2019 is coming and that means we are almost a year further after 'the discount madness' which arose after Google's first fine of 2,42 billion from the EU. Google would favor its own comparator over other Comparison Shopping Services (CSS). Google adjusted its policy under pressure from the EU by giving discounts to CSS partners. The discounts have now been adjusted and from 2019 a CSS partner will only receive a 20% discount on the CPC rates. Many CSS partners have now been added, which can make it difficult for web shops to make a good choice. This article will help you make a decision.

When choosing a CSS partner, it is important to think carefully about what exactly you need. Perhaps an obvious consideration, but certainly not unimportant: why do you want to become visible in Google Shopping through a CSS partner? Perhaps you have products with a low conversion rate, but large turnovers and high margins. It may be that the current CPC rates are too high to achieve optimal volume. In this case you can consider joining one of the CSS partners. You then take advantage of the discounts on the CPC rates, allowing you to achieve more volume with the same bids. It is an option to collaborate with a CSS partner on an affiliate basis, where the CSS partner advertises for you in Shopping on an affiliate basis and you pay a CPS and/or CPC fee. Keep in mind that these advertisements via an affiliate compete with your own advertisements from Shopping. An affiliate has a margin advantage of about 20%, while an advertiser via Google does not have this. The affiliate will therefore be able to win the auction more often with lower CPCs. In that case, it can also be useful to simply check whether there are already affiliates who are listed with your products in Shopping. This can be done from the Merchant Center. Another option is to continue advertising only with your own Shopping campaigns, without CPC and/or CPS rates. This is possible with various CSS partners through a fixed monthly amount.

Are you a webshop and are you mainly interested in Return On Advertisement (ROAS)? Then a comparator such as Bigshopper can offer a solution. This CSS partner strives for independence and quality. This means you will not receive support in managing your campaigns (this is possible through one of Bigshopper's affiliated partners), but you can benefit from Google's discounts on CPC rates for a relatively low monthly amount. Moreover, it makes Bigshopper.nl no use of affiliate marketing. So you will not compete in Google Shopping with your own campaigns. In fact, for process optimization, Bigshopper can show you how to exclude affiliates who have your products in Shopping.

The 'discount madness' is not over yet. You see that there are many different revenue models among the CSS partners. Google recently adjusted the requirements for comparators. In any case, there must be filtering based on price, a sorting function and at least 100 active merchants must fall under the relevant CSS (with a linked Google account). These requirements take effect on January 31, 2019. Fortunately, as an (aspiring) webshop owner you don't have to worry about that and the choice is yours! When choosing a CSS partner, make sure that it meets Google's new requirements. If it does not meet the requirements, advertisements from your webshop will no longer be shown in Shopping from February 1.