If you want to participate in Google Shopping ads, you need to work with at least one CSS of your choice. Companies in the CSS Partner Program who have qualified for Partner status are granted the CSS Partner badge and the Premium CSS Partner badge. Here you can find an overview of all CSS partners.

A Google CSS Partner meets the minimal Partner requirements of Google and needs to have at least 100 active merchants working with them. A Premium Google CSS Partner has to meet stricter requirements, like additional technical certifications, and have at least 500 active merchants working with them. Shoparize is proud to be a Premium Google CSS Partner. As a Premium Google CSS Partner, we benefit from this status by receiving more support from Google through a dedicated support channel, consultation, workshops, training, and more. As a result, Premium Google CSS Partners can support their merchants in a better way.

In June 2017, the European Commission fined Google €2.42 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules. According to the EU commission, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by giving an unfair advantage to its Comparison Shopping Service: Google Shopping.

Market dominance, as such, is not illegal under EU antitrust rules, but leveraging this dominance to expand a company’s market power to other markets is. As a result of Google’s unfair practices, Google’s Comparison Shopping Service made significant market share gains at the expense of its rivals.

Together with receiving this fine, Google had to stop its illegal practices concerning Google Shopping and respect the principle of equal treatment in its search results. Google had to apply the same processes and methods to position and display rival CSSs as to its own CSS.

The solution that Google came up with was to separate the two: Google Shopping became a separate business of Google. From that moment, Google Shopping started competing equally with other CSSs.

Because Google Shopping CSS needs to be a profitable business, they withhold a 20% margin on each CPC in the Google Shopping auction. The difference is that with a CSS partner, the 20% margin that Google Shopping withholds no longer applies. Therefore the bids that enter the auction via a CSS partner get a 20% increase, in other words, a 20% bidding advantage.

It is beneficial to work with multiple CSSs if you want to achieve incremental sales because your campaigns will run in parallel. Suppose you decide to work with a CSS that offers Managed service, like Shoparize CSS. In that case, your product data will be optimized for you, which results in bids on distinct terms and impressions that do not occur in your other campaigns, generating incremental sales.

Also, working with multiple CSSs minimizes downtime and therefore enhances visibility for your shop.

When you work with multiple CSSs, you will never be second-priced against yourself in the auction. If several CSSs place ads on your behalf, it does not mean your offers are being repeated or that you are charged more for a click on those ads.

To convert to an advanced account setup and receive a multi-client account, you need to be an account admin. Please note that you can not request conversion if your account already is a multi-client account, or is a sub-account in a multi-client account. Also, if you have an existing account-level policy violation, your request will be rejected.

Steps to convert to an advanced account:

After logging in to your Merchant Center account, navigate to Account settings under the tools icon.
Click on advanced account conversion in the Account settings page.
Click on Request conversion.
Select the options describing your business in the best way
Click Request conversion.

Requests may take several days to process.

The Google CSS program already went through many changes since Google Shopping became a separate business of Google. According to the legislation, Google CSS needs to be an independent and profitable company. Therefore, it is highly likely that they will always charge a fee for placing Shopping Ads. Right now, the fee is a fixed percentage markup on the cost-per-click (CPC). It is not inconceivable that this fee will change form in the future, but the precise specifications are unpredictable.

To become future-proof, CSSs will be focusing on feed and campaign optimization. Building expertise in this area will ensure that CSSs can continue to meet merchant’s needs.

For now, it is expected that the 20% bidding advantage for CSS partners will continue for an extensive period. For this period, merchants will benefit from the 20% bidding advantage that a CSS Partner can offer.

Qualsiasi CSS può offrire più modelli di servizio. È anche possibile adattare i servizi alle esigenze della tua azienda. Ci sono tre modi “standard” in cui un CSS può lavorare con un commerciante:

Servizio gestito

Con il servizio gestito, il CSS crea l’account Merchant Center e Google Ads per il commerciante. Il commerciante deve solo fornire i dati del prodotto. Il CSS ottimizza il feed, lo carica su Google e gestisce le campagne. Un CSS può utilizzare i tuoi dati di prodotto per creare lead da altri canali. Il CSS può fornire al commerciante la rendicontazione delle prestazioni. Di solito, i commercianti non hanno accesso a Merchant Center e all’account Google Ads.

Self-service

Con il self-service, è ancora possibile per il CSS creare l’account Merchant Center e Google Ads per il commerciante. La differenza è: il commerciante ora ha accesso ai conti. È anche possibile che il commerciante migri il suo account esistente da un CSS a un altro. All’interno del modello self-service, il commerciante gestisce i feed e le campagne stesso. I commercianti possono comunque ricevere rapporti aggiuntivi sul rendimento, a seconda del CSS.

Modelli ibridi

I modelli ibridi sono una combinazione del modello del servizio gestito e del modello self-service. Un commerciante può eseguire le campagne da solo mentre il CSS gestisce e ottimizza il feed di dati del prodotto o viceversa. Questo è solo un esempio e ci sono più varianti di un modello ibrido.

Forniamo supporto per l’ottimizzazione dei feed e delle campagne in base alla nostra conoscenza ed esperienza. Poiché siamo un partner CSS Premium, riceverai assistenza CSS Premium dagli esperti di Google Shopping tramite il canale di assistenza dedicato.

Per tutte le domande e i problemi ad hoc, forniamo supporto per la risoluzione dei problemi 24 ore su 24, 7 giorni su 7.

Se hai domande o desideri maggiori informazioni su come possiamo supportarti, contattaci all’indirizzo css@shoparize.com.

Vedrai gli effetti sul tuo rendimento nell’account Google Ads, giorno dopo giorno il passaggio. Lo sconto del 20% non verrà visualizzato nel tuo account Google Ads come sconto o rimborso. Lo sconto si manifesta come un vantaggio di offerta rispetto al CSS di Google Shopping, che si traduce in un aumento dell’offerta del 25%. Questo aumento dell’offerta significa che sarai incluso in più aste e gli annunci Shopping otterranno posizioni migliori e genereranno più impressioni. Di conseguenza, puoi notare un aumento significativo dei clic dopo il passaggio a Shoparize CSS. In definitiva, più clic si convertiranno in più vendite quando le tue campagne saranno ben ottimizzate.

Semplicemente, dando accesso a Shoparize CSS nel Merchant Center e firmando il contratto che riceverai in seguito. Entro 24-48 ore, verrai commutato automaticamente. Segui questi passaggi per attivare Shoparize CSS:

Nel tuo Merchant Center, vai su Accesso all’account in Impostazioni
Fare clic sul segno + per aggiungere un utente
Fornisci l’indirizzo email di Shoparize: css@shoparize.com
Assicurati di selezionare “Utente amministratore” e fai clic su Aggiungi utente.
Successivamente, riceverai un contratto Docusign con tutte le informazioni di cui hai bisogno. Dopo aver firmato il contratto, inizierà il periodo di prova

Se hai domande o hai bisogno di aiuto per passare a Shoparize CSS, contattaci all’indirizzo css@shoparize.com.

Sì, se hai già configurato il tuo Google Merchant Center, richiederemo l’accesso come amministratore. Aggiungi Shoparize come utente amministratore al tuo Merchant Center.

Se non disponi di un Merchant Center o desideri eseguire il test A/B con Google Shopping CSS, possiamo creare il tuo Google Merchant Center per te. Ciò significa che avremo automaticamente accesso da amministratore ai tuoi conti.

Se il tuo account è sospeso, significa che è stata rilevata una violazione degli annunci Shopping. Riceverai un’email contenente informazioni relative alle norme sugli annunci Shopping della violazione e all’account in questione. Riceverai un avviso in cui avrai la possibilità di risolvere la violazione prima che l’account venga sospeso. Se il problema non viene risolto prima della fine del periodo di avviso, tutti i tuoi prodotti verranno disattivati dagli annunci Shopping e il tuo account verrà sospeso.

Se ricevi un avviso di sospensione, Shoparize identificherà il problema e si assicurerà che l’avviso di sospensione venga rimosso contattando il nostro team di assistenza CSS di Google Premium per assistenza.

Se il tuo account viene sospeso, ridurremo al minimo la tua perdita di entrate contattando il nostro team di assistenza CSS di Google Premium seguendo le loro best practice consigliate.

Se ricevi un avviso di sospensione o la sospensione dell’account, contattaci prima di richiedere la revisione. È importante notare che puoi ricevere un periodo di raffreddamento di 7-30 giorni, a seconda della gravità della violazione, se i tuoi problemi non vengono risolti dopo la seconda richiesta di revisione. Lascia che Shoparize ti assista in questo processo per evitare che ciò accada.

Shoparize crea per te un nuovo Merchant Center e un account Google Ads. Successivamente, carichiamo e ottimizziamo il tuo feed di affiliazione. Dopo aver ottimizzato il tuo feed di affiliazione, carichiamo i tuoi prodotti su Google e impostiamo le tue campagne da gestire. Dopo l’approvazione, gestiamo il nostro canale Shoparize CSS in parallelo con le tue campagne esistenti, il che si traduce in vendite incrementali. Google addebita a Shoparize i clic sugli annunci che pubblichiamo per tuo conto. Shoparize funziona secondo un modello CPA “Nessuna cura, nessuna retribuzione”. Ciò significa che paghi solo una commissione per vendita.

Una rete di affiliazione opera come agente tra affiliati e programmi di affiliazione commerciali. Tramite una rete di affiliazione, i commercianti possono facilmente trovare e aderire a programmi di affiliazione adatti al loro sito Web e offrire agli editori una quota delle entrate che il commerciante ha generato dagli acquirenti al sito dell’editore o una commissione per ogni acquirente sul sito dell’editore che completa un acquisto.

Google fatturerà a Shoparize i clic sui tuoi annunci e il costo addebitato da Google a Shoparize dipenderà dall’esito del asta pubblicitaria. Siamo così sicuri della nostra capacità di aumentare le vendite per i nostri commercianti che addebitiamo una commissione solo quando un clic porta a una vendita (chiamato modello costo per azione o CPA). Questa percentuale di commissione è impostata nel programma di affiliazione del commerciante. I commercianti possono regolare la loro commissione% e quindi mantenere il pieno controllo sul loro ROI.

Questa è una soluzione vantaggiosa per tutti i soggetti coinvolti, poiché i commercianti ottengono sempre un ritorno senza rischi sul loro investimento e i vantaggi di Shoparize ogni volta che il clic di un cliente porta a una vendita.

In caso di aumento, investiremo più tempo nella tua campagna. In caso di diminuzione, ridurremo il tempo che investiamo nella tua campagna. Gli aumenti delle commissioni vengono sempre utilizzati per generare più traffico e vendite per te. Usiamo questo aumento per fare offerte più o più alte per tuo conto. Naturalmente, saremo lieti di consigliarvi la percentuale più adatta.

Manterrai il pieno controllo sul ROI di Google Shopping. Imposta la commissione CPA desiderata per (%) Shoparize CSS, in modo da mantenere il controllo del ROI in Google Shopping. Puoi trovare analisi trasparenti in Google Analytics che puoi utilizzare per misurare il valore aggiuntivo (fatturato aggiuntivo, profitto e vendite incrementali). Su richiesta, saremo lieti di condividere un rapporto sui risultati della nostra campagna.

Puoi analizzare tutta la tua attività CSS nella dashboard delle attività CSS. Per accedere alla dashboard delle attività, procedi nel seguente modo:

Accedi al tuo account Merchant Center
Vai a “Impostazione degli annunci Shopping” che si trova sotto Utensili
Vedrai i clic aggregati suddivisi per CSS nel tempo.

Vedrai le metriche per gli CSS che hanno scelto di condividere i dati con te. Puoi leggere di più sulla gestione della tua attività CSS in Questo articolo.

Eseguiamo campagne aggiuntive accanto alle tue campagne già esistenti. Utilizzando le conoscenze dei nostri esperti e la conoscenza del settore, possiamo ottimizzare i dati dei tuoi prodotti, il che si traduce in offerte su termini e impressioni distinti che non si verificano nelle altre tue campagne. Non preoccuparti; più CSS possono fare pubblicità per tuo conto e questo non aumenterà mai i tuoi CPC.

Per ulteriori informazioni sulla generazione di vendite incrementali tramite Shoparize CSS, contattaci all’indirizzo css@shoparize.com.

Il posizionamento dei tuoi prodotti sul sito web di Shoparize può essere gratuito o a pagamento quando utilizzi il nostro Self-service. Quando si utilizza il nostro CSS gestito, addebiteremo la stessa commissione% per il sito web. Maggiore è la percentuale di commissione, più alto è il ranking dei tuoi prodotti su Shoparize.com

Per ulteriori informazioni sull’inserimento dei tuoi prodotti su Shoparize CSS, contattaci all’indirizzo css@shoparize.com.

Riceverai un account multi-cliente (MCA) quando effettui la conversione a una configurazione avanzata dell’account. Con una configurazione avanzata dell’account Merchant Center puoi inviare feed di dati per più domini su larga scala come singola persona o azienda. Dopo aver richiesto una configurazione avanzata dell’account, il tuo attuale account Google Merchant Center diventerà un subaccount di questo MCA.

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